17 May 2003/Transcript
This is a transcription of the 17 May 2003 episode, from Xfm Series 2
Bit of a Blow at the Sonys
Ricky: Blur and “Out of Time.” They’re joking. There’s two hours to go.
Steve laughs
Ricky: On Xfm 104.9. I’m Ricky Gervais. With me, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington. A new leaf. Um, bit of a blow at the, uh, Sonys. Um, not like that. I mean, you know, we were taken aback.
Steve: Speak for yourself!
Ricky: Ha, yeah. Um, and, uh, we've got guests. Jonathan Ross won and he has guests, so we’re gonna have guests in, uh, one of which is, uh, sort of a tie-in. He's going to explain himself. It’s, uh, Dr. Fox, Dr. Neil Fox. Popped in for a chat. It’s a pre-record. We’ve got that. Although, live in the second hour we’re going to have a chat to the girls from t.A.T.u who are upstairs at the moment at Capital and they’re going to, they’re going to pop down and have a little chat with us. So we’re really trying to, you know, make this more of an interactive show. Um, uh, we don’t know yet whether we’re going to give up, uh, or not. It depends how this show goes. Um, yeah. Look forward to that, but we’ve got some great- we went down to the big library so we don’t have to rely on 4 Non Blondes and the, uh, you know, two Jam tracks that are up-up here. We went down to the big library and, uh, we’ve got some great tracks, Steve, haven’t we?
Steve: Lots--
Ricky: We’ve got some classics. Should we play one now?
Steve: Well, before that I just remembered that some of the criticism we received, uh, I think, was that we’re perhaps not taking into consideration the listeners. A lot of shows, a lot of radio shows, they cater very much to the community, to the area which they’re broadcasting.
Ricky: Hmm.
Steve: They interact with the, uh, with the listenership--
Ricky: Where’s the fun in that?
Steve: I agree--
Ricky: --want from me, really?
Steve: Um, I-I-I would just like to justify why we don’t tend to, um, correspond or interact with the listeners. Here’s a typical e-mail from Vicki, aged twenty-five. She asks, “Do you ski?”
Ricky stifles a laugh
Steve: Rick, that’s her question.
Ricky: No, I don’t--
Steve: Do you ski? Yes or no.
Ricky: No, I don’t.
Steve: No, you don’t. Right, there you are. Thanks, Vick!
Ricky laughs
Steve: Brilliant! Keep those coming in!
Ricky: See? He’s- now he’s turned ‘em against us, Karl! What do you think, Karl? What do you think of Steve’s attitude there?
Karl: It’s alright.
Ricky laughs
Steve: More insight like that coming later.
Song: Black Grape- Kelly’s Heroes
Do You Still Do Prescriptions?
Ricky: Black Grape, “Kelly’s Heroes” on Xfm 104.9. I’m Ricky Gervais. With me, Steve Merchant and Karl Pilkington. Okay? Proper, proper radio. As you know, we’re a bit gutted that we won nothing at the Sony Awards. We found out that, uh, on the panel was Dr. Fox. Probably one of the-the greatest, um, DJs in the world.
Steve: One of the great living broadcasters.
Ricky: I-I… I certainly think that he’s up there.
Steve: Yep.
Ricky: Um, with, uh, w-with Tarrant, Jono Coleman. Um, and so--
Steve: And Chris Moyles.
Ricky: We have- great Chris Moyles. We asked him to- he’s also on the, uh, Pop, you know, Pop Idol panel, so he-he can make and break people, so. We asked him basically to explain himself. Why did we win nothing? Why were we so bad? This is what he had to say.
Dr. Neil Fox: The award, guys, was called “The Entertainment Award.” Right? Now in itself, I think that should probably tell you something about what should be on the tape. There should be some entertainment. And, uh, it just wasn’t very entertaining, actually. I don’t mean- that sounds quite horrible, sitting here in front of you now, but it-it just wasn’t very entertaining.
Steve: But fundamentally what-what elements did you not find entertaining?
Dr. Neil Fox: Uh, the fact that it didn’t seem to entertain me at all.
Steve: Uh-huh.
Dr. Neil Fox: Was part of it. I mean, it’s-it’s a bit of, like, how long is a piece of string, isn’t it? What is entertaining?
Ricky: But we have talked about string on the show before, though.
Dr. Neil Fox: Uh, then there were loads of people I’ve never heard of in my life and some of those were perhaps a bit more entertaining than you. The people that got silver, I think they were called Joe and Twiggy. They worked for a station in the Midlands. Uh, I think Trent FM. They were actually pretty funny.
Ricky: Funnier than our stuff?
Dr. Neil Fox: Yeah, what- yeah, they were, actually. Yeah, they were funny and they seemed to say, seemed to, sort of, understand their loc- seemed to understand their market a bit more.
Steve: Yeah.
