Reflections on Family and Mortality

I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening I took my microphone and found some human folk Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke . My name is Ad Buxton, I'm a man I want you to enjoy this, that's the plan . Hey how you doing podcast? It's Adam Buxton here. Just me today. Rosie is at home dozing in her dog bas ket in my wife's office. Her favourite place to be, other than by my side, of course. She's already been for a walk today with my son Nat, and it's a cold day, so seemed a bit mean to get her back out again . Despite the coldness, it's a beautiful Norfolk afternoon on as I speak, the last day of Nov ember, 202 5 . The authentic sounds of the countryside . Sky incredibly clear and blue. There's not a single cloud up there. It's lovely and still and quiet. It's a sunday . Only the sound of birds , the odd gentle freezy breeze . Oh that's cold. But fresh . And of course the sound of a middle-aged guy doing his podcast intro. How you doing podcasts? Hope everything's not too bad wherever you are. But look, shut up buckles, tell me a bit about podcast number two hundred and sixty-seven. Okay, this one includes a small selection of waffle helpings from the live podcast show that I did at the London Palladium in March 2024 when my guest was British writer, director, actor and comedian Richard Ayawadi . I played a very small section of that night's show on the podcast that I did with Richard earlier this year. But there's a couple more bits for you tonight, also including my other guest that evening, a significant musical figure in both my life and Richard's life, Frank Black, frontman of Alt Rock Legends Pixies and in his solo capacity the man responsible for many of my favourite songs of all time. I've done a Spotify playlist for you Musos out there in case uh you're not familiar with Frank Black 's solo stuff. I love it. Maybe sometimes even a bit more than the pixies . Oh god, now I'm gonna be thrown into alt rock jail. I have also included in this podcast a chunk of chat that I recorded with Frank Black the day before the Palladium show, and that was recorded in his dressing room at the forum in Kentish Town where Pixies were playing that night. They were doing Bossa Nova from 1990 and Trompe le Mond from 1991 back to back . And in that short dressing room chat, you will hear me talk ing Frank through the arrangements for the Palladium show the following night. I have met Frank, real name Charles Thompson, okay Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV to give him his full name a few times. He was in one of our vinyl justice segments on the Adam and Joe show. Joe and I also made a video for the song Dog Gone by Frank Black and the Catholics in 1998. You'll find a link to that in the description. And since then we have stayed in sporadic contact. Frank is a big comedy fan, he especially likes a lot of British comedy, and I'm pretty sure that when I mentioned to him that Richard Ayowadi was going to be my guest for the live show, that was a big part of him agreeing to come along and be my other guest and play a song from one of my favorite albums of his, Teenager of the Year . And maybe because he enjoyed his experience on the Adam Buxton Podcast live show so much, he returned to the palladi um earlier this year, 2025, to play Teenager of the Year in its entirety with the original band that recorded that record as part of the album's 30th anniversary celebrations. If you heard my podcast with Irish musician CMAT earlier this year, then you would have heard me talking about going to see that show, the Teenager of the Year show and how much I enjoyed it despite some disruptive behavior from some of my fellow middle-aged rock guys. But let's return to the palladium now to join myself and Richard Iowade on stage for some Wes Anderson chat with reference to the AI Wes Anderson memes that did the rounds in 2023 for which people used AI image generation tools like Mid-Journey, DAL E , and Stable Diffusion to make trailers for films like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, as if they had been directed by Wes Anderson. Then I talked to Richard a bit about music with both of us revealing which records by our favourite artists we were initially dissatisfied with and took back to the shop. Then I'll be back to say a few words performance But right now, in front of a live audience at the London Palladium in March 2024, with Richard Ayowadi . Here we go. Ramble chat. Let's have a ramble chat. We'll focus first on this, then concentrate on that. Come on, let's chew the fat and have a ramble chat. Put on your conversation coat and find your talking hat Yes Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla Are you a crier at all ? A crier? Yeah, do you cry? Is there any chance you could cry ? I haven't yet. No, am I cry I don't think I'm a a huge cry. I mean I grew up in Ipswich so there's there's much to be sad about . So but you learn to hold it in. Um Okay, so it's