RIFOLOGY! I thought you were going to go all deep and go like, RIFOLOGY! Oh yeah! Very
good, very good. Good morning. Hello, we're RIFOLOGY. RIFOLOGY. I'm Neil. Chris. You're
Chris. Almighty. We're doing the Almighty Soul Destruction because we're on a bit of
a UK 90s rock thing. I've never heard this record before this week. I think quite a lot
of people, looking at our stats, we, I don't know at what point this happened, because it
used to be only our mates that listened to the show. No, it's all over the world, people
tuning in. It is. To hear our dulcet tones. Indeed. So, looking at our stats, more than
half of our listeners are US. Yeah. And then with some European and then the UK, a big chunk
of the rest. So, I think if you were out of the UK, I think this stuff would probably have
passed you by, like therapy. Yeah. We did last week. Yeah. We're doing this one, the Almighty
too. We're going to do some interviews from... Oh, we didn't do finger! Oh, can we come on to that in a minute? Yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah. I've literally, I've been sat here
for an hour. Do you know... A good hour. Yeah. I've been fiddling with things and I've only just noticed that you've got a bandage on your finger. Oh, do you remember when I did it last time? Do you remember how did you bandage on your finger? Yes, you did it before, yeah. I've done that again.
So, I sliced the end of it off.
I was chopping... I can't remember. Ginger. I was chopping
ginger. And I've removed
the end of my finger. Anyway.
So, yes, I have my finger.
So, yeah. So, anyway, we're going to do
some British rock.
I think it... This is a
fascinating scene to me.
And do you know why I think it's super fascinating?
I think it's super fascinating because it's not a scene.
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Britpop and Oasis and Pulp and
Blur and all that. And everyone knew about that.
Elastica. Everyone knew about that.
It was big and it had
a name. Yeah.
And, like... This was just stuff.
We just did the Pacific Northwest.
We did a bunch of albums from
Seattle. The Seattle scene, yeah. Grunge and
Alt Rock. And it was there. And then before that
we were in...
LA. LA for glam
and hair metal. Yeah.
Had a name. Yeah. Had a scene. Yeah.
Had a road
road. Didn't it?
It was a bit on the Sunset Strip, wasn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And...
It had a venue.
It did. Well, yeah. It had a bunch of venues
and it had, like, just some key people in it.
This just didn't.
No.
This was, you know, we talked about it a bit before, but it was bands like Skunker Nancy
and Gun and Thunder and Gun and Thunder and Therapy and, yeah, there were just some of these
incredible bands that just never quite broke the US. I mean, I remember it had, like, Thunder
and Def Leppard.
Yeah.
Yeah, they just skied it.
Def Leppard broke the US and Thunder just didn't.
Yeah.
And, um...
But there are certain bands like that, like, when you said this, you know, and you said about
the Almighty and we listened to a few songs at the end last week before we went home.
Yeah, yeah.
And I was going, it's that same ballpark as Thunder and Def Leppard.
It is a bit, isn't it?
In a way.
And, but Def Leppard obviously skied it.
Yeah.
And as you say, Thunder didn't quite crack it.
But it's that, it's certainly the same ballpark in musicians.
Well, production, if anything, the production on it and the way it's produced is very, very...
It's a British sound, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, but, which is strange because the way that he's singing is very American.
I was a bit shocked with this.
I didn't, this is something I've learned as I was doing the prep for this, for this show.
You did some good prep.
Oh, I didn't, I didn't do any prep.
What I did was I messaged you saying, I can't find anything.
You did, that is, that is the right thing.
Yeah, yeah, and then you sent me 20 things.
I did.
Of which, the last interview one that you sent.
It's good, isn't it?
It was awesome.
Absolutely.
Yeah, we've probably got about a good 20 minutes worth of interviews.
I do love Ricky Warwick though.
He's a good storyteller.
Yeah.
Anyway, I discovered something new.
These albums that we're going to cover, I adore them.
Yeah.
You know, if you had your, we always talked about this, having like a, I don't know, like a three
by three square of albums to be your top nine or whatever.
Most of them for me are here.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like the big, big American thrash records.
But a lot of my absolute total favorites are here from this, from this period.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Would you, are they that, are they that favorite that you commit to having a tattoo done?
I don't know.
Obviously not.
But, but here's the thing that I'm going to, I'm going to call, call out your attention
to.
Yeah.
So of the albums that I think we should cover over the next month or so.
Yeah.
There's this one, Soul Destruction.
Another one is Backstreet Symphony by Thunder.
Yeah.
Which I think is astonishing.
And then there's another one called Taking On The World by Gunn.
It's their debut.
Okay.
It's amazing.
Right.
Because you've not mentioned that one before.
No, that's my favorite Gunn album.
You know.
Because you said about Swagger.
Yeah.
Swagger and Gallas.
Gallas, yeah.
And then.
But this one was before that.
Taking On The World.
Yeah.
Taking On The World is, yeah, it's so good.
Anyway, they're all produced by Andy Taylor off of Duran Duran.
All of them?
Mm.
Backstreet Symphony, 1990.
Andy Taylor.
Soul Destruction, that's this one.
Andy Taylor.
From the Almighty.
Andy Taylor, 91.
And Gunn, Taking On The World.
Andy Taylor, 1989.
Did you like Duran Duran?
No.
Do you like Duran Duran?
Not really.
It's all right, yeah.
But it's not this, is it?
No, it wasn't my thing.
So how did this happen then?
I don't know.
Do you want to give me some other albums in here?
Yeah.
Rod Stewart, Out of Order.
Yeah.
Didn't know that.
No.
And he did Reef, Shoot Me Your Ace in 2022.
Was, oh, recently.
Anyway, according to my sheet, which might be wrong, it says 2022, Shoot Me Your Ace Reef.
Anyway, the point I'm getting at, really, is there was definitely a production style.
You know, we talked about when we did, like, Seattle and that grunge scene.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And there were...
Oh, yeah, there was a centre point, wasn't there?
Yeah, there was certainly a style and a tone to it.
You could, you could, like, you know, the track would come on the radio and you can't, you might not recognise the band, but you kind of knew where it came from.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's got that London Bridge Studios thing for sale.
I think there's something, I think there's something very similar here.
Yeah.
Because there is a sound, there is, like, a British sound to these.
And it's weird, because I didn't pick it up at the time.
No.
I wasn't aware.
Well, you don't know, do you?
I was just like, oh, this is great.
You just like the bands.
Yeah, you like the music.
Yeah, I like this.
And the thing for me as well with The Almighty, specifically with this album, because they did an album before it called Blood, Fire and Love, and they did a live album called Blood, Fire and Live.
Right, okay.
And it had a cover of You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet on it.
And that's how I got into it.
So, it was the, like, the, it was a girl at school, we were, you know, in your GCSE year.
Oh, no, it might have been the year before.
Anyway, she had it as a t-shirt.
She had Blood, Fire and Live as a t-shirt.
Yeah, right.
But she was like the, I don't know, like the kind of queen rocker.
Do you know what I mean?
Everybody kind of looked at her, and we were a bit nerdy, so we were a bit scared to go anywhere near.
But I remember her having this t-shirt, Blood, Fire and, Blood, Fire and Live.
And I was like, what's that?
And she says, oh, it's The Almighty, dickhead.
Something like that, nerd.
Go and beat yourself up with a pencil or something.
Anyway, she, no, she didn't.
She was lovely.
Her name was Heather.
And she said, yes, they're good.
And then the next day, she brought a tape in.
Oh.
Because that's what you did by then.
So, she gave me the tape of Blood, Fire and Live.
And it had, and I listened to it, and it was great.
And it had this cover of You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.
And it was their live energy.
Yeah.
Which was just like, oh, they were just, for me, they were just absolutely incredible.
They had this, like, punky, you know, the Guns and Roses.
Yes, yeah.
That they've got that kind of attitude where it's like, we're the best band in the world
and we don't really care what you think.
Or it doesn't matter.
It's not like we don't care.
It's just like this.
This is how it is.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's just the factual truth.
We are amazing.
Yeah.
We don't really care.
Yeah.
