Chew The Metal

Participant #1:
Hi, this is Rich from Chew The Metal Podcast and you're listening to concerts that made us

Participant #1:
welcome to the podcast conscious, that made us interviews and stories. Tales from the Bus We love taking you back when it all went down. The greatest laugh show than the cheery crowd sound is Compton Compton.com. On this episode, I'm chatting with Rich from Chu the Metal Podcast, a great podcast where Rich and Kyle discuss albums from the rock and metal genre. I highly recommend you check it out. We chat about the podcast, of course, and Rich's concert experiences. It's a great chat I know you're going to love. So, without further ado, let's get on with the show.

Participant #1:
Rich, you're very welcome to concerts that made us. Thank you very much. Yeah, it's good to be here. I'm a big fan. Thank you. Thanks. I'm glad you're enjoying the show anyway, and it's great to have you here and chat about your musical interests and concerts for the next bit. Yeah. So before we get into that now, I want to introduce my listeners to your podcast, Chew the Metal. It's a pretty entertaining podcast as well. And as we've mentioned before, there's a bit of crossover with my one. I think anyone that's a fan of mine will definitely be a fan of yours. Would you like to tell us a bit about it? Yeah. Thank you. It's called Chew the Metal and it's primarily a rock and metal sort of commentary podcast that I cohost with my friend Kyle, and we've been doing it for just over two years now. We're just coming up to our 100th episode, which is very, very exciting. And basically the general structure is that we have a big spreadsheet with a load of albums by a ton of artists. Some are albums that we both know that we love, and some are bands and artists that we've never listened to before, but we feel like, oh, maybe that's someone we should give a go to. Or we've had recommendations and we just use a random number generator to tell us what album we're going to be listening to for the next episode. So that side of it is pretty exciting because obviously you have no idea what you're going to be doing on the next one. And then we give ourselves some time to listen to the album a number of times to do some research into the production and how well it did on release. And then we just sort of chat through the songs and we decide at the end whether it goes in our hall of fame or not, which is completely arbitrary, but it's a good sort of measure to have at the end of the show. And then we pick certain songs and we curate a playlist that goes along with each season so you can sort of listen along to that and it tells the story of how we enjoyed that season's. Albums. Jeez, they're coming up on your 100 episode, does it feel like you've done 100 episodes or has it flown by? Yeah, I think I'm quite surprised that it's become 100 because it's been over two years. It's sort of just part of our routine now and I can't really imagine not doing it. Whenever we do a little break, for whatever reason, if one of us needs some time off, it definitely feels weird not doing it. But yeah, it's strange that this week we recorded our 99th episode and it was strange saying Episode 99th. Yeah. Jeez. And you touched on something there actually how much you miss it when you're not doing it. That's something I've noticed as well when I've taken breaks. It's like you try not to think of it for a few days, but it's like almost you're craving it's like something major in your life is actually missing when you're not the owner. Yeah, definitely. For us, at least, we started the podcast during the very first covered Lockdown as a way to still sort of keep our friendship going because we were living in two different cities in the UK, so obviously we couldn't see each other, so we did it with both big music fans. So we just thought, let's try this. And it means we can discover some new stuff and it means we make sure we chat weekly as a result of that. Because it is this weekly thing. It becomes part of your routine and your structure. And then when you don't do it for a week or two. You think obviously it's one part of you is sort of like. Oh. I can listen to whatever I like. I don't have to listen to a certain album. But at the same time it's like, oh, what do I do now? What did I used to do before I did this? You know? Yeah, I totally get that. And one of the best things about it is the banter between you two. It really comes across that you're really good friends and you're just sitting back having a laugh, enjoying the music. But as well, one thing that stands out straight away is the amount of knowledge you guys have. I mean, when I listened to the first episode, I was like, yeah, I'm glad I'm sticking to concerts because I'd never be able to retain so much information about an album. Well, I mean, it's very kind of you to say, of course, it's down to weekly research. That is not our base knowledge. If you were to pick an album