317. Nightmare Gigs, Bono Surprise and Ward Park 4???? with Gary Lightbody

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I said, you just want to record.I always have an opening
question in mind and then I justtake it from there.
And there's so many questions that I want to, I want to ask
you, but I need to know, I don'tknow if you've been following
this. I need to know where you land on
this 100 men versus a guerrilla debate.

(00:21):
Like do you have strong feelingson this?
And what do you what are you saying I.
Have no idea what is this. Tell me this.
You haven't followed this. No, no, I I went on AI went on a
bit of a not too much attention.So if this is on like social
media, I'm like, yeah, trying tobe like off it more.
Than this is where we're at. This is what you're missing,
right. OK, we are in the midst of the

(00:42):
big debate this. Is the big this is the big
debate. OK, great. 100 men versus a
silverback gorilla. OK.
Can 100 men take a silverback gorilla?
That's the. Question.
First of all, why? Why the debate?
Why? The why the thought.
This has been people are simulating it on AI.

(01:05):
People are talking about this is, I think why we have A and
people are. Just these are the really
important questions that we needanswered.
But I don't I don't believe the simulation like.
What is the? What's the what's, what's the
almighty? I tell.
It's saying, it's saying gorillawins.
Gorilla wins. I think it's there's so many
factors you'd have to take in. But the OK, the great first

(01:28):
question, yeah, I am. I think Gorilla wins as well.
I know this has been sprung whenyou because a lot of people have
a chance to really weigh it up. I.
Think gorilla wins as well I'd like.
It's such a grim thought, like, you know.
And it wouldn't be nice. No, it wouldn't be a good, it
wouldn't be a good day for the 100 men or the gorilla.

(01:49):
No, I don't think. But Deal is just obviously
minding its own business as well.
The men are prepared, yes, they know they're going to fight a
gorilla. The gorilla is like going what's
going on here lads? You know what?
I mean, but. If you live in all crowded
round. If you live in the jungle,
you're always ready for it. Like something's going to
happen, sure, at some point. But still, yes, your your head's
on a swivel. Yeah, but you're also the

(02:11):
predator in that in that environment.
So maybe you're a little bit less complacent prepared.
You're maybe you've maybe you'regetting complacent.
Depends what age the gorillas. Might have a cocky gorilla.
Hype and slippers gorilla, you know what I mean?
Maybe a different story. And they go grave early anyway.
I think she'll be hard to tell. You know, they're old.
Yeah. And have to ask it a few
questions. So I think, I think it depends

(02:33):
on what kind of guys we're talking about because I know if
it's if it's 100 versions of me fighting this gorilla, I'm back
in the gorilla. Yeah, no, for sure.
And if it's 100 versions of me fighting the gorilla, then for
sure. But if it's 100 Tom hospitals.
You're told. Might be different.
You're tall. Yeah, I've more surface area to
punch. Yeah, that's basically all my.

(02:54):
Height. You're at his level.
Yeah, yeah. No, he doesn't really have to do
that much to Take Me Out. But do you like it?
Depends on who's going to be thefirst guy to get stuck.
Because the first guy, the 1st 20 guys are dead.
Yeah. So it's whether you would have
the morale by the end because he'd be tired too.
Like, he's not built for like a long fight.
You don't think? No, no.

(03:15):
No, this is, this is what this is, this is what we found out,
this is what I think, this is what a lifetime of David
Attenborough has taught us. Well, so does the stamina of the
Silver Black Guerrilla against 100.
Million run out of time to make this documentary.
Right. Perhaps, perhaps.
Bless. Bless the man the the. 100
Attenbridge That's a 30 second fight against the silverback

(03:35):
gorilla. That's not bring David
Attenborough into it in this continent.
That'll be an awful way for like, after all he's done for
animals. Exactly.
It'd be a cruel, cruel irony, but the if he.
Was savage. This feels wrong.

(03:56):
The gorilla has one. Yeah, no, we don't want.
That I think, yeah, I think if you saw someone's like, head get
ripped off and you, you wouldn'tbe like, oh, I'm still up for
it. I think your morale would go out
the window pretty quick. Yeah, Yeah, I think, I think
very quick, you know, it's that it's that the the Tom Cruise and

(04:16):
Reacher, you know, however, you know, the conversations about
the miss casting aside, but the when he goes, there's five of
them and he goes, I'm only fighting the three years because
two you're going to run away or whatever.
Once I start, it's like, yeah. So that sort of.
Counting on awareness. And a 14% the people are going
to oh, so you've, you're settingparameters now there's an
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OK, so you can't run away. No, If you sign up for this
fight, you're in this fight, you're going to have to.
You're going to have to approachthe gorilla aggressively at some

(07:09):
point. But do you do you can approach
in groups? You can all rush them at once.
Yeah, so there's a sort of a Squid Game strategizing.
But then everyone has a Mike Tyson that everyone has a plan
to till you get punched in the face.
I think in this case everyone has a plan until you you see
your best friend. Get his head.
Ripped by a gorilla. Yeah, I'm still going Gorilla.

(07:35):
Yeah, yeah. I think most of the people by
the 20th YEAH incident are probably probably rather where
they would rather be electrifiedby the fence than face the
gorilla. But maybe you just get numb to
it though. After a while, the first couple
of guys, you see their heads gettorn off.
You're like. But then maybe after a while you

(07:55):
can refocus because you've got used to it.
I, I don't, I don't think I'll ever, I don't think I'll ever
get over it. Yeah, I think if I was in that
scenario, I'd be like you, you know, I'll, I'll wait.
Yeah, I'll. Be right behind it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd be the hundreds.
I'll be right behind you trying to get out of this electric
fence. You can't.
You can't. It's.
On an island. All right, it's an electrified

(08:18):
island. Sharks, sharks like really
copper sharks that are really concentrating as well.
They're they're friendly with a gorilla, so every incentive do
not like you. That's because of course,
gorillas and sharks would be very friendly you.
Wouldn't expect it, but. Opposites attract things that
you don't know in the animal Kingdom, like that that a lot of

(08:40):
stuff in the ocean is friends with.
Stuff. They generally are opposites.
You know gorillas have legs. What's the opposite of a shark?
A gorilla? We didn't, we didn't, we didn't
think we'd find that out today. I've.
Never seen a fin on a gorilla. You know, no, no, no, possibly
not. But it depends how long they
spend in the water. I think over time, yeah, like a
million years. They probably have a fun.
Yeah, yeah, you'll be handy, I would hope.

(09:03):
And we've, we've met a couple oftimes and I don't know if you're
aware of every time we've met a fact you're not.
Now the last time we met was in the gym and if we did a very
Northern Irish thing, I don't know if you know this, but it
was in Ballantine. Yeah.
And I said hello to you and we got chatting a little bit and

(09:27):
you said, what are you up to? And that kind of thing.
I was like, I'm just going, I'm going to America on tour.
This is years ago. And you said all apart.
I said I'll start off in LA. And I don't know how I brought
it up, but basically at the end of it you were like, I know
someone who runs a 5A side game in LA.
Give me your e-mail address. So you just arranged for me to

(09:50):
play 5A side in LA. Do you have any recollections?
Yeah, do you? And I love that you you were
able to facilitate that because that's what I like to do.
I like to when I travel play a bit of fire to say.
And you were sort of like the fixture in that that I like.
And I don't know if that's a side hustle that you have where
you will connect people. I love, I do love doing that.

(10:10):
And I, I played a lot of five aside in LA when I was there.
I was there. It's 1010 years, I suppose, off
and on. But yeah, I'll be playing 3
three or four times a week and I'm not anymore because it's,
I'm too old now. That's why.
That's why like professionals give up a 35.
Why am I still? Why am I still sort of like

(10:33):
hacking about the pitch at 40? But then they have more miles in
the clock and I start playing football all the time.
For sure, for sure. And also with a much greater
level of skill than I could ever, ever even dream of.
Even my dreams. I'm not that good at football.
You know what? I mean, well, do you so you
saying you've you're retired, but or is it like a.
Retired as a Is it a? Soft retirement because now that

(10:53):
you're on the podcast, you qualified to play in our podcast
team against a Premier League LED 11, Premier League Legends
11, which is a tongue twister. But we're playing at Seaview
Crusaders ground, right? We're talking still in Petrov.
Where's Brian David James Yapstam, Jermaine Penns.

(11:14):
Time is on the field. I've played against Yapstam
before. Yeah, Sharks and charity be
afraid, Yeah. Well guy, I hate to bring this
up but I I played against Yapstam last year in a charity
game against Man United Legends and he was marking me and I just
give him the ice and scored. Do you do you scored with him,

(11:34):
Mark. That's that's less, there's less
chance of that that did happen, but there's less chance of that
happened. And then a hundred men beating
silverback gorilla. That's the equivalent battle,
right? I score.
OK, so. But you could play for us now.
I'm just letting you know you'reeligible if you'd like.
Not a not at 40. I'll be 49 by then, I'm sure.
I'm 49 a month and that's too old, right?