And they had that.
They had this kind of swagger and this attitude to them.
And I just fell in love with them.
And then, as I went off to college, they released this record.
They released Soul Destruction.
So, this was 91.
And I remember I worked over the summer holiday.
Yeah.
Just before I went to college.
And so, I'd got money.
I'd got, like, I'd got 100 quid.
You didn't get paid back then, did you?
I worked in summer fields.
Yes.
No one can remember that.
Yeah.
Which is another story.
On my first day, I dropped a two kilogram glass jar of Marmite on the floor.
This is going to be a great side quest.
It's still there now.
This is going to be a great side quest story.
And then I dropped it.
And they were special edition.
They didn't.
I mean, two.
You might be able to get these in the US.
But here in the UK, they're like the size of an apple.
They're not massive Marmite jars.
And this thing was huge.
It was like the size of a football.
Anyway, I dropped it.
And then I tried to, like, scoop it up.
And it was not.
It was literally broken glass and Marmite on the floor.
I didn't know what to do.
And then my friend, he wasn't very bright, said,
what you should do is go and boil the kettle.
Yeah.
Because that will melt it.
And then you can mop it up.
And I was like, oh, genius.
You are genius.
So then I went into the stuff canteen.
Two liters of boiling water.
Tipped it on the Marmite, which it did melt.
And so now I've got, what I had before was like this, this, like, mound of Marmite and broken glass.
Now I've got a lake about four meters wide.
But to make it even better, because it's boiling water, I've now filled the shop with a stench of hot Marmite.
In summer fields.
And then the store manager popped over.
Don't believe we've met, young man.
I know.
I was trying to brush this.
So you've been called my mate Marmite forevermore.
My mate Marmite.
But anyway, I was trying to get to the story of the, because I had money.
And I was prepping to go to college.
And so I went to the record shop, as you do.
And they had this.
And I bought the album and got it back.
And when I got back, it had loads of stickers in it.
So on my, because you know when your first day at college, you're all keen, aren't you?
Yeah.
So mine had little stickers.
I had like a little loss sometimes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And like a lovely little sticker of the album cover.
Oh, wicked.
It was lovely.
So my first year, probably first 18 months at college, almighty stickers all over my stuff.
Emptiness inside my soul.
Feelings scattered all around.
I need somewhere to lose myself.
Everywhere has been found.
And sad eyes staring out the window.
Tequila tears come raining down.
And pain comes to leave you go.
So many miles between us and so many endless roads.
We're all searching for deliverance.
When there ain't no way to run.
Lay your spirit down easy.
Guess what the ride is gonna be.
A little loss sometimes.
Oh yeah
When there's nothing to believe in
Sometimes these words are not enough
Promises so hard to keep in
It's hard to feel what you can't touch
Yesterday is yesteryear
Spirit's bleeding into dust
Give me time to understand
It's pretty thin that we count love
We're all searching for deliverance
When there ain't no way to run
Lay your spirit down easy
Just remember I always got more to be
A little love sometimes
What is this feeling rising over me
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I might look alright
But I'm scared as hell
The more I know
The less I understand
Put me together
Before I fall apart
I'm scared of being in the dark
Do you remember last week?
I don't think we recorded this bit
Yeah
But I said when I sang
when I first started singing
like original music
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I sang just like this guy
Yeah
If you listen to any...
I was in a band called Why the Dead Girl
Why the Dead Girl?
Why the Dead Girl, yeah
From the age of about 16
Yeah
To about 18, I think
Right
Maybe 19
And
Yeah
I sang like that
And very, very early
Star From Ivy stuff
is like that
Yeah
Like when I was sort of
19, 20, 21, whatever
And
the
The songs that I used to write
were probably quite similar to that
Yeah
But I never heard this band
Isn't that weird?
So it's weird
I never would have heard The Almighty
but I would have written songs
that were like that
See I
So
Blood, Fire and Love
And The Almighty
They
Came from a punk background
Yeah
And I was always
Yeah, I mean
This is all I knew of them basically
Yeah, yeah, yeah
So you know, I literally got that
The EP Blood, Fire and Live
And then bought this just written
And I have to be honest
Like a half of me buying this particular album
was the cover
Yeah
Because it's just phenomenal
It's a beautiful looking thing isn't it?
So it's hand painted as well
Yeah, coot
Yeah
It's absolutely incredible
Anyway
The
The more I learned about them
Like the more
Unexpected
That style is
Do you know what I mean?
Like I guess
Like knowing your
Music background
It kind of makes sense a little bit
Yeah
That you would do that kind of stuff
Yeah
But Ricky Warwick's like punky
Yeah, yeah, yeah
You know what I mean?
He's got They Love Motorhead
Yeah
And there's a couple of songs on the album
where you can hear that
Yeah
There's like the driving bass
Yeah
Like Lemmy would do
Yeah
There's a little bit of that
on a couple of them
It's such a great
But then you've got those like
They're kind of like ballads
Like big rock ballads aren't they?
They are
And they did
They did a few of them
On this record particularly
Like the big stuff
They did like Bandage Knees
Little Lost Sometimes
And Devil's Toy to a degree as well
Yeah, yeah
That was a big single
I think Bandage Knees
I quite like that one actually
But Bandage Knees is my favourite one
But then
I've just discovered that
I didn't hear the whole album
Yeah
Because there's some songs
that you can't hear
Yeah, and there's a weird thing here
This was
I might have got this a little bit wrong
But these albums were on Polydor
Yeah
Now there's a relationship between
Polydor and Universal
Right
And
I don't think Polydor would be a subsidiary of Universal
I think
But do you remember there was that fire?
Yeah
There was a massive fire at Universal
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
And loads of the master
The original masters got burned
Got lost
Yeah, yeah, yeah
This was one of the things
Yeah, I think so
Although
So I thought
It's like Wallace and Gromit
Yeah, I thought
That happened to Wallace and Gromit
It did
I thought
How did we go from the homage to Wallace and Gromit
So I thought
I thought
I always thought this was one of the ones that got lost
Because they didn't reissue
They didn't remaster any of them
These got reissued
So Blood, Fire and Love
And this one got reissued a few years back
Right
I thought it was the original
I didn't think it was a remaster
I thought it was just a repress
Yeah, oh right
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
But again, prepping for this
They're all marked as remasters
Right, okay
Right
Which is weird
Yeah
Because I was convinced that they were removed
And I can't hear any difference between
Between
Between them
The audio we're using for this show is off the original CD
Yeah
So this is from my 1991
Yeah
CD
But
Original CDR
Original
It's proper original
But then
I've still got a wallet of CDRs
Yeah, I've got it
I've got it
Yeah
I've got your wallet of CDRs
You've got my wallet of CDRs
I've got your wallet of CDRs
Have you?
I think so
Big one
Yeah
Shall I bring it in?
