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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Fitz and Whipper podcast.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's not very often you get to talk to

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Speaker 2: one of the icons of the music industry here in Australia.

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Speaker 2: Nobody bigger, Nobody bigger. Oh, have we got him up online?

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Speaker 1: Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy Barnes. You there, buddy, Hello, how are you? Why?

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Speaker 1: How are you guys?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we're good, buddy, We're really good.

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Barnes.

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Speaker 2: He's got the new Blue Christmas album out, Chris, Is

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Speaker 2: this your first Christmas album, Jimmy, or you've made a

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Speaker 2: few before.

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Speaker 1: No, it's officially the first crew of this, this album.

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Speaker 4: But I did sing on on the tin lids one

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Speaker 4: many years.

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Speaker 2: It was the very first of all the Christmas albums

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Speaker 2: to sell it.

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Speaker 4: Brown the tranfter that and I'm gonna chant and I'm

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Speaker 4: going to chant sitting in the other room here with

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Speaker 4: the tin leads. Number one on the chart. Number two

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Speaker 4: was Bad by Michael Jackson. Number three was a You

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Speaker 4: two album, and I think I was number four was

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Speaker 4: I think it was a little bit later and ninety

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Speaker 4: and something somewhere around there. It was close thirty years ago.

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Speaker 1: But Jimmy, that's the power of a Christmas album though, Well,

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Speaker 1: they're great songs. They're great songs.

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Speaker 3: You've got an artist that you love, and you've got

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Speaker 3: a time of year where you can just play it

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Speaker 3: over and over again.

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Speaker 4: And you know, you know, I've thought about doing a

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Speaker 4: Christmas record for a long time. It's sort of you know,

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Speaker 4: it's once again, it goes back to that stuff. Well,

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Speaker 4: I used to sing these.

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Speaker 1: Songs, you know, at Christmas when I was a young kid.

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Speaker 4: So you know, I've always sort of I've always loved

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Speaker 4: these melodies and stuff like that. But there's you're going

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Speaker 4: to find the right time when you can do these things.

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Speaker 4: And our phone that after after you know, the whole

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Speaker 4: lockdown period where Jane and I were doing all those

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Speaker 4: songs acoustic on social media every night, I was singing

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Speaker 4: so many different types of songs that I discovered all

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Speaker 4: these other tones and registers and waste to sing in

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Speaker 4: my voice.

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Speaker 1: But I thought this was a good time to use them.

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Speaker 2: You know, Well, this is the one that we need

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Speaker 2: to focus on because Blue Christmas is a cover of Elvis,

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Speaker 2: isn't it?

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Speaker 1: Is this an Elver song? Yeah, let's have it. Let's

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Speaker 1: an Elver song. Listen to Jimmy here Christmas, who about you?

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Speaker 1: Listen out low?

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Speaker 4: That is to you.

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Speaker 3: I mean, if he was still a live he'd be nervous.

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Speaker 3: I reckon help us he.

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Speaker 4: Is, isn't he working in McDonald's somewhere. The reason I

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Speaker 4: put that one on here, there was a few reasons.

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Speaker 4: First one was, you know Elvis, you know, being the

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Speaker 4: king of rock and roll whenever, we influenced everybody, but

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Speaker 4: they have him seeing such a great carol and do

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Speaker 4: it with such style and such swing.

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Speaker 1: It was a really great song to do.

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Speaker 4: Secondly, I thought, you know, really in Australia, you know,

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Speaker 4: I mean I grew up, you know, as a young fellow,

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Speaker 4: was in Scotland, and we've lived in France and Europe

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Speaker 4: for a while. We've seen white Christmases, but we don't

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Speaker 4: really see them very often in Australia. More often than

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Speaker 4: not were surrounded by blue sky and blue sea, and

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Speaker 4: and so I thought Blue Christmas.

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Speaker 1: Was quite fit and has a title for the reckon Jimmy.

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Speaker 2: Is it harder to go lower for you? Or is

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Speaker 2: it harder to go higher for you? Because you have

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Speaker 2: to do the higher quite easy? We think you are

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Speaker 2: as or is that difficult.

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Speaker 4: No, singing time for me is more my natural register.

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Speaker 4: It's just pretty easy for me. I can peel the

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Speaker 4: paint off walls. I quite often do, by the way.

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Speaker 4: But but but you know, I mean, I never like

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Speaker 4: to sing low in the old days because because it

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Speaker 4: wasn't as strong for me, and so so you know,

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Speaker 4: working with with a with a live rock and roll band,

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Speaker 4: especially a struggling rock and roll bound band with bad

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Speaker 4: PA systems, you couldn't hear me. So I don't ways

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Speaker 4: describe I'd screen to get above the band. But but

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Speaker 4: you know, these days, you know, I'm sort of, like

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Speaker 4: I said, over that COVID and whatnot, I've sort of

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Speaker 4: developed that lower register quite a lot more so.

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Speaker 3: I'm quite comfortable in it though, Jimmy, like you think,

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Speaker 3: I mean, for all the music you've done and all

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Speaker 3: the singing you've done, all the writing, to think that

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Speaker 3: you've got to this stage of your life and you're

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Speaker 3: still discovering what your voice has to offer.