(11:56):
It's too old for 11 aside. Yeah.
Jesus, no, I couldn't get up anddown.
I'd need a post stick. Yeah, yeah, I felt like already
Scooter or something. Yeah.
You ever been on AI could see I could actually see you on a Pogo
stick and never been on not for fun like it's.
Just like This is why I get around.
Oh, that's that's your man from somebody's not right, but bless

(12:18):
him. But like, he's just, he's
getting around, not a focus. I think if you've been in the
business for as long as you have, you're entitled to certain
things like that. Like I could see, you know,
bespoke Pogo stick. I don't think it'd be a plastic
Argos 1. I think it would be like wooden
but like. Like a repurposed would like,

(12:40):
you know, like, like a, like a proper, like a.
Monster one, Nobody bad an eyelid.
I think people would bats with me falling off at every 30
seconds. I think the piece of eyelids.
Please, you're an actual. Go on, go on.
No one says anything. Yeah, I don't know.
I think it's probably the headline the next day.

(13:03):
They felt right off the stage, like the gig was over in 30
seconds. She McGowan, you see, I think
that's how the band got the name.
He was on the side project called the Pogo Sticks.
But the time before that that wemet, you don't realise.
I've been with Snow Patrol from the start.

(13:25):
First time you guys did. Tenants Vital, not Butcher.
Well, where would that have been?
Behind the PC Queens. Terrible or.
Ormo Park. Maybe.
Was it Ormo Park that tennis fight?
Not sure. You guys, I think it was put it
this way, I was 16. So this is like 17, but yeah,

(13:49):
like 1718 years ago, right, 16 years.
And it was, I think your biggestBelfast show.
You guys had done the date. Yes.
And a friend of a friend is likea family friend of yours or
something. And we got the like me and just
three or 4 minutes were just forno, for no reason at all, just
like in the backstage after show.

(14:11):
But right. And you guys just came off
state. But there wasn't that many.
There was like two dozen people in the room and it was what?
And I remember, like, I think we'd like said hello, like all
nervous and stuff to everybody in the band.
But that was that was so long ago.
And that was, I think, yeah, I think just the first album was
out and it was the editor supported.
You know, we've been going. We've gone since 94.

(14:34):
Right. So it was a little bit of time
in between. So the so that the first, the
first success, the first successful year was 2004.
The 10 years before that was us playing to like no one.
It was us playing like empty rooms.
But this was to a lot of people,thousands and thousands.
People that's the, that's the, that was the definitely the
biggest gig we did in Belfast. The editors did support.

(14:57):
Yeah, they were our guests. Yeah, they were guests and the
others are amazing. I do have decent impression, and
it's national of the guy from the editor, Tom.
Would you like to hear it? Yes, I'm.
I'm a good friend. His so I'll.
You think this is something he would like?
It sort of depends on how it goes.

(15:18):
Are you ready? Blood runs through your veins.
That's where our similarity ends.
That's pretty good. You think he would like it?
Yeah, Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, you have a very.
It's been that long since I've done it.
It's good. It's been that long.
It's good. I am Tom sang on.

(15:38):
I have a side project called Tyre Pony and Tom sang one of
the track, one of the songs of that.
And just, I mean, I've known Toma long time, but like being in
the room when he brings the bassnotes in the baritone.
I think you just heard that. I just heard that song so
spectacularly well. Next time you need him on a
track, I'll even give him the show.
I'll. Just call you, yeah.

(15:59):
Yeah, but I remember that cons. I remember it was raining and
yeah, it was, it was just brilliant because it was, it was
kind of the first time I think that I can remember that a band
from here had blown up and you were almost seeing it because it
was it was you're the biggest country you guys have done in

(16:20):
Belfast to that point. And it was just a surreal moment
that I remember just because we had whatever link I had for a
friend of a friend getting the like, see everything.
I'd never seen a concert backstage or anything before.
And it was great. And it was that thing of just
like everybody singing every word.
It was, it was brilliant. And to I guess you, you're,

(16:42):
we're talking about 2004. Is that when that was 2?
1004, 2005, 2005. I'm awful with it so my but like
I don't know and COVID made things worse in terms of knowing
when things were. But I am awful people.
Like remember we did that gig in2013.
I don't remember 2023. A bit of that, but our Nathan's

(17:05):
very good at remembering all thedates and he's kind of the the.
He. He collectively knows for what
we're, what we've done, what allthe shows that we've done for,
you know, so. In a in a WhatsApp group and I'm
in of good friends. My friend John is the birthdays
guy. He will give you an individual
heads up. Right.
Stevie's birthday today, that's and you say happy birthday, but

(17:27):
he didn't do it this year for Stevie's birthday and we missed
the birthday and that anger directed at John.
It was unbelievable, right? But if you make yourself to be
that guy, he's giving you the heads up.
Don't ever miss a year, you know.
It feels like an awful lot of pressure.
And I pointed out that Stevie's birthday was.
I said it's weird to know your friend's birthday.

(17:49):
I think off the top of your headto just know.
Yeah, I don't know any dates. I don't know.
So, so I, I it would be weird for me to know.
Yeah, Any dates? I don't know my wife's phone
number. We don't need to remember any
phone numbers now because we've got these little things in our
pockets exactly don't that remember everything for.

(18:11):
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(19:34):
of May, Friday the 23rd of May, featuring performances and chat
from Andrew Ryan, Tim McGarry, Mickey Bartlett and William
Thompson. And we're going to have fun.
We are going to have fun. Last tickets on Ticketmaster
link is in the description. I went to the Last Word Park
show. Right.
And it's, it's incredible the the time in between those shows,

(20:01):
they just have put out so many albums in that time and the
collection of songs, the War Park eh gig was unbelievable
because I, I was speaking to people who had been at the first
one and they were like, you know, this is unbelievable.
Obviously everything you go and see a lot of times in Belfast or
have it in North Down was was amazing.

(20:25):
It was just it, you know what was great walking out of that
after. I don't mean that's why the way
it sounds of. Like, you know, the best bit of
it was getting home was getting home.
But like, just the feeling of like the weather was great and
everyone had such a good day andthere was such a good a good
feeling around it. So the live shows are always are
always brilliant. But one thing I wanted to ask

(20:46):
you is the those kind of big shows that you do at home, Like
do you still feel like because you play in so many places and
you spend time living in different parts of the world and
everything? People say all like homecoming
shows and build up homecoming shows, but the youth actually

(21:08):
feel a different sort of energy on stage when you're playing in
Northern Ireland compared to NewYork or wherever London.
Yes, it's and if I'm, if I'm it's amazing, but if I'm
completely honest, it's the mostnervous that I am anyway.
I can't speak for everyone, everyone else, but it's because

(21:29):
I think we put so much into it. We want it to be great.
We want it to be great. We want to be great everywhere
we played. But like especially here and
that War Park show, we we call promoted it with MCD.
So it was the very first show we'd ever done that what we
were. In about that.
We were like what? The bars and the toilets, which

(21:53):
by the way, we fucked up royally.
I'm sorry about that. There wasn't enough.
There wasn't enough bars, there was enough toilets.
So that's kind of down to us. So that shows you, you need to
be a lot, a lot more experiencedto run a show like that.
You go when you say you're promoting.
We're we're we're doing every facet of it, the state.
Are you? Putting like the we the We

(22:15):
sweets in the urinals and. No, no, we didn't put the wee
pineapple, pineapple sweets in the in the, in the urinals.
No, but we we were over every, every part of it and we filmed
it as well and we were sort of over that sort of film
production of it. I can see how that would make
you very nervous about the show or like that there's some like

(22:35):
being involved in that level of because sometimes we do shows
where you just walk. The only thing you have to do is
show up and walk out. You know for sure that's pretty
much every other show but that pressure.
Of you've put this on. We just wanted it to be perfect,
and I know that it wasn't perfect in in in some of the
more kind of functional ways. I.
Think it'll be a lot of carriersin too so people are glad.

(22:56):
They did, you know, but but the show itself was, you know, we've
really, we really had a ball. We were just kind of back from
the states. We returned the states for 14
weeks, which is a long yeah, States turn normally they're
between 4:00 and 8:00 weeks. 14 weeks was a lot and sort of get
home and to come pretty much straight into doing more park

(23:20):
was was kind of just amazing. And it must be hard because,
like, that was a show that Bono came out.
Yeah, like, we have something planned for.
We're doing SSE with a live podcast in a couple of weeks.
A couple of surprise elements toit.
I find it very difficult to keepthat surprise and especially in
where we live, being such a small place.
Sort of almost feels like you'regoing to say it right now.