Yeah
I'll bring it in
I think I've still got it
If not, it's going to skip
But I think I've still got it
So on the
Certainly on Apple Music
I've not looked on Spotify
But Free and Easy and Devil's Toy and Missy
They're not there
Yeah, that's it
But then
It looks
I'm just going to have a quick look on here
Because I've got it
I've got it queued up
So Spine Farm Records
It's weird
So the
If you look at the bottom
On Apple it says
This compilation is 2014 Spine Farm Records
Right
It's not from Polydor
And it's not from
And
Which suggests that perhaps
Because I know that
Ricky Warwick
Sort of
Perhaps
You know he's got his own thing going on
Like his own label or something
I think they were trying to re-buy the rights
Yeah, that sort of thing
And my gut feeling is that they've not
They've been able to get the rights
They've managed to do this
Okay
But not those two tracks
And
There's a bit I think
I don't know whether we're going to use it in interviews
But there's a bit where Ricky talks about how complicated things were back then
Because it was a mess
Like it was
Like
There was so many different people and companies involved in making them
Yeah, yeah, yeah
And we were just having a great time
So we weren't really paying that much attention
And it was only when we wanted to make sure they were on streaming
So once streaming started to really kick off
We wanted to get all the albums on streaming
And we couldn't get Blood, Fire & Love
Yeah
Or Blood, Fire & Live
Or Soul Destruction
Power Tripping
The one that came after
Was okay
And then they did Crank
And just add Life and stuff
But they
Yeah, those early ones
They've not been on streaming for that long
And I remember it coming on
And seeing those two tracks missing
Yeah, yeah, yeah
It's bizarre
Absolutely bizarre
But the radio edit versions are there
If you search for them
You can find the radio edit versions
Almost the singles kind of things
Yeah
There's definitely something like
Wacky
Yeah, yeah
Some rights thing going on
Ownership and stuff going on there
Well, they hit the stratosphere super quick
I mean, we've got a really long interview we're going to play
We have to play all the interview
Because it's so good
So I have to be honest
I didn't know
Like Ricky Warwick for me
Was this huge figure on MTV
Yeah, yeah
His wife Vanessa Warwick
Yeah, Headbangers Ball
Headbangers Ball
Yeah
So she was constantly
I always used to love to see them interviewing
Like she interviewed him and stuff
And I always think that was a bit weird
But yeah, he was just this kind of
Larger than life character
I had no idea where he came from
I had no idea
That background
You know, that background from
From Belfast
And the Troubles
You know, we talked about that last week
Yeah, yeah
With the Troubles, yeah
And then moving to that tiny town in Scotland
And stuff
And the punk background and stuff
I had no idea
This interview stuff
And his storytelling
Yeah, it's just amazing
Yeah, it's so good
How he gets the job role as being the guitarist in the New Model Army as well
Yeah
Do you know what I mean?
But it all came from out of nowhere
Yeah
So of course they're riding the wave
Yeah
And they wouldn't be
And they had their people to deal with all that
So they were doing the music
Yeah, of course
And then the other guys were doing the business stuff
And that's probably, you know
Yeah, of course
Everything probably got all tied in knots through that
Yeah, yeah, yeah
It all just feels and sounds just so improbable
Yeah
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, yeah
It just sounds so unlikely to have happened
Do you know what I mean?
He's like a kid from Belfast
Yeah
In Scotland
Get a band together
Yeah
Ends up on tour with New Model Army
Yeah
Ends in New Model Army
Yeah
Quits that
Yeah
Starts another
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, yeah
And it's like what?
How did that happen?
But there's in Black Star Riders now
Which is essentially Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy with him on it, yeah
With him singing
Unbelievable
Shall we listen to his long interview?
It's great
Yeah, brace yourselves
Because it is a long one
But you have to listen to all of it
Because it's a great story
It's just great
It's so good
So I moved to Straven
When I was
Just before I turned 15
And
Like you said
It was a very small
It's
Straven's quite getting
It's quite a big place right now
It's getting bigger
There's a lot of new houses being built
Back then it was very small
Yeah
So I went to a school
That maybe only had four or five hundred pupils at it
I went to Straven Academy
And I went there
When I was sort of
I did sort of half a third year
And half a fourth year
I left just before my 16th birthday
But there's the new Irish kid
And when we get around
There's this guy with a funny accent
And he's just
He's come over from Belfast
Blah, blah, blah, blah
So everybody's poking you
And wanting you to talk
And you know
But
Word gets out that he's got a guitar
And that's always
That's always a great leveler
And a great common denominator
So suddenly
You're in the playground
And the guy comes up to you
With a drum kit and goes
You got a guitar?
You could
I've got a drummer
I'm a drummer
The bass player
And gravity
Those two guys
Were Stumpy and Floyd
Yeah
Who would go on to
Formula Mighty with
You know
Six years down the line
You know
First day
And by that weekend
We're in somebody's front room
Jamming on
On covers
So it progresses from that
And we
You know
Various school bands
You know
150 name changes later
And then I have this little
Punk band going
With Floyd
Who's the bass player
Stumpy and I had fallen out
Which we do
Stumpy
Oh man
Me and Stumpy are like that
Even to this day
He's my bro
I roomed with him
All through the almighty
The carnage
Me and him
But we're like brothers
Like we
With fist
You know
Punch ups
And next day arms
He's my boy
You know
We're that close
But it's a
It's a very volatile
Amazing relationship
I have with him
And
I'd fallen out with him
And we got this other drummer
From Coatbridge
Playing with us
And we had this punk band
Called Rough Charm
Which is a terrible name
But you know
And
We were starting to make
A wee bit of a vibe
You know
We're in Glasgow
We were starting to play
Some good gigs
Three piece band
And
I would do the thing
Where I would get
The overnight bus
From Glasgow
You know
This is when I'm 16
17
18 years old
Armed with the cassettes
The demo tapes
I'd have called up
The record companies
In London
And
I guess
Speak to the interns
You know
You're never going to get
To the head A&R
But I would get the overnight bus
Down from London
Get off at King's Cross
Seven in the morning
Go round all the record companies
To the demo tapes
Yeah
Get the young kid
To listen to the song
You're shite
You'll never get anywhere
Go back to the farm
You know
That's how brutal it was
And I did this
About four or five times
I just kept going
And I just wouldn't give up
I wouldn't take no for an answer
You know
I'd do that trip down to London
And eventually
I went to see a company
Called Abstract Records
Who New Model Army
Were signed to
And I was a massive
New Model Army fan
Massive New Model
And Rough Charm
Definitely had a little bit
Of that
I hate to use this word
But kind of goth punk
You know
Edge to us
And
The girl
Whose name
I forget
And it's
God forgive me
Absolute record
She says
You have something
I really like what you guys are doing
You know
You're young
You have an attitude
She says
It's not quite there yet
She says
I think you need to get
Some shows
She said
You'd be great to open
For New Model Army
I said
I love New Model Army
Who
Who can I get to
You know
How am I going to get
And touch them
She says
Look here's the
Here's their management
Contact address
Send them a demo tape
See what happens
So I go back home
And
To Straven
And I write a handwritten note
Blah blah blah
Put the demo tape
Mail it off to
New Model Army's management
In London
Think nothing of it
Be lucky if I hear back
Yeah
And about
A week later
The phone goes
And this guy goes
Hello
This is Nigel Morton
Manager New Model Army
Can I speak to Ricky please
And I went
This is Ricky
He says
I've just received
Your demo tape
And I went
Fuck off
I went
Fuck off Rob
Stop winding me up
And put the phone down
Right
Thinking it's one of my mates
From Straven
Right
Yeah
So
I go back
I'm on the farm
So I go back out
And go to work in the farm
About 20 minutes later
My mum
Comes out and she goes
There's a big guy
Phoning you about three times
He says he's the man
There's New Model Army
He says you put the phone down on me
He says he really is
And I was like
Oh shit
You know
So I come
This is true story
So I come
So my mum calls me in
Take the phone call
And he says look
He said I really like what I'm hearing
These demo tapes
Can I come and see your band play
And I said well we've got a gig
In the venue in Edinburgh
On Friday night
He says I'll fly up and I'll see you
Wow
So we did the gig in the venue in Edinburgh
And Nigel flew up and saw us
And we played great
And he went look
I'm definitely interested in
In doing something with you
And he said I'll tell you what I'm going to do
We'll put some money behind you
We'll get you in a fairly decent studio
And we'll get a good demo done
And we'll take it from there
So he put us in the studio in Newcastle
With a guy called Mond Cowie
Mond used to play guitar for the Angelic Upstarts
And Mond also produced Vengeance
The first new Model Army EP
That was blowing up everywhere
Blowing up everywhere
So obviously thrilled
Yeah
So we go down to Newcastle upon town
Spend three days in Link Studios
Which is owned by Brian Johnson from ACDC
Just loving it
Can't believe this is happening
Demo turns out great
Nigel says look
He says New Model Army are doing
A run of about six shows
He said let's put you on with him
Let's see if we can get you noticed
And you know
Maybe get the band a record deal
So we turned up at the first show
And it was Norwich University
It was Norwich University
And I'll never forget it
And I'm just like
I just can't believe
I mean New Model Army are the band
I'm just fanatical about at this point
You know they're my favourite band
And I've been to see them a bunch
And Justin Leeson comes in
And he's super friendly
And he says I believe you know some of our songs
I said yes
He said look
He said we could really do with an extra guitar
On a couple of tracks
He said do you fancy once you've done your set
Getting up and playing on blah blah blah
And blah blah blah with us
Of course I'm like
This happens
We do the six dates of the tour
It's amazing
I get up every night
Playing two or three songs with them
Go back home
Think nothing more of it
About a week later
Justin calls me up
He goes have you got a passport?