unlock I'm not gonna probably get you to a place where you start weeping on stage to I think it could be intriguing to try. Alright. Oh bear it in mind. Yes. But listen, Wes Anderson working with him on Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Yes. That must have been amazing. Wes Anderson has come into the public consciousness in the last few years, even more so, because of the memes that popped up in the age of uh AI-generated information It's interesting he can never quite be captured by any of these things because there's something just so inhumane about these . And I I find his films very uh humane and very Was that the first time working with him on that that you had met or had you met before? He when the film Submarine came out in Amer ica, he very kindly presented a screening of it in New York with Ben Stiller because Ben Stiller knew Wes Anderson and Ben Stiller had been a producer on Submarine. So that through n no merit it was uh given a very kind uh uh a screening by him. So I'd I'd met him then, two thousand and I don't know, eleven or something like that. And what's it what's it like just in general. Yes, what's it like? Well y he's extremely well prepared, so he has what he calls a cartoon of the film, which is um a a animated storyboard of everything that's going to happen . And he's not one of those directors who films everything from lots of different angles and then pieces it together in the edit. More or less everything he films is the shot that it's going to be used and it's precis ely got um it's a very pleasant set, very uh kindly spirited, collegiate and he's worked with the same people for a long time, so they're incredibly adept. And yes, it was a completely unearned joy. And then how do you feel about the conversation around him, especially post the memes and stuff, now that he's become a kind of symbol for something fairly superficial, i.e., just a almost like an Instagram filter. Yes, I in a certain way I think with some one like him you're penalised for your original ity because you can't really do memes about non origin al people because you wouldn't recognise them. As they show they they never quite capture what he does exactly. But I don't think they're sort of terrible that all people enjoying having um their own version of some aesthetic in the same way that every band was The criticism of Wes Anderson though is that he's easy to parody because all there is is the visual style. There's there's there's not enough meat under neath. Yeah, I don't deal with deal with that. Deal with that. Yes, I don't think there's a kind of um I don't think um okay, I'll deal with that. I don't think there's a straightforward separation between style and substance in that style is the substance. Okay . The form is the message. I think McLuhan has dealt with this . And well I don't think there's any separation in the same way that the um the metre of the poem, you just go it's all just dumpty dumpty dum. And I I actually find his films really emotional because they're restrained. Um there's especially in uh there's a moment in Rushmore when um finally uh the Jason Schwartzman character and Bill Murray's character make up and he of offers him one his um merit badges from school and the the two different ones and it's I think one's either attend ance or punctuality. And Bill Murray's character just goes, I'll take punctuality. And it's one of the most moving moments in a film I think. And yeah, I'm uh unabashed fan. I watched Rushmore on the weekend with my daughter, she's fifteen and I think it was the first film for as long as I can remember that she actually sat through and really enjoyed. It was great fun. I liked it much more as well than I I hadn't seen it since it came out. Yes. And I think I didn't get it really when it came out I was too distracted by but no one would do that. You know what I mean? Right. Yes. No one would behave. No one would tolerate such a coach. Blow up the Death Star too hard. See, that's different though, because as soon as you've got space and lasers and helmets and robots , then you can do any anything goes, it's a totally different emo But then when it's stuff you can relate to, when it's people in a high school, when it's superficially recognizable things going on, then then my rational brain locks in and I So it would be it'd be very strange if you uh had not in any way addressed the fact that we're sitting here talking to one another and just pretend ed this was a drama. That would be one of the most tense things that you could ever witness. So I I quite like things where they face the audience and they sort of uh go, This is a film and uh this is f uh for entertainment purposes and I I like old Hollywood films where people speak faster than anyone could possibly speak and live in houses that are impossible for people to live in and huge ceilings and Yeah. No, I think I I I think I'm just quite unimaginative. No, I I sort of um I almost think I'm so suspicious that I I feel reassured by someone