Dr. Neil Fox: Then I got on to yours. I’m thinking, “Oh, great! Ricky Gervais, yeah. He‘s really funny in that program, isn‘t he? I must watch that. I’m gonna absolutely die laughing here.” And, uh- oh, God, it was painful.
Steve: How would you'd improved it, just listening?
Dr. Fox sighs
Dr. Neil Fox: Bit of humour.
Steve: Right.
Dr. Neil Fox: Be quite good. Bit of humour, essential, I would think, to an entertainment show. Um, a bit of prep, you know--
Steve: Right.
Dr. Neil Fox: A bit- get in there early and actually think about what it’s going to do, perhaps.
Steve: Well, right, okay.
Ricky: Um, well, thank you, Dr. Fox for your honesty. We got to the bot- whi-while you’re here, can I just show you this?
Sound of pants unzipping
Ricky: That lump. Do you still do prescriptions? Well.
Steve: Dr. Fox there.
Ricky: He was, you know.
Steve: He was honest. He was blunt.
Ricky: He was blunt. I know he- I know that--
Steve: I'd like a second opinion! I’m only joking. He’s not actually a doctor.
Ricky laughs
Steve: Well, he used to be called Dr. Fox and now he just calls himself Neil Fox. I think he’s been struck off.
Ricky: No, he’s Neil Fox, M.D.
Steve: (chuckling) Right!
Ricky: He’s just- yeah.
Steve: I wondered if there was some malpractice that- something happened.
Ricky: They- I mean, we can’t--
Steve: Someone was under and he, sort of, you know, went a little bit crazy.
Ricky laughs
Ricky: Let’s leave it there!
Steve: (laughing) Yeah.
Ricky: Because Froggy will not take that lightly.
Steve: Who?
Ricky: Froggy.
Steve: What do you mean, “Froggy?”
Ricky: He’s Dr. Frog now. He’s changed it. He didn’t like Fox.
Steve: Oh, right.
Ricky: He hated Fox.
Steve: But, uh, are we going to heed his-his criticism? Because it was about there was no preparation--
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: We weren’t funny; fair enough.
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: Um, there was just really no content.
Ricky: We didn’t care about our--
Steve: Didn’t care about the show.
Ricky: The demographic we’re meant to be aiming at.
Steve: Um--
Ricky: Um.
Steve: Just sounds like a lot of work, all that.
Ricky: Uh…well, I-I think what we can do is we-we can take all on board and immediately forget it and carry on.
Steve: Brilliant!
Ricky: Cause it’s easier. What about that?
Steve: Brilliant.
Ricky: I tell ya what we could do, though. Play some bloody great tunes.
Steve: Well, thanks very much.
Song: Athlete- You’ve Got the Style
You Can Have Your Cake and Eat Tit
Ricky: Athlete. “You’ve Got the Style” on Xfm 104.9. I’m Ricky Gervais. With me, Steve Merchant and Karl Pilkington. Innit?
Steve chuckles
Ricky: Alright?
Steve: Brilliant.
Ricky: Well, you know, the funny thing was the, uh, the day of the Sonys the Rajar figures came out. That’s the body that tells exactly how many listeners you’ve got, etc. And, uh, um…XFM went down a little bit across the board. Except one show, Steve, that went up thirty-four percent.
Steve: Keep talking.
Ricky: Well, what show d’you think that was?
Steve: Well, I’m trying to think. Would it be Zoe Ball?
Ricky and Steve: Nooooo!
Steve: Would it be Christian O’Connell breakfast show?
Ricky and Steve: Nooooo!
Ricky: It was this little mother of a show.
Steve: Really?
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: Up thirty-four percent?
Ricky: Yeah. Everything else went down, we went up thirty-four percent.
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: So maybe Dr. Fox should be listening to those figures.
Steve laughs
Steve: Indeed!
Ricky: Yeah, will we get a pay rise? Will we get a thirty-four percent pay rise, Karl?
Steve: Ooh! Up to eighty quid a month!
Ricky laughs
Karl: You’ve just worked, like, for the last two years. There’s been nothing there. You’d still be getting the same money, haven’t ya? That’s the way it works.
Steve: There’s been what there?
Karl: It’s- you’re not paid per listener, are you? It’s just… you know what I mean?
Steve: It seems like it!
Ricky laughs
Ricky: I think they-they’ve each given us five pence!
Steve: (laughing) Yeah, exactly!
Ricky: Um, I went along to, uh- I came in for the presenter’s meetings this- I've never been before.
Steve: A what?
Ricky: A presenter’s meeting. I didn’t know they existed. And I just came in to annoy Karl. It was about five to six, um, so I was going to get him as he knocked off. We were--
Steve: Sorry, and a presenter’s meeting is what? That’s where the dish out which amusing news stories they’re going to read out, is it?
Ricky: Yeah? Or the- no, no, what order they’re going to play, um, uh, Athlete, Coldplay--
Steve: Right.
Ricky: Uh, The Vines.
Steve chuckles
Ricky: Um, and, uh, went upstairs. There’s all sort of people there. And, um, quite interesting, wasn’t it? Karl?