(23:42):
How do you keep something like that under your hat?
So it's it's it's funny the, the, the I'd we toured with you
2A whole bunch of times and they've been very, very kind to
us and kind of like just basically supported us for a
long time. Let us support them basically
and on tour. And so I renew our part was

(24:05):
coming up and I sort of texted Bono.
Don't do that very often, but I was just like, any chance you
would want to come and sing withus?
And he went, I've got something on that day, but let me get back
to you. And two days later he got back
to me and and he said I've movedthe thing I'm doing from London
or whatever over to Belfast. They're coming to Belfast to see

(24:26):
to see me and I'll be able to doyour show in Bangor that night.
So he moved his whole life around just to come and sing
with us for 5 minutes. And we knew that his working day
was going to go up until about 9:30.
So he wasn't going to get to Bangor until just before he was
coming on stage, right. So we have our in ears in or in

(24:47):
our monitors and I'm able there's a button on my pedal
board that I can click that turns the microphone into a
walkie-talkie with this with themonitor engineer.
So if I click that button, I go,Jamie, is he here yet?
And so in the middle of a song, and then I hear in the.
So in the mid song, it's song. Sometimes you're chasing cars.

(25:07):
But not chasing cars but like insome mid song or after song I'm
able to basically cuts the microphone off to the PA and
turns it sideways over there to Jimmy.
Theoretically you could be doingphone delivery orders for the
like. Could be gone, yes, 100% Yeah,
yeah. I don't light up.
That's a chime. Yeah, in theory I could.

(25:30):
Do that. I couldn't handle that pressure
that you that you have the button that does that thing.
The there's the. You don't want to miss that
button. No Jamie, for Christ's sake.
The sound of shit just goes through the halls.

(25:50):
And Jamie's getting his own acoustic rendition of wrong.
So Jamie, So. You guys don't know the moment
that he's I. Don't know the moment that he's
arrived that he's arrived. So 10 minutes or so before, like
the the song before. I think it was the lightning
strike. I'm going, is he here, Jimmy, is

(26:13):
he here? And and Jimmy did all I hear in
my ears and playing my second all I hear he's here.
And so he just arrived and he arrived sort of 10 minutes
before he went on. And my dad was the last gig my
dad ever saw of us. And he was he was in a
wheelchair on the side of the stage.

(26:33):
And when Bono arrived on the stage, he said to Natalie, he
works, works with us. Is that Gary's dad?
And she went, Yeah. And he went straight over,
talked to my dad for 5 or 10 minutes, and then somebody
tapped him on the shoulder and went, excuse me, Mr Bono had you
on the stage. He shook my dad's hand, took a

(26:55):
picture with him and then wandered on the stage.
That's a touch of. Class Unbelievable.
It's when someone like that doesa little something that they
don't have to do a personal touch.
Just makes some unreal. My dad a big difference, bless
him, dementia. And.
But he, he remembered that for the rest of his life, he would
tell that story to everybody. Yeah.
Me and Bono are pals, you know? Yeah.
And like, when you have a story like that, sometimes people

(27:15):
won't believe that, but you're like, no, literally Bono chatter
that in the way. Yeah, yeah.
The the a similar thing I have to that is I got to tour with,
I'm probably like you doing gigsfor you 2 where it's a bit
surreal. Got to do gigs with Kevin Hart
when he was when he was over here shooting a movie for
Netflix. And then we were backstage at

(27:36):
the arena show and I never met him at any of the 22 previous
shows. He would just come in, do his
thing and then security would walk him out.
So I was just a warm up guy thathe never kind of met.
And at the arena thing at the end, it was obviously way more
laid back backstage than those intimate shows.
And I was there with my wife andshe was 8 months pregnant maybe

(27:57):
with our second son. But she was backstage.
And his manager, Kevin Hart's manager came in and was like, do
you want to come and like properly say hello to Kevin?
He wants to come and chat to you.
And then he said to my wife, themanager as well was like, bring
your wife too. And we went in and were chatting
to him for like 5-10 minutes, but he spoke mostly to my wife
and he was asking about the babyand all that kind of stuff.

(28:18):
And and that personal touch of like inviting her in as well in
the 1st place. But then also like being engaged
in conversation with her meant like way more than just me
having that conversation. Probably.
I always that stuck with me is like that was that was a touch
of class. Yeah.
And something really like you just don't have to do something,
but you just do it. That's great.
No, that's great. But I'm, I'm what, what's the

(28:42):
different? Like the set?
I was we were talking beforehandabout stand up because I'm
fascinated. Are you a fan like you?
Absolutely. And I, I'm terrified at the
prospect of standing on stage onmy own with just a microphone.
And I just like. What was your first experience

(29:03):
in common? What was the very first time you
got up there? What did it feel like?
Fascinated to know? Like what?
Like, did it go well? Did No.
Probably wasn't that long after that tenant vital gig, right?
I was, I think I maybe just turned 18 actually don't know
the exact time and just turned 18.
But then when I was 17, I was like, I definitely want to do

(29:25):
stand up. I left school to start going to
tech and even this is weird but even just like wearing my own
clothes every day I felt like more it's a bit more me.
Like Tech was a bit more me thanschool wolves so I felt it came
a bit more. I was less shy and stuff and I
always loved. So were you shy?
That was really shy then. Sometimes, like, I would have

(29:48):
been a wee bit of a class client, not disruptive in class,
but I kind of struggled a bit academically.
So I would have to get out of trying to do any work.
I would have just tried to make people laugh, teachers included,
right? But teachers?
Kind of. Previous making people laugh,
but the I'm, I'm, I'm interestedin the shyness thing.
What how then does that translate to like stepping up on

(30:08):
stage for the first time? Because that's a big, big leap.
So I just, I saw a stand up likeit's like escape.
Is it like so many people who dostand up see this like escape
ISM or whatever. But the first time, like I had
no, I hadn't done amateur dramatics.
I'd known school plays or any, I'd have been far too nervous to
do that. Like the nerves you think about
stand up. That's when I was a kid.
I would have thought that about doing a school play or drama or

(30:31):
anything like that. But if I was doing an impression
of a teacher, I could do that infront of the whole school like
no problem. But the idea of like a
microphone or some or speaking at assembly, I could never have
done that. What?
Was the first gig? Then what was the?
Black box in the Cathedral Quarter.
Was it not like an open night, mic night or?
It was a bill of kind of good comics and I I went a lot.

(30:55):
I was in the green room on blackbox, so it maybe holds 50 and
I'd written a script out like word for word.
In fact, this is my first ever. This is this is the the jotter I
use. Funny we're talking about it.
And I made like I wrote scripts out instead of just like bullet
points that I would do now. I wrote scripts out, but I'd

(31:16):
never learned the script and I didn't know what the nerves
would be like. So of course I forgot everything
I'd plan. So when I whenever I was 18 I
looked 1514 real babyface and then life is obviously got to me
now but. Like you look?
Really. Kind of cute, but I, I, it was,

(31:42):
it was, it was terrible in a wayin that I forgot everything I
was planning to do, but I kindlygot away with it because I
looked young. The audience kind of felt bad
because I look like a child, butI talked about how badly it was
going. So I was able to kind of riff a
little bit about I didn't mean for this to go like this.
Was it the laugh the first time that you heard a collective

(32:04):
laughter? Oh yeah.
Was that the sort of, is that the encourager to get back on
stage again? You go like I want that, yes.
With stand up, I'm I'm in control of everything.
But if I was to do like a play or something else that relies on
other people, or if, if we're going to do an interview and I
don't do a good job on it, then I'm worried that I've like

(32:27):
wasted your time. Or if I was to do a play or
acting in something and I messedthings up.
I'm thinking like I'm letting everybody down here.
Whereas for stand up, the only person I can let down really is
myself. To be fair on the audience who
paid in. I just find it.
I just find it fascinating to because I am, we were saying

(32:49):
this is well beforehand, but I have the guitar around my neck.
And if any time I speak to the audience and like, you know, I'm
trying to be funny and sometimesit works and sometimes it
doesn't. But if it doesn't, there's a
song afterwards, yeah, it can get out.
That's the escape hatch. Because that's why people are
there. Yeah.
They're not there for me to talkto them.
They're there to hear the music.But I think the like the like

(33:10):
that meant like I remember at Ward Park, you were chatting to
the audience and it, you know, if you were to just play song
after song and say nothing, justfeel.
For sure there's a balance though.
There's a balance. You can speak too long and I've
definitely done that at times and I find smaller audiences is
easier to speak to for longer. But do you remember?