going, It's okay, we're pretending and I go, okay, that's good. Yeah. It just takes me ages to appreciate things. I think I remember everyone going on about how great Rushmore was when it came out. And I just thought, is it? That tends to be my response to most things that people are very excited about. Yeah. Oh God, another thing that's way better than anything I'll ever do. It's too much. Well also it it can be sort of overwhelming seeing something as well, because you you have an idea often of what you want a thing to do. And you're just thinking, this isn't doing the thing that I want the thing to do at all. This is doing some other thing. Yeah, exactly. Or you sort of think that you know what it wants to do and you think, no, you're doing it wrong. I I if I was doing this thing which I could easily if I wanted to , then I would do it like this and you've gone and screwed it up. That's the danger. Hello my friend, it's good to see you again. I got to say you're looking great I love what you've done with your nipples and your knees and your shiny bull paint beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep Richard, music. Yes. Can I ask you this? I've written down here, why is music so important? Feel free to be quite sincere and I might cry. That is that to be serious, you and I are can we say nerdy? I I I think regardless of whether we say that or not , that's the objective reality we're dealing with. Yes. I think a lot of people would imagine I love David Bowie and he is close to my heart as far as musical heroes go. David Bowie, yes. Who would be the equivalent for you? Is it Maskis? Jay Maskis is um pretty well up there as my favourite guitarist. Uh as Bowie I mean Bowie is I mean Bowie's pretty amazing. I w were you very emotional when he died? D were you swept up in the wave of emotion? Yes and no. I was in myself. I felt actually no, uh yes and yeses.. Y Yeah. So in a sense, yes . Yes. On the one hand, yes, and on the other hand also Yes. It was a yes. Well my dad had died three weeks before. Didn't mind about that. No, of course not. I was fine with that. He was very old. And he didn't hunky dory . Exactly. Lest we forget. He didn't even come close. No. I mean his early stuff was good, but the later stuff was indulgent, it meandered. What's the most upset you ever got about a musician dying? I found myself w when Bowie died because we live past Brixton and cycling through and seeing the people out on vigils and it was quite an emotional thing I'd say, uh Bowie dying. Yeah, I'd say yeah, maybe Bowie . Yeah. Yeah. I'm just trying to get you to do the Bowie voice, that's all I'm yes . That's what we want. I think he must have indulged in a bit of superlative theatricality . Here in the West End of London with the Lond on bo ys . Now he's with the Lond on boys Okay . Um one thing that I remember very fondly from watching Snub TV, this show, which was fantastic. I think you can still find bits of it flying around on YouTube , but was watching Pixies, seeing them on Snub TV, and they filmed a video where they were just jumping across some rocks very slowly. Yes, yeah, I remember that. And they married it to one of their tracks and it was around then that I had gone into a branch of W. H. Smith's on the King's Road and I go into WH Smith's and they are playing Come On Pilgrim by Pixies. Okay. Yes. I mean they're amazing. Trompe Le Monde was the first so I started at the end and I distinctly remember hearing that they'd broken up and I just was I honestly felt I just got the C D . You can't do that. I've just got into you. It's almost like you have your own consciousness and lives. You bastards. You can't But then when I played the music when I was out of the context of WH Smith's I was quite intimidated by it. I just thought I've gone above my pay grade here. You felt safe in WH Smith's, as do we all. Yeah, because I was listening to this kind of thing. So here's a clip from around that time, Pixies on Dutch TV, and a very short blast of what they sound like. What does your mother think about your music? She's very very proud. You don't wanna sleep after setting my loins on fire That's a good I've been tired, I've been tired, I've been tired I just thought it might be a bit too much for young Buckles who basically had only just come out of the Thomson twins phase. Yeah. And then I was dealing with that and I took it back . Stop it. Yeah . I'm going to say something that I haven't said out loud before. I took back pod by the breed ers. I couldn't cope, it was too much . It's I'd gone I'd traveled I was I'm from Ipswich. Okay, this needs to be re and I travelled down to London to buy it and I just couldn't cope with it. I actually ended up going back to the same shop to buy it again. That was one of my most traumatic uh record purchases because I can go and then I realised I was wrong and went back. And the only other really uh terrible experience I bought Hatful of Hollow by the Smiths, vinyl , got it home from a second hand shop. I'm gonna tell