Reflecting on 2023: Memorable Music Moments and Interviews From Chatting Tracks

Robbie:
2023. What a crazy year. Hello. It's Robbie from Chatting Tracks, and welcome to this 2023 roundup. I've had an absolutely amazing year on the podcast this year. I've spoke to some incredible people, So, Marcus, I never thought I'd speak to, and I've done some amazing things. So I thought I'd just do a bit of a recap over the year and see what's happened. So first of all, we gotta address the fact that the podcast changed.

Robbie:
Originally, it was the 80s Rewind Show podcast, and I realized after a little while that I painted myself into a corner. And I was struggling to get guests, and I'd spoke to a lot of people I wanted to speak to in that period. So I decided to change it to the Chatting Track's music community. That way, I can talk to people from different dramas in different decades, and it didn't matter. As long as it's music, that's all that counts about this. So, first of all, the name change. That's the first thing that happened this year. You know, I love the eighties.

Robbie:
It's my favorite decade, to be honest with you. But I wanted to talk to more bands and more artists from from different genres because I got, Like, there's lots of songs that I like that I just wanted to dig into a little bit more. So I decided to diversify to find out more about these songs than ice, and I've done exactly that. But we did start the year in the eighties. So let's start right at the start of the year when I spoke to Vic Fuzzbox or Vicki Perks from I've Got A Fuzzbox, and I'm gonna use it. They were big in the eighties with such hits as International Rescue And Pink Sunshine. Are they asked Vicky, where did the name come from?

Speaker B:
So I think it was just called Fuzzbox, but we were only called Fuzzbox over there because They thought our full name, we've got a fuzz box, and we're gonna use it. They thought that was rude and that we were trying to be saucy. I mean, we were innocent. Innocent Schoolgirls. Robbie.

Robbie:
I mean, now you say that, I get the connotation of why an American would think The fuzz box word is a rude word. I get that now. I've never actually thought of it that way. Yeah.

Speaker B:
Oh, well, there you are. You see, you're innocent. Like, we were. I mean, at first, for those, you may not know. It's a distortion pedal for a a bass or a guitar, and it goes makes it fuzzy. And we use it in every song partly because it we like the sound, but also because it covers up all your mistakes more.

Robbie:
Yeah.

Speaker B:
It's yeah. We did a lot of fuzz Phase and fuzz, flange, and, my dear, that sounds dodgy. But, yeah, we did get lots of people. The audience was often going, show us your fuzz box. You know?

Robbie:
Oh, wow.

Speaker B:
You'd be like, oh god. Here we go. And you pick it up at, you know, the pedal and just show it. Alright. Can we get on with the gig now? You know?

Robbie:
The The wonderful Vicky Perks there from I've Got A Fuzzbox, and I'm gonna use it, talking about some of the problems I had with the name. I think it's a great name. I don't see what the problem is. Was an absolute delight to talk to, and she's just so funny. And the band is absolutely brilliant, and they're touring at the minute as well. And she also mentioned in the interview, they're working on, like, a scrapbook type thing of, paper cuttings and News like calls of the time, so you might be able to get some more stuff about Fuzzbox coming up soon. After that, I had a chat with the wonderful Clark Dachula From Johnny H. Jazz who had such hits as Shattered Dreams and I Don't Wanna Be A Hero, just to name a few there.

Robbie:
And we spoke about how he wrote the hit Shattered Dreams. How did a dream come up out. Was it lyrics first? Was it melody first? Did it all sort of just click, or was it a dream and you wrote it down? How did that work?

Speaker C:
No. Which is sort of interesting how that does happen. Yes. Yeah.

Robbie:
You know? Yeah.

Speaker C:
I wrote it in this room, And I wrote it on a piano, which is over there, which you can't see. It's still there. I've got my old Steinway next to me, my Steinway Grand, which has been with me many years. But the piano I learned on, my Kemble, my dad's My mom and dad's Campbell is still over there. I'm actually looking after my mom now in her older age. So I've set up a studio in the room where I used to have a Rudimentary recording setup as a as a kid.

Robbie:
Wow.

Speaker C:
So it's it's full of vibes and memories here. So Shatter Dreams, I was I was writing it on the piano over there, and my dad came in, and he didn't used to do this. He always gave me We talked a lot about music, and he guided me when he felt it was appropriate. But he came in, he said, what's that you're working on? I said, it's called Shattered Dreams, dad. He went quiet, and he said, I think you've written your 1st hit.