Karl: Yeah.
Ricky: You know why the figures went down a little bit?
Steve: Go on.
Ricky: The war.
Steve: Is that what they said?
Ricky: The war, yeah. At one, at one point, I said to Karl, “Just how many listeners died in this war?”
Steve laughs
Ricky: Cause I thought he was saying that they were, they were at the front.
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: Or-or-or Xfm listeners went, “Well, I’m going.”
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: “I’m going to Iraq.”
Steve: Well, the reason our listeners--
Ricky: “Tell Zoe to tape it for me!”
Steve chuckles
Steve: The reason our listenership went up- that-that just tells you who’s listening to us. Cowards!
Ricky laughs
Steve: Yellow-bellies. Children. Women.
Ricky: People with falling arches.
Steve: Yeah. Terrorists!
Ricky laughs
Ricky: Oh, dear. Yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t, I- it was quite a good meeting, though. I saw some--
Steve: So what exactly? Was there anything I missed out on? Is there--
Ricky: No, no. They just, you know, it went, it went down a little bit, except our show, which went up thirty-four percent!
Steve: Up thirty-four percent.
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: But no awards for that.
Ricky: Remember that. And then you went out- you went out afterwards, didn’t ya?
Karl: Uh, yeah. We went to, uh, went to a bar to have a coupla drinks an’ that.
Ricky: Yeah.
Karl: And then, uh, few of ‘em…went on to, uh, on to Stringfellows.
Ricky: No they didn’t.
Karl: Well, some of ‘em did. Zoe did.
Ricky: Who?
Karl: Zoe and a, you know, a few of the office people an’ that. I-I went home.
Ricky: Stringfellows?
Karl: Yeah.
Ricky: To-to what? To watch lap dancing? To be- what?
Karl: Yeah, that’s-that’s goes on there, innit? I know. It’s mad, innit?
Steve: Have you- I’ve never been to Stringfellows. I don’t know what happens there.
Ricky: N- I-I-I-I- but…no. I- what- why-why would they--
Karl: I don’t know! I don’t know. I mean, I was talking to people about it the day after and said, “Oh, you missed out.” I said, “Well, did I?” I said, “What- how’s it work?” They said, “Well, you know, you pay--”
Ricky: Never quite understood lap dancing. Never quite understood it. What is it? It’s-it’s basically… someone dancing naked, rubbing their…arse in your face.
Karl: Yeah.
Ricky: That’s basically the gist of it, is it?
Karl: But you, but you can’t…the rules is you can’t touch.
Steve: Do they do a, um, a home service?
Ricky laughs
Ricky: I just think it’s just- it’s nearly- I-I-I’ve got to be careful what I say here, but it's, sort of…you know, I’m not dissing Stringfellows or anything, but is that not, sort of, like one step down from prostitution?
Steve: That’s such an antiquated--
Ricky: You know what I mean?
Steve: What, are you from the nineteenth century?
Ricky: No, but I mean what-what- it’s like it’s…wha- I-I don’t, I don’t quite understand it. I-I-I…have you--
Karl: I don’t get it! I don’t get it. Cause the thing is, they- I said, “How does it work?” They said, uh, “You pay twenty quid.”
Ricky giggles
Karl: “You-you get some clean money, sort of, like little vouchers that you stick in their knickers or whatever.
Ricky: Oh, God!
Steve: Clean money?
Karl: Yeah.
Steve: Disinfected money, okay.
Karl: Well, just like vouchers.
Steve: Can you put loose change in there?
Ricky chuckles
Steve: Cause I got a lotto letter.
Karl: But, um--
Ricky: IOU!
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: Yeah, go on.
Karl: Twenty quid, it is.
Steve: Right.
Karl: And, um, I-I just don’t get it cause, I mean, I’m not, I’m not tight with money or anything, but--
Steve: No.
Karl: You pay twenty quid. They dance in front of you, but you’re not allowed to touch, which to me is like…going to a restaurant, ordering a nice, big, warm dinner and they put it in front of you and it’s like, “Well, you can’t eat it!” And you say, “But it’s going cold!”
Ricky: HAA!
Steve laughs
Ricky: I love the idea of some bloke sitting in Stringfellows. Business man, right? Paid twenty pounds. There’s an arse waving in his face and he’s going, “Can I not just--” They go, “Don’t touch--” He goes, “It’s going cold!”
Steve laughs
Ricky: “Look at it! It’s going cold!”
Steve laughs
Ricky: Oh, that is brilliant. “It’s going cold.” That is- I-I mean- see, Karl, in the week, was saying that he doesn’t like sayings and phrases and metaphor and analogy and I was going- you know, an-and he thinks it’s, sort of like, you know, one step away from poetry. But he comes out with the most evocative phrases.
Steve: Mm.
Ricky: That-that-that is a straightforward analogy. “Lap dancing is like being given a meal that you can’t eat.” See, that-that’s-that’s great.