(33:31):
Big that like 20-30, forty 1000 people or whatever.
Or a big festival of 80,000 people talking is very, very
difficult, yeah. Because it feels like things can
get on really very quickly, so you kind of want to keep that
momentum up. But I'm not to see him with when
I was starting to stand up you Iwas worried if I didn't have
enough punch, like if my if I was too long in between punch

(33:53):
lines, couple of people in the audience start talking.
You've lost, you know you lose them.
So some that you just try and fill that time or speak quicker
or all that kind of stuff. How do you deal with people that
are talking if it's if it's a noisy Friday night drunk crowd,
How do you because we have again, we got the music that can
drown out the conversation if that happens, but it's you in a

(34:15):
microphone. So how do you interact with
them? Do you sort of?
You kind of you have, yeah, you have to address it.
And then sometimes I'll, I'll just think I'll be a bit louder
than normally would and I'll put, I'll put out some material
that's like fast-paced, just getpeople interested and then maybe
I can bring it back to my level.I mean, there's sometimes you

(34:35):
go, you go on, that's the rooms totally lost.
But if you have like a good MC and that kind of thing, normal
audiences actually locally are, are brilliant in terms like
behaving themselves and stuff. But, but I've definitely had it
before. I remember doing the Empire, one
of the first times Empire comedyclub and it was a bear pit for a
while where I, I think the audience didn't want comedians

(34:56):
to do well. It was better if it was if they
were shouting over people and all that kind of thing.
And I just didn't have the skillset or the maturity probably to
handle that. I just want the new shit.
I was just like, they're not listening.
I'll just say my set and then leave.
You know, you're not performing in any way.
You're just like, let me do my time and then get off the stage.
Whereas now I had nearly enjoyedthe challenge of it a bit more.

(35:18):
Try and turn them around. Because if you can turn them
around, that's a great feeling of like I was able to like get
them. You know, the first time you
ever so you the first time I ever heard your music was in
school. And I remember the moment
because my teacher maybe taught you Mr McKee.

(35:39):
Mr McKee? Mark McKee, Yep.
Taught you as well. Yep, Mark McKee is a massive
influence in my life. Massive.
Well, he was from the day like Ithink it might have been ACD he
had he was always talking about you get.
He was my English teacher. Yeah.
And he was always talking about having taught you.

(36:01):
And I even remember he was like,you got to listen to these guys.
And then he brought ACD in, right?
Might have been when I was 15 orsomething.
And then and he played How to BeDead and Run and we sat as a
class and listened to it and then talked about the songs.
I remember the first time I wrote some patrol.
Well, can I can I can I can we talk about Mark McKee?

(36:24):
Course it's funny calling Mark Mr McKee.
We're friends now, so but I had a not dissimilar to do it, but
with them. I wouldn't put us in this lofty
category, by the way. But he I wasn't, I didn't really
pay attention to school. I wasn't wasn't very clued in

(36:45):
until he started reading Seamus Heaney one day in class and I
just woke me up. I just woke me right up.
And I actually ended up writing poetry as a 15 year old, and he
would edit the poems and I got some published and things like
that. And he would also play Bob Dylan

(37:07):
and Van Morrison. So we kind of introduced me and
my oldest friend, David Matchett, and the pair of us to
Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and Seamus Heaney and was very, very
encouraging. One of those teachers.
Yeah. Yeah.
We all need, you know, you need at least one of those teachers
that really sort of, sort of hasthat energy and excitement,

(37:29):
brings that excitement to learning and changed my whole
life. I started writing poetry, then I
started writing songs and that led to that led to everything
else that's happened. But that was the first.
That was the first little light switch in my brain that went on.
I also remember him being the first teacher I felt like I was
engaged with. I was like, no, it didn't work

(37:50):
out. But then.
But I remember, no, I mean like physically be engaged, but I
remember him, I remember writinglike essays in English and, and
he would actually like talk to you about like, why did, why did
you write that and that kind of thing?
And you would, you would just have discussions that the teach,
you know, teachers would just read off the textbook sometimes
be like, this is what it is. Do that.

(38:12):
Whereas he was asking why you'd thought to write that and all
that kind of thing. And yeah, your big influence on
me in terms like creative writing and that kind of thing.
But I just weirdly just rememberhearing those songs for the
first time because like today. So Full disclosure on the way
here, sometimes I'll listen to bits of podcasts that guests
have done before I do the podcast because partly I don't

(38:33):
want to ask questions you would normally be asked.
I hate the idea of us talking about some of your stock
questions. 100 members is a gorilla.
You're really Doctor. You're part of that.
So I am and and so I started listening to you on the podcast
and then I was going to flick over to another one and then
just on Spotify, just this is Snow Patrol playlist.

(38:55):
I just put that on just sang here, honestly, because there's
just there's just so many of those songs that I think,
especially Snow Patrol that remind that I'm not good with
dates. But I can remember almost when
songs came out and you know, or,or like a summer where I go or
that song reminds me of kind of that summer and that kind of

(39:18):
thing. And but I want to ask you about
you saying the first time I did stand up, first time you ever
performed as part of any band orany music act.
What? What was that and where was
that? That was at school and it was
part of a sick form review type thing and I sang R.E.M.
Find the River with a bunch of us that you know, got together,

(39:39):
formed A1 off band and that was the very first time ever sang.
Nervous doing that. Terrified, right?
Utterly terrified. I was terrified for the first
5-6 years of performing. You know, when we started in 94,
we played the first gig that Snow Patrol played and we're

(40:00):
called Snow Patrol then. But it's the same band, the same
through line, but. University.
Student Union, yeah, Dundee. And it was the basically there
was no paying customers. It was fifty of our mates and I
was still terrified, you know, and then, you know, you play.
We was 10 years of us playing, 10 years of us playing to hardly

(40:20):
anybody, you know, and there wasso many, so many sort of shows
that we we were like, do we do we keep going?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is there anybody here?
Yeah. There was one show we did in
Leeds and Joseph's well, which, which was to one person.
So there was three people on stage and one person in the
audience. I'm not 100% sure.

(40:43):
Didn't make it clear. That's difficult because one
person who's loving it, there's a novelty in that.
But one guy who's like indifferent, that's tough to
look at. It is tough to look at, but also
you would be questioned. And if he was really enjoying
it, yeah, yeah, yeah. You'd be like, why?
Like why going? To kill us at some point.
This is it. This is the end.

(41:06):
Yeah, the end of a fringe. I've definitely done three
people. Right.
Did three people, 2 American guys and my dad was one of the
shows and my dad ruined the showby showing photos of things I
was talking about to prove that they happened as I.
I do not need this. You're 33% of the audience just
need you to listen to the show. That is brilliant.

(41:27):
Yeah, I said I went out. I used to told this in the pub
before, but I used to not get ticket reports on the day of the
show because it would just make you sad.
So I was like, look, I'll just walk out from behind the
curtains and whoever there is there.
And I walked out and it was just, yeah, these two American
guys and my dad. And I said, like, I was like,
listen, guys, got to tell you something.
He's my dad, number one. Of course, he's this old.

(41:48):
Like, he stood out at the Admiral French, right?
So I was like, this is my dad. I said, I'll refund your tickets
and then and buy us a drink at the bar here if you want.
And they were like, no, we want the show.
And my dad was like, yeah, we want the show.
I was like, shut up, Dennis. All right.
And he's like, yeah, do the show.

(42:08):
He said the boys want the show and they kind of wanted to show
a little bit. And I was like, how about we do
like 1/2 hour version of the onehour show and then we'll still
go for the drink. And we did that and it was best
show. The French, it was great.
That's it was great. But I, I, it did take me years
to get over even shaking hold the microphone took me years to
get over that. I'm my, I'm my kind of voice.

(42:29):
And because I was a teenager as well, you're growing amateur and
kind of growing up a bit and that kind of thing.
So I always felt like it wouldn't take much to make me
like, terrified. But I was the same age as you
when I started. You know what?
About when you usually you guys started Dundee Uni and then
because you didn't like start out here, what was the first

(42:51):
thing you did well? We did.
Their second or third show was here.
Oh, OK. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't the Dukey
York, right? Yeah, upstairs.
No, no Dukey work downstairs in the in the back, but this far,
far side some brilliant, some brilliant stories of those early

(43:12):
of those early shows. It was 1 gig we played in the
Dukey York. The sound guy didn't turn up so
we sent his brother who's a plumber.
Right. Ironically, the sound guy not
sound. The guy was just like hitting
buttons like this might not work.
Yeah, we did a show. I.
Love that to be such like a fullcircle story where you're like

(43:35):
but he trained up and to this day he is our head of sound.
He is a plumber. Fixes our toilet and.
We, we played this show like just to give you an, an idea of
the insanity in those days. We, we played this show in in
Fife, in Kirkcaldy. It was like a fate, you know, or

(43:59):
like a, you know, whatever they called, you know, like fair
county, County Fair or whatever.Did I say company by accident?
Sorry, no. We can watch watch this fuck.
We can swear if any swears you want to get out.
So we were, we were told it was going to be 2000 was set up for

(44:20):
2000 people and 50 people showedup.
So and it was the back of a, the, the, the flat back lorry,
you know, that was the stage. And so our day was set up on
that and there was 50, probably less people dotted around the.
Fact. They're not all sitting.
They're all dotted around, They're all dotted around and

(44:42):
bored looking as well with it and our sound guy, obviously,
he's out front. And not the plumber.
Not the plumber, no, we did. We decided to part company with
him after seven years, but no, so so we're playing and people
are not not digging it. And so the one of the only

(45:02):
times, the first gig, that firstgig and Dundee, Dundee Uni, we
broke a bass string Mark, our bass player at the time, and
then he broke another bass string at this gig.
It was the only two type bass strings that have ever been
broken maybe in music history. And they're so you know, like
they don't, they never break. But it did.
And so we had, we didn't have any crew or anything.
So we had to stop the show and we had to Mick Cook from bound

(45:26):
Sebastian playing guitar. We had a lot of different guitar
players before Nathan joined theband and Mick had this trumpet
and so he started playing the theme song from The Muppets.
This sent the crowd wild. Everybody was up, they were
dancing, they were singing along.
And when the when he the bass string was fixed, I went, we're
going to play another song. We were like, Boo put The

(45:49):
Muppets back on. And so we're played another song
and then and then another song. And during that song, Mick
Brennan, who was our sound guy at the time, leaves his sound
booth and starts walking up towards stage.
And I'm like, curious about thisturn of events.
And I'm following singing, but following, following him the

(46:09):
whole way up, gets up onto the truck, comes all the way out
onto the stage, cups his hand over my ear.
I'm still singing and goes, you're not doing yourselves any
favours. I think you should stop so so.
By the way, he must be a huge Muppets.