Robbie:
The wonderful Clark Dachshay there talking about writing Shattered Dreams, probably one of the biggest hits of the eighties. If you like any of these interviews and these clips, don't forget all these interviews available on this channel. If you're listening to it on YouTube or if you list it on Spotify, wherever you are, All the interviews are available, and they're definitely worth listening to because I found out some fantastic stuff. And I've had such an amazing year interviewing some amazing people. Talking of, You know, wanting to be broader with the show and getting more people involved in it. I spoke to Chris Hughes, who was Adam Ant's drummer for many, many years, and his name was Merrick in in the band. And he became a producer for Tears of Fears, and he produced many, many albums, including Paul McCartney, and and worked with Paul McCartney. Many, many albums.

Robbie:
And he's a fantastic guy, fantastic producer. Some these people you meet, they're just so lovely that I had problems originally. We we're hooking up online. All the interviews are done online. That's why sometimes they sound a bit weird and swelchy, but we were talking online, and it just, we had problems with connecting one day, and it took us 3 interviews to get an entire hour done. And bless him, every time he was so patient, kind that he came back every single time and gave me a 100% of his time with the interview, and it could not have been nicer. And he's such a nice man, and and the songs he brought to the world have been It's a bit remarkable. Anyway, I spoke to her about 2 Saphiras and music from the big chair of the album, and he had this to say about it.

Robbie:
Songs of the Big Chair was the main album where you produced the whole thing. It seemed to be a more polished album, a more focused album. Was that the idea going into it that to make it a lot?

Speaker D:
I think it had I think it

Speaker B:
had quite a fractured Stop.

Speaker D:
Wow. You know, there was I think there was a there was a point where they weren't sure they wanted they may have wanted to you have someone else produce it in order to try something else? There was a period when it wasn't clear whether we were gonna be doing that. Right.

Speaker E:
And I

Speaker D:
think we started and thought, I don't know if this is going anywhere and not quite sure. And I think Iain Stanley, who who They've been a mainstay within the the team. He he I think he had a conversation with Ron and said, no. No. You're nuts. We let's let's keep working with him. You know? Come on. Let's just just do it.

Robbie:
Chris Hughes there talking about working with Tears of Fears. And it just goes to show, even if you're a well known producer, You might not always get picked for the job. Amazing. It was a great interview. I love talking to him, and we spoke about Adam and some of the people that he worked with. So if you get a chance, check that interview out. You'll absolutely love it. It's it's brilliant.

Robbie:
So because of the podcast, like I said, it's online. We get to talk to people from all over the world. And the next lady I spoke to was an eighties legend, the wonderful Teresa Bazaar from Dollar. That was my first is it Atlantic co? I had to call them in Australia. So I spoke to you about 11 in the morning to me, and I think it was about nearly midnight for Teresa's. It was a it was a crazy time because I have bright sunshine, and Teresa was ready to go to bed because it was nighttime. I think it's nearly midnight for Teresa. So bless you.

Robbie:
She stayed away to speak to me, and she was now super delighted, and we talked about Dollar. And she was learning to do a lot of production work as well during the eighties, and she worked with Trevor Horn. So she watched him like a hawk and discovered how he did stuff. In this part of the interview, we spoke about how she wrote their 1st hit, love's got a hold on me. You had, love's got a hold on me as well, which was your 1st self written one. Is that right? So can we talk about the writing of that? Was that easy to write? Was it quick song to to do?

Speaker F:
So we're in our flat and, had my upright piano sort of stuck in bedroom there, really. And, it was inspired by the Bee Gees How Deep is Your Love Because I love the beat again, it's harmonious. You know, I'm going, how do they do that? How do they create that sound? It's not just that it's a sound. And I thought it sounded so airy, which I guess resonated with me. And I thought, try and do something that suits you. I'm not trying to do something that is the opposite, which is what we all like to do. You've got red hair, make it brown, you know, whatever. Yeah.

Speaker F:
I think that the the melody came quite easily, and It was obviously I was writing it for David because that's that was the you know, if you got a hit record And with the guys and dolls experience, don't don't upset the applecart. Just stick to the formula. Yeah. And, Yeah. I I kind of I I liked it was a very natural, easy song to write, And and it and it was, ideas of, you know, summer breezes, you know, and that lovely sort of freshness. And, we went to the studio, and he couldn't sing it. I remember Chris Neil looking at me because I was in the control room the day he was in the studio, and he said, but You wrote this. Right? I said, yeah.