Karl: Hmm.
Ricky: That’s how you saw it and that-that-that’s so much better than saying, “It’s-it’s mad you can’t touch” or “It’s a waste” or- d’you see what I mean? I was, I was trying- we were trying to inflame his, um, enthusiasm in the week and, uh, I said about, um, different phrases an’ that. He goes, “Well, why not just say the actual words?” I was going, “Well, it’s more poetic!” And I told him the Issac Newton one, um, uh, “If I have seen further than any other man, it’s because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” And I said, “Well, that’s because, you know, he’s saying, um, uh, you know, “I’m getting lauded for being this great scientist and all these discoveries and being a genius, but I’m saying, you know, if it wasn’t for those scholars before me that had come up with what they’ve come up with, you know, I wouldn’t have got this far.” Karl went…what’d you say?
Karl: I just said, “Well, I’d-I prefer him to give me a name check.”
Steve laughs
Karl: D’you know what I mean, though? If you're stood there and he’s saying how good everything is, don’t just class me- don’t, like- don’t, sort of, put me in with a load of other people. Give me a mention!
Ricky: If you were one of the other scholars?
Karl: Yeah.
Ricky: Yeah, I think there are probably people that died, sort of, years before him. I think he’s saying more that he’s thanking the body of work these scientists and these great men had-had handed down, you know, through either books, material, teachings--
Steve: He’s not giving a big shout-out to the collective science posse.
Ricky: Yeah! Yeah. “Ya know, fank you. Actually, I copied Nigel’s.”
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: He’s not saying that. “I-I was, I was, like, Huygens. I heard what Nigel said about it, about the third law.” D’you know what I mean?
Karl: Yeah. I mean, I look into sayings an’ stuff.
Ricky: Go on.
Karl: A lot more, see if they work. Well, one-one that, um, happened a couple weeks ago, right? You were talking about it. The, uh- "you can’t, you can’t have your cake and eat it."
Ricky: Yeah.
Karl: Is that what it says?
Ricky: Well, I never understood that cause I thought well, what's the point of having your cake and not eating it, rather like your lap dancing analogy. But it actually means you can’t have eaten your cake and still have it there, obviously.
Steve: Yes, exactly.
Karl: Well, the-the time that I saw that same work, right? I was in, I was in ASDA with Suzanne.
Ricky: Yeah.
Karl: And d’you know those big…binders you get with nice cakes in ‘em?
Ricky: Yeah.
Karl: For birthdays an’ that. You can get one with, like, David Beckham on the front of it.
Steve: Yeah.
Karl: You can have one with, you know, Thomas the Tank Engine if you want.
Steve: Ricky Gervais.
Karl: Yeah.
Steve: Yeah.
Karl: You can have one of them. And I saw one of those comedy ones where it is, like, a big pair of breasts.
Ricky: Yeah.
Karl: And that is when, you know, you can have your cake and eat tit.
Ricky stifles a laugh
Steve laughs
Ricky: Play a record.
Karl: No, but--
Ricky: Play a record.
Karl: You see what I’m saying?
Ricky: Play a record. Play a record. I want to talk to you about it. About puns.
Karl: Just…
Song: Placebo- This Picture
It's Time I Went A-Wooing
Ricky: Plac-e-bo! “This Picture” with the androgynous vocal talents at the helm there of Brian Molko.
Steve chuckles
Ricky: On Xfm 104.9. I’m Ricky Gervias--
Steve: Informed!
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: Broadcasting.
Ricky: Excellent.
Steve: Did you see- I think, I’m sure- I don’t know if Karl saw it. I know you watched it, Rick. The, uh- it was extraordinary. It was a Sky1 TV show the other night. It was something like, uh, um, “Reality TV something--”
Ricky: Oh, brilliant.
Steve: I don’t know what it was called. Yeah
Ricky: Excellent.
Steve: And it was about, basically, what- the fortunes of various--
Ricky: I cannot get enough of it.
Steve: The fortunes of various reality TV stars, uh, since they’ve come out of the show. Christine Hamilton, coming out of the jungle. And, obviously, once again, always a pleasure to find out what Fats Waller is up to, Rik Waller. I mean, extraordinary--
Ricky: Oh, he’s joined a band now?
Steve: He’s got his own band. He was playing in some club in Rochester. There was about--
Ricky: It’s sort of gospel, sort of gospel rock. That sort of soul, gospel rock thing like something you’d see in the- in-in “The Commitments” or summat and, uh, and when he cut to the audience it was like it was in Butlins. It was just a big dance floor and there was just people, like, watching indifferently and he went, “The people that were here--”
Steve: (chuckling) Yeah.
Ricky: “Loved it.”
Steve laughs
Ricky: I mean, it’s a bit sad.
Steve: It’s tough to say.
Ricky: I know.
Steve: The size of the man. His leather jacket, Karl--
Ricky: I know.