all the story. Some of it's gonna be in reverse, like memento. So I bought the vinyl, took it back, played it, all first side very good, turned it over, country and western music and he went this is defective, this is not good, went back to the shop, the second hand shop, handed it over and said, there's an uh problem with this record that's only half Smith's, which is fifty percent insufficient. Kind of junk, and then the other side will be uh country and western, so I'll keep this and you can have your two pounds back. Oh is that really true? Yeah. Oh you dick! I know . Yes . Yes, please . Yep. Yes. Hey, welcome back. So that was a couple of moments from my on-stage chat with Richard Aywaddy. And by the way, if you're wondering why I don't just play the whole recording from that live show . It's because there was a lot of video elements that wouldn't really work for audio only. And I think we did have a few technical problems that night as well which interfered with some parts of the recording. Some of the music that we recorded was a bit distorted. And also with the Pixies songs, two of which Frank Black played with Richard. There's rights issues that means I can't play them in full. If you're curious to see how Richard and Frank Black sounded together though, you'll find links in the description of today's podcast to a couple of video clips that I just filmed on my ph one from the brief rehearsal that Frank and Richard did a few hours before the show. The first song that they played in front of the audience that night was Hey by the Pixies, which hopefully I'll be alright just playing you a short clip of this is one of the bits that wasn't too badly distorted. So this is Frank Black on acoustic guitar and then Richard coming in with his Joey Santiago electric guitar parts. Would say a Would say Would say Would say Would say Would say Rockby Richard There you go, so that gives you an idea of what they sounded like on the night playing the Pixie stuff. But the day before the podcast show, I had met Frank Black in his dressing room at the forum in Kentish Town, where Pixies were playing that night. And I recorded our short chat with me talking Frank through how the podcast show at the Palladium might work. As you'll hear, one of the subjects that I thought we might discuss was the intersection of music and comedy. However, hearing how Charles felt about comedians who make music that isn't just straightforward musical comedy, didn't really encourage me to tell him that I myself had been recording my own album. He was very diplomatic, and I know that he absolutely loves people like Tim Heideker and Matt Berry who make music, but I got the impression that he wasn't altogether convinced that people like me having a go at music is a great idea. I'm a big fan of Richard's. I've seen most of the programs and things that he's been associated with. Uh huh. My kids are all big Brit comedy fans. That's it, cool. Yeah, well he's a very nice guy, Richard. I like him , I would imagine. Um and but he's a big music fan and he you know, he went up on stage with Dinosaur Junior the other played with them and That's funny. He's my neighbor, the jay. Oh yes. Four doors down. That's funny. And yeah, he was in one of Richard's films called The Double. Anyway, so I'm kind of thinking in terms of it being a little bit theatrical and saying to Richard I want to ask him about music anyway, he loves music, he's directed a lot of music videos, show a couple of clips, he's directed videos for Arctic monkeys and vampire we and uh a breeders clip recently. So we show a few clips of those and then I say I know you're a Pixies fan, I am too, we exchange Pixie how did you get into them and that kind of thing . And then I say to him, Can you play any? And he's like, Well, I can play the rift to hay . So he has a go at that. And I say, Are you gonna sing? He's like, No, I'm not, I can't sing. Are you gonna sing? I was like, no. And then Hey Exactly. So I sort of at that point I get you out, if that's not too shooting. Then you just sort of play it through and he'll play along with you. And then I was imagining you'd come down sit with us. I guess I was thinking we could talk about when we first met, talk about my dad a little bit. I have a clip of you and he sitting and chatting about wine in nineteen ninety eight and then I found some of the rushes of the video that we did with him. I forgot that he he learnt dog gone so he could sing it. Right. And the audio's not very good because we didn't mic'd up or anything But he's out there in the middle of the street with cars rushing past singing dog gone in quite a nice way. So I was going to show a short clip of that. Oh yeah, sure. We gotta do that. And then a bit more chat. Thought we could talk possibly about like funny music. What would you talk about in that case? Like do you like funny music? I do, and I think that there are people that do it well and I think that there are people that love it so much and they it's almost like they're