Speaker F:
He said, it's in his key. And I said, yes. And he said and he looked at me. I said, shrugged. I mean, I thought because, You know, that's David. David's you know, he could if he got something, he'd be okay. If it didn't fit instantly with him, you he couldn't learn it. You know, he just it just was he just was it had to be a natural instinctive thing.

Speaker F:
And, so that's when Chris said, well, You go and have a go. And I remember I'm a I'm a very polite guy to say, oh, no. No. No. I said it's not in my key, and and That's not what we're meant to do. And you look at me and said, just go and have a try. And I hate doing that. Maybe from when I was a kid at school And, you know, not achieving and a bit embarrassed.

Speaker F:
And I still thought, oh my gosh. I thought, okay. You know, do the right playing, and I wandered in, and, obviously, I've got David's expression in the control room, and Chris expected me looking at him and thinking, this is gonna be horrible. I know it's gonna be high. You know? And I thought, just just try. You know? What can you do? And, When I started singing the melody, you know, there's Chris Neal beaming through the studio. He's going like this on me. I'm going, Really? And he goes, really? Really? And I'm going, okay.

Speaker F:
Because, you know, you have this helmet on. You are the backing. You know, I've always been a backing vocalist in guys and adults. You know, this is my job. That's what I do. I like to do everything I do very well for my ballet training, be very specific. I'm a perfectionist, And suddenly, it was very different.

Robbie:
Teresa Bazaar, they're talking about how she wrote the song Love's Got a Hold on Me. It's interesting to see how much really did when he was talking during the interview, because it seemed very like David Van Day driven dollar. But it turns out Teresa was doing literally 90% of the work behind the scenes, And it was wonderful to hear her side of the story and just get her version of things that happened. So I was just gonna take a quick break and say, you know, the year's been crazy. I've tried lots of new things this year, And it's been just really experimental and completely different for me. I went to 2 farewell tours, and I thought I'd go to Elton John. I bought my tickets back in 2018, and they got shuffled around. I got to see Elton John this year, and he was amazing.

Robbie:
It was a fantastic goodbye tour. And I saw Kiss on their farewell tour as well. I didn't get to think I'd get to see them. I got a 10 pound ticket. I made got me a ticket for 10. I went to see it. It was well worth way more than 10 quid. It was a brilliant show, and they ended fantastically.

Robbie:
Also, the years you know, the chart's been crazy this year. The best album was The Rolling Stones of Hackney Diamonds. The best single of the year was The Beatles, with Now and Then. And, obviously, the Christmas number one that's just gone this year was, Wham We've Last Christmas. So we took, you know, A step back and looking at these older bands is I'm actually wondering if it's the state of the music industry today that people prefer safer and older stuff that they know. But one of the big changes for me personally is something that I never thought I'd get into was doing live streaming and a YouTube channel. So Chat N Tracks as the Chat and Chat's music community on YouTube, where I've got some of these interviews where you can actually watch interviews rather than listen to them. And also on there, I'm doing reaction videos to songs, unboxing to bits that I buy, and just generally talking music on there as well.

Robbie:
So if you want a bit of a visual thing, you can pop over to that. I'm sure there'll be links in the description, and Everywhere you get links, then we go to the YouTube channel. And it and it's just been amazing to do live streaming. My friend, Pete Saxa, has a show called unknown sounds, where he It. Gets unknown bands and unknown singers and the songwriters. And we play the videos, and we talk about the songs, and we just basically do a review of the track with the artist. And it's been really, really good fun, and we just sit there, and we talk for an hour and play music and just talk about stuff that's going on in the charts at the time. And if you get a chance, check out those.

Robbie:
An we call it chatting sounds because it's unknown sounds and chatting tracks mixed together. So if you get a chance, check those out as well. I'm sure there'll be a link I'll put 1 in there as well for you just to find it if you wanna have a a live chat. And people can talk to us live as well, which is nice. So we interview some of the artists that he's on the show, and we also talk about music. And people can talk to us live during the event, which is wonderful. Anyway, I'll stop talking about that because I will talk about it all day, because I really enjoy Next up, we've got Mike Edwards from the fantastic band Jesus Jones that had hits with International Bright Young Thing, just to name 1. We spoke about how he went about songwriting, and does he enjoy it? Well, you got your 1st band together.

