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Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of The

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Speaker 1: front I'm Claire Harvey. In this week's episode, we take

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Speaker 1: a deep dive into The Cruel Sea. Music writer Andrew

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Speaker 1: McMillan sits down.

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Speaker 2: For a sandwich.

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Speaker 1: With frontman Text Perkins.

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Speaker 2: You don't want me to be angry, and then.

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Speaker 1: I chat with Andrew and get his thoughts on the

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Speaker 1: band's new album. There's something refreshing about a candid rock star,

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Speaker 1: and they don't come much more candid than The Cruel

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Speaker 1: Sea's frontman Text Perkins, sitting down with a review before

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Speaker 1: the last show of a recent tour opening up for

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Speaker 1: Aussie rock icon's Cold Chisel, Text said, let's just do.

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Speaker 3: Our g do well and get the fuck out of

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Speaker 3: the way.

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Speaker 1: When he was asked about the band's approach.

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Speaker 3: To the tour, nobody's truly there to see us, but

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Speaker 3: I figured if we can win ten percent of these

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Speaker 3: fifteen thousand people will fill all the venues that we

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Speaker 3: plan to play on our album tour.

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Speaker 1: From John Lennon to Johnny Rotten, rock stars are irreverent.

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Speaker 1: It's part of the gig. But when asked about the

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Speaker 1: experience of touring with Cold Chisel, Tex Perkins came over

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Speaker 1: all sincere.

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Speaker 3: There's a lot of love in the crew and the

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Speaker 3: bands and in the audience, and it's impossible not to

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Speaker 3: get a little emotional and a little bit teary when

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Speaker 3: you see that many people united in their joy and

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Speaker 3: love and what that band means to people.

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Speaker 2: They are truly Australia's band.

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Speaker 1: If Cold Chisel is a Australia's band, maybe the Cruel

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Speaker 1: Sea is Chisel's younger brother, a bit quieter, a bit

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Speaker 1: more mysterious. The band started off as an instrumental group

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Speaker 1: in the eighties.

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Speaker 4: While texts I was in bands like Thug and Toilet Duck,

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Speaker 4: but it was all just you know, making stupid noises

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Speaker 4: and screaming and experimenting backwards vocals, just all just avant

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Speaker 4: guard silliness.

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Speaker 1: It was Texas collaborator in Thug, Peter Reid, whom text

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Speaker 1: describes as a sound genius who introduced him to the

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Speaker 1: band that would change his life and the sound of

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Speaker 1: Australian rock.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I visited him one afternoon and he said I've got

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Speaker 3: to go. I've got to go and mix a band

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Speaker 3: at the Hall Park Hotel.

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Speaker 2: And I said, oh, come with you, and he.

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Speaker 3: Said, na, na, you wouldn't like it, but I came

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Speaker 3: along anyway, and yes, he was doing this sound and

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Speaker 3: there was an empty four channel lighting board with on

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Speaker 3: off and maybe a couple of faders.

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Speaker 2: And that's how.

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Speaker 3: I became the band's lighting tech nition.

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Speaker 1: Text would eventually graduate from lighting tech to front man.

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Speaker 3: You can only be satisfied with making fart noises as

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Speaker 3: a career for so long.

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Speaker 1: But when it comes to the songwriting process, the cruel

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Speaker 1: Sy still functions as an instrumental band plus one led

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Speaker 1: by guitarist Danny Rumer.

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Speaker 2: Danny's very generous.

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Speaker 3: I can change any instrumental that are envisage, you know,

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Speaker 3: I think this could become a song.

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Speaker 2: It's already giving me some.

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Speaker 3: Kind of emotional guidance of what the lyrics could be.

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Speaker 3: Or sometimes I just hear them and go, well, that's

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Speaker 3: great as it is. I love instrumental music myself. That's

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Speaker 3: what attracted me to the band in the first place.

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Speaker 3: Hip hop can do without the rapping as far as sumptins.

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Speaker 2: The instrumental four. So that's a very early song.

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Speaker 3: It's on the second album, but I think that was

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Speaker 3: one of the first tracks that we started to get

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Speaker 3: played on the radio. To tell you the truth, I

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Speaker 3: think I'd probably put off just as many people as

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Speaker 3: I attract. I was listening to a tune which I

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Speaker 3: by then was quite familiar with. It's an instrumental that

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Speaker 3: the cruel Sy had called King Tide, and it had

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Speaker 3: this wonderful guitar or if they went down, down down,

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Speaker 3: and then my subconsciousness kept in that sounds like down

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Speaker 3: really low down below in you and down below.

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Speaker 2: My entry into the cruel Sy.

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Speaker 3: I wanted to be as instrumental as possible. I mean literally,

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Speaker 3: just making words out of what the guitar sounds like

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Speaker 3: it's already saying was my approach, and I think that

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Speaker 3: was the polite thing to do.