And I went no
Don't have a passport
Never been
No I think I'd been to Spain
Maybe three years
You know as a kid
No
He says get yourself a passport
He said we've got a German tour
Starting
Will you come and play guitar?
We need the extra guitar player
So I'd you know
Rush off
Get the overnight passport
Next thing I know
I'm on a plane to Hamburg
And the first thing we do is
We play a very famous venue
Called the Docks in Hamburg
Which is still there to this day
I've played it many times
The next show after that
Is a TV show
National TV show in Germany
Which I'm on TV
You know you've got to understand
You know like a week earlier
I'm fucking
Plowing a field on the farm
You know what I mean?
Or you know
So the third gig
Is in front of the Reichstad
Opening for David Bowie
In front of 85,000 people
On the glass spider tour
That was my third gig
Wow
And I'm just you know
I'm just fucking
I can't believe this is happening
Happening
So I end up doing
Justin goes look
We have a world tour
We have a year's worth of shows
All over the world
We need an extra guitar player
We need
And I played a little bit of keyboards as well
He said we need
We need somebody else
Can you do this?
So I had to do the thing
Which I didn't enjoy
I didn't enjoy
I had to go back and tell the guys
Look I've got this opportunity
You can hate me if you want
Yeah
But I'm going to have to take it
And yes they were
You know pissed off
But they would have done the same
You know anybody would have done the same
At that age
At that opportunity
Sort of I had the idea
You know you're always thinking
I had the idea
The name of the Almighty came to me
While I was on tour
With New Modern Army
I thought when I
You know
If I do get another band
It'll be called the Almighty
And then when New Modern Army came off the tour
They were going in to record their album
Thunder and Constellation
Which was a great album
And Justin
Excuse me the singer was just honest
He said look we love having you playing live
He said but the core of the band is the three of us
Sure
Exactly
And we're going to go in and make this record
You can have three or four months off
We'll get back out in the road
And even then
Even though I was playing my favourite band
I just went Justin
I went that's not enough for me
I said I want this
I want the right songs
And I want to sing
I totally respect your decision
Yeah
But I'm going to go and do my own thing
This has been unbelievable
Thank you for everything you've given me
The opportunities you've given me
But I'm going to go and start my own band
And that was the beginning of the Almighty
Sitting on inside my head
No mirrors to reflect
Is this here the season of joy?
Or the season to end yet?
Lord this must be judgment day
Take a close look at myself
While you're happy
With the hand that you've been dealt
The bells are told silently
Inflict the invisible band
Tell me which is more righteous
To this regal of cocaine
Friends won't answer your phone calls
Call your long distance family
Well I hope someone is listening
As I'm going to go and do it
I'm going to go and do it
As I'm going to go and do it
Yeah!
Look inside my black lines
Telling stories without care
You might not like what they say
But they only seem the truth
Played on me my tarot
Slip my neck in through the belt
You can't change the ways of the game
When the cards are already dealt
Oh Lord, yeah
The bells they call silently
Inflict the invisible pain
Tell me your wishes for ashes
Share this legal of cocaine
Friends won't answer your phone calls
Call your long distance family
Well I hope someone is listening
Yeah, I hope someone is listening
As I'm going to go and do it
I think that was my favourite one on this album
Bandaged Knees
I like the atmosphere for some of these
Do you know what else I quite like
Is the snare drum sound
Yeah
I don't like it
Don't you
No
It's quite punky
It's quite
It's of its time
Yeah
At the time that would have been
The right snare drum to have
I don't feel
Oh not today
If you were doing an album today
Connected to that snare drum
Yeah you wouldn't do it
If you were doing it today
I quite like it
It's got
Like a
I don't know
Like a ricochet
Yeah
On it almost
I quite like that
Yeah
Shall we do some facts
Yes
I've got some facts
I'll do some facts
Yep
So
I can't see my own screen here
So
Released on 30th March 1991
So it's quite old
Yeah
Like me
It doesn't feel like a March album
What does it feel like?
It feels like an autumn album
Like an October album
Oh yeah
To me
For me this is an autumn album
Because I bought
I would have bought this in September
Yeah
And then I would have listened to it
I recorded it onto
My cassette
Minidisc
Yeah
God I love
Bring Minidisc back
Sony wants a good slap
If Sony
Yeah
Had have opened that format up
Done it properly
Yeah because you couldn't
You couldn't do like
Direct digital recording and stuff
Do you remember
You had to do it in real time
Yeah
It was all really crappy
If they had have let you do
Like digital to digital recording
This is going off on a tangent
Massively now
But
It would have been
It's only ones and zeros isn't it
It would have been incredible
Copy it over
Bosh
Imagine you could have turned up there
Got your Sony CD player
Yeah
Plugged your Minidisc in
Went Bosh
Yeah
On your Minidisc
And then you're on the bus
Listening to your music
Yeah
Nah
Morons they were
Yeah
Sony
Anyway I loved it
I think the Minidisc is a brilliant format
They just ruined it
Yeah
Yeah anyway
So released 30th March 1991
My engagement with this
I bought the record on the vinyl
Recorded it to my cassette
Yeah
And then I've had it on my Walkman
Yeah
In my ears
In my
You know the crappy earphones
That used to have
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
On the sweaty bus
I remember
I remember on the way to Burton College
And it would be like October November
You know when it's cold outside
Yeah
And I was on there with all the old age pensioners
They would breathe
And their breath would be all over
Over the windows
And I'd get on
And I'd be like
This is miserable
Anyway
And I would listen to this
Total runtime
And they'd all eat beef
Sorry
They'd all eat beef don't they
Don't know
Yeah
They don't know what pensioners eat
Yeah it's beef
What do you want for tea?
Beef
Beef pensioners
Total runtime
58 minutes 34 seconds
Which sounds a lot
But it's 12 tracks
Yeah
Recorded by Polydor
Polydor funded this reasonably well
Yeah
Bunged them a load of quids
Which is bonkers
If you like
There were kids from Scotland
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
I mean
Yeah it was one of them wasn't it?
That was a proper gamble
They really took a risk
I think they saw the drive
Yeah
In them
We worked our socks off
We were rehearsing
Three or four nights a week
Yeah
We were hustling
We were always thinking
We were always you know
Scrimping and scraping
You know getting in a van
Going down to London
Losing money on gigs
You know
12, 11 gigs we did
Or whatever it was
You know what I mean?
Yeah
But what worked really well
With the Almighty
Was right place
Right time
Coming from Straven
Being the chookters
That we were
And not being part
Of that Glasgow scene
Yeah
Because there was a lot
Of good Glasgow bands
That could really play
Yeah
Really
I'm not going to mention names
But really
Could really play
And a lot
That were always knocking
On the door
Not quite there
Yeah
These three ruffians
From Straven
Came along with tattoos
Yeah
Could barely play
Four chords
But with more attitude
Than all those bands
Put together
Yeah
And more swagger
And we would come in
And we'd just play
And we'd blow the roof
Off the place
And people would go
What the fuck is that?
Who are they?
Recorded in Trident Studios
In London
By the mighty Andy Taylor
Off of
Duran Duran
Duran
That we've discovered
What songs did Duran Duran do?
I don't know
No idea
If Alexa
Is Alexa on?
Didn't they do Rio?
I don't know
Is that a different band?
Watch what I'm going to do
I'm going to totally do this
Look
Hi there
What songs did Duran Duran do?
Hey
Duran Duran have a ton
Of great songs
Some of their biggest hits
Include Hungry Like the Wolf
Oh yeah
Oh no she's stopped now
Girls on Film
That's Duran Duran
Girls on Film
Yeah
Ordinary World
That's a good song
Girls on Film
I don't know that bit
Rio
They did Rio
Girls on Film
I don't know that bit
Wild Boys
Oh yeah
Yeah
Anyway
Yes
It peaked at number 22
On the UK album charts
Yeah
I don't think it charted in the United States
No
President Trump
Which is weird isn't it?