(46:30):
And he loved The Muppets. But at the So at the end of that
song, I went, thanks very much, cheers, take care.
And we, we left and everybody was like, thank God, that's
over. And we got off the stage and
started packing up our gear and we were trying to get paid and
the guy was like, he didn't do the whole set, you know, get
him. So we didn't get paid.
And then we, we packed all our gear up ourselves.

(46:53):
Obviously back in those days, everything's, you know, you're
Hawking your own gear around, but it's, it's always a bit more
humiliating when you're doing that after a really bad show.
And we're throwing the, the merchandise that we brought with
us so that no one even touched like T-shirts and stuff like
that, but into the back of the van as well.
And then close up the back of the van.

(47:15):
And then we drove off and you'redriving across a field until you
get to the road and it's a straight Rd out.
And then we turn. And when we turn, somebody, some
somebody goes M Is that our gear?
I hadn't closed the back of the van door properly and all our
gear had fallen out. Add insult to insult I we had to

(47:40):
jump out of the van and run round.
There's people like grabbing ourguitars and running off in the
edges and stuff. Nobody touched the merch like it
was. There's an awful lot of gig was
just. It's burned into my memory as
one of the most hilarious and tragic events.
I think the great thing is when it does work out and you can
look back with fondness of those.

(48:01):
If that was the highlight of ourcareer, it would be a different
thing. I'd be drunk right now.
You should go back to that Fiat just out of spite just to have a
cracker. Just go back, greatest hits it
and get you know. Nothing like a good Spike gig.

(48:21):
When you what was the what was the moment where, you know, I
can't remember the time of like when stand up was a hobby and
then I was like, oh, this might be a job.
Was there a gig or was there a tour support for someone?
Or was there a moment you remember where you went?
Like this might be a thing. It took so long to 10 years

(48:42):
before we actually had a hit that I think because we were
working, I was working in a lot of bars and we were, you know,
work on the side and our music was maybe on the side at certain
points, you know what I mean? But I was never going to give up
the band. But it sort of looked like it
wasn't going to happen. I think when and then when we

(49:06):
brought finals straw out. Initially it's sold.
No, it's sold hardly anything initially.
This this. Is such a man.
Maybe you can tell me why this happens in music, but you hear
that so much of either a single or an album comes out and it
doesn't do anything, and then itgets released again.
Yeah, so, well, it got released again because, well, I'm.
I was so against kind of any kind of still, I'm really my

(49:31):
soul against any kind of pondering to conventions.
So run on the album version is 6minutes long and that's not a
single. Yeah.
So I was never intent. Like I was like, I'm determined
to make this not a single. Right.
Right. So I was like being, you know,
like deliberately annoying. But.

(49:53):
But then Joe Wiley, bless her, and so the album come out, I
can't remember when, July, maybein 2003.
And then all the way to the end of the year, it had sold just as
many copies as our first two albums, maybe 7000 copies or
something. And then Joe Wiley played all 6
minutes of Run on our date. Daytime Radio 1 show at the
time. Did you know that was going to

(50:14):
happen? No.
No idea. At home you were.
Literally like people were phonelike phoning up going
something's happened like his like Radio One called our
management and saying like people are like phoning in all
the time. But the song and then so in
January, that was December, January re released Run and the

(50:34):
album and run with their number 5 in the charts, which was 2000
Places above where We Go. And then the album within a #3
you know, and it was kind of everything changed.
Everything sort of changed overnight after 10 years.
Did you know, like, sometimes I guess you have a joke or you've
got a bit of material and you go, this is going to hit and it

(50:56):
doesn't hit. And sometimes there's a bit of
material you don't have great hope for.
And actually that turns out to be a great bit of the show.
Do you? How often are you write about a
song you write and record being a hit?
You know is there? Is there sometimes where you go
this is this is going to be a hit and it ends up being like an
album track? Is there times where what might

(51:18):
just be an album track becomes ahuge breakout song?
Did you know Ron was going to bethis hit?
Like did you know it stood out maybe from other songs?
Did you know it was a really good song?
No, I think making it 6 minutes made it was pretty obvious that
I was like just, I, I didn't think it was, it was going to be
I I didn't have any expectationswith that album.

(51:41):
We called it Final Straw for crying out loud.
You know, I mean, it was, you know, it was our last throw of
the dice, but it was, you know, it was a, it was, you know what
American football terms. It was a Hail Mary.
Yeah. So, you know, we didn't really
have any big expectations. And then once you have a hit
after 10, like, I don't know, because if not many bands have a
hit after 10 years. So, so I can only go from our

(52:01):
own experience. It's like you never really think
you're going to have another hitand then another one.
If another one happens, it happens out of the blue, you
know? Do you think that's part of the
reason of the longevity of the band?
Because you had had 10 years before that of being in music
and being in a band that when success came, it wasn't like you
just started a band or you just became a music artist and you

(52:24):
get that instant hit. So you have to learn as you have
these really high expectations and people have expectations for
you. Do you think it helped?
Do you guys have been plugging away for so long so you knew who
you were? Yeah.
As the success came, a. 100% if I had a had the type of success
that we had Final straw, for example, the second release

(52:46):
version for the from the first album for some polar bears, I
wouldn't there's no chance that we'd still be going.
There's no chance I probably wouldn't be alive.
I honestly, honestly, I wouldn'tbeen prepared for it.
I thought I was, I thought release your first album, you
know, success by, you know, 9:00AM Tuesday.

(53:07):
You know, it's, it's obviously that's going to happen.
And that arrogance that I had overtime got eaten.
And I'm so glad that it did because now I do.
Everything is everything is a bonus.
Everything still. Yeah.
Like, there's still no expectations.
And like, you know, like we likethat last album we released was
our first number one in 18 yearsor something, 17 years.

(53:31):
It's like that. I mean, that just completely
came out of the blue. So like, you're just, you're.
You're able then to be surprisedby everything rather than either
taken for granted or being disappointed.
Yeah, it doesn't work. Yeah.
I done like 4 gigs and emailed the producer of the Blame Game,
which is the big like panel showfrom here.
I've done less than half a dozengigs for sure and emailed them

(53:54):
and was I was doing 5 minute of a mic spot still and was like
basically like just to let you know I'm here like people like
the top UK comics were going on that.
And I find that I've just emailed him to like let him
know, like, you know, I'm ready And he emailed me back and was
like, thanks for the e-mail. You know, keep an eye on you,
that kind of thing. I did it maybe 10-12 years

(54:17):
later, but it's that thing. I just thought because I did
stand up, I was like, it's all going to happen.
Like it's all going to happen. But like you said, I think about
how to happen for me then in terms of doing some TV stuff, or
even when I started, you couldn't have done social media
sketches or anything like that. And I'm glad because by the time
I started to do that, I'd workedout my ACT a bit more, you know,

(54:40):
so, So I also am grateful of thethe years of no one, no one,
your work and that kind of thing, doing stuff in the
background. So then when you people do start
coming to see your shows, you thankfully have that experience
to go on. Remember the documentary you did
for BBC, which is great. Couple years, maybe three years

(55:00):
ago or so. It was the documentary where
they kind of followed you on tour.
We were doing the acoustic tour.Yeah, that was unbelievable.
I love seeing it like I love. Seeing we're doing the acoustic
tour, I think they were, they were doing what they in Mexico,
you're in Mexico. And then some of the some of the
Ed Sheeran tour we were because we were supporting him and his

(55:23):
stadium tour, which is unbelievable.
Is that what do you like it thatkind of thing in terms of like
letting cameras in the because that was a very that was very
personal. That documentary, you know, you
talked a lot about it, about sobriety and things like that.
And I guess the the other side of what people see, you know,
so. Yeah, we don't do that very

(55:43):
often. Yeah, we don't do that very
often. It's the like, because we never
our record company management are always like annoyed with us
at the end of every album because we don't have any
footage, right? We got a couple of things.
Maybe the observed object changes by the observation.
It's it it, it definitely effects what is being done in

(56:08):
the studio. So we, we don't know if like we
film it, it could have been different or better.
So we may as well not film it and just get the actual raw
experience of it. Just just find out what the
album is supposed to be rather than fucking hell, I can't even
speak freely because of fucking cameras on.
So it just, it feels, it feels anathema to us.