Robbie:
Were you starting to song write at a really young age, or were you sort of just doing covers and finding your way through?

Speaker G:
Yeah. Co covers initially like everyone else, and then you you you start writing your own stuff, which, of course, was absolutely appalling. Yeah. I I know there are some people, and, I I think Jerry and the band has has talked to Miles Hunt because Jerry played in the Wanda stuff for for a short while to to help them out. And I think it's it's one of the songs off of the Wunder Stuff's first album that was, I think, maybe the 1st song Miles ever wrote money was something like 16. You know? And it's, obviously, it's on their 1st album. It's a really good song. Yeah.

Speaker G:
And I'm just, I'm just full of admiration because, you know, I didn't write anything Even halfway decent for the first 100 songs, I'd say. It was all absolutely dire better than before then. So that's that's impressive.

Robbie:
Mike Edwards there from Jesus Jones talking about songwriting and how we started. He was such an ordinary person. It for for me. Because I remember back in the nineties, I bought the single in National Brighton things, and then Top of the Pops was about. And then you you sort of go and watch it, and then you'd see him with his sort of shorts on, and he's, because he was into skateboarding and skateboarding shoes And his hat on backwards and that sort of stuff, and he had that real rebel sort of attitude. And then, you know, and then you meet 1 line, and he speaks about, you know, drinking green tea and going cycling at the weekend. And it's It's just really strange when because there was no jump for me. There was like a 30 year jump.

Robbie:
But he was such a nice fella, and he was so down to Earth. I could spoke to him all day, and we spoke about him. His influence has been the sweet, you know, like blockbuster and songs like that, which you never would have expected from Jesus Jones to be influenced by. I just don't know why I didn't make the connection Sooner, but I just didn't. But he was a lovely guy. Yeah. Again, any of you is in the description somewhere or on this channel. Try and find it and listen to it because absolutely charming fella, he he was incredible.

Robbie:
So like I was saying, as I've diversified now, I can speak to more people from different genres. I went to another nineties artist and the wonderful Lee Murray from Let Loose. Now you might remember Lee. He was the drummer. There was a 3 piece band. Richie was the singer, and Lee was the drummer. And they had a massive hit with Crazy For You that come out in the summer in the nineties. And I remember they came out, and I've got a full disclaimer.

Robbie:
I didn't like them at the time. They seemed to be too posy. You know, me and my friends went to Pearl Jam. It was grunge and Music that made you stare at your feet, and this pop band come out with these pop songs. And we were like, don't like them. Don't wanna know. Turns out, you know, 30 years later, I love the track, Crazy for you. It's absolutely brilliant.

Robbie:
Anyway, Lee Murray went on to tell me how they wrote the song. Also, Lee's a lovely guy, and he's doing a fantastic work with, people with autism and using drums it. To find out how to express themselves using drums. So if you go to the link on Lee's episode, there's a link to his website where you can find out How to get involved with that charity because it's absolutely fantastic. Anyway, this is how Let Loose wrote the song Crazy For You. How did the, like, crazy few come along? Was the did Richie have the demo then, or were you playing that at the time live?

Speaker H:
Or We used to go around to Richie's house. He had a little flat in Bessemer Green, And I used to drive down there. It took me about hour and a half, and we were down there every day constantly sort of writing songs. He was the main writer, but we'd all sort of chuck in ideas and try and come up with songs. And Actually, crazy for you, we had a quite a turbulent relationship, Richie and I. We we'd had a row on this particular occasion. I can't remember. I was a bit oversensitive, and I can't remember what he said, but something upset me, and I stormed off.

Speaker H:
And he was writing the sort of intro and bits and pieces of Crazy For You, and he said, I need help with this. And I stormed off and went downstairs and sat with his mom. He baked beans on toast. And, actually, it was crazy. If you we never really liked it that much, we we thought it was alright. It was Very sort of fluffy and but it was quite catchy, and it went through various different you know, we worked on it a long time trying to toughen it up a little bit, but it was what it was. You know, we remixed it a 100 times trying to make it a bit more of a rock song, but, you know, it was the lyrics were quite sort of fluffy again and poppy. So we kinda parked it for a little while, but then Virgin really liked it, Virgin Records.