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Speaker 1: Coming up what keeps these old guys rocking? Andrew McMillan

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Speaker 1: is the Australian's music writer. Andrew, you were with Tex

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Speaker 1: Perkins before their last Cold chise All show.

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Speaker 5: It's funny to think of what The cruel Sy might

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Speaker 5: have become if they had never invited Texts to join

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Speaker 5: them on vocals. My suspicions they would have remained a

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Speaker 5: small pub gig kind of band, playing to small audiences

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Speaker 5: around Sydney and maybe Interstate, but when Text joins, they

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Speaker 5: got his charisma and his songwriting smarts and his ability

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Speaker 5: to connect with audiences. They regrouped in late twenty twenty

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Speaker 5: three after a long time between gigs. One of their

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Speaker 5: most loved members, James Crookshank, had died in twenty fifteen

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Speaker 5: from bowel cancer, so they hadn't played any gigs between

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Speaker 5: then and twenty twenty three until their record label approached

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Speaker 5: them and said, Hey, the thirtieth anniversary of your biggest

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Speaker 5: record is coming up. We're going to reissue it on vinyl,

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Speaker 5: or actually issue it on vinyl for the first time.

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Speaker 5: Would you consider getting together to do some shows in

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Speaker 5: support of that, and they decided to do that. They

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Speaker 5: asked a new guitarist to join the fold, a guy

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Speaker 5: named Matt Walker, and it was a really well received tour.

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Speaker 5: They saw that theaters around the country, and I think

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Speaker 5: shortly thereafter, the Cruel Sy became a viable option for

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Speaker 5: col Chisel to ask them to be national support for

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Speaker 5: colch Chissel's fiftieth anniversary tour. So they weren't headlining, but

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Speaker 5: they were a very well known support band to many

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Speaker 5: of colch Chistl's listeners already and it was a pretty

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Speaker 5: good opportunity to get in front of about two hundred

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Speaker 5: and twenty five thousand people across twenty three shows nationally.

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Speaker 1: How did you see the fans of the crowds receiving

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Speaker 1: the cruel sea? What was the vibe like?

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Speaker 5: They were just in fantastic form. They had the runs

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Speaker 5: on the board, not just the decades of history, but

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Speaker 5: the weeks of following Col Chissel around the country and

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Speaker 5: playing to big crowds where they can walk on stage

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Speaker 5: without a sound check even and deliver, which is what

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Speaker 5: they've been doing to audiences small and large for thirty

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Speaker 5: seven years.

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Speaker 1: By that point, it seems like it might be a

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Speaker 1: young man's game rock and roll. But are they proving

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Speaker 1: that you don't have to be twenty two to rock?

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Speaker 5: That's part of it for sure. I think tex Perkins

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Speaker 5: just turned sixty recently within the last few months. But

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Speaker 5: the rigors of touring, they become demanding on the body

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Speaker 5: as it ages naturally, like even touring on buses, vans, planes,

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Speaker 5: It all takes us toll on the body, let alone

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Speaker 5: the late nights early mornings. Add in potential drug and

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Speaker 5: alcohol use. Maybe not so much now, but earlier in

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Speaker 5: these guys' careers for sure, which they've all spoken about previously.

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Speaker 5: It's a demanding job, but I think having lost their

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Speaker 5: friend and bandmate James Crookshank to bowel cancer, and I

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Speaker 5: think more than ever, all of them appreciate how lucky

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Speaker 5: they are to continue doing this thing they love called

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Speaker 5: playing music to their many fans around the country. And

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Speaker 5: I think the new album is a fine statement of

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Speaker 5: not just their intent and their ability as artists, but

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Speaker 5: almost like a survivor's statement. We're still here, We've still

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Speaker 5: got the chemistry, charisma and ability, and here's our best

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Speaker 5: attempt at offering up something that can match it with

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Speaker 5: the best of our catalog. And I think it.

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Speaker 1: Does down to the last few bites of that fish sandwich.

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Speaker 1: Reflecting on almost forty years together with the band, tex

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Speaker 1: Perkins cast his mind back to that day when his

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Speaker 1: mate Peter Reid suggested he not come along to see

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Speaker 1: the band in nineteen eighty seven.

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Speaker 2: It's a total sliding doors moment.

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Speaker 3: If I'd have gone, okay, I'll go ahead, and then

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Speaker 3: I might have joined it completely different. Maybe life would

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Speaker 3: have been much better had I not gone to the

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Speaker 3: Harrol Pag Hotels.

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Speaker 1: Andrew McMillan is the Australian's music writer and you've been

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Speaker 1: listening to music by the Cruel Sea throughout this episode.

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Speaker 1: This is the title track to their album called Straight

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Speaker 1: Into the Sun, which comes out on March seven. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for joining us on the front. Our team is Kristin Amiot, Leat, Samaglue,

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Speaker 1: Tiffany Dimak, Joshua Burton, Stephanie Coombs, Jasper Leek, who produced

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Speaker 1: and edited this episode, and me Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 4: Stay gear and don't see