Speaker 1: Here's another special edition of a Red Hot Express edition
Speaker 1: of some of my favorite bits and pieces and conversations
Speaker 1: from the last year of the Quizzy Cast.
Speaker 2: When we put sort of expectations on ourselves or on
Speaker 2: each other to sort of behave a certain way, you
Speaker 2: end up. I mean, I just I just finished watching
Speaker 2: In one day, I watched Baby rein Deer. Did you
Speaker 2: see that?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yes, I did it.
Speaker 2: Just I connected so deeply with his journey of shame,
Speaker 2: and there were so many moments where I was so
Speaker 2: infuriated watching this guy have no boundaries with people. And
Speaker 2: then as you as you grow the story and understand
Speaker 2: that this shame is sort of that he's carrying, that's
Speaker 2: this invisible kind.
Speaker 1: Of yeah straight jacket.
Speaker 2: It just I was like, oh my god, the answer
Speaker 2: is just like, what if we all just had a
Speaker 2: little bit less shame about ourselves and learned to.
Speaker 1: Just be like it's so interesting. I watched that. Everybody
Speaker 1: watched that show and I watched it too, and all
Speaker 1: the headlines after it was about the woman, of course,
Speaker 1: and she's the least interesting character in the entire thing.
Speaker 1: And I love that you mentioned him because obviously you
Speaker 1: know I related to him. Too, And the element that
Speaker 1: I loved was how he kept on trying to make
Speaker 1: it to make her feel okay even though he was
Speaker 1: being so mistreated. That really spoke to me. I was like,
Speaker 1: I would do exactly the same thing, because you know,
Speaker 1: I just want to make everything okay for that person, you.
Speaker 2: Know well, which actually is a beautiful, healthy instinct. But
Speaker 2: because of the shame in his life, he didn't have
Speaker 2: the healthy boundary to be able to do that in
Speaker 2: a way that was healthy for both of them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So it's like, because I think, like the answer is
Speaker 2: not to he should have just been like, get the
Speaker 2: fuck away. Like, no, it's actually a beautiful gesture to
Speaker 2: be kind to someone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it felt very human to me.
Speaker 2: You can do it in a way that you also
Speaker 2: have healthy.
Speaker 1: About him going to her house and looking through the window,
Speaker 1: I was like, but it's a hard relate. I would
Speaker 1: do that. So we too curious.
Speaker 2: I'm working with a playwright friend of mine. We've been
Speaker 2: working on a we've written a TV show idea that
Speaker 2: actually began with that Requiem meeting, okay, and we've just
Speaker 2: sort of been trying to We just got development funding
Speaker 2: for it. Who knows what will happen. But we're in
Speaker 2: the world of like just trying to tell my story basically,
Speaker 2: and in that same sort of so Baby Randia was
Speaker 2: a very like. I just related on so many loving
Speaker 2: my story is so different to his, but I just
Speaker 2: related on so many levels to this idea of this
Speaker 2: poor guy sneaking around.
Speaker 1: Now, Ben, yes, it's time, okay, will you please.
Speaker 2: Form It would be my pleasure.
Speaker 1: Requiem, And I promise you I won't cry that my
Speaker 1: thing is across to Maybe maybe I will.
Speaker 3: Write us this song.
Speaker 4: They say, tell us your truth, you've got nothing to hide.
Speaker 4: Well tell them the truth.
Speaker 5: That and exposed what I had locked in, said, I
Speaker 5: laid it out across the floor and cry.
Speaker 3: So we went.
Speaker 4: Down like the.
Speaker 3: Poet described, and they reached for their children, covered their eyes.
Speaker 6: This was not a song for angry men. What I
Speaker 6: wrote for them.
Speaker 3: Was a requier.
Speaker 1: Go on and run.
Speaker 4: She sighed.
Speaker 5: I wish you could see all.
Speaker 4: The things that I see. Well here on.
Speaker 5: The side, it feels the same was when I was
Speaker 5: in nineteen.
Speaker 4: I should have read up on my.