now, there is like a random one. There is absolutely no way I could tell you in as much detail as we do in an episode. But yeah, I mean, we both have a big passion for music, which is why we decided to do that topic and similar tastes as well, which helps. And we're both music players as well, so I think that gives an interesting insight because we can not only talk about it as fans, but we can talk about it as people who play instruments and things like that. So that, along with doing a ton of research and reading what we can, I think, gives us a good insight. And does it come in handy in general knowledge quizzes? Like, do you retain much of the information? Like, if I was to say to you, episode ten, tell me a few things about the album that you discussed, would you be able to or is this once the episode is over, you wipe clean? I would say, unfortunately, probably most of it disappears over time. I'm quite strange with numbers and retaining certain information like that. So I can't tell you that episode ten was Never Mind by Nirvana because that was obviously a big one that stuck out. But yeah, I think we had a little game a few weeks ago on our second birthday as a podcast where Kyle had a list of band members and I had to try and remember which bands they were from. And, you know, we were talking months and months had passed, but we managed to remember a lot of them, actually. So if there was a top album for you, then out of the ones you've covered, which one is it? Out of everything we've covered? Well, that's hopefully an easy one to answer because at the end of each year we try and make our top tens of the ones we've talked about. So the two years that we've covered so far, my two top number one albums have been Paranoid by Black Sabbath and the Blackening by Machine Head and I would say Paranoid by Black Sabath because, I mean, they're obviously the creators of the heavy metal genre, so there's huge props to them for that. And I think it's so easy to say albums like that are incredible and classic because they have that influence. But if you actually sit down and listen to the album Paranoid, it is just a perfect, perfect album. It's just incredible. It's got the prestige of the singles, but just as an album, I can't fault it at all. Yeah, you're definitely right there. And the future, where would you like the podcast to go? Or what would you hope would happen with the podcast? Oh, goodness. Well, I would definitely like to keep it on a similar path to how we're doing at the moment. I think we're looking to get a lot more guests involved in the show, so we get some new perspectives and some new suggestions for albums. So that's something we're looking to do this year. We've had guests in the past, but I think we're looking to really ramp that up because it's always fun when you get given an album by someone else. Then if someone else comes to you and say, this is my favorite band, or this is my favorite album and it's not someone you've listened to, you now get to say, oh, okay, what is it about this album? Or what is it about this artist that this person really, really connects with? And that's something that has really sort of given us a great perspective. And I'm not too sure. I think that's the main goal. I think doing some live shows would be fun, but yeah, not too sure at the moment. I think that would be the main thing. The live shows always seem to be a thing with podcasts, don't I know. Even it's crossed my mind and I've had a couple of listeners say that they'd love to see a live show of my podcast, but I'm always constantly kind of thinking, there's so much logistics with us and how would you actually get it to work? It sounds like it would be a hell of a lot of fun, but it'd be an awful lot of work. It wouldn't be just like producing your weekly episode? Not at all. Not at all. And I think if you were to do a live one, then you've always got to think about like you've got to do something special for it. And just coming up with that special concept for it is a thing in itself. I mean, we've been racking our brains for the past few weeks trying to figure out what we're going to do special for our hundredth episode. How do you mark that? By doing exactly what you always do, but with a special twist on it. It's tricky. Yeah, that's crossed my mind as well. I think I've 17 or 18 episodes left until my hundred and I'm taking some comfort in that's, like 1516 weeks. But at the same time it will come around pretty fast and I don't want to just let it pass by without acknowledging it. But the final question then about the podcast. Before we move into your personal music taste and concert, you mentioned you had guests or you're going to have more guests on. Is there any music genre you're closed off to? Like if a guest comes on and says, oh, I want to discuss this Britney Spears album. Well, I mean, obviously we are called to the metal. So I think hopefully people would sort of be mindful of the fact that