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Wahey!
Thats a good one!
Gordon Brown, really.
Gordon Brown, hes a character.
Hed probably be a Calum Gilhooley wouldnt he?
If you thought of all the characters in Absolutely.
Yeah, cos he wont shut up, and hes saying stupid things over and over again.
Well, exactly, and hes also got that stolid…dourness.
[laughs] I feel sorry for Gordon…and I feel sorry for Calum Gilhooley.
Yeah, I feel quite sorry for us.
I suppose Calums the one though, isnt he?
Hes not Mr. Nice.
I suppose he could be a bit like Brucie in Stoneybridge as well.
Like the head of some Council.
Yes, a combo between Brucie and Calum.
So the answer to your question, and a very fine comedy question, is yes.
Excellent, well fine comedy answer that was.
Thats the end of the comedy questions.
So what have you been doing since 1998 when we last met ?
What have you been up to?
I see youve been at the Edinburgh Festival again.
Yeah, that was weird.
Since Abso, been working with Vic & Bob a lot.
That was really good fun.
I did the theme forShooting Stars, and then worked with them on a series of their sketch shows.
They did a very dodgy BBC1 prime time thing called Families at War which was really peculiar.
But that was very exciting.
They are very, very, very, very, very, very silly.
Working with them was quite extraordinary.
You got any Hoover tunes?
[laughs] That was brilliant.
Working a lot with fellowAbsolutelyJohn Sparkes.
That was, and still is, peculiar.
Were about to start another show actually.
Trying to make sense of the UK, sort of thing.
Comedy nature show that went gloriously fizzled out after 6 episodes on Channel 4.
Its gone really well.
I mean Johns world-famous…in Wales [laughs].
They keep on giving us Welsh Baftas, not very good that much, but very nice to get.
Hes like Michael Palin, basically now.
Hes started doing more serious programmes, travelling round Wales, drinking in pubs and stuff like that.
Are you happy about that?
So I started putting together the extras.
Then I went to interview some people and it all kind of mushroomed.
Are you doing any performing now?
The Hairstyles were a fantastic band.
Do you ever do anything with them again?
No, that sort of stopped in 1990…theyre on the extras actually.
No I havent done anything like that for years.
You get out and play.
I have vague ideas and never do anything about them.
Oh, bloody hell, yes!
Well thats the party then, cool!
Yeah, or we could come up and do 3 songs with your band.
That would also be fantastic!
Gordons brilliant at Stingray.
How dyou do it?
Have you got samples and everything?
No, we kind of fluff it when it does the strings.
We dont do that.
We sampled that bit.
That worked really well.
That was such a fantastic show.
Such a weird song though.
I mean the chords are mad.
Its sort of an epic, isnt it?
[sings Stingray verse melody] Barry Gray, what a genius that man is.
I was gonna ask you about people you thought were geniuses.
Edwin Astley absolutely amazing.
Laurie Johnson have you heard some of Laurie Johnsons stuff?
I think he did almost Laurie Johnsons version of the 4 seasons.
Hes done all these weird suites that came out on Pye.
But theyre all fantastic.
Edwin Astley is kind of underrated.
I dont know if any of his music ever came out.
Theres loads of Laurie Johnson stuff.
Theres a double CD now of his Secret Agent (which isDanger Man) music and Saint music.
Theyre kind of like longer versions of stuff that appears in the show.
Did he doRandall & Hopkirk?
Cos theRandall & Hopkirkmusic is outstanding.
They all were and are my heroes.
The advent of ITV4 is just ridiculous because its just very dangerous to look at the television!
You get Randall & Hopkirk on at 11 oclock in the morning.
So what about contemporary people?
Yes, theyre all extremely good.
I dont know what Phil Pope is up to.
He does the house band for Harry Hill at the moment.
And Roland, you know, Mr. Rivron.
Yeah, our paths dont cross really.
The guy that I work most with is a guy called Willie Dowling.
Have you come across Willie?
Ive heard the name.
Willie did the music for all the Armstrong & Miller stuff.
And he was in a band called the Honeycrack.
I remember leaving you a message flattering your Stressed Eric music.
I was saying that was really stressful and I was thinking is that actually a complement or an insult?
[laughs] Well Ill take it as a complement.I Am Not An Animalwas the show.
Have you ever come across that?
I worked with Willie on that.
Hes more of a sort of muso than anthology music.
As far as all the other comedy musos, the other guys are…do you know Richie Webb?