Steve: Was extraordinary. I don’t know how many animals had to die to make- it was like, you know- it was unbelievable.
Ricky: It looked like- if he had fallen off it, it would have been like the Hindenburg.
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: Because--
Steve: It was like a zephyr.
Ricky: “Oh, the humanity!” As people were sick.
Steve: I still think- when I see him wearing a coat like that, it looks like he is stood on the shoulders of two other people.
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: And it’s just a joke.
Ricky: Just a joke.
Steve: Just a circus act, or something.
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: Cause his head doesn’t make- it doesn’t make sense!
Ricky: Looks like one of those things that you steam yourself in.
Steve: (laughing) Exactly!
Ricky: You put your head like that and it’s--
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: “Is that a machine you’re in?” “No, it’s a coat!”
Steve: One of those old fashioned iron lungs.
Ricky laughs
Ricky: Oh, dear.
Steve: Um--
Ricky: That’s some magic moments.
Steve: But there was a great- cause once again, I mean, I missed a lot of, um, the-the first series of “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!”--
Ricky: Brilliant.
Steve: But it showed, once again, uh, the moment with Darren Day- Darren Day, a lovely guy, but that moment when he went off and sat on a rock--
Ricky: I- mm.
Steve: And came back and he’d written a song--
Ricky: I know.
Steve: Which he just- and I can’t- it was lots of things, it was lots of things like, (singing) “I’m in a hotel room in another town--”
Ricky: I know. Don’t- okay. Don’t--
Steve: And it was just- it was like something that you’d write when you were fourteen. It was unbelievable and they showed it again. It’s just stunning.
Ricky: I-I love songs you wrote when you're fourteen. It’s like your first, sort of, like, song that you could- you know three chords. And it’s always, it’s always stuff like, (singing) “There’s a man, he’s a lonely man. Take a look at him. He looks a bit like me!”
Steve: (chuckling) Yeah.
Ricky: “It is me.”
Steve laughs
Ricky: It’s that sort of thing, like, well, you want to play it for someone and then you want them to go, “My God, you’re deep.”
Steve laughs
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: “My God, you’re brilliant, aren’t you? And that’s about you, is it?” “Oh, yeah, it is, yeah.”
Steve: I-I have to say, this is such a terrible confession. When I was doing a school play once--
Ricky: Go on.
Steve: When I was about that age, fifteen.
Ricky: Aw.
Steve: Right? There was a girl, uh, who was in the cast with me.
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: Right? And she, sort of, you know, she was giving me the eye. I was thinking, “Yeah.” Well, I kinda thought she was, right? And--
Ricky: It was glass!
Ricky giggles
Steve: But there was another guy, there was another guy there as well that was sort of competing for her affections.
Ricky: Oh, no.
Steve: And, uh, he was quite a witty guy.
Ricky: His name was Scott Hanson and he had long blond hair!
Steve: Exactly, yeah.
Ricky laughs
Steve: And, um, and I thought, well, the way to impress her- cause I was fifteen, or whatever. Thought I was pretty smart. I sat in one of the adjoining dressing rooms reading a copy of the, um, philosophical book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” Which I didn’t understand, but which I sat there reading it in the hope that she would walk in, think, “My God. You’re reading ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”
Ricky: “You don’t go with the crowd. You don’t want to come next door where we’re talking about nonsense--”
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: “And people are flirting.”
Steve: “We’re talking about The Bangles.”
Ricky: Yeah. Yeah.
Steve: “And Curly Wurlys.”
Ricky: “You’re in here, saying, ‘Look. Just- if you want to come and talk to me, you’re welcome, but I’m- I--’”
Steve: “I’m a thinker.”
Ricky: I bet you thought you were Kwai Chang Caine, didn’t you?
Steve: I-I thought it was like she’d think, “Jesus Christ, I’ve never, I’ve never met anyone like him.”
Ricky: That is genius.
Steve: And she- I remember the one time she accidentally walked in she went, “Oh! Oh, sorry. Wrong room.” and left again.
Ricky laughs
Steve: And that was it!
Ricky: Sorry, at fifteen. So this is about the time you’d took to wearing a bow tie to impress people.
Steve: I was slightly younger, wearing a bow tie. Yeah.
Ricky: I love that.
Steve: Now I-I used to watch a lot of Harold Llyod films.
Ricky: (giggling) Oh, God.
Steve: And, uh, he always seemed to do very well.
Ricky: I love it. I love the idea of at fifteen you’re going, “Well, it’s time I went a-wooing. Right--”
Ricky laughs
Ricky: “Right--”
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: “On with the bow tie, where’s the ‘Zen’ and--”
Steve: “Where’s the pipe and my boater?”
Ricky: (laughing) Yeah! “It’s time I got me a beau.”
Steve: Yeah, yeah.
Ricky: I love that. But s-songs are great, as well. Have you ever- the other thing you do, sort of, when you’re about fifteen and sixteen is start writing songs about “that the world’s trying to take a piece of me.”