I don't know
President Trump probably doesn't even know
The Almighty
That's because he is the Almighty
Well
That picture of him as the Pope
Unbelievable isn't it?
Man
Did you see that?
Oh you sent it to me
Didn't you?
Yeah
Wow
Yeah retweeted by the White House
Or reposted
I don't know what's going on
Retruthed
I don't know what's going on
I just don't know
I don't know what's real anymore
That's the thing
You can't tell can you?
No no no
You're like did he
I don't want to get into it
But I
No
Yeah
I don't
Yeah
Moving on
Yeah
People weren't really sure what to make of the album
And the Almighty
They didn't particularly fit into
And this I think is very true of
That whole British rock scene at the time
Yeah
Like what genre are Skunk and Nancy?
Yeah
Yeah yeah exactly
Yeah
You know what I mean
It's just a lot of shrugging
A lot of
Yeah yeah
And they got called political rock didn't they?
Political rock
Yeah political rock
I think they got really confused with the Almighty
Are they a punk band?
Yeah yeah
Are they a rock band?
Are they a punk rock band?
What kind of band are they?
Yeah
Which that was really really interesting
There was a quote from
Brit Rock
He says that's what
I asked ChatGPT to create a scene name
And it said Brit Rock
Brit Rock
Yeah
But it's too close to Brit Pop
It is
Yeah
And it's a bit more alt-y
I don't know
Yeah
I'd call it alternative rock
Alternative UK rock
That's why I call it
It is hard rock isn't it?
Yeah yeah
There's some stuff in there that's alt-y
Yeah
But a lot of the stuff that I really want to cover
Like this
That Thunder
Yeah
Little Angels were a bit poppy
Yeah yeah
But they're still quite rocky
Gun
Yeah yeah
It's just this hard rock
It's just this massive slab of hard rock bands
In the 90s
In the UK
That no one outside of the UK
Has ever heard of
Yeah
And I need to fix that
I feel like I need to kind of
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah
Not that anyone's going to listen to them
So I have a funny feeling that you know
Compared to the big US albums
That we've been doing
I've got like four people
Are going to listen to these
So
Prove them all wrong
Yeah
Everybody
Anyway
Warwick said
Andy was known for pop stuff
But he had a rock attitude
And he wanted to make a bombastic
In your face rock record
He was the right man for the job
And he loved rock music
Yeah okay
I think like that people
Probably didn't
Didn't realise that very much
We've already
Done the interview bit
With where he came from
But ultimately
You know
From Ireland
And then over to Scotland
Yeah yeah yeah
And
That I think
Like his accent
And the punk style
Of that kind of punk attitude
The press really got confused
They were like going
Oh
They're like the cult
And ACDC
Right okay
Lots of comparisons
If you look at this stuff
Which is a little bit
Yeah
A bit bizarre
I think was a little bit bizarre anyway
In the band were
Ricky Warwick vocals
Stump Monroe
Everyone had a nickname
Yeah
Because you have to do
Yeah
Stump Monroe
Floyd London
And Tantrum
Who's Andy McCafferty
Tantrum
It's good isn't it
Yeah
I think it's really good
Ricky wrote most of the lyrics
I think
Tantrum wrote some
And Floyd wrote some as well
But the vast majority
Of the lyrics
Are Ricky's
The album title
Soul Destruction
Is the darker side
Of human nature
That's where it comes from
Ah okay
I always loved the
That
The soul
I just loved the song
Yeah
The song title
Yeah
But yeah
It's
It's pretty mega
Recorded
Between December
1990
And January
1991
So it was a winter album
Recorded
Yeah that's where
That's it then
That's what you can hear
I can hear the snowflakes
Yeah which I think
So engineered by Adrian Bushby
That name comes
Oh
What are you
Oh no you're looking at me
Like I've just said
I've
No that's interesting
Anyway yeah
So Adrian Bushby
Yeah which
He would later work with
Foo Fighters
And Moos
Yeah
I like Moos
Moos
Yeah
Recorded on the normal stuff
SSL 4000 discs
1176 compressors
All of the usual stuff
I think one of the reasons
I really love the tone of this album
Is it's not over compressed
Yeah yeah yeah
Do you know what I mean
There's lots of dynamics
And in fact nearly all of these albums
They're nowhere near as compressed
They're not as thick as the US
Yeah yeah yeah
Versions
And then the
Like the US hard rock
That would follow
After this stuff
Is like just a massive
It's a slab
It's not a wall of guitars
Yeah yeah yeah
It's just this like
It's like a tsunami
Just hits
Yeah yeah yeah
You know what I mean
The guitars are like
You can taste them
They're thick
Yeah yeah yeah
You know what I mean
They're incredible
Back here it's a little bit more
Like
It's got more in common
I think with those kind of
British prog bands
Yeah yeah yeah
Guitar tone
Not the tone
But the
How compressed it is
Yeah
You know what I mean
How new faces
Which I think is really interesting
Other albums that Andy Taylor produced
We talked about this a little bit before
But he did work with the power station
He did Thunder's Backstreet Symphony
Which is very much a part of this
Rod Stewart's Out of Order
Don't think I've ever listened to that
No I've not
Do you know
I've only
I only know Rod Stewart
I am sailing
I know
A Rod Stewart song
An actual Rod Stewart song
I'm going to play it for you
You ready
Do you recognise this
No
Did you not watch this
Star Trek Enterprise
No
Was this on the Enterprise
The theme tune
It was recorded by a dude
Called Russell Watson
Oh
The singer
The man
Yeah
You're the man
Yeah
Russell Watson
I really liked it
I didn't know it was Rod Stewart
So he covered Rod Stewart
Yeah
But the bit that I think is really weird
It's
It's in Rod Stewart now
Oh that bit
That bit right
Sorry
The reason I wanted to
Oh I can't stop it
Stop
Keeping that in
That's actually something he would say to a lady
He'd be like
Once you ride
You can't stop
The reason
I've gone on a rabbit hole already for this one
So that was Russell Watson
Yeah
Faith of the Heart
It was on a TV series called
Star Trek Enterprise
Which I quite liked
Scott Bakula
Yeah
He was dead good
Yeah
Quantum leap
But two things about it that I think is weird
One I didn't know it was Rod Stewart
I thought that's quite cool
I should look that up
And I looked it up
Found it was Rod Stewart
And then thought oh
Yeah
Which was a bit weird isn't it
I feel like I probably would like Rod Stewart
Yeah
If I listen
I feel like I may need to go and listen
He did some good stuff
I may need to listen to his stuff
The other weird thing is
Handbags and Glad Rags
It's a good song
Faith
Yeah
Faith of the Heart
Was the name of the song
For the Enterprise
They renamed it
Where My Heart Will Take Me
Oh really
Can you do that
I mean like can I
And this is
Well so let's say I took one of your songs
Yeah
And then I covered it
Yeah
And then I was just like
I'll call it something else
Are you allowed to do that
Is that
I just feel like there should be like
Some copyright law
Yeah
He would have okayed it
Had he gone yeah whatever
Rod
Maybe Rod Stewart's a massive Star Trek fan
He's like
When he wasn't rodding
No I think
I think that
What he's
What he sat at home was
He's like
If you can sort me out
With some Spock ears
Spock ears
Do me the death grip
Teach me the death grip
And you can do what you want
Yeah
Tell me the Spock ears
And then you can
And then you can do
What you want with it
Yeah
I mean that was a tiny
Little meander off track
But we
We were doing facts
Of soul destruction
Shall I
I was just looking down
At my
My iPad
And I suddenly realised
I was doing something
We've gone right off there
Yeah
That's good going
It's not bad is it
Yeah yeah
If we were on a radio station
They'd be having words with us
Somebody would be banging on the glass
Wouldn't they
Shut up
Right
So yeah
So released
The 30th of March 1991
Reached number 22
On the UK album charts
Which is
Which is pretty good
Considering the Britpop
And all the things
That were going on
In that time
And there's some other albums
That were released in 91
I'm going to give you a list
In a minute
But they're just
Absolute incredible
The Almighty's biggest album
Was their next one
Power Tripping
Right okay
A bit grungy
Oh really