Speaker 3: August thing running for the corner whoeit described, and I
Speaker 3: stood in the sun, I saw myself died so afraid
Speaker 3: of angreement. What I wrote for them was a requis, this.
Speaker 7: Is something to remember me by. This is something to
Speaker 7: remember me bye. This is something to remember me bye.
Speaker 7: This is something to remember me by.
Speaker 4: Remember me, remember.
Speaker 8: Me.
Speaker 1: That is my favorite thing that has ever happened on
Speaker 1: this podcast. Well, thank you then, Abram's Ben Abram, I
Speaker 1: can't even speak, Ben Abraham. Thank you so much for joining.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. This is what an honor.
Speaker 1: Now the assembly, Yes, in your own words again, Yes,
Speaker 1: the assembly is people asking whatever they like. No questions
Speaker 1: are off limits. Yes, so let's try some Lisa oals.
Speaker 1: How much money do you have in dollars and cents?
Speaker 8: That was a question that God asked of Hamish Blake.
Speaker 8: Could anyone do it to the sense? I mean, I
Speaker 8: don't think so.
Speaker 1: Also, like it depends on what direct debitts are coming
Speaker 1: out you. Who knows? Do you have any cash in
Speaker 1: that bum bag of yours? Not a penny? I haven't
Speaker 1: had cash for years. Yeah, not at all. It's terrible.
Speaker 8: In fact, I didn't even bring anything down to Melbourne
Speaker 8: other than my phone. I didn't bring any cards at all.
Speaker 1: Oh see, I have a little folder in here with
Speaker 1: all my cards just in it doesn't work. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: was the last time you had a proper pash?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 1: Not that long ago. I don't want to go into
Speaker 1: too many jais. No, you not go into details. Good
Speaker 1: good news. Do your toenails look like something that you
Speaker 1: would find on a hobbit? Yes?
Speaker 8: Mine somewhere somewhere between hobbit and acceptable. Not full scale hobbit,
Speaker 8: but not great.
Speaker 1: Are they painted? No? No, you're a disgrace. What is
Speaker 1: the most shameful thing you've served up and called dinner? Oh?
Speaker 1: Like packet, fish fingers and just stuff like that. You
Speaker 1: know what you can do to judge that up in
Speaker 1: no time because I'm the short cut coen. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: also love a fish finger, but sometimes I elevate them
Speaker 1: to the sort of slightly wedge shaped pills. They're fish fingers,
Speaker 1: they're just a bit bigger. You cook them exactly the
Speaker 1: same way, and then you get your tortillas and you
Speaker 1: chop them up, and then you've got a fish taco.
Speaker 1: A bell crap does that? She does? Yeap? She is
Speaker 1: Fansy is such a smug bun. When you imagine yourself
Speaker 1: at seventy, what is the image that you can conjure.
Speaker 8: I like to think smiling, having a great time and
Speaker 8: for me and so I don't judge anyone else having
Speaker 8: a wrinkly, lived in.
Speaker 1: Face and gray hair. That's a good question.
Speaker 8: I think at age fifty one, I feel like, yes,
Speaker 8: you better ask me. At sixty nine, I reckon I
Speaker 8: might feel differently.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get closer. I just feel like I'm not
Speaker 1: ready to let it go yet. I love all the
Speaker 1: you know, Nivia and Dove campaigns, this beautiful gray hair,
Speaker 1: but I'm just not ready.
Speaker 8: I also don't think I'm going to have beautiful gray hair.
Speaker 8: I think I'm going to have really foul, nondescript color.
Speaker 8: The frieze is real. I still have to get color
Speaker 8: put in my hair to make it look like nice
Speaker 8: gray hair.
Speaker 1: Absolutely me too. That blue the purple shampoo. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining me Lasavana. You've got a plane
Speaker 1: to catch. It's been so fun. Thank you for having
Speaker 1: I am thrilled to welcome to the Chrissy Cast. Thanks
Speaker 1: some mom, Geldolf. I just want to I want to
Speaker 1: start with I'm so desperate for you to like me.
Speaker 9: Yep, and well you deranged to sort of pretend you
Speaker 9: just got into the left. When I got in, I mean,
Speaker 9: it's kind of sad.