Steve laughs
Ricky: “Ey, you think I’m going down and I’m coming back! I’m against the ropes!”
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: (singing) “They tried to drag me down!” He thought he wanted to be Cool Hand Luke.
Steve: (laughing) Yeah.
Ricky: Yeah. (singing) “They put me in this emotional prison!”
Steve: (singing) “The man’s on my back.” Who?
Ricky laughs
Ricky: Yeah, yeah.
Steve: Who, who--
Ricky: They! “They try and take a piece of me.” Who, who? Who do? “Well, you know.”
Steve: You’re fourteen!
Ricky: “Parents an’ that, don‘t they?”
Steve: You’re really comprehensive.
Ricky: “The teachers.” Yeah. I-I-I absolutely love it. I still remember a poem- I won’t say his name. We-we were about fourteen, fifteen and, uh, this- we had to write a poem and have to say everyone’s was, um, pretty rubbish. But we mercilessly took the piss out of this bloke because- I still remember the poem! And how he did it is he went through a dictionary and found things with that. And I- this is, this is a poem, right, okay, remember? I’ve remembered this for twenty-five years, right? “The reason why, the reason why, the reason why I had to die. Did I bleed the blood of greed? What was my destiny?”
Steve laughs
Ricky: And when we heard this we were laughing! I mean, for a year we would go, uh, “What was my destiny?”
Steve laughs
Ricky: It was just great.
Steve: Can I hear it again? I enjoyed that.
Ricky: “The reason why, the reason why, the reason why I had to die. Did I bleed the blood of greed? What was my destiny?”
Steve laughs
Ricky: Ohh!
Steve: Oh, that’s almost as catchy as Monkey News.
Ricky laughs
Ricky: Oh, God! Oh! I’ve got some Monkey News for you. Let’s play a record and come back and I’ve got some great Monkey News for you, Karl.
Song: R.E.M.- Near Wild Heaven
A Lot Going On In Me Head
Steve: That’s from the R.E.M. album that people tend to forget about now because it was so, kind of, poppy and such a massive hit. “Out of Time,” but there are some good tunes on it. And there’s one of them, “Near Wild Heaven.”
Ricky: Excellent. On Xfm 104.9. Karl.
Karl: Go on.
Ricky: Watching a program yesterday…uh, and it was about these Japanese snow monkeys. And it was all about how animals learn things that aren’t exstinc-instinctive, particularly, sort of, primates because they see other people doing it and they start a culture. And they can pinpoint when these monkeys, when one monkey first went down and got in the hot water springs and stayed there cause it was hot. And the others copied him and now it’s a, it’s part of, almost, a culture. You know? The-the- it won’t be handed on. Cause it’s not instinctive, but has to be learned each time. And, uh, you know. And the-the- they grew as normal like other monkeys, right? But they-they’re really intelligent and, um, obviously, the reason they groom other people- other, other monkeys is cause they eat the mites. But the- also, the monkeys have learned they like being groomed. Okay? So they showed this one monkey. It went to a deer, okay? And it was grooming this deer to get its mite off it, right? But then it didn’t eat it. It held it in its hand. It went over to a monkey, put the mite on itself to show the monkey it had a mite and got a free grooming.
Steve: That’s extraordinary.
Ricky: That’s extraordinary!
Steve: That is extraordinary.
Ricky: Cause it gave up the food knowing that if it put one there, this monkey would look for mites on it--
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: And it would get a free grooming and it was, like, having a little massage. What do you think of that?
Karl: It’s not bad. I’ve got some better stuff coming up later.
Ricky: Ha!
Steve: On Monkey News? On the official Monkey News?
Ricky: Yeah. D-do you see, do you see what, do you see what mine, though- mine’s true.
Steve: And that’s an interesting and extraordinary--
Ricky: It actually happened. Social behaviour amongst primates. That- I saw it. I saw it. It was- you know.
Steve: Did it rob a bank, Rick, at any time?
Ricky: It didn’t rob a bank and it didn’t open a hairdressers.
Steve: Hmm, oh. See that’s--
Ricky: What’s--
Steve: That’s what you’re letting- that’s where you’re letting--
Ricky: I am! It’s not, it’s not quite good enough, is it, my Monkey News?
Karl: Well, I’ve got some--
Ricky: See the difference where I-I-I named the species, explained it slightly…told an interesting fact. As opposed to, “There’s this monkey, right? And, uh--”
Steve: Look at him looking at you!
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: He’s not interested, Rick.
Ricky laughs
Steve: Can I tell you now, can I try and describe for people the face that Karl has. I’ll tell you what it’s like. It’s like if you draw, um, some eyes, a nose and a mouth on a balloon--
Ricky quietly laughs
Steve: And then inflate it to about half full. That’s what Karl’s face looks like.
Ricky laughs
Steve: That’s what his head looks like. It looks like a face you’ve drawn on a balloon. Very small, the rest of the head; huge.