i in some kind of a dilemma between doing it for real and also still trading in on their on their comedic sensibilities, right? And so they're kind of very in between. You know what I mean? Uh I find that a lot with uh Tim Heideker. He wants to be in a band, you know, he wants to do the thing, but because of his station , he's not quite allowed to. And so he pushes it right to the thing and like where you almost get to the point where like, well, is this still comedy music or are we just doing music here? You know what I mean? Yeah. And and like I and I feel like that sometimes they don't even know. Or it could be that they're not confused, but the all his audience, me or whatever, is watching well, I've just spent the last half hour laughing at your comedy and now you're playing this really beautiful music. Like you know, I'm I'm already in a certain mode and so I'm kind of like trying to find the funny and the thing that you're doing and maybe you're not even trying to be funny. You're trying to just be musical. Anyway, it's a interesting thing. I I I think actors of course it's the same thing, you know, and it's the same thing with me, right? Musicians who maybe they like the idea of like oh acting and and and yeah being something in in front of a camera, you know, and uh on a stage I understand being on a stage and you see them and you just go oh oh don't do that wow you really can't act you know and it's more than anything, I end up having a lot of respect for people when they're you know so it's easy to say to watch someone's performance, a comedian person, and say, oh, I didn't find that very funny. You know, I like this old stuff better, right? And but I guess what a lot of people don't realize is how diffic ult it is to be fun ny. You know, and they just have no clue or how difficult it is to act. Well, you're just up there saying words, right? I remember um what's his name? Uh Fight Club. Oh yes, David Fincher. David Fincher. He called me up and said, I know you're not an actor, but uh doing this uh film about the Zodiac Killer, you know, and you have a physical resemblance to the Zodiac Killer, would you read for it? You know, no pressure. So like I went and saw an acting coach, right, for an evening. Just was like, like, I have to read this thing tomorrow. I I don't know what I'm doing. Like, give me your best two pointers or whatever, you know. I went and bought the the killer's boots at the Army and Navy supply store because he was ex-Navy and he uh I said well he would have worn these navy boots or whatever and I tried to be an a method actor for five fucking minutes, you know. So I got the boot, the Nanny boots, and and I went down there and there's he was David Vitcher was there, this producer, they were very nice. Oh we know you're not an actor, it's fine. Just all you have to do is just read. We just want to hear your voice, just read. And literally it was like uh and it was just like I couldn't speak, I couldn't finish a sentence, I could I'm sorry and I completely fell apart in the most pathetic way. I wasn't even trying to act, I just wanted to get through the lines and I could not do it. But I knew part of the reason was because it was a lot harder than I realized. And I didn't have a cocky attitude about it. I knew it was I wasn't an actor, but I thought, well, I can read. I know how to read and to speak. I can do that. No, the whole context of it and everything you're trying to read through this script while they were doing the other part, whatever, could not do it. Could not do it. It was laughable. But musical comedy I guess is probably my station as a mus musician performer guy or whatever that when I am confronted with musical comedy yeah or whatever um I I'm probably a lot more not judgmental, whatever, but I'm like the wrong audience to kind of totally feel that. Someone else who's not a musician and not a comedian they look at that and they're just like oh my god two things that I love going on at the same time but then you get if you're a musician you start to go mmm it's kind of like if you were to go observe you know a musician try to be funny and be a comedian you you would go like oh I really love your music and oh yeah that didn't really feel like the perfect time to say actually Frank, I've been recording some songs too. But right now , we are gonna head back to the London Palladium on the 19th of March 2024. Frank Black has just sat down after playing Hey with Richard Iow adi on guitar. As you'll hear, my own Frank, my eldest son, was in the house that night too. He'd helped me play a couple of jingles as he did a few times on that podcast tour. And he stayed on that night as a stage hand. It was lovely to have him there. Despite the potentially awkward moment of witnessing his father confessing to his musical hero, hesitatingly, that he may have well kind of named his son after him. Back at the end for a bit more waffle, but right now, back to the palladium with Frank Black or is it Black Francis or Charles