Speaker 1: I've been following you a morning.
Speaker 9: Absolutely walking me at the Melbourne.
Speaker 1: I have, you know, tried to research as much as
Speaker 1: I can, and I have found that I've been doing
Speaker 1: this for over twenty years, and I found the bigger
Speaker 1: the name, the more bullshit there is written about them,
Speaker 1: absolutely on the internet. So forgive me if I say
Speaker 1: something that this is not true. You have said that, well,
Speaker 1: I hope you have, because you've also intimatu so I
Speaker 1: think this is true. People think I'm scruffy, Well I
Speaker 1: am a seven year old boy is not going to
Speaker 1: wash his clothes. He's just not. I am that person.
Speaker 1: And I heard that and I went, oh, maybe I've
Speaker 1: got this theory that who we are as a child,
Speaker 1: like we're born the way we are, and life sort
Speaker 1: of takes us away from that original person, the person
Speaker 1: that we're supposed to be. What did Bob Geldoff like
Speaker 1: to do in his heart and soul when he was
Speaker 1: a little boy.
Speaker 9: Well, you are at blank canvas. You've inherited a bunch
Speaker 9: of genes that will determine some characteristics are either way.
Speaker 1: You look.
Speaker 9: Some behavior as we now know, but the most of
Speaker 9: it is cultural or societal and what forms you. So
Speaker 9: that's Freuden.
Speaker 4: We know that.
Speaker 9: You know, always a psychiatrist will go to formative things
Speaker 9: in your experience. What did I like was a function
Speaker 9: of the conditions of my life, which very early weren't great.
Speaker 9: I mean, you know, I'm not playing a fiddle here.
Speaker 9: I didn't really think much about it at the time. Retrospectively,
Speaker 9: I feel sorry for that little boy, but not at
Speaker 9: the time. It just was what it was. So as
Speaker 9: you pointed out, you know, no one was going to
Speaker 9: do the washing. That was because my mum was dead
Speaker 9: and my dad, as I said, went away. No fault
Speaker 9: of us. Only had no choice. There was no economy
Speaker 9: in arms. It was the only job you could get.
Speaker 9: So it was myself and sisters. The oldest sister was seventeen.
Speaker 9: She was not going to be a certain good mother
Speaker 9: to a bratish little brother, and she got out quickly.
Speaker 1: So what's the age difference between you and your sisters?
Speaker 9: Between My eldest one was about eight to ten years.
Speaker 9: I think my middle one was five or six years.
Speaker 9: She was the school geek. She stayed in school. The
Speaker 9: nuns gave her food, and so I'd come back to
Speaker 9: the house and make my own dinner and stuff like that,
Speaker 9: and you know, it was it was maybe I.
Speaker 1: Remember it was a child cook, but what is a
Speaker 1: child cook?
Speaker 9: That's good whatever was in the cupboard. There was no
Speaker 9: fridge or TV or telephone, so we didn't have money.
Speaker 9: So what I remember cooking for myself. What I really
Speaker 9: liked cooking, not cooking, but really eating was rice with
Speaker 9: an oxo cube dissolved in the water. I sort of
Speaker 9: worked this out myself, plus a bit of bacon sliced
Speaker 9: up and put it put into the water, which gave
Speaker 9: it a smoky flavor. And then when that was cooked,
Speaker 9: I'd fried egg and put it on top foot so
Speaker 9: it was kind of a fried rice.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sort of a love gooring risotto.
Speaker 9: Well not without the peanutsy thing. You've got it out
Speaker 9: of the stuff. So yeah, I remembered that. And I
Speaker 9: guess though for lunch there was a scam going on
Speaker 9: because parents would never allow mothers would never allow their
Speaker 9: kids to have sugar sandwiches, you know, which is basically
Speaker 9: uncooked bread and butter pudding, you know, So I would
Speaker 9: make you know, sugar sandwiches and you know, it's bread, butter, sugar,
Speaker 9: and knowing that the guys you know wanted this, I'd
Speaker 9: make six sandwiches for myself every morning before going to school, and.