Yeah they went
That era wasn't it
Yeah
Was it 92, 93
Yeah 93
Produced by Chris Sheldon
Who did Crank as well
I was going to say that
Yeah that name brings up
That's
He's done some other stuff as well
He has
But Power Tripping
Is the one
I think Power Tripping
Is probably the one
Most people
Know
Of The Almighty
So yeah
Absolutely huge
So albums in 1991
I'm going to take a breath
And give you a list
Because there's some bangers
Nevermind
Metallica
The Black Album
Bad Motor Finger
Use Your Illusion 1 and 2
Yeah
Too much
For me
I couldn't consume
With Blind Melon Man on it
I
Yeah I
I just
Didn't
Engage
With either of those albums
Yeah
Because there's too much of them
Not even November Rain
No
That was too long
Even though Slash walked out of the church
I liked
Tell you what I like about November
I like the end of it
Yeah
Do you know what I mean
Not when it ends
But I like the last
The last like 3 minutes
Because it's like 5 hours long
Isn't it
The last 3 minutes
It's nearly as long as a meatloaf intro
Poor meat
I still love that interview
Where he makes that
Children's TV presenter
She says
Do I call you Mr. Loaf
And he says
No you can call me Meat
I just love him
Anyway other albums
That came out in 1991
10 by the Pearl Jam
Yeah yeah
Slave to the Grind
By Skid Row
Arise by Sepultura
Wow
My second favourite
Sepultura album
Yeah
Chaos AD
Beneath the Remains
Oh Beneath the Remains
Right yeah
We're going to struggle
When it comes to doing
At some point
We're going to be in that
Scene
Which one do we do
And we're going to have to
Choose a Sepultura album
And me and you are like
Separated by like
I think Beneath the Remains
Is the
I just think it's incredible
Yeah yeah
And you're kind of
A couple of albums later
Yeah I'm Roots
Yeah yeah
Blood Sugar Sex and Magic
By the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Yeah
And another one of my favourites
Clandestine by Entombed
That's my second favourite
Entombed album
Right
Left Hand Path is my favourite
Okay yeah yeah yeah
At some point
We'll have to do that as well
That scene again
Is absolutely excellent
Didn't win any awards
Soul Destruction by the
No
Slipped under the radar
Yeah
Kerrang readers
Placed the Almighty
Among the best new acts
In their 1989 poll
But they didn't really
Get much notice
Now
It didn't really
Occur to me at the time
But the reason
No one in the US
Had heard of these bands
Is because
Nevermind came out
Yeah
And Ten came out
Yeah
And Bad Motor Finger
Came out
And Metallica came out
And Use Your Illusion
One and Two came out
Yeah
So given
Do you see what I mean
Yeah
With those albums out
In the US
If you were in the US
Yeah that's all you listen to
You're not going to have seen
I mean we
I knew those albums were out
You know
We were obviously getting this too
So I think
Tons of people just won't
What an era for
Oh it's mad isn't it
Rock music
What an era
You know
I must have said that
So many times
On this podcast
But
Yeah
What a world that was back then
And to be a musician
In that world
It's crazy isn't it
Yeah yeah
I remember when
Clandestine came out
I took a day off college
I honestly
I took a day off college
And went and bought it
And just sat at home
And listened to the CD
Yeah yeah yeah
That's what
Sounds mad doesn't it
Yeah yeah yeah
But that's what I did
Genuinely
Absolutely definitely
That's what I did
There were three singles
Yeah
Free and easy
Little Lost Sometimes
And Devil's Toy
It's just occurred to me
When we were talking about
This song that wasn't
On Apple Music
It wasn't Devil's Toy
It was Little Lost Sometimes
Oh okay
So it was Free and Easy
And Little Lost Sometimes
Yeah
Little Lost Sometimes
Is seven minutes long
Yeah yeah
Which is quite long
Yeah it's quite long
Yeah
What else did I want to talk about
Oh touring
So
There were
A big live band
Yeah
But as we
Heard in the interviews
They were picked up
And signed
Really quickly
Yeah
And then they were
Kind of out on the road
They were touring
With Motorhead
And Megadeth
Yeah
Which like
You know
Big
Big stuff
They
With Alice Cooper
As well
And you know
I just
I don't know
So they
They were just
This machine
Of a live band
I think they just
Kind of got it
Right
They just kind of
Understood
Yeah
How live music works
They always had some
Covers that they were doing
So they did
Backman Turner Overdrives
You ain't seen nothing yet
And Sex Pistols
They did Bodies
I think that was the tour
After
Yeah
I might be on this tour
But they would do stuff like that
Where they would do these
It's a talking point isn't it
Yeah
I think they really knew
That they were kind of the underdogs
They were out
Touring with these bigger bands
So they'd like drop in something
That people heard of
And like I say
You ain't seen nothing yet
Was the one that really pulled me in
And I was like
Oh god that's really cool
What they've done with that
Is really really cool
And you hate covers as well
I'm not a big covers fan
Well yeah
That's true
I'm not a big covers fan
What else
Oh five things
In
This is from the blog
So Andy Taylor produced it
He was off of Duran Duran
It peaked at number 22
Artwork was by Coot
K-O-O-T
It's worth checking him out
And some of his artwork
Really really cool
Redid the album artwork
And you know
While you were faffing earlier
Yeah
I ordered
I don't faff
You were doing something earlier
While you were doing that
I ordered the remaster
Did you really
That's how often
That's how much I faff
And that's how long I faff for
It is yeah
But they're going to be delivered tomorrow
And I'm looking forward to that
Interesting bands
That cited them as
Influencers
So Machine Head
They've got a new album out
Which I quite like
That's quite heavy
Good record
Black Label Society
As well
Yeah
Everybody gave it
Like pretty good reviews
Like fours and five
Yeah yeah
Fours out of five
Fives out of five
That kind of thing
Tantrum
The guitarist left in 92
Who was replaced
By Pete Freeson
Who was Alice Cooper's
Touring guitar
Ah right
I thought I knew that
And then he was on there
For power tripping
So you can hear
There's a big difference
Guitar wise
In guitar tone
When they
And I think that's kind of
Where it
Where it comes from
So that
That shift is
I think is Pete Freeson's
Yeah yeah yeah
Sound
Recently reunited in 2023
So the band
Split up
I say split up
I think
Wiki
Wiki just left
I think
I think he was just like
I've done this
I'm
Going to do something else
So
People need to remember
That the almighty
Didn't split up
I left
I left the band
So it was on me
It wasn't a case of like
We're splitting up
I just went in and went
Guys you can carry on
If you want
You have my blessing
Get somebody else
Go for it
But I can't do this anymore
And I went back to Dublin
So I licked my wounds
But then I formed the band
Sick
The punk band Sick
That I called through
So I had a
I had a wonderful year
With them
The two guys
And we were a great band
And it was starting to happen
And you know
We had a huge deal
We'd actually
We had a huge deal
Lined up with MCA
After about a year
And that fell through
At the 11th hour
I mean we did
We had the actual contracts
And then the guy
Who was about to sign us
Got fired on the Monday
Yeah
We're not signing any bands
Yeah
Ripped it up
And suddenly I just went
Can't fucking believe this
This is happening again
This bullshit music industry
Industry
Not the music
The industry
Is fucking me
Over and over
And over
And that destroyed me
I just went
I can't go through this again
And
I lost the plot
For about a year and a half
I just went
I just really
Went to a bad
Bad
Bad place
Because I was about
To hit 30
I had no record deal
I had no management deal
I had no publishing deal
After 10 years
Of the highs
Of the almighty
And even
The one year was sick
And you know
Joe Elliott
Eventually grabbed me
By the scruff of the neck
And went
You need to fucking
Snap out of this
And get your shit together
Because this isn't doing
Anybody any good
Certainly not you
And you know
I was able to secure
A publishing deal
Which provided me
With some money
And he said
Right
We're going into my studio
We're making a record
You're going to reinvent yourself
He says