Speaker H:
And that ended up sort of again, we produced that all So many different times and changed it and rearranged it and but then we got dropped by Virgin. So, again, it was all parked, and we went back to writing more songs. So It was kinda just hanging around for quite a few years.

Robbie:
Lee Murray there from Let Loose telling me about how they wrote the track Crazy For You. It sounds like a proper turbulent band, but they some of the music in the movie was absolutely fantastic. Now it's not often you get to interview 1 of your idols. And I got to speak to the wonderful Nigel Planner from the young ones and bad news. The young ones is my all time favorite program. I've got loads of stuff, loads of memorabilia from it. It's probably the greatest TV show ever made, in my opinion. It's it makes me laugh to this day, even though I've seen it thousands of times.

Robbie:
So I reached out to Nigel, We played Neil Pye on the show and just said, would you like to have a chat? And he said, yes. And, yeah, again, we had Internet problems, and we took about 3 sessions to get the interview done. And Nigel could not have been any kind with his time and his patience with it. If you've never done a podcast, it's hard to describe how it is to meet your idol and not go absolutely bonkers with it. Anyway, this is the wonderful Nigel Plater, one of my heroes, talking about Neil's heavy concept album and the follow-up to Hold In My Shoe, White Bicycles. Just talk about Neil's Heavy concept album. How did it come about? Was you approached, or did you approach someone with an idea for it? Because I know Dave Stewart produced it, didn't he? So did Dave come to you?

Speaker E:
Or

Speaker I:
Yeah. Dave Stewart produced the single too.

Robbie:
Right.

Speaker I:
So what happened was we a a a mate of mine, Alan McGowan, who was a music booker. He booked a comedy and music club in Brighton called The Witch Hunt. He had the idea. He said, you should be doing a single as Neil. Why don't you do Hole in My Shirt? It was just a damn good idea. And we toyed with the idea of doing it with Merillian, who I was supporting at some of their gigs at time. And for some reason, that fell through. I can't remember why.

Speaker I:
And then I can't equally remember who it was who suggested Dave Stewart. I think Dave Stewart got to hear that we were doing it, and he was keen. I think I think that's what happened. He got to hear that I was looking around for someone. So I went to meet him, and That clicked immediately. This is not Dave Stewart of the Arhythmics, by the way. This is Dave Stewart of Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin. And so we went to Facebook's studio in Cambridge and and made the single.

Speaker I:
And then it was such a big hit that we And the record company told Bullets Maker an album. And the record company wanted a second single, and they insisted on it being my My White Bicycle, which I never liked that one as much as I I felt we should've done something more like Itchiku Park The 2nd single. I think Neil doing Itchigoo Park would have been really funny.

Robbie:
And you know what? I think he's completely right. Imagine Neil doing Itchigoo Park. That would have been absolutely incredible. What an interview. What a guy. I said to my, my friends and family, if I stopped my podcast now, I would have been totally happy after the interview. I've interviewed an hero of mine. And when you meet these people and they're so nice, it just makes you think you should meet your heroes.

Robbie:
I don't care what anybody says. Anyway, as I was saying, because I wanted to get more diverse, I was interested all aspects of music. And I spoke to the wonderful journalist, Chris Welsh. Now Chris Welsh was a guy that was around in the sixties, seventies, and the eighties, And he's interviewed every single band you can think of, and he knows a lot of these people personally. He was an absolute diamond to talk to, and he was just so full of knowledge. He's currently writing a book, autobiography about his life, which I cannot wait to read. It's gonna be full of such amazing stories. But in this one, he tells us how Led Zeppelin became Led Zeppelin.

Speaker J:
John Barnum, I 1st saw playing with, Led Zeppelin, then called, it's still called the the New Yarlbergs at the Marquis. And I heard all about Jimmy Page had told me about this new band he was forming. He came into the office. Can you imagine that?

Robbie:
They they

Speaker J:
all came up to see me in the office to tell me about their new bands after Cream and Hendrix Experience. Now it was Led Zeppelin. And, yeah, he said, what's the name of the band?

Robbie:
And he says

Speaker J:
it's called Led Zeppelin. And I wrote it down in my notebook. I said, no. You spelled it wrong. It's l e d, not l e a d.