Karl: It’s-it’s just like today. I’m a, I’m a bit tired, right?
Steve: Mm.
Karl: That’s one thing.
Ricky: Why are you a bit tired?
Karl: I just haven’t been sleeping. Right?
Ricky: Why not?
Karl: I don’t know. I’ve got a lot going on. In me head.
Ricky laughs
Ricky: Oh, if this is going to be like “The Simpsons,” if we could actually look in there, there would be two monkeys grooming now.
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: Uh--
Karl: Plus, you’ve-you’ve been talking about, like, stuff that I can’t relate to an’ that, so I‘m--
Steve: What, writing poetry?
Ricky: Like what?
Steve: Reading books.
Karl: Yeah.
Ricky: What--
Karl: An’ poetry an’ stuff. I never did any of that.
Ricky chuckles
Ricky: What did you do?
Karl: I- well, at school they didn’t, they didn’t bother. They tried to get us to write more, right?
Ricky: Right.
Karl: By, uh--
Ricky: Giving you a pen?
Karl: Well, they-they used to give us these school diaries.
Steve: Yeah.
Karl: Little-little red book. And it was a way that they kept an eye on what you were doing out of school hours.
Steve: Right.
Karl: Right, so some kids would write down, you know--
Steve: “Stole a bike.”
Karl: Yeah--
Ricky: “Burnt a house down.”
Steve: Yeah.
Karl: But when I was at school a-around that, sort of, twelve age, I-I didn’t get up to much. You have no money, there’s nowt you can do. So every night it was the same thing. I’d get home and you- I-I’d have to, I’d have to go to the shop, right? And get some potatoes and some bread.
Ricky: Brilliant.
Karl: Every night. Right? And I kept taking this into school--
Ricky: Sorry, wh-what was it, Dublin in the seventeenth century?
Steve: Yeah!
Ricky: What d’you mean, everyday you went to the shops and got potatoes and bread?
Steve laughs
Karl: That’s-that’s kind of what I had to get all the time.
Ricky: (laughing) Why? What did you have, chip sandwiches?
Steve chuckles
Karl: Yeah. And, uh--
Steve: So you went to the pl- yeah, you went there.
Karl: So I kept--
Steve: With your hoop and stick.
Ricky: (laughing) Yeah, yeah!
Karl: I kept putting that in the diary, you know, every night saying, “Went-went to Hugh Fays.” That was the name of the shop.
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky laughs
Ricky: What is it called!?
Karl: Hugh Fays.
Ricky: What is it, “Hugh,” or “you?”
Karl: Like H-u-g-h.
Ricky: H-u-g-h. Yeah. Oh, was that was his name?
Karl: Hugh Fays, right?
Steve: Right.
Karl: Used to go there. Get the potatoes an’--
Ricky: Bread.
Karl: Bread an’ that.
Steve: I love the fact someone who’s named the shop after themselves. “I’m not going to say what we sell. It’s named after me or nothing. Or I'm not opening.”
Ricky laughs
Ricky: "Mainly potatoes and bread!"
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: “White sliced loaves, King Edwards.”
Karl: And the teacher used to always say, “Just write something different in there! Make something up!”
Steve: Yeah.
Karl: Cause, like, you know, Monday, Tuesday- all the way through to Friday, every night it was just, “Went to Hugh Fays. Got some--”
Ricky: (laughing) “I went to Hugh Fays!”
Steve: So you, sort of- you-you changed--
Ricky: Are you sure-sure it wasn’t an advert? Sure it wasn’t paying you to say, uh, “Get my name in the book!”
Steve: Ha, yeah.
Karl: The only, the only time that it changed and she said, “Oh, that’s-that’s made it a bit more interesting was when it was me birthday and I had to buy a cake.”
Steve: Potatoes and a cake?
Karl: And she said, “Oh, that’s good.”
Steve: Yeah.
Karl: That was me thirteenth birthday. Me mam said, “Oh-” I got home from school. She said, “Oh, you’re thirteen today. Teenager. Big-big turnover. Go and get a cake.”
Steve: That’s your experience with writing?
Ricky: No. What- no.
Karl: Kind of, yeah.
Ricky: That’s your experience of your thirteenth birthday? “Oh, by the way, you’re thirteen today. Go and get a cake.”
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: Brilliant. Big surprise?
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: (laughing) Was it a big surprise?
Steve: (chuckling) Yeah.
Ricky: (laughing) Was it- yeah. Yeah. That is brilliant. I love it.
Karl: That’s the only, sort of, writing.
Ricky: Yeah.
Steve: What, and they never asked you to write essays or stories, anything?
Ricky: Did you never write a story or a poem or a--
Karl: The stories I did earlier on were, you know, you made ‘em up, but it was that thing that I’d always end ‘em with--
Ricky chuckles
Karl: “And an alarm went off and it was all a dream.”
Steve: Every one of ‘em?