I've heard you play
The acoustic guitar
I've heard you sing
And not shout
He said
There's something there
And he said
We're going to get
We're going to get that
So
Fair play to Joe
And that's really
And so
The good thing about
Tattoo's Naba
Is sort of reinventing
The whole love
Falling in love
With music all over again
Was the canvas
Was blank
Yeah
I'd done the almighty
I'd done the heaviness
I'd done the guitars
Cranked up
And the big riffs
And all that
I'd done that
For 10, 11, 12 years
But suddenly
There was this
Whole new thing
Where
Okay I'm writing
On an acoustic guitar
I'm singing now
Suddenly all these
Roads opened up to me
You know
And I just was like
This is brilliant
So all these ideas
Started coming
Out of nowhere
And that was
Tattoos and Alibis
Toby Jepson
Was playing a show
At the garage
In Islington
And
He let me
Be special guest
Unannounced
Right
Unannounced
Special guest
And that was
March 2002
So we're almost
Looking at
19 years ago
And
So I went on
With the acoustic guitar
And people
Recognized me
I'm like
Oh it's really
What's he doing
You know
And I went on
And played
Seven or eight
Songs
Acoustic songs
And it was
An amazing experience
I was terrified
I mean I think
I was drenched
You know
I was so nervous
And sweating
I probably didn't
Open my eyes
For the whole show
But that
Because that was
My first time ever
But one of the things
That I did do
When I knew
I was going
In that direction
There's a great
Irish
Folk singer
Called Kieran Goss
Who's unbelievable
And I've co-written
A couple of songs
With him
A couple of songs
I co-wrote
Guilty of
Love Many
Trust For You
And Nothing Is Real
On Tattoos
And Albus
And co-wrote
With Kieran
And my publisher
Hooked us up
Together
Kieran's a million
Miles away from me
He's a real folk singer
You know
Totally coming at
Not from a rock angle
At all
But we became
Really good friends
And I would go out
When he was playing
In Ireland
And go to four
Or five shows
Because it was just
Him and acoustic guitar
And watch how he
Interacted with the audience
Watch how he did it
This is how you do
A one man show
And learnt so much
From that
So
Taking that knowledge
That I got from Kieran
And then going into
My own shows
I was like
Right
Obviously it's going to be
Different because you're
Playing to rockers
Of course
So you're not going to
Get the silence
Of a pin dropping
In a folk club
Or
I know that
But certainly
There's a way
That I learned from him
To interact with people
With just
Doing the one man show
And that was
Invaluable to me
You know
So I just
Took what I learned
Put that into
The own show
And it was the best thing
That ever happened to me
Because suddenly
You have to get
You have to be
Really good at the guitar
Your singing
Has to get better
You have to be
More animated
You have to be
More entertaining
Because it's just you
There's nobody else there
Because he's done
A lot hasn't he
You know
Like you say
About him being
The almighty
Yeah
But he's done
All sorts of stuff
You said earlier
Is it like
He's now singing
With the
Black Style Riders
Yeah
So Thin Lizzy
Is Black Style Riders
Yeah he did
Solo stuff as well
His solo stuff
Is really quite cool
I think you
His solo stuff
Is far more
Your kind of thing
Yeah the acoustic-y stuff
Yeah it's kind of
Songwriter-y stuff
You know
But yeah I hadn't realised
I hadn't realised as well
That he was so
Lacking in confidence
About his voice
I always thought
His voice was incredible
Yeah
And yeah hearing him talk
About not being confident
With his voice
You know
And about
The Thin Lizzy stuff
Well you know
I'll do it for a bit
But we need to get
A proper singer
There's so many parallels
To James Hetfield
Dave Mustaine
Yeah
A bunch of others
Right
Who
I guess
Ended up being
Like these
Huge front men
Yeah
But you know
You imagine front men
You imagine like
David Lee Roth
Yeah
Or I don't know
Do you know what I mean
Or Aussie Osborne
You imagine these people
Being larger than life
Front men
Who've got confidence
In what they're doing
Yeah
You kind of don't imagine
That somebody's going to
Get on stage
And sing
And play
And be these
You know
Larger than life
Personalities
And then
Get back in the dressing room
Thinking I'm
I just
You know
I'm not very good at this
Yeah
For my singing ability
I thought everything
Had to be
Yelled or screamed
To make your point across
Because the bands
That I grew up on
Like Moorhead
And Stiff Little Fingers
And you know
They were very aggressive
Yeah
You know
So to me
To actually sing
In any other style
Was maybe a sign of weakness
Of like
I'm going to get a big hammer
And hit you over the head
Really hard
Until you hear me
And then somebody kind of goes
You don't need to do it
You just get a small hammer
And keep tapping on somebody's head
And just have
But I think
I think so many people
Suffer from that
Yeah
I
It's
Yeah
I just think that it's
I
I mean it's really heartwarming
To kind of hear
That
That other
Other people
Go through the same thing
But especially people
That are
Really good
Yeah
You know
I guess
You know
That you do it
I mean
I know
That I do it
Yeah
All the time
Yeah
And you know
I don't know
I guess it's quite
Reassuring
I guess
In some ways
That you think
Yeah
I mean
I can't imagine
Ozzy ever going
I might not be very good at this
Do you know what I mean
Or
I can't imagine
David Lee Roth doing that
Or I can't imagine
Coverdale
Yeah
You can imagine David
Coverdale going
Oh it might not be brilliant
I just can't imagine
That ever crosses his mind
You know
But I mean
I interviewed
Joe Elliot
And him saying
You know
I said to him
You know
If you weren't
A singer
If you weren't a vocalist
What would you be
And he said
I don't know
He said
I
I'm still really fortunate
To like be here
And I'm incredibly aware
I'm not even the best singer
In this band
Yeah
You know
And that
That took me a long time
To deal with
And it was incredible
Talking to Joe about that
And you know
Realising that
Yeah you can sell
Millions and millions of albums
And still be full of self-doubt
Yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
So yeah
Absolutely
Incredible
But I have to say
I do
One of the things
I love about this
I love the production style
Yeah
I really like Ricky's lyrics
I think he writes great lyrics
And I love his voice
I think I like them
They've got that punky style
That I really like
That energetic
Kind of
You know
Kick you in the balls
Kind of
Very motorhead-y
Yeah yeah
Kind of just slamming
Yeah yeah
But I love it when they slow down
Like you said
The bandaged knees
Little Lost Sometimes
Yeah the ones I really like
Yeah
They're phenomenal at that
Yeah
Well it kind of hints at
Ricky's songwriting I think
But yeah
Phenomenal record this
I
Yeah
Up there
In
In my all time favourites
I think this one
And did not get
Anywhere near enough love
I don't think
No
The album that come after it
Power Tripping
Black album
Yeah
I think it's Ricky's face
Actually on the cover
Right right
But yeah
That's the one that I think
Most
More
More people knew
But it still didn't break the US
I don't think
No
I don't think I got
I've not actually got
I think because these albums are UK
Yeah
We don't get good
Like in the US
You get RIA sales
Yes
Data
So I can just go on the database
And have a look
Yeah
You don't get that
No
Here in the UK
Or if you
I suppose
We get it
But only if they've done well
In the US
And I don't think any of these did
But yeah
This one is
For me
It's up there
It's very British sounding
Great songwriter
Lovely
Vocals
Yeah
Yeah yeah
I think we should play
One more song
And then we should talk about
What we're going to do next week
I think I know what I'm going to do next
Oh yeah you did say that
Yeah
But you haven't revealed this yet
No
Shall we play the song
And then we'll talk about it
While it's playing
Yeah
And then we'll do the telling
And then we'll talk about it
We'll be right back to it
Ain't no use in running
Cause I'll get to you
Ain't no use in praying
Just want to see it through
I believe in nothing
Don't believe in nothing
Don't believe in me
We all have our sins baby
Hold on
You will see
I don't want it
Can't make me bleed
No medicine man