it is a rock and metal podcast. But I think as we're probably going to get into in the rest of our conversation, my personal tastes are very eclectic and I know Kyles are as well. And we have certainly pushed the boundaries of what we would class as rock and metal over the past 99 episodes. I mean, last year we did an episode on Bruce Springsteen and yes, he plays guitar, but I don't know if you could call Born in the USA rock necessarily as good as it is. Yeah, that's a good point, actually. Yeah, a lot of people would place him into the genre, but strictly, I suppose he wouldn't technically be proper rock. Yeah, there's definitely some kind of subgenre, or if you're being very sort of simplistic about it, you'd probably be in rock. But I mean, that album is so poppy in so many ways. Yeah, definitely. And we might as well jump into you personally. So can you remember your earliest musical memory? This is the one that I've been really struggling with. Sadly, there isn't like a specific moment where I was super young and I remember picking up a toy guitar or hearing a certain thing. So it's probably going to be something along the lines of hearing music in my parents car or hearing music at home. That obviously until you're a certain age you don't really understand the concept of different artists or having favorite artists or albums or songs or anything, you just hear things, I guess. Yeah, so it would probably just be hearing music at home or in the car and not really knowing what to make of it or why it's there or how it's got there. I mean, my parents have very differing music taste, so if it was in my dad's car or something, it would probably be some kind of guitar based album like Joe Satriani or Eric Clapton maybe. And with my mom maybe it might have been, I don't know, something in the early ninety s. I guess she might have been listening to Celine Dion or something like that. So it would just be something about hearing a piece of music like that. And I don't think there's a specific super early turning point where I was suddenly switched on, if you know what I mean. Yeah, I got you. And how would you describe your music taste?

Participant #1:
I really don't like it when people say, oh, I'm into a bit of everything and then they don't expand on it because I'm personally into a lot of everything and I know lots of people are, but if you don't expand on that, then it doesn't help the conversation at all. So I would say generally I'm into rock and metal. That's sort of my main area of that's. Certainly the genres that I know the most about and have the wider knowledge around the bands and things. So I mean, specifically I'm a big fan of the 90s Seattle rock bands like Nirvana and Allison Chains and how that's all led through to Food Fighters and people like that. And then on the metal side, artists that I come back to a lot and the most are probably people like Metallica and Death Tones and Slipknot and Architects and bands like that. But then I'm a big pop fan as well, so I am a big Taylor Swift fan. I like Juliepa, the Scottish band churches. I would probably put Lana Del Rey probably in my top five artists. And then I listened to a lot of hip hop as well, people that run the Jewels and Kendra Lamar. So I mean, those genres I have certain artists that I go to, but I don't really know enough about those areas of the industry or know enough other artists to be able to find newer ones. Whereas rock and metals where I feel comfortable and I know that if I like this, then I'm probably going to like that based on what I know about it, it's a pretty solid music taste now, it's pretty, as you mentioned earlier, eclectic. Well, not normally, but you come across people who are like mad into rock and metal and just close themselves off to pop or hip hop. They're like I would never be caught dead listening to that. It was pretty cool, though, that you have such a wide range. Well, I certainly used to have that viewpoint, I think, when I was 1718 sort of age. And really that's a very formative time and you're trying to find out who you are as a person and I think it's so easy at that point to say, this is what I like and I'm not going to deviate. And you sort of think the more specific you are about what you like and what you don't like, the cooler and more distinguished you are. But I think it's just there's actually a lot of there's a lot of crossover with a lot of those things. I think the reason I like Run the Jewels or Kendrick Lamar, for instance, or some Kenya West stuff is because there's quite a heavy side to it. A lot of hip hop has quite a heavy backing to it, which is possibly the reason I got into it in the first place and then that's progressed into the artist I like now. But I think you can't necessarily be too closed off because there's so much crossover. Yeah, exactly. And could you pinpoint to a moment now that you could describe as your musical awakening, you know, the first time that you kind of really