(56:32):
But it's like, I suppose if you're growing up in a world
where you've always had a phone,like, like if you're, you know,
to one or two generations younger than us, you don't even
think about it. You don't even think about that.
No, it's. Always, you're always sort of
being filmed or felt like, but, but to us it's just, it just
wrecks our heads. So we're always left with no

(56:53):
footage. And then they're like, where's
the content? We hate the word content.
But at worst, you know, where's the content at the end?
We're like, I don't know, we could film an acoustic version
of or something. And so it's kind of a bit shit,
but but yeah, so that's a very rare thing for us to let people
in with cameras and stuff like that.
It's it's not, it's not our, it's not our wheelhouse.

(57:17):
Yeah, the I don't know what you're like with people like
here. Here's the song I love.
You know, I know maybe some people just can't get that all
the time, but then a song I thatjust does something to me that I
maybe is my favourite Snow Patrol song is what if this is
all the love you ever get? That is I I was just blown away.

(57:42):
But that's on because it kind ofyou like you sound different on
that, you know with your vote like obviously saying like kind
of a higher key. There's a very high bet on it
all settle, which is that I sometimes hit yeah on the live
gigs, right. It's and I'll literally go, oh
God, we were, I'm not saying where we were, but we were told
not to swear and I'd done the whole gig without swearing.

(58:06):
And at the end of the show, we we sing that second to last and
usually and I sometimes by the end of a show, my fault set was
just gone. It'll be there for the 1st 70%
of it. And then the last song, it'll
not be there the last two songs.So it's a bit hit and miss.
So that one that night I couldn't get there and when I

(58:28):
failed I into the microphone I went off for fucks sake.
So you're still talking to Jamieit?
Was the largest thing ever, so yeah.
So yeah, that that fall said it was a tricky one, but but yeah,
that was that's one of my favourite moments live now.

(58:48):
It feels like it's a galvanisingmoment.
And the the video of that's great as well.
And Strangford Lock, yeah, and and the and the and out in the
RC as well. That was that was the stunt guy
did the wide shots because it was not a great day.
Right. But I was out on the in
Strangford, yeah, in the, in the, in the freezing cold.

(59:09):
But like there was a guy in the water because they've got to
have a guy, a safety guy, right?So he's wearing the dry, you
know, the dry suit. Yeah.
So I did not have a tough day compared to.
Right that that song honestly isjust incredible.
I I was blown away when I heard it because that, that there was
a big gap before that album cameout and, and just like a

(59:33):
different sound, but so many great songs and that I think
that might, that might be my favourite album, but I, I love
that. I want, I want to ask you as
well about Oh yeah, I want to say, well, like in terms of
people having connections with songs and me saying about a
certain song will remind you of a certain time of what is the

(59:55):
start with Chasing Cars? Is it like the most played song
of all time? No, no, no.
It's we. It's funny.
In 2018 they gave us an award infairness.
Oh God, that's, that's terrible.I can't remember BMI is it maybe

(01:00:18):
they were having their they werehaving some big 90th anniversary
awards. So they were kind of inventing
some awards. So it was it was the most played
radio song of the of the of the Millennium or the century,
right. And I was like, yeah, but we're
only we're only 18 years into the century.
You know what I mean? It feels, this feels early to

(01:00:41):
me. You know what I mean?
We are literally 18% of the way done so.
So it did feel a little bit likesort of a sort of an award that
sort of feels a little bit. Is it still when?
It's got an Asterix. I don't know.
I would imagine by the end of the century, you know, we'll

(01:01:02):
we'll not know. But maybe I could, could, could,
could tell us. But.
Maybe a bloody crazy frog. It'll be, it'll be it'll be
Adele or Ed Sheeran or Taylor Swift or something like that, I
would imagine. The Gangnam Style guy.
Or it could be Psy. Yeah, yeah, could be him.
Yeah, it seems like you didn't like him being labelled the

(01:01:25):
Gangnam Style guy. You're like, give him.
Give him his, give him his Florence, you know what I mean?
He definitely has a Pogo stick without doubt.
I don't know. I don't know.
I could. See Pogo sticks being massive
and so. Wouldn't be as good as my poker
stick I would imagine. No, I could see he's in.
He's an Argos. Tassels gold.
He's an Argos Pogo stick guy. Yeah, yeah.

(01:01:46):
For show, Yeah. Yeah.
You're doing it for the love of the game.
You're doing for a lot of the love, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Every day at 6:00 AM, every day.
Please, just as like an in joke between us, the next time you're
doing a music video, do it on a poker stick.
Make it nothing to do with the song and never.
Change your really serious ballads.
Yes, never change your facial, especially when you're on.

(01:02:06):
Me trying to learn how to poker stick.
I think just the, just the, I mean it could be like a Rocky
style, you know, like that's the.
That's the content the record label want.
Yes, yes, yes, that. Unfortunately, what have you got
from behind the scenes of the tour?
You're like Garry's for learningthe Pogo for a year.
Yeah, look at him now. Look at He's still.

(01:02:27):
I remember Chasing Cut like everybody I think remembers
Chasing Cars come out. And I I remember because, and I
guess like so many people have an emotional connection to that
song because it's a very emotional song.
And I had a friend called John who passed away when we were 16

(01:02:52):
and somebody in a car accident, somebody made a we're talking
Bebo ear. Somebody made an edit of
pictures of him the day after hedied with that song playing over
the top of it. And that song will always like
get me there. And do you find that when you

(01:03:13):
speak to people who love your music is Chasing cars than or
Run is that the song people would have the most connection
to? Actually, probably not.
And I just like usually when somebody brings up a song
that's, that, that, that means something to them.

(01:03:34):
It'll, it could be a wide range of songs that, but the, the most
times that people sing and, and,and by the way, your story was
very, very heartfelt there. And I don't, I don't mean to to
veer off from that, but but the most times people mentioned

(01:03:56):
chasing cars, it's like you're that fella, you're that fella.
Just one lay here, lay lay here was the chickens.
Is it with chickens? And it'll be, it'll be something
like that, something like that. And if it's like a sort of a
more deeper emotional connection, sometimes it's, but
you've obviously got a very, very strong emotional connection

(01:04:18):
to it. But it might be, you know, set
the fire to the third bar or something, something along those
lines, something like that. Or what if it's all love?
You ever get something? I get that quite a bit.
I want to ask you about the process of writing the book in a
SEC, but I need you to clarify something.
Our friend Dave Elliott Fell comedian Bangor guy said that

(01:04:39):
years ago, and I mean, we could be talking 16 years ago or so,
he was having a few Christmas drinks in the cultural.
What do you call the Crawfordsburn?
Crawfordsburn. In here.
I genuinely what to say. What do you call the in in?
But he why'd they name it that? He, he was having drinks and it

(01:05:02):
was snowing and icy outside and he phoned his dad.
It's Christmas time again, maybetalking 2005 or something.
He phoned his dad to pick him up.
His dad came and picked him up and Dave said he started walking
down to where his dad had parkeddown the road, but he was
slipping and falling on the ice.And he said there was another
guy also walking out at that time, giggling and slipping on

(01:05:27):
the ice. And, you know, sometimes you get
bonded with someone when you're,like, giggling.
Some sillies happen. He's like me.
And this guy didn't know each other, but we were both trying
to get to, like, a car or a taxi.
And we kept slipping, falling onour arches.
And he said that guy was Gary Light Body.
Now don't break his heart and say you don't remember this

(01:05:50):
because he's been dining out on this.
Yeah, no, I do remember. Centuries.
I do remember 2 decades. 22 centuries we got is there
another war coming is that that.Yeah.
No, do remember that I did and yeah, that was absolutely
treacherous that that that year.Yeah.

(01:06:10):
Yeah. It was a it was it was it was
also very funny yeah. I it's funny, the difference
between and I'm not trying to, you know, start a beef with
London because I love, I love London.
But the difference between falling on your arse in Northern
Ireland in the ice and followingyour arse in London.
You're following your arse in inNorthern Ireland, somewhere on

(01:06:33):
the ice. Somebody's going to come and go.
Hey, mate, you all right, John Pickett?
You might be like, they might belaughing, but they'll be also
trying to help you up. Yeah.
And I fell outside Angel Tube station, of all places.
Angel Tube station and I did a proper one leg really high up in
the air, you know, and you have a.
Long legs. Like landed flush on my back
like it was, it was a real big thud.