Robbie:
The wonderful journalist, Chris Welsh, his autobiography is definitely something that I'm gonna get and devour and read. He just knew everybody. The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bo, you name it. Mark Bowland, he knew everybody, and he's such a lovely fella as well. It was one of those interviews where I could have listened to him just tell me stories for hours and hours and hours, but I thought I want to find out more about the man and about his life, and his life is fascinating. And a lot of the stories that he comes across, Like, meeting Led Zeppelin and Bolin, they're all accidental. Everything he did in the music world is accidental, but he was right there in the middle of the most amazing times in music. So I got a wonderful email during the summer from a guy.

Robbie:
There was a manager of a guy called Louis Prima Junior. Louis Prima senior was a jazz singer who was in Jungle Book. So I'm not gonna tell you much more, but I interviewed his son, Louis Prima Junior, and he was a really lovely guy. He's out there touring at the moment doing jazz infused shows, Swing jazz, and the energy and the amount of effort this man puts into a show is absolutely incredible. I don't know how he does it. I mean, you know, I'm half his age, and I still couldn't do it. It's it's phenomenal stuff. So, anyway, here's Louie Primasini talking about his dad.

Speaker K:
Well, my father, he's tough to tough to describe because he was his. I've always felt he was his own style of music and his own style of entertainer. He didn't follow any mold. I think he was a forerunner We're a front runner in every music style change. My father had his 1st band as a teenager in the twenties in New Orleans, Louisiana 19 twenties. He wrote sing sing sing, which is arguably the number 1 song in the world. I mean, it's the number 1 big band song easily. Number 1 jazz song is in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Speaker K:
I mean, it you you still turn on the TV, and it's in commercials and things, but he wrote that when he was In 1936, he was 26 years old, you know, and then he went on to be a big band staple with hits through there, and then he Formed a a small combo and kinda put Vegas on the map entertainment wise with Louie Prima and the witnesses. You know, back then, it was Keeley Smith. And, You know, he he forged on through rock and roll, and people will say that he created rock and roll. I think what most people will recognize him for, At least as you know, when when we're out on the road and performing, you know, you bring up the cartoon Jungle Book, Walt Disney's Jungle Book. And I think, absolutely, It you're hard pressed to find somebody that has not seen that cartoon growing up or as an adult. And my father was the voice of King Louie in that movie, and that's Probably his most recognizable role, but, you know, he was, he was a musician that people didn't respect as a musician. He was an entertainer that people didn't respect as an entertainer, but he drew crowds everywhere. And he was amazing, and people loved him.

Speaker K:
And, You know, I'm fortunate to be able to build on his catalog and kinda continue it and bring it into the future without being a tribute act. You know, absolutely, I was influenced by him.

Robbie:
It's a it's amazing. I was doing a bit of research on your dad prior to this, And your dad's got such a distinctive voice that I read somewhere that they, a lot of places won't book him early early days because they thought he was a black artist.

Speaker K:
Absolutely. And, You know, the irony in that is he was the 1st white artist to play at the historic Apollo Theater in New York probably because of that. But that you know, it comes from his roots in New Orleans. I mean, he he did have a gravelly voice, and people always kind of, You know, we'll say that he emulated or tried to copy Louis Armstrong, but the truth you know, if you go back into the history of music in New Orleans and what they did, I mean, these were street cats. You know, my father was 11 years old sneaking out of the house Because they lived in the French Quarter to go see these fantastic inventors of jazz and and the creators of that style of music back then, And they all were the same. You know? They they all they they emulated the street performers and that style.

Robbie:
Louis Pima junior, they're talking about his dad And his music. King of the swingers, what a fantastic song. And what a fantastic accolades have have your dad sing that song. He was a lovely guy. Like I said, if you see online. Look at the shows. The energy is incredible. So the podcast had some amazing opportunities.

Robbie:
I say the podcast rather than me because I feel the podcast is is the face of all this stuff. And I got to go to some amazing festivals this year. I went to the Soltazia Festival, which played loads of solo artists. I got to go to the Poptazia Festival, which had Jason Donovan and Tony Hadley. The reviews are in the description, and also the amazing rewind festival in Henley that I'd do before with Nick Kershaw, Nick Hayward, Martin Kemp. And I got to see some amazing stuff. And that's what I mean. Like, the the podcast is growing so much this year that I've got to go to festivals and review things and do things I've never done before, and it became exciting for me, And it become amazing, and I just I had so many amazing opportunities.