Speaker 1: I twelve pieces of bread.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and I'd swap them then far because they all
Speaker 9: wanted it. So I'd swapped one sugar sandwich was worth
Speaker 9: one to match or one egg sandwich, so two sandwiches
Speaker 9: for one one ham and thing. So I was the
Speaker 9: king of sandwiches in school, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 9: So yeah, it was all right. I mean I worked
Speaker 9: my way. The point is to your point, at that age,
Speaker 9: because of this, you become very self reliant, very independent,
Speaker 9: and very organized, you know. So the adjunct to what
Speaker 9: you said is that I was always scruffy, Yes, but
Speaker 9: I had a tidy mind. And that's the mistake people
Speaker 9: make because this shambling oath wanders into a meeting and
Speaker 9: he sits there apparently not listening and scratching and looking
Speaker 9: around and being distracted and doodling NonStop, not looking at anyone.
Speaker 9: But I'm listening intently, not not, That's what I do unconsciously,
Speaker 9: and they're going, you know, and in political well, in
Speaker 9: political meetings in particular. But I remember getting the Order
Speaker 9: of the Nile second Class from the President of the Sudan,
Speaker 9: who is of course inevitably some Copamami general who'd taken
Speaker 9: over the day before sort of thing. And they were
Speaker 9: giving me this medal, which is a amazing thing. It's
Speaker 9: this blaze of gold, silver and ivory and ceramic on
Speaker 9: my chest. And I walked in I will not go
Speaker 9: into these meetings without journalists to make a record, because
Speaker 9: I don't want to be nailed for being, you know,
Speaker 9: not saying the right thing or pulling up these leaders
Speaker 9: on an amnesty report or anything. And so the general
Speaker 9: walks over to the smartest looking general. Are the smartest
Speaker 9: looking journalist, says mister Geldoff, You know so and so
Speaker 9: so some the journalists just pointed at me, and you
Speaker 9: could see the guy got him.
Speaker 1: You know that I was there.
Speaker 9: My sneakers and jeans had hadn't been washed, and hair
Speaker 9: all over the place. I'd just come out of the desert,
Speaker 9: so like, you know, I was a mess, and he
Speaker 9: kind of just slapped it on my chest and said,
Speaker 9: off you go. That sort of thing happens. So it's
Speaker 9: a useful device when it comes to those sorts of things.
Speaker 1: Do you think sometimes a ruffed childhood or discomfort in
Speaker 1: childhood is a good thing.
Speaker 9: No, I'm not convinced by that. It messes you up.
Speaker 9: I mean I'm not. You know, there's deep anger in me,
Speaker 9: and my animus is rage. My response to something that
Speaker 9: I think is unfair is rage. I temper it because
Speaker 9: I'm old. But when I was when the band started,
Speaker 9: the Rats, that howl of anger, that is our early music,
Speaker 9: which powered us up the charts because that's what people felt.
Speaker 9: They were disenfranchised. Brittain had twenty seven percent inflation when
Speaker 9: we arrived in England. Twenty seven percent. I mean what
Speaker 9: you know, everything you buy is twenty seven percent more
Speaker 9: expensive there for your wages twenty seven percent less. That's
Speaker 9: not possible to live and.
Speaker 1: A lot of people couldn't afford it when it was
Speaker 1: twenty seven percent less at that time as well.
Speaker 9: They couldn't, So you know, where's the future. What's the
Speaker 9: future for the young. Ireland had a zero economy viz
Speaker 9: my father, you know, and so when we came of
Speaker 9: age there was nothing for us. A form of treason
Speaker 9: by a government when they cannot give their younger future.
Speaker 9: And you know New York was bankrupt. New York, the
Speaker 9: great City, had declared bankruptcy. So it's not a mistake
Speaker 9: that out of New York you get the Ramones. Out
Speaker 9: of Orange, you get the boomtown rats. Out of the UK,
Speaker 9: you get the class and the sex pistols, and we
Speaker 9: all meet at this full crumb of anger and demand change.