(01:06:55):
People walking over me, literally walking over.
I was like literally going are you?
No, no, no. OK, great.
I'll just, you know, I'm trying to get up.
It's like, you know, sort of turtling, you know, trying to
like get up off your your arse on the No, nobody stopped.
But yeah, no, that was a that was a particularly icy time and
we went through it together. That means a lot to him.

(01:07:18):
We're talking about writing, writing a book.
And I have had read you because a friend of ours interviewed you
when you were talking about writing your book, about a lot
of the book about your relationship with you and your
dad. And what is different the kind
of the process of writing that book compared to writing like an
album, for example. Do you, and this is maybe just a

(01:07:40):
writer in me, but do you sit in the same place when you're
right, when you're doing an album and a book, Do you plan in
the same way? Do you have the same feelings
when you're writing or did you did you realise it was totally
different? Those are really good questions
because because I did sit in thesame and never, never crossed my
mind to sit somewhere else, to take it somewhere else to be in

(01:08:03):
a different space, to be in a literal different space.
I feel quite creative in the, inthe like it's literally my
dining room table. Also that, you know, it's not
nothing fancy and I but I, I look out the forest is outside
and I'm able to, I mean, who knows why I called it the forest
is the path, but I'm literally staring at it the whole time and
it's, it's inspiring to be that closer to the nature.

(01:08:27):
As long as you're not about to fight a gorilla, of course, but
but the, the, the process I you're on your own and you see,
you know this from what you do you're it's such a singular
pursuit. And I think that's why you
probably I'd see comedians together sometimes you kind of
almost have your own language. Oh, you have your a connection,

(01:08:50):
which you can't possibly, probably have with anybody else.
I. I felt like the first time I
started to become friends with comedians I was working with, I,
I genuinely was like these. I find my people.
I was like, we're let we nearly all get on together.
Everyone's on the same kind of wavelength.
No matter who comes into your green room at these shows, you
pick up the conversation with anybody.

(01:09:11):
So yeah, I felt like I love to be around that.
And I felt like more so than school or sports teams or
anything like that when I was growing up, when I started doing
comedy, I was like, the this is how I want to kind of hang out
with. Yeah.
Yeah, that's what I mean. It's, it's obviously it being a
singular pursuit is that that's the tricky bit, being on stage,

(01:09:32):
learning how to cope with that, but also that you're kind of,
you know, a lot of the times you're kind of in it together.
Even when like you see, like I follow a lot of different
comedians and you see them falling out with each other
sometimes. But for the most part, even
comedians, when they're giving each other shit, it's kind of
playful and kind of like. I enjoy nothing more.

(01:09:52):
They don't mean you don't mean like, you're not like starting a
blood feud, You know what I mean?
You're, you're just, you're just, that's the way you
communicate with the writing, with the prose writing.
I find it very hard to cope withthe solitude of it.
I think more than anything, likeactually sitting still in the

(01:10:13):
one place. Very tricky for me.
So I spent my whole life writing4 minutes.
They're not all four minutes, but you know what I mean. 4
minutes songs in a general term and I'm able to stand up, walk
around with a guitar, sit down for a bit, sketch a couple of
lines, stand back up again, wander around.
That's my process if I'm on my own and if we're together
collectively, we're always moving to different instruments

(01:10:35):
or to, you know, like that's howwe write and how we record.
We're all sort of like there's movement, but if, if you want to
write a book, you have to stand,you have to sit still.
There's no, the movement is in your head.
It's not in your, it's not in your system, it's not
physiological. So that stillness was tricky.
And obviously since I've been sober and since I've learned

(01:10:58):
sort of meditate, that's helped.But my brain is so untamed.
It is wild in there. It really is.
It just like contain, like it's just constantly sort of throwing
all sorts of shit in the walls in there.
And I it's, it's tricky to kind of even when you're even when
I'm still, I feel like I'm like there's a vibration going on.

(01:11:19):
Yeah. So that was the hardest part for
me actually sitting still to do it.
And it's a very short book. So it's not a, it's not like a,
a tome. I think if I started with a long
book I would never have finishedit.
Do you feel that there was stuffyou wrote in the book that was
easier to write in a book than to say?

(01:11:40):
Does that make sense? Yes, I love my my least
favourite thing in the world. Not that the book is
confrontational in any way, but my least favourite thing is
confrontation. I find it very difficult and if,
but I also like to be, if there is something that needs to be
done that is going to be confrontational, I like to, I

(01:12:02):
like to do it in person or on a Zoom at the very least, not in
an e-mail, but ironically or whatever.
That's the best version of me. That's the best way that I can
like can I can get across. My point is by writing it down
so that I can edit and edit and edit.
If you ever see if anyone was ever to witness me send a text,
even the amount of times I read the fucking thing before I send

(01:12:26):
it, it's about 100. I mean, it's just, I'm, I'm
like, I just want to make sure Ihaven't accidentally said the
word fuck in here somewhere. Yeah, yeah.
And so, so that sort of took that, that I think that drains
that, that that sort of process kind of confrontational process
drains me a lot. But the, the writing is where I

(01:12:47):
actually feel like I can be clear and I can be lucid and I
can actually get across my point.
So that bit was good. It's just that sitting down was
fucking hard. Do you feel different after?
Like, did it help? Because you, I've seen you say
before you wrote the book, you were in a place you describe

(01:13:08):
just like broken. So after you wrote the book and
it was out there and you would talk about it and you people
reading it, did you feel different after?
Like, how's that? Yeah, I felt different
finishing. It was a pretty extraordinary
moment where I actually thought this is done.
That wasn't that was an amazing feeling to have written

(01:13:32):
something like that because I have loads of first chapters
under my bed, like, you know, like on my computer, like just
so many first chapters and maybe, you know, half a second
chapter, but there there, there's nothing.
There's no follow through. And then writing that one and
knowing that I could finish it. The first thing that I did
afterwards was start writing another one.
I've written a novel like my, I finished a second, but a first

(01:13:55):
draught of a second book and much, much longer.
But I would have never, and it might never see the light of
day, but it's written. But I would have never done that
because I would have never knownthat I could.
Yeah, until I did it the first time.
And the other thing about writing that book, I'd say 40%
of it is about the making of thealbum and the themes of the
album and the experience that Johnny and Nathan and I had

(01:14:17):
making that album, which was, it's a difficult process in
certain places. But when we actually went in
with Fraser and the four of us were together, it was so, it was
so extraordinary and life changing.
But then 60% of that book is about my dad passing away and my

(01:14:38):
relationship with my father. And when I was writing it, I
felt like he was there, you know, so that getting to sort of
be with him, you know, in the room with him standing over my
shoulder, mostly criticising, just don't say that.
But it was a yeah, it, it meant a lot to get that time because I

(01:14:59):
felt like I missed so much time from being away on tour or
whatever. But.
And then by the time I got back from that and had dementia, had
kind of got hold of it, hold of him.
So it it was nice to be able to feel like I got a little bit
time back with him. Sometimes like I guess a song

(01:15:23):
can reconnect you with someone or make you remember someone,
even if it's a whole song, we'realert from a song or anything
like that. Is there a particular song over
the years? Do you know thinking about your
dad that you go to 1st over others of like that's what that
like that song was about that relationship.

(01:15:43):
And if you do have songs like that, because I would imagine
that's it's been difficult to perform live.
Like is the song ever hard to perform live if you are thinking
of someone or relationship? Yeah, there's a couple of songs
that I've written about my dad over the years.

(01:16:06):
My mom said to me once, well, you never write a song about me.
And I was like, mom, our relationship is not complicated.
You're, you know, you're my dad never told me he loved me.
No, she started not saying it. But, and by the way, that's not
a dig of my dad. It's just the way that he's,
he's from he was born in 1938, you know what I mean?
It's a different generation, youknow, And I knew that he loved

(01:16:27):
me from his his actions, you know what I mean?
He would, he's always my sister.And I were talking about this.
He'd always show up for you. That's how you know, that's how
you know somebody cares about you.
Is that when you needed him, he was there.
But I wrote a song called Life Name, which has the line.
It's sort of what I want from life or what I would have liked

(01:16:51):
from life at that moment that I wrote it anyway.
And to be a father like my dad was one of the lines.
And then there's a song I think of home, which is after this I'm
going to get on that train. And the first verse is about the
train from by to Belfast and that the the second verse is

(01:17:14):
about going up to Derry, Gypsy Derry.
And then the third one's about sort of Ireland and more sort of
north-south, east and West as one of the lines.
But car journeys with my dad, you know him.
That's the one of the lines under this shouting points of
interest and us rolling our eyesin the backseat or whatever.

(01:17:35):
Whatever it is, it's better in the song.
And, and that was my, our whole,you know, summer holiday, going
to caravan holidays with, with, with our, with our folks.
You know, all our friends seem to be going to like sunny places
and we'll be going to like 2 weeks and go away with tipping
rain and the caravan bitten downon the roof.