Robbie:
Thanks to this amazing podcast, and thank you to you listening to it as well. It's It's been an amazing year. So on to the seventies now. I spoke to the amazing Paul Da Vinci who had a hit with your baby ain't your baby anymore. Had a hit single with the Rubettes, but we can't really talk about that because it didn't end too well. But this is him talking about the track, your baby, ain't your baby anymore. He's a fantastic voice. And in a weird twist of fate, It turns out he used to work with my stepdad.

Robbie:
My stepdad's a musician, and he played on some of Paul's tracks back in the seventies. And they know each other really well. And it's one of those things where my stepdad said to me, you were doing your podcast, and you speak to people from all decades of genres. Have you spoke to Paul? I was like, no. Actually, I haven't. So I contacted Paul, reached out, and he very kindly gave me some of his time on the phone, and we spoke about his hit track. Anyway, this is Paulovich talking about your and Your Baby Anymore. So can we talk about Your Baby and Your Baby Anymore that came about, that track?

Speaker E:
Yeah. What happened was, Eddie Segoe, who was one of these, The writers that I was assigned to, they've got this title, your baby, ain't your baby anymore. So I was sitting in a we've got a flat At the time, you know, and, well, well, I got married when I was 18. You know? We've got we've got our daughter and everything. And, and, I'm sitting there writing, and I and I did, talk using. Then it goes to e minor because your baby ain't your and and at that point, I went, because your baby ain't your baby anymore. And my wife went, oh god. Have you have you gotta do it like that because you're gonna have to now, You know, it's gonna you know, you're gonna get half the thing.

Speaker E:
So I said, well, it just works. So I went over with Eddie because I knew he was he was gonna finance it. So He wrote he wrote a few words to it, basically. But, basically, it was all done. You know? He wrote a few lyrics for me, but and he did get the title, which was very important. But, yeah. But but then he but I produced it, and then he put his name first on the production credits and on the writing credits. And I'm still waiting for money from them Years later, you know, which is another story.

Robbie:
When you get to the part where you're talking in the song, was that designed? Did you write that into the song, or was it just an accident that happened, and you

Speaker E:
just I did it purposely because I'll tell you what it was. I was writing rock. The the record before it, which featured John Richardson from the Rubettes on drums, was called Are You Ready? It was a heavy rock record that went, you know, like this. So and that that's what I was into. But everyone was saying, Oh, you couldn't have you couldn't have sung on that record. Otherwise, you'd have been on top of the pops, you know, which was really getting my go. So I thought I'm gonna showcase the falsetto as much as I can. So I wrote a big fanfare at the beginning of that, and then the high notes And then the middle bit, just like they did with Sugar Baby Love where it goes, people, take my advice, I I I spoofed that, really.

Speaker E:
And at the very end of it, I thought I'll really make it obvious. So when your baby and your baby and he and then sang the really high note without any backing whatsoever. So it was really designed to to prove, You know what I've done?

Robbie:
One of the greatest voices of the semis there, Paul da Vinci. Harry hits that high range literally blows my mind. I don't know how he does it. He can still do it, and he's doing a fantastic show at the moment. He's just released a single called Give Me That Kinda Love, and it's got that seventies tone with a modern contemporary feel to it, and it's absolutely fantastic. If you get a chance, go on Spotify and see if you can find that. There's a link to that song in his interview. So if you find it, you just you'll find it there anyway.

Robbie:
Anyway, on to Simon Williams. Now I was really fortunate in the summer to go to a book festival. My local town has a literary festival. People come down, and they talk about their books. You get to meet them, and they sign them and stuff like that. I met Simon Williams who was the cofounder and runner of Panda Records. They signed cold plates of their 1st deal as well as many other bands. Simon's a lovely guy, and the book's amazingly intense.

Robbie:
Simon decided to have a have a life ending incident Nam June a few years ago and the consequences, and the book covers that in all its glory detail. And Simon's amazingly honest in the book, and he's brutally honest. And that's what makes a book so special. In this clip, Simon talks about seeing Coldplay and sign them for the first time, and it's amazing to think they're as big as they are. Let's put it that yeah. Anyway, here's Simon talking about it.