Thompson? Let's find out . Now how should I refer to you because you have many aliases . How how how do you wish to be referred to on stage tonight? You got Frank. We'll do Frank, uh, because your son is Frank too, right? Well, you know the honest truth is that he's called Frank kind of because of you. I mean it helped that it was a name I liked anyway. You know what I mean? If your name was Turdface , I still would have liked you, but I wouldn't have named my son after you. So it all the stars aligned. So yes. Frank, thank you so much for coming along tonight. Oh, it's been a pleasure and uh man. Is this uh do you always play here at this place? This is Yes. This is where I try stuff out, and then I do the main shows at the O2 generally. I find them impersonal, so this is like a sort of fun indie night for me. Frank Ah okay, thank you very much. Right on time. You can mind great work, Frank . That's good. I think you can get one more bend in it. Hey thank you Frank on his way now we've met before Frank uh Do you remember when the first time would have been? I think you turned up at my house uh in Los Angeles uh on two two two one four one Londelia Street, West Hills, nine one three oh two, I think. There you go. Just came to me. Dressed as policeman. Yes. To go through your record collection for vinyl justice. That's the one. Yeah. And uh you improvised the theme from Beatles About. I did . You hadn't heard of it, but you started saying Oh watch out, Beatles about , Oh watch out, Beatles About It was ver I was very pleased . And you also gave us some screaming lessons because on my fiftieth birthday um my wife had a surprise party for me and she had assembled some of my musical friends who had rehearsed a load of songs that they knew I really love, and one of the songs was Debasa . And I stripped my throat out so badly, and I had a few shows that week and I had to cancel them because I had I had screamed my way through the best birthday I ever had singing Debesa . Can you give us an example for people unfamiliar with that track of what we're dealing with here. The shouting in it? Yeah. Yeah. It's just like wow, you know, it's just a lot of, you know. How do you sing like that without immediately stripping your throat out? Well, the guy that taught me how to shout was my neighbor , and I used to deliver flowers for his flower shop. He was from Thailand. His name was Bob Samban Suk, and he used to be in a Thai band back in the day, I guess his day would have been in the nineteen sixties, I'm guessing. So uh I used to deliver flowers for him, but uh he knew that I liked the music. Did you ever deliver flow ers? No. I mean, once to my wife on her birthday, but it was just the once. It's a terrible job, 'cause about one out of every five or six deliveries, you gotta go around to the funeral home. Oh yes. You know how do they deliver flowers at the funeral home? You have to find a secret door that's unlocked because you don't get a a signature. You have to look for a room with flowers in it and sometimes you don't find the room with the flowers in it you find other rooms and it's very stressful. Oh man. So I don't recommend it for anybody. But anyway, Bob, I used to deliver flowers. He knew I liked the music, so I brought over my Beatles book to his studio and he said we did uh pick a Beatles song and I s uh he knew I liked the Beatles and we we did uh O'Darling in his little home studio. And he said, Singin like you hate that you know, can't I don't want to say the word, but yeah, it was a bit frightening for me. I was only about uh fourteen or so, but uh he taught me how to shout. And uh so I'm very grateful to Bob uh wherever he is today. Angelius when you were very welcoming to us and it was very exciting meeting you after listening to your music all those years and then suddenly flipping through your C D collection and finding like oh he's got a lot of the same stuff as me. That was very satisfying. There was lots of Ramones and there was Beck was in there and Donovan was in there and all this sort of stuff that I didn't necessarily expect you to have . But it was good. And then a couple of years later, or maybe just a year later or something, we met when you were in a band called Frank Black and the Catholics. That's right. And it was nineteen ninety-eight. And we were doing our show, The Adam and Joe Show, and we had an idea that maybe we could get you together with my dad, who was part of our TV show, Nigel Buxton, aka Bad Dad. We thought we'd sit you down just in Joe's flat in Exmouth Market. And we that's as far as we got, as far as planning it . And we just sat you both down. My dad had a glass- uh a bottle of wine that he was chugging away. And he was there in his suit and tie, age seventy four years old. And what did you make of it, big I just figured that's how you did it over here in England, you know , with your dad and wine and all that. And uh so I just kind of went along with it and it seemed fine. He was a very nice man as I recall. I loved it