(01:17:57):
So that was kind of my, our, ourkind of family experiences.
But, but yeah, those songs. And then I wrote a song called
The Long Shadow before the TV show The Long Shadow.
So I changed the name of that song.
But, but that was all about my dad.
That was the first song I wrote after that I was numb from, he
died to what, a year afterwards.And when I, when that numbness

(01:18:22):
passed, it kind of passed in a kind of an avalanche.
I wrote a song the next day called The Long Shadow, which is
about him. And then when we did some
acoustic shows, we would play that song.
We've never recorded it. So how difficult?
Was that or, or on that the very, very long road back to the
question that you asked originally?
That song I find the hardest to sing and I I cried a couple of

(01:18:46):
times trying to sing that song in it.
And sometimes tears come to youreyes, but I've never fully cried
on stage until that song. And maybe that's part of the
reason why we haven't recorded it.
I don't know that it's, I don't know that I could fully handle
it. I always tell them to find this
odd. The I always tell my dad this a

(01:19:08):
day that stands out from growingup, a memory of me and my dad.
And it sounds like nothing, but I remember it's just a perfect
day. And I've told him this before.
He's actually been on the podcast for a reminder of this
and he remembers it too. One day I was off.
It was like an exceptional closure day at school and we
needed to get stones for the garden, like a bag of stones for

(01:19:31):
the garden and we had to go to nutrition doll or somewhere like
it somewhere really far away forthese stones and it was just an
unremarkable weather day. Wasn't like a summer's day or
anything. And we just drove an hour and a
half up there. Whatever got chips, got this bag
of stones or and half back. Listen to Motown.
We used to have Motown tapes in the car and there nothing mad

(01:19:54):
happened on that day. Didn't like go to like a fun
for. Didn't do anything crazy.
But it just always stands out tome as a perfect day and I it
doesn't. It sounds so unremarkable, but
that is such a memory. Sorry.

(01:20:16):
That's one I'll always think about.
It's those moments I think are the most sort of perfectly
captured moments in your mind because they're not elev,
They're not from. They're not being elevated by
anything. Exactly.
Yeah. Joy or sadness or tragedy or or
anything, as you say, remarkable.

(01:20:37):
It's. It's you can just be on just.
Being together. Because I always where I so
close to my Grammy and the recent stand up show, I did talk
a little bit my granny in it. We used to just sit and read
Sunday papers in her house. Me and her might not have talked
for an hour, but it was amazing.Now we did talk all the time,
but there was moments where you just read the paper and reading

(01:20:59):
the football and we're just having a cup of tea but not
talking. And again, like you say, just be
and doing nothing. And those are weirdly just great
times. Umm, I want to ask you a
question to finish. Umm, when I looked at the
podcast you had done before, there was a one of the top
results is a Taylor Swift fan podcast and there's an episode

(01:21:22):
on you. There's an episode on me.
It's like, who's who's this Gary, like party?
Yeah. And the whole episode is just
about you and your music and that sort of thing.
And I wondered when you when youguys did that, you had did that
song together and suddenly you're in that world.
You know what I mean? Not like fandom, Taylor Swift
world because you guys do a great song together.

(01:21:43):
Do you still like see that, likeon social media and things like
that? I don't look at comments and
stuff like that on social media.So I don't know, I don't know
what's happening. But I will say that I have had
the the, the, the, the small interaction where people come up
and say, oh, I love that song isa bittersive.
It's always really positive. Yeah, it's always been really,

(01:22:04):
really positive. I don't, I don't know what
people are saying online, but best to stay away from that.
And I think the real theme anyway.
Just mean it's such a but it's aworld.
It's it is for sure. And we did AI joined her on
stage one time as well Sacramento and it was it is a
completely different universe that them from what we did.

(01:22:26):
She is just, you know, like the biggest now one of the biggest
stars in the world. So it is a completely different
universe, but it was it's it's Ilove that song.
I love that album. I think it's brilliant.
Ads on that album as well. Yeah.
And yeah, no, I really enjoyed that doing, you know, writing
that song with her and doing theshow.
Michael also want to say he loves your Altos.

(01:22:48):
Hard to me to mention that todayloves it.
Brilliant. You know, that was Johnny
Quinn's brainchild, former drummer.
And I tried, I don't know if you've ever seen me try.
I didn't used to like spicy food, but I tried it on.
I was on Sunday brunch. Oh yeah.

(01:23:11):
And they, they, I brought, I wasjust on my own.
So that, but they like the brought the hot sauce out and
everybody tried a bit. And I should watch to see my
reaction to it because it was I did not do well.
It was like I'd been shot from distance, but but now I really

(01:23:34):
like spicy food. So I am, I'm I'm not keen on it,
but but yeah, no, initially thatit's definitely wasn't my idea
to begin with, but apparently itgets it gets a lot of good
reviews that. Was like the first time I tried
pizza after years of putting up a fight.
Like, you'll, you like cheese ontoast?
Do you like ham? And he couldn't believe it.
And then one time he sort of tried it without really knowing,

(01:23:56):
you know, he's like distracted and he's like eating a bit and
just I remember see, I remember the look on his face and I can't
breakfast, lunch and dinner. He loves pizza, man start man
got into pizza at 63 and it's just made-up for it.
It's man for it. He loves it.
He loves it. I I've wanted the pod with you

(01:24:18):
for such a long time. Last year turned the world and
at the time, I remember we triedto get you were locked down, but
you were, you were like stuck inLA as well.
Remember that. Yeah.
I mean, it's not a bad place to be, but but I was there.
I was there for about 18 months.Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, I've wanted this for along time.
Really appreciate you coming down.
Thank you. And I've, I have wanted to say

(01:24:39):
yes to you for a long time as well, so I'm glad.
Yeah, you almost. You could almost say that
there's one already pre made. Yeah.
There's a Delia Smith job. Yeah, tell Tom from the editors.
I'll tell, I'll tell Tom, you know, I'll, I'll tell him to, to
have a listen and and see what he thinks.

(01:25:00):
I think I give a better thing. Got nervous?
Every ever needs like a stand instunt double bring up on stage.
Yeah. Sometimes people be cheeky and
stuff I guess and try and get anexclusive out of people.
I never do that. But are you into another war
park? You see Ward Park.
Blank if you're going to do another.

(01:25:21):
One I really blank. Really.
Like. So tricky for me.
Oh my God. No, no.
It's a world record. That's unbelievable.
That was 5 seconds. No, there's people.
That's oh. I may be blank when.
You ever sit? Yeah, that's exactly what it
was. We're marrying each other now.
I forgot. I was blank a lot.

(01:25:44):
I want to see somebody not blinking.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Nightcrawler.
You ever seen that? Yeah, yeah.
Just I don't think he blinks thewhole movie.
It's unbelievable. I don't know how he did it.
The and Michael Caine doesn't amaze Mike Kane.
It's one of my favourites of alltime, but it doesn't amazing.
There's like footage of him doing like an acting class where

(01:26:07):
he's like talking about film, film and TV acting and how to
look in the camera and how to like properly and like not
blinking at certain time. And like, he does this thing
where he just holds the blank and it it's so intimidating.
I think now that we're talking about it, I'm blinking more than
I normally do. If you want to see someone blink
like so the opposite of Jake Jonathan night crawler, watch

(01:26:28):
our video for chocolate. Like it's hilarious.
If you played a drinking game every time I blinked you would
be dead. Why were you blinking so much in
that? I've no idea.
I didn't even know I did until somebody afterwards went You got
a problem. What the hell is wrong with you?
Are you being electrocuted? What's happening?
Do you like chocolate? It's not.

(01:26:48):
Like generally. Yes, yeah, yeah, a big fan, but
I try, you know? Anyway.
So you're talking about what dates were possible going to be
You do it again. It was so fondant.
So it was meant to be a trilogy because I love boxing.
And I was like, I want, you know, want the, I want our

(01:27:08):
trilogy. So the quadrilogy, so.
Well, you see, there's not that many famous boxing quadrilogies,
but the we're going to do, we'regoing to need to do 5 now,
right? So.
X Trilogy 8 I only know four andeight I don't know 5-6 and. 7

(01:27:29):
have sex and. That's a different show.
That we all, well, I mean, we can get to that sex.
Trilogy. Snow Patrol More Part.
That is, that is one way to advertise it.
I would say a particularly bad way.
What we we wanted to do like we were, yeah, we have been
thinking about it. Then we decided to do Bellsonic

(01:27:52):
this year, which we're really, really excited.
So we'll see what happens maybe with the the next album.
Yeah, we'll see what we'll see what happens.
We'll see what happens is this this is this is the rest of the
podcast now, and you misses toiling me for the rest.
I'm I'm going to promote it. OK, I'll do.

(01:28:12):
It well, if you are going to promote it, you better make sure
there's enough toilets and bars.Loads of bars, loads of toilets.
Yeah. Thank you so much, Gary, for
coming down to do the podcast. Thank you very much.
I appreciate it. Thank you.

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