started to take music in? Yeah, I think so. Especially in terms of sort of leading me onto the path that I'm on now. It would be around the sort of 2000, 2001 era, so I would have been eleven. And I remember bands like I remember having the album by some 41 and having a Red Hot Chili Peppers album and sort of thinking, okay, I think this was probably the first time I was aware of bands and people playing instruments as a band rather than pop groups. And there was a friend I had at school who turned me onto a lot of music and really sort of helped progress that. And I remember probably not all in the same day if I think about these albums and when they came out, but I just remember him introducing me to Lincoln Park, Nirvana, and then a compilation CD that he played and it had Slipknot and Death Tones and Queens the Stone Age on it. It just completely opened things up for me. So, yeah, sort of around them when I was eleven and then sort of around there probably before that as well. And through them, as I said earlier, my dad was listening to people like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, and he was the one who introduced me to Black Sabbath, for instance. And so there was always that sort of influence at home as well with the more classic stuff like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin things. And so I guess it was a fusion of learning these new things from people at school and learning sort of the bedrock from my dad and then figuring out which bits of which I liked. Yeah, I feel like people around our age that grew up in them times, guys especially, I feel like when they're about 1213, I guarantee you we all had the exact same albums and CDs in our collection. I had the red hot chili peppers. They're nirvana as well. I remember when I got into Nirvana, I feel like my music taste just froze for about two years and Nirvana was all I wanted to listen to. Yeah, they're in one of those intoxicating bands that if they're the first band that you hear of, that kind of thing. It just wows, you really and I mean, for me, I feel like I was born maybe ten years too late or something, knowing so many of these bands I got into after they were no longer around. And it's a shame you can't see these bands anymore. Yeah, you just reminded me of something. I remember when I was a teenager, one of my good friends turned around to me and said, oh, you wouldn't like this band. The singer is still alive. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And to tie in with your podcast a bit with this next question, what's the first album or single you purchased with your own money? Unfortunately, the honest answer is probably something kind of embarrassing. Probably a single on tape by someone like S Club Seven when I was about seven or eight, I imagine would be the real answer. But the first CD single I remember buying myself was the single Hero from the Spiderman soundtrack. So it was Chad Kroger from Nickelback, and I think Josie Scott from Saliva was the backing vocalist on it. I think I was probably aware of Nickelback already and then saw Spiderman in the cinema and was like, this is a fantastic song. So that was definitely the first CD single I bought myself. You, of course, you've done an episode on Nickelback? We have, yeah, recently. Are you one of the people that love to hate them, or can you actually give them their Jews? I think they have definitely had peaks and troughs over the years, for sure. But listening back to Silver Side Up for the podcast, I honestly can't fault it too much. I mean, maybe that's nostalgia talking for a lot of it, but it really took me back to a place and some of the songs are really, really great rock songs, regardless of how manufactured it might be or how much people can and do hate them. There's certainly some merits there. Yes. Have you heard the latest song, Sang Quinton? Yeah, I did listen to it yesterday, actually. It's got a pretty heavy riff, isn't it? It does, yeah. It's not too bad. I feel like if you were to it's a pretty good rock song, but if you were to take anything away, I think maybe it might fall a bit short on the lyrical side. Yeah, I think that's where they've sort of fallen down, isn't it? I think that the lyrical side of it has all has just since, I don't know, maybe 2006 or something, has become very poppy and very sort of surface level. And it sort of takes away because he does have a good voice and they are good musicians, but when he's singing about, you know, partying, that's pretty much all they think about. It's a lot less than what it used to be, I think. Yeah, exactly. I did want to say, in terms of buying CDs back then, when I was thinking about it today, I was thinking how exciting it used to be to buy albums compared to now, where you just open up Spotify or whatever and you say, oh, there's an album I can pick and choose and whatever, and you suddenly have a whole band's catalog, like at your hands. Whereas I remember