He did thatHeadthing on ITV.
No, not hedonism.
Head cases or something.
Richie Webbs really good.
I worked with him a bit.
Yeah, our paths dont really cross.
Theyve just done a fantastic radio pilot.
They did it last night, with David Soul.
Yes, still keeping the finger in, as we say.
Is any of your stuff ever gonna be available as downloads for us?
Its so easy now, youve got to do it!
I should try and meet you and do the technical thing.
He started chasing eBay, cos Andy found out there were VHSs going for forty quid.
So cos of this guy Andy, this whole thing happened.
Cos we then went to Channel 4, got the rights back off them.
What about The Preventers?
Have you got the rights to that?
I dont know if weve got the rights to it.
But that was mental.
Youve got a copy of it, havent you?
Yeah, I remember how mental it was.
We did this launch thing the other night cos it was the release date.
It wasnt a launch.
It was basically just meet in a pub and get pissed.
And the people from Freemantle were there and they were saying have you got any other stuff?
Theyre quite surprised, I think, at the level of interest.
I suppose its not quite John Barry, but it would be interesting.
Well it could be tweaked, or you could re-record it with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Speaking of which, I went to see Lalo Schifrin recently.
He was playing with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican.
I meant to get to that and I forgot to book it up.
It was absolutely amazing.
Hes very elderly now.
But he was very, very funny, and he did the whole of Dirty Harry.Fantastic.
I saw Jerry Goldsmith do his stuff there.
That was absolutely amazing.
Even now the hairs on my arms have just gone up, just at the thought of it.
I went to see Morricone do his suite to a full arena suite.
His stuffs just fantastic.
Ok, well sort it out.
Well get the LSO.
Maybe you might do the first half and Ill do the second.
Oh wow, now youre talking!
Did you see the KPM All Stars when they did Meltdown ?
No I missed that.
and they all clammed up totally.
So I thought Id try you with the same question.
Whats your tip for people that want to make music like you make ?
Like I make, or just generally?
The only reason I got into it was we were performing and doing it.
After we did the music for our stuff then I got other gigs.
So its kind of associating yourself with performing actually.
Thats what I say: get out there and perform.
If its any good or interesting or whatever.
Im recording my mates.
My mates have all got kids and theyre all forming bands, and Im recording all these kids.
Have you got any tips ?
Who should I be looking out for ?
Theres a band I did on Saturday actually called Corora.
Its kind of like mad Radiohead.
Didnt Morwenna [Banks] do some recording ?
And I was a bit shocked, cos I wasnt used to her being serious.
Well I did stuff with her.
So that could still come out, could it ?
I dont know if its still around.
Yeah it was weird.
There is stuff lying around.
Initially we did a separate theme tune for every show.
The idea was that every show would be different.
So it was like the same theme tune only revisited a thousand different ways.
I was looking around for them.
Thats at the end of one of the extras.
But doing the extras was really interesting.
But tips, yeah: dont sit in your bedsit.
Well sit in your bedsit, make music and get it out.
Oh, the systems analysts?
That to me says Oh God, I wish Id never done bands.
Im so embarrassed now.
What the systems analysts?
That was good fun actually, that one.
That absolutely sticks in my mind at moments of extreme embarrassment.
Oh Im sorry, thats terrible.
Youre much more of a systems analyst.
Youve got the gear.
Does that hotel still exist, and can Absolutely fans go on pilgrimages?
But we always used to go to a different place.
Went down to Dorset.
They were just drinking haunts.
Stoneybridge there is a place called Stoneybridge.
I think its in the Shetlands actually.
Its not the place that we based Stoneybridge on at all.
But apparently people have been going to Stoneybridge and been very disappointed, because people dont speak like that.
Pilgrimages to Glasgow, cos were going up to Glasgow on Friday.
Basically were quite surprised at the level of interest.
I dont think you should be surprised because everyone knew it was the best thing on Channel 4.
Youll be surprised when you see it.
One of our sketches was about 9 minutes long.
Its quite timeless actually.
That was very difficult for him.
David Bowie was on, wasnt he?
Really interesting stuff, and then the bottom fell out and it just became soap stars.
Just became a launch pad for Graham Nortons career.
Yeah, exactly, and they lost the will to live, doing it five days a week.
Cool, so its a party in Stoneybridge with The Hairstyles?
Parsley the Lions own website isgardenrecords.comand he can be contacted viaparsley@gardenrecords.com
Absolutely Everything DVD reviewAbsolutely!