Karl: Yeah, yeah. But they didn’t, they didn’t- I mean, it was a bit of a--
Ricky: What story there?
Steve: “There was some potatoes and some bread, but I woke up and it was all a dream.”
Ricky: (laughs and mumbles) “Then I went to the shops and bought some potatoes and bread.”
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: But did-did you ever do anything that- write about an adventure when you were a spaceman or you were in, you know, you were, uh, a cowboy or…no?
Karl: Well, all the teachers, like, had scams going on so, like--
Ricky quietly laughs
Karl: In English, right? You’d go in there and the teacher would say, “Right, what we’re doing today is- got a load of brochures from Thompson, but they say, like, 1983 on the front so I’ve got a load of stickers here that say 1984. Let’s see how many you can do in half an hour.”
Ricky: You are joking?
Steve: Did you go to school with Oliver Twist?
Ricky: Sorry, you are joking?
Karl: I’m not. That’s what they did. So the teacher must’ve been getting, like, a freebie or something for helping them out.
Ricky: You- is this--
Karl: Honest-honestly. Yeah, that’s what--
Ricky: That is fantastic.
Karl: They were all, actually--
Ricky: They were all--
Steve: Other than Mr. Fagan, you had--
Ricky: Yeah. And then when they saw “Karate Kid,” they had to- they- every kid washing their car going, “Wax on, wax off!”
Steve: Yeah.
Ricky: “Hurry up!”
Karl: Yeah.
Ricky: “I’m teach- I’m teaching you summat. Wax on, wax off! Paint the fence!”
Karl: So I’m just saying, you know, that’s-that’s why I’m a bit quiet cause you’re talking about stuff I can’t--
Steve: Can’t relate to.
Ricky: And where- and why didn’t you sleep last night?
Karl: I’m just- I-I haven’t slept well for-for- since I was about twelve.
Ricky laughs
Karl: Do you sleep well, Steve?
Ricky: But wait, wait, wait! You can’t let that go! “I haven’t slept well since I was twelve.” What do you mean?
Karl: D’you know, d’you know, like, a proper…I used to love going to bed as, like, a kid.
Ricky: Yeah.
Karl: Whereas now it’s like, “Oh, am I going to sleep tonight?” and I’m- I sort of wake up ‘bout four times.
Ricky: Right.
Karl: Cause when you’re a kid, I remember really loving, like, going to bed. I’d- I--
Steve: Mm.
Karl: There was one time where…I actually laughed meself to sleep cause I couldn’t believe me luck.
Ricky and Steve laugh
Ricky: He’s- there’s something wrong with him! What do you mean you laughed yourself--
Karl: Have you ever had it when you’re, when you’re really tired and you get in bed and the pillows feels--
Ricky: Yeah, it’s so cold. Yeah.
Karl: And-and it’s like, “I can’t believe this.”
Ricky: Yeah.
Karl: And…I- it happened twice. Once when I just went to bed and was really looking forward to it and also when I-I helped me dad out once, like, through the night. He worked at, like, this paper company, alright? And, uh, I helped him out and I got in at about four in the morning with him. Got in bed. And I just was like- I had- I-I was laughing me head off. I had to put the pillow over me head. Cause I couldn’t believe me luck at like- I was like, “Oh, this is great, this. I‘m going to sleep.”
Steve: I-I just have to say, life up north is so extraordinary.
Ricky: No, but you must be the easiest kid in the world to please. No wonder she knew she’d just get a cake and, sort of, like, you- “Wh-what was he expecting for his birthday?” “He were expecting an extra hour in bed. But we got ‘im cake, as well.”
Steve chuckles
Ricky: I love that.
Steve: --Any sucker, brilliant!
Ricky: Brilliant, yeah. Your own bed. How long was it before you got your own- what did you used to do before, just some straw in the corner?
Karl: No, it’s just that-that thing of when you’re really tired and--
Steve: And do you ever do this with Suzanne now? Do you ever laugh yourself to sleep with her?
Karl sighs
Karl: No, that’s what I mean.
Steve: She can’t sleep cause you’re chuckling away.
Karl: I’m just- I-I don’t know what’s up with me. I’ve got a lot going on.
Ricky: What-what do you mean, you’ve got a lot going on?
Karl: I don’t know. I don’t know. I was talking to the security bloke before saying, “Do you sleep?”
Ricky quietly laughs
Karl: “Have you got much going on in your head an‘ stuff an’…” I don’t know.
Ricky: They- he wasn’t insulted by that, I’m sure. Going up to someone and going, “Have you got a lot going on in your head?” That is brilliant.
Steve: It worries me. It’s interesting that, um, your lack of sleep coincides with the diaries and the, uh, writing of the bread and potato story everyday. I don’t know if once you had that responsibility--
Ricky: Why don’t you…every night go to Hugh Fays, get some bread and potatoes. You don’t have to eat ‘em. Then go to bed and I think you’ll be chuckling yourself to sleep in no time.
Steve laughs
Song: Radiohead- There There