It's got what I need
Everything's so free and easy
Everything's so free and wild
Everything's so free and easy
My pretty one
I'll take you for it
Don't need no fire
Yet I fuel my soul
There's enough bitching baby
To do it on its own
And if I get too lazy
Get too lazy
I don't need no show
Don't need no show
Why did they say I believe in nothing
When I believe in love
I don't want it
Can't make me bleed
No medicine man
It's just what I need
Everything's so free and easy
Everything's so free and wild
So free and wild
Everything's so free and easy
I'm pretty one
I'll take you for a ride
Yeah, I'll take you for a ride
I'll take you for a ride
Yeah, I'll take you for a ride
Everything's so free and easy
Wow
Everything's so free and wild
So free and wild, yeah
Everything's so free and easy
Easy, baby
Yeah, I'll take you for a ride
Everything's so free and easy
Yeah, yeah
Everything's so free and wild
Yeah, yeah
Everything's so free and wild
Yeah, yeah
Whoa, baby
Everything's so free and easy
All right
My dad was an amazing man
And he was very, very supportive
Of me always in what I did musically
Which is amazing because he knew
That I was the only son
No, I was the only son
Farming had been in our family for generations
I was the last of the generation
To keep the farm going
Yeah
It was a small farm, you know
Yeah
My dad was as passionate about farming
As I am about music
I mean, he loved it
Terrible businessman
We were always broke
But because he loved farming
Like a lot of musicians
Great musicians
But terrible business people
He was like that way
So he always
He saw how passionate he was about music
And he just said
Look, if you can get out of this
With music
You have to take it
And he said
Because
Look at, you know
365 days a year
Up at 5.30
Working till the sun goes down
Yeah
You know
Barely making a living
Blah, blah, blah
I mean, there's a lot of parallels there
You know what I mean
But he just sort of said
You know, you have to
And he encouraged me the whole way
But he
But it was definitely like
Because I think if he just saw
I wasn't trying
Or I was half-assed
It would be a different story
But he actually saw
How important it was to me
To be successful
At what I loved
And one of the greatest things
Robert was
He passed away five years ago
Yeah
And
Even when he died
He was more rock and roll
Than me
Because when we went
Went to the crematorium
And his coffin was going
Under the flames
He demanded that
Free and easy
Be played
Full
Oh, fantastic
Over the system
You know
So
It's going in there
And free and easy
He's blaring
Tears streaming down my cheeks
Yeah
And just laughing
Yeah
You know
I was like
You beat me
How can I talk that
That's the most
That's the most rock and roll thing
I've ever seen
Yeah
You know
So that's the type of guy
My dad was
What are we putting on next then?
So I'll give you a choice
In it
So there's two that I really want to do
Yeah
Next
And there's a big long list
Of ones that I think
I want to do
These kind of British-y bands
Yeah
But the next
And I think this is just the order
We're going to do these
Not which one
Yeah
So they're both happening
Yeah
So one is
And the reason is
Because they're both
Produced by Andy Taylor
Yeah
So one is Gun
Taking on the World
That's their debut
I absolutely adore the album
I've still got
Original copy of that one
I absolutely love it
And the second one is
Thunder's Backstreet Symphony
So Taking on the World
89
And Backstreet Symphony
Was 1990
Yeah
I think after
I think
Thunder
I think they kind of
Started to chase that
Def Leppard sound
A little bit after this
But this debut
Backstreet Symphony
Yeah
I don't know
It's got that song
On it as well
The one
What's it called
Which one
Oh yeah
Yeah
It has
It's got
Love Walked In
Yeah
It's got Love Walked In
And it's got
Dirty Love
Don't Wait For Me
Yeah
She's So Fine
I'm tempted
I think we're
Do you know
As albums go
Yeah
It's
It came from nowhere
Yeah
I remember
My friend having this
And
It was just one of these
What's that
Yeah
Do you know what I mean
What on earth is that
It's incredible
And again
Another band
I just cannot believe
Didn't break bigger than
Than they did
And similarly
With Gun
Actually
Yeah
I can't believe
That Gun
Like Gun
Released
Hombre's
In 2024
So they're both
They're both
Gun and
They're both doing
New material
Yeah
They're both still
Doing stuff
Yeah
And I think
That so Gun
Like Gun's
First three albums
For me
I just think
Are just
Phenomenal
Absolutely phenomenal
There's not a
Like a
There's no filler
In any of it
They're just
Incredible records
But Gun
Did Hombre's
In 2024
I think it was
That album
Of the year
It's up there
It's been one
Of the best albums
Out of the year
I mean you just
Played a bit of it
Just now
It's magnificent
You wouldn't know
The production is
Magnificent
Oh god yeah
But you wouldn't know
Sounds incredible
You wouldn't
If you were relying
On the press
To tell you
Yeah yeah
And for some
It's weird isn't it
For some reason
Some of these bands
Just don't
Don't break
Out of the
Out of the UK
Which is a massive shame
But
I think Gun
Have got one
Of the best rock
Sound
Rock sounds going
When they got to
In the world
Yeah
It's absolutely
Like that swagger sound
Once they got to
Swagger
It's such a bite
On their guitar tone
Unbelievable
It's kind of
Yeah I don't know
How they get that tone
But it's got
It's kind of
It's a bite
It's not crunchy
It's kind of
It's like electrifying
It's got like a real
And really loud
But without
Doing that
Over compressed
Squash thing
Yeah it's not too
Doesn't sound like
It's heavily layered
To me
No maybe it's that
Maybe it's
Good sounds
And not over saturating it
Maybe it's that
Yeah it could be
It could be
Because the American sound
Is quite layered
And thick isn't it
Yeah yeah yeah
It's got
You end up
With this
Like weight
To it
Yeah yeah
And I think
With the
The British sound
It's got a lot
More bite
It kind of
Cuts through
I'll tell you
The other thing
You can hear
A lot with this
You can hear
The bass
Guitars
A lot
I think
A little clearer
Than perhaps you can
On the
The bigger
Thicker US
I think on
The
A lot of the
US hard rock
It's all about
The guitar isn't it
Yeah
And the bass
The bass
Add some weight
To it
And add some
Thump to it
Yeah
But you end up
With this
Like you can
Feel the US
Yeah
Guitar
You know
Like if you think
About the Brian Adams
Yeah yeah yeah
Or Def Leppard
Or you end up
With a
Like this really
Kind of
Weighty guitar
Yeah yeah
Whereas this
Is like
You know
It's kind of
Feels like it's
Piercing
Almost
Yeah
Do you know
When somebody
Hangs onto a note
Or there's
Something going on
It just feels like
It's cutting
Yeah
I'm probably using
The wrong words
To describe it
But yeah
There is definitely
Something different
About the tone
So what should we do
We've got Thunder
Backstreet Symphony
Or Gun
Taken on the World
See I think
We should do
Thunder next
Personally
Thunder
So let's do
Backstreet Symphony
1990
Looking forward
To this one
It is a
Banger
And it's got
So many big
Singles on it
And I can't
Believe
I reckon
Tons of our
American listeners
Will not
Probably love
Walked in
Because that was
Quite a big hit
Wasn't it
It was
But I don't
Think it was
I'm going to
Do some research
And see what
Happened with these
Albums in the
US
Because that's
What happens
Obviously if they
Break in the
I mean the US
Is like
The biggest music
Market
There is
For rock music
So if it
Breaks
If an album
Or a band
Breaks in the
US
I think everybody
Knows them
Do you know
What I mean
They just become
Massive
Whereas I think
For whatever
Reason
I say for
Whatever reason
The reason a lot
Of these didn't
Break in the
US is because
You had Metallica
And Guns of
Roses
And Pearl Jam
And Town
It's hard to
I mean how do
You break
As good as
Backstreet Symphony
Was
I mean it was
A phenomenal
Record
1990
It's not
Competing with
It's not
Competing with
Ten
Into Summer
It's not
Competing with
Alive
It's not
Competing with
Yeah
It's a different
Type of album
Teen Spirit
Now's the time
To bring it
Back
Those albums
Are gone
You've got time
To listen to
This old
British rock
Well thanks for
Listening
Thank you very much
Love you bye