when I used to buy albums when I was a teenager and you're pretty much just basing it off the one song you've heard on a Kurang CD or that someone's told you about. And then you just go into the shop and you're holding all these physical CDs and you're literally just making these complete random decisions and sometimes they are busts and sometimes they might be your new favorite band. But it just had such excitement about it. One of my favorite things to do sometimes is go back through my old CD collection and look at the really good ones, but also the really weird choices I made when I came to purchase them. Yeah, this next question. Now, I like this because I feel nowadays it has to be pretty important for you to purchase it. So what was your last music purchase? Well, I did actually have to do some digging to find this because it has been a while because of streaming, but the last album I bought was Damned by Kendra Lamar. I bought it in 2018, it came out in 2017. And for me, that is one of those rare albums that sort of feels like a I don't know. Most albums are just a collection of songs and they could be excellent songs or they could be terrible songs, but they're just a collection of songs that source of work in a certain order, whereas I feel there are certain small list of albums where it just feels like a complete piece. And for me, Damn is one of them. Just down to things like in his lyrics, he references the other songs within the album. He sort of tells such a story and tapestry going through it and it's not really surprising that he won a Nobel Prize for writing it because it's such a thick and textured piece of music. I was fully expecting you're going to say you haven't purchased music since like, 2012 or something. That's still pretty recent. Last only four years. Yes. And he's actually the next gig I have lined up on seeing in a few weeks with my wife, so that's going to be really fun. Brilliant. Brilliant. Perfect segue as well to the first concert experience. What was the first ever concert you're at? The first concert I went to was Motorhead in 2004, when I was 14. Yeah, I went with my dad and I think I basically begged him to take me. And I don't think it was so much that I was dying to see Motor Head, I think it was just that I wanted to see live music. And I remember just for all of my teams, I would basically just flick through the back pages of karang, where they just had all the tour posters and I would just find, I guess the reason it's Motor Head was because there was a crossover. My dad would have liked them, I would have liked them. So it was more of a chance that he would have said yes, I guess. And it was certainly experienced. I mean, they had the T shirts that they were selling at that gig. It just said, Motorhead everything louder than everything else. And that's certainly true. It was a very loud night. They were supported by Seppltura, who are a Brazilian sort of thrashy groove metal band, with them as literally the first band I've ever seen live. It was so loud and the bass was so loud that I just remember almost feeling like, not nauseous, but I just did not understand what was happening. But I stuck it out and I'm glad I did, obviously, because it's taking me to so many other things, but, yeah, I think I'm always quite happy that I can answer my first concert with Motor Head because it is a good answer. Yeah, it is. I'm actually jealous. Jeez, that's setting the bar pretty high now for future concerts. Yeah, exactly. It did two things. It sort of opened up the gates to then be able to go to gigs with my friends, but it also was the first of many gigs that I've gone to with my dad, which has been a really nice tradition. We've sort of kept going over the years, so that's been really fun. Did you ever see them again since? No, I haven't seen them a second time. I think I was pretty lucky just to see them that one time, but, yeah, I would have recommended them. Yes. Unfortunately, of course you can't nowadays, but geez, you're very lucky you got to see them. And the last concert you were at, the last gig I was at, is probably the complete other end of the spectrum. It was a couple of weeks ago in Hackney, in London. It was a French electronic duo called Agar Agar, who I don't think are very big and I hadn't heard of them really, but my friend who lived in Munich, he'd come over back to the UK for the gig and he had a spare ticket, so I wanted to see him. I love live music, so I just thought I'd tag along. And it was fantastic. It was just this very sort of like dark, pounding, poppy electronic music. And it was just the two of them, it was very lo phi, it was very sort of DIY. For instance, they started their first song and then they realized something wasn't plugged in properly, so they had to stop, sort of out and start again. And then a few songs in, they stopped playing and one of them came over the microphone and he said, oh, sorry guys, I think we've got the bass turned up