Speaker 9: That's the purpose of rock and roll in my time.
Speaker 9: And you know all of us had the same thing.
Speaker 9: You know, this is crap.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 9: The first thing you heard Johnny Rotten say was I'm
Speaker 9: the Antichrist. I'm an anarchist. There is no future in
Speaker 9: England's dreaming. That's brilliant. Joe Strummer of the Clash, I
Speaker 9: want to riot on my own, you know. Bob Geldoff,
Speaker 9: the first thing you heard him say was the world
Speaker 9: owes me a living I don't want to be like you.
Speaker 9: I'm going to be like me, you know. And so
Speaker 9: this blast, you know, so it found itself at the
Speaker 9: right moment, at the right time, expressed through this really
Speaker 9: good band, and I was lucky, you know. But it's
Speaker 9: still the thing. And where I will agree with you
Speaker 9: if you've had bad luck when you were a kid
Speaker 9: in your upbringing. Then I think you recognize you're very
Speaker 9: alert to it happening around you. You're very alert to
Speaker 9: people on the street, You're very alert to what the
Speaker 9: news is telling you, because pathetically, you associate your own
Speaker 9: conditions with that, and that would be conditions of it's
Speaker 9: not right, it's unjust injustice, and you know, we had
Speaker 9: no money and it's crap. Poverty is crap, greed is
Speaker 9: not good, greed is stupid, and so all of those
Speaker 9: things that you imbibe, but you're not aware they're informing you.
Speaker 9: You just get on with your life the best possible
Speaker 9: way you can. I just got into a rock and
Speaker 9: roll band at a period when rock and roll was
Speaker 9: the lingua franca of the planet. The common language wasn't English,
Speaker 9: it was pop music, and everyone could understand pop music,
Speaker 9: and so it seemed logical to me to talk to
Speaker 9: the world in this common language through the you know,
Speaker 9: through this new medium of satellites about a common problem
Speaker 9: of thirty two million people dined unnecessarily of hunger.
Speaker 1: Do you believe that the timing of the Boomtown Rats
Speaker 1: was perfect because you learned to express your anger, be
Speaker 1: the voice of a whole generation of it.
Speaker 9: It's luck, timing and talent, I mean, but rock and
Speaker 9: roll and technology go hand in hand. You can't get
Speaker 9: Elvis and little Richard unless you have the transistor. And
Speaker 9: the transistor was the means to the glue of the
Speaker 9: Pax Americana. American troops were all over the world. How
Speaker 9: did they stick together through the transistor? This new thing?
Speaker 9: And what was the music that first utilized that? And
Speaker 9: little Richard, who you know, weren't allowed into the American
Speaker 9: dream because they were on the wrong side of the tracks.
Speaker 9: But you know, Elvis young, beautiful, force of nature, you know,
Speaker 9: brilliant understanding of you know, his times. Little Richard, young, black, gay, beautiful,
Speaker 9: he was never going to get on Telly, But here
Speaker 9: they come. The Beatles were the function of television. Britain
Speaker 9: gets TV for the first time and hear these working
Speaker 9: class boys who don't even understand the word deferent. So
Speaker 9: when they meet monarchies and prime ministers, they're just laughing.
Speaker 9: You know, they don't understand that your hair has to
Speaker 9: be this way. We want it this way, you know,
Speaker 9: And they laughed the whole time. Are the Rolling Stones
Speaker 9: contemptuous insolence? They will sort of wander on stage picking
Speaker 9: their noses. No concession to show business at all, you know.
Speaker 9: And and so you go forward, and you know, you
Speaker 9: get the punk thing with SATELLITESNSE and stuff like that,
Speaker 9: and then you guess the death of rock and roll
Speaker 9: with the Introders and the web.
Speaker 1: Bob Guild of Webbing wrapped up. But I could talk
Speaker 1: to you for ever. Thank you so much for your
Speaker 1: time today, because haven't we had a lovely time. I'll
Speaker 1: see you back here next week for a few more
Speaker 1: highlights that you might not have heard. Have a great week,
Speaker 1: Remember your water, get a good night sleep.