because he was on his best behavior with you because I think he knew how much you meant to me. So whereas normally he only had bad things to say about pretty much everything that I really liked. What are you listening to? What is this loathsome music you're listening to ? But then you turned up and suddenly he was all soft and uh excited to be there. By the way, this footage never saw the light of day because it was mainly my dad talking about wine and some of his favorite roads in France and That's a Netflix special now. Anyway, uh and then years later when I got married sorry this is just me talking to Frank Black about all the nice things he's done. And uh memory . But when I got married, two thousand and one you were in town and uh I went to your rehearsal studios and you sang a song for my wife. My wife and it was from maybe my favorite album in the world, which is your album Teenager of the Year, one of your solo records. And you sang a song called Kalistan. It's a great song. I was wondering if you might sing that tonight. by pleasure . See how the cow stand goes now? Okay . Been a while . So far so good . I took three days to drive down one street rad io on tuned to the big fleet . Invisible planes are cracking the concrete . That's just what some people say hey hey I put down my blanket on cigarette butt beach saw the old man he was doing okay with making his last stand on ol d bottles and cans around there, Calistan way . Hey hey , it used to be sixteen lanes , it used to be Juan Way us to be Messica o use to be Spanion Webo use to be Navajo Joe o use to be a be I don't know Halfway point . I went in from the weather when I got wheezy . I play some pachinko, I play pachee in St. Anna's still making it breezy in the valley of Tar that once was LA . Hey, hey , my best friend, he's the king of karaoke . He struck up a chord and he took it away Out of the pan and into Japan around there, Calistan way . Hey hey There used to be sixteen lan es used to be Juan W ay Yes, it used to be Mexican , it used to be Mexico . It used to be Navajo It used to be done . Calistan Just a typical wedding kind of a song, you know . I love it. And then we w we drove down I'm just gonna carry on talking about my life. Um we ended up honeymooning in California and drove up Route 1 and listen to that. Anyway, thanks, man. Pleasure. Wait. This episode is brought to you by free streaming service U, where you can now watch all episodes of The Way Out . Hello, Ethan. Fancy finding you in this escape room. Oh hi, Ashley. I didn't know you were an escape room aficionado. It's my first time. I wanted to have a go after watching The Way Out on the free Ah yes, the fast-paced comedy competition where escape is the only objective. Hosted by Mel Gedreutch with team captains Ed Gamble and Nish Kumar, leading fellow comedians Lou Sanders, Chloe Pett, David O'Tocketty and Amy Annette through fantastical worlds. That's the one. They're all dropped into surreal high-pressure worlds, packed with puzzles, misdirection, and a ticking clock. I do love a ticking clock. Oh dear, what's that smell? Oh, sorry, Ethan. I'm still recovering from about a food poisoning and my guts are in a terrible state. But I'm so looking forward to spending the next two hours puzzling with you, and it looks like it's just the two of us. Great. The doors are locking. Your time starts now. The way out. Stream free on you . Continu e . You hear the collapse if there's nothing in any you ask yourself. Woo hoo hoo Hey, welcome back, Podcasts. That was Charles Thompson, aka Frank Black, playing the track Callistan, one of my favorites from Teenager of the Year. Live on stage at the London Palladium in March 2024. Thank you so much to everyone who came along that night. It was a lovely audience, I remember. It was the first show of that podcast tour last year, and it was lovely to have Richard there and Frank Black and very exciting to see them both play together and enjoy each other's company. Me and Richard sat dewy-eyed watching Frank Black playing that lovely version of Kalistan, a song that we both love. And the fact that my own Frank was there too. He's also a big fan. I'm very grateful to everyone else who helped that night too. There was Seamus, my producer. I'm grateful as well to Becca Bryars who helped me out uh wrangling the live recordings and uh also to all the people at Crosstown Promotions, especially Rich ard, Ben, Annal isa and Phil and everyone at the palladium that night. Thank you all . Wow, it's really a very beautiful afternoon here . I'm down near the road now, you can hear the traffic . But I can't see it from where I'm standing. All I can see is a field with gently s way ing wheat beginning to grow . Autumnal trees over in the cops that I'm looking at . This is the last podcast I'm putting out before Christmas. In a few days I'm meeting Joe and we're gonna record our traditional Christmas podcast to keep it low-key this year, face to face. Last couple of years we've done the Christmas podcast in front of a live audience at the Royal Festival Hall . But this time it's old school. That episode, of course, we' bell with you on Christmas Day. Speaking of Christmas Day, I pre-recorded a show the other day with Deb Gr ant who co-hosts the new music fix daily with Tom Ravenscroft on Six Mus ic . But I believe she's sitting in for Lauren Laverne a few days over Christmas. And I don't know exactly when the show that I recorded with her is going to go out but it might be Christmas day. Anyway look out for it. The format was that we were playing each other a selection of songs that were new to the other person and talking about why we liked them. Got quite emotional at one point . But it was so nice meeting Deb. I hadn't met her before. I loved the songs that she picked for me. It was fun playing her, the ones that I picked for her and I hope you will enjoy it so look out for that show around Christmas on six music . Speaking of getting emotional don't worry I'll try and keep a lid on the wobbly voice but talking to Frank Black there about my dad and doing that dog gone video which is a really happy memory wasn't stress-free making the video but I really love the result. I love the fact that my dad ended up being part of the Frank Black musical universe. Anyway it's as I speak exactly 10 years since he died. This is the kind of day he would have loved as well . Very beautiful but cold . Like my wife. Oh come on. That was in case you're listening , that was a joke. You're very beautiful and hot . I think she'd hate me saying that even more . But yeah, 10 years. I was already doing the podcast but a lot of other things were very different since then I have talked about him a lot written about him in two books, particularly in Ramble Book and also a bit in I Love You By but as regular listeners will know he pops up a great deal in my conversations with my guests . And I think about him all the time. I think about mum all the time as well. But it's different. Dad relationship, that's a weird one. It's not a competition though, is it? I finished audio booking Anthony Hopkins' memoir the other day. I really enjoyed it. It's read by Kenneth Branagh. I mean, I guess I knew Kenneth Branners a good actor, but he knocks it out the park. I suppose he is doing a Anthony Hopkins impression, and the first couple of minutes I was a little bit worried . But actually it's really good and not too extreme. He just does a brilliant job. And there's a lot of really moving stuff in there. I read a review that said, oh, it's quite melancholy , this book. I suppose it is, in a way, it's a lot of stuff about mortality and regret and sad ness over decisions that Anthony Hopkins made in his life and challenges that he's faced , personal challenges, and lots of very interesting stuff about the craft of acting as well. He's one of my favorite actors, I think. I'd recommend it if you like his stuff. But there's a lot of uh you know dad angst in that book. As there is in I guess most memoirs, isn't there? I don't think anyone's relationship with their dad or either of their parents is ever totally straightforward . I was lucky in so many ways with my parents and what they did for me . And yet, you know, you're always feeling like you could have been closer you could have done things differently you're angry at this you're resentful at that you're regretful at the other and you miss them badly when they're gone and you wish so much that you had another chance just to just to sit down and tell them what you've been doing and ask them what they think about what's going on in the world and ask all the questions you never asked and give them a hug and say thank you, I love you . But of course the truth is that if you could, they'd be exactly the same, and you'd probably have an argument. Or it'd just be a bit awkward. Like before . I don't know. Anyway, if you're listening and you're in a similar spot if you're in the process of saying goodbye to your dad or maybe you have done recently well I'm sorry and you'll be alright there's actually a few rewards on the other side of it let me tell you um but in good ways and bad ways it never quite goes away hey come over here, hey . Good to see you. Thank you so much for listening and for coming back . Have I said all my other thank yous? Thanks to everyone at ACAST. Thanks to Helen Green she does the artwork thanks to Seamus Becca Bryars but thank you most of all for coming along and until next time we share the same sonic sp ace. Maybe on another episode or maybe on Christmas Day. Please go carefully, it's crazy out there. And in case it's useful, I love you. Bye That was a long Frank Black one . Like and subscribe, like and subscribe Light and subscribe, please like and subscribe Give me a smile and a thumbs up Nice like a mat when we bums up Nice second when we buttons up . Like and subscribe, like and subscribe . Like and subscribe. Please like and subscribe Give me the spot on the thumbs up. Nice for me buttons up. Give me the spot on the thumbs up