Speaker L:
I mean I mean, obviously, the key one is is, you know, Coldplay at the, when I first saw them at the, At the Falcon in Camden, you know, I mean, they they did they looked absolutely bloody awful. They really did. You know? He had his burly mop top hair and his tank tops and his just and these terrible jokes and these these tiny acoustic guitar, and they kind of ripped off Jeff Buckley and ripped off Radiohead. And But they were absolutely compelling, and and those jokes were actually they stood out, ironically enough, because of their naffness. We just had, You know, 5 years of everyone just trying to be, you know, Liam Gallagher. And God bless him, but he's not he's not a comedian, is he?

Robbie:
Simon Williams there talking about Coldplay and why they signed up to Panda Records. The book's called Pandemonium, How Not TO Run A Record Label. If you go to his episode, the link is in the description to buy the book. I think you should get it and just listen to it. It's absolutely fantastic, and it just shows you how difficult it is to be an independent record label in today's society. Okay. So we're nearly finished the roundup of this 2023 look back. It's been such an incredible year.

Robbie:
And yet again, it's Because I diversified and I could talk to anybody I wanted to at this point, I decided to I've been a huge fan of Queen all my life. I love Queen and The Beatles and Stevie Wonder and Stevie Dan, all these bands. And Tim Staffell was a name that was floating around in the background in the Queen story. Now if you've seen the Queen film Bohemian Rhapsody, he's the guy that Freddie Mercury walks on, and they're playing the gig, and they're doing doing alright the track. And then it cuts to outside, and they say, humpy bong. And he says, yeah. They're going somewhere, man. It's just a In that movie, they condensed Tim's role to a little more than 1 line.

Robbie:
Tim's a fantastic songwriter. He's a fantastic musician. His new album, My Boy Child is fantastic. And at 75, which I think he said how old he was, he's still producing fantastic music. I mean, he's more than a footnote in the Queen's story. He's an important part, And it's important part of the COG that is the Queen story. And we went online, and he we talked about music. And he's just a very affable guy that loves talking about music and guitars.

Robbie:
Here we talk about Smile, which is the the early version of Queen and their demo. And looking back, this is what Tim thinks was wrong with the demo at the time. Yeah.

Speaker M:
I think if anything, I think the problem with that Was it it was too eclectic. There were the the the the variety of songs was too difficult, was too and and we didn't We didn't clearly know how to produce them in those days because we were just a we were little rock trio with harmonies. Every rock trio with harmonies. Right. How do we do these songs? Well, we're doing like that. Right. Okay. Fine.

Speaker M:
And we tried to fit them all into the same mold and that Looking back in retrospect, it wasn't the right thing to do. Polar bear should have been should have been done differently.

Robbie:
The wonderful Tim stuff were there talking about the Smile demo And how he thinks it should have been done differently. So that is your 2023 recap of the Chatting Trax music community podcast. I've just played you XX From 13 interviews. I've done 13 interviews and a few more this year, but I didn't get time to put those in. It's been an absolutely incredible year, and I can't thank you all enough for support, whether it be the podcast, the YouTube channel, or the live streams, or sending me songs, or inviting me to interview artists, or however you've been involved this year with the podcast. Thank you so much. The it's just it's been amazing. The idea with the podcast started with me just in a room with a microphone and going online.

Robbie:
And this year, it's literally just into all these amazing opportunities and meeting amazing people, trying new things, trying new ideas, and I'm really, really enjoying it. I can't wait for 2024 to see what's around the corner And what I'm gonna do with it. I was doing interviews twice a month, and I've got a day job. And it was becoming too much work, so now I'm doing 1 a month. But the YouTube channel has a lot more content because it's easier to to produce and put on faster. So if you wanna keep up more regularly with the podcast, if you go to the YouTube channel, you'll see there's more regular uploads on there because it's easier to do reaction videos and put those on online, I can make those within an hour and get those online. That's why they're on there, and there's a lot more content. It does not mean I have to attract you from the podcast.

Robbie:
I still love the podcast. The podcast format is what I love the most and what I really wanna do. I'm just trying to spread the word about the community a little bit more. So if you can spread the word about the community, thank you so much. Yeah. Again, thank you for your support, and the opportunities this year have just been so mind blowing and incredible. I'm such a lucky guy to be able to do this and talk about music, which is something I love more than anything, and Just generally being the Efi with the podcast. So here's to you and 2024.

Robbie:
I'm raising a glass to you. I wish you the best of health. I wish you the best of luck, and please join me on this journey next year, and you'll see where it takes us both, shall we? So happy New Year, and I wish you the best, my friend,