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Speaker 1: Wow, that's for me.

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Speaker 4: That's that's a that's a really good thing, because you know,

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Speaker 4: I honestly, I honestly think that you know, I'm still finding,

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Speaker 4: we're still learning, still growing, and I honestly believe my

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Speaker 4: best work still to come, which is which is a

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Speaker 4: good thing.

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Speaker 2: Point gives everyone else hope as well, because you know

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Speaker 2: what I watched the other day. There's a great documentary

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Speaker 2: out called Australian Made, and it was a concert series

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Speaker 2: from nineteen eighty six.

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Speaker 1: Is at correct, Jimmy? And it was, yeah, it was, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was eighty six, eighty seventh, right.

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Speaker 2: So you're you're out at Chisel. That's when you know,

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Speaker 2: working class man, that's the you're at your biggest. Then

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Speaker 2: it was a it was a tour. It was a

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Speaker 2: series with in excess. The Saints were there, you had

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Speaker 2: the Triffids were there, the Vinyls and you know what, Jimmy,

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Speaker 2: it just looked like a hoot. You're out the back

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Speaker 2: having shots with your old band going just about out

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Speaker 2: on the stage.

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Speaker 4: That's flaming cans. I know we're lunatics, but you know

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Speaker 4: what that So you know where that tour was. It

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Speaker 4: was literally I remember we were we were all sitting

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Speaker 4: and it was a period in Australian across sort of

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Speaker 4: you know culture where the Australian audience has se were

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Speaker 4: sort of saying, you know, everything that comes from overseas

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Speaker 4: is better than we had here. And there was a

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Speaker 4: bunch of us, A bunch of us sat around and said, no,

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Speaker 4: it's not. You know, we we think we've got as

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Speaker 4: good as bands as anywhere. So in excess to myself

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Speaker 4: and a whole bunch of bands got together to showcase

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Speaker 4: Australian music to Australia and we took it round and

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Speaker 4: it was a blistering tour.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 4: In excess were literally on the on the precipice, you know,

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Speaker 4: about to burst wide open worldwide, and they were really

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Speaker 4: at top of their game. We were all at top

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Speaker 4: of five games. It was a great tour and we

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Speaker 4: celebrated Australian music. That's what we're doing.

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Speaker 2: And you just brought out good times, going to have

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Speaker 2: a good time. That was when you performed that up

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Speaker 2: there within excess, Jimmy, that that was unbelievable, Like the

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Speaker 2: hairs on the back of my neck stowed up.

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Speaker 4: With that and what a great song and once again

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Speaker 4: a great Australian band, Easy Beats.

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Speaker 2: You know, Jimmy, what number album is this for you?

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Speaker 2: Including Cold Chisel solo albums?

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Speaker 1: What are we talking here?

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Speaker 4: Do you even know it's about said, it's about twenty

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Speaker 4: something twenty two.

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Speaker 1: Solo records, and I don't know we did about twelve.

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Speaker 4: There was only about six Chisel records, but there was

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Speaker 4: a twelve with all those best sobs and all that

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Speaker 4: sort of stuff.

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Speaker 1: So I don't know.

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Speaker 4: I have the thumb up somewhere thirty five forty recons

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Speaker 4: but who's counting? But you know what, which is pretty good,

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Speaker 4: consider them only twenty one.

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Speaker 2: But it's also your wife, like I mean, the way

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Speaker 2: that you talk about Jane. I look up to you

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Speaker 2: guys so much. She saved your life, really, didn't she, Jimmy,

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Speaker 2: I mean you, I mean she's a great guy saved

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Speaker 2: to her.

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Speaker 1: She was wild. No, no, she's a wonderful girl.

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Speaker 4: And and you know to be and people go, you know,

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Speaker 4: how do you how do you stay married?

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Speaker 1: For song? It's you know, like like any like any.

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Speaker 4: Relationships, it's it's difficult, it takes work, but it helps

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Speaker 4: that you've got the best girl in the world.

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Speaker 2: All right, Well, Jimmy, you've got a couple of dates

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Speaker 2: left to go this year and then you're going to

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Speaker 2: continue to tour at the start of next year. So

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Speaker 2: if you want to go get tickets, go to Jimmy

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Speaker 2: Barnes dot com Forward slash tour dates.

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Speaker 1: You can find it there.

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Speaker 4: You've got another record up my sleeve which I'm going

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Speaker 4: to drop early next year.

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Speaker 1: But let you know it's a top secret one.

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Speaker 4: But you know it's it's a it's a it's a

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Speaker 4: it's a band we've been thinking and talking about putting

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Speaker 4: together for thirty five years.

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Speaker 2: Wow, you can go celebrate the festive season with Jimmy Barnes.

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Speaker 2: It's the new album Blue Christmas. It's out now. Jimmy

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Speaker 2: love you mate, have a lovely Christmas and say.

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Speaker 1: Good every Christmas to your guys. But you're listening to

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Speaker 1: the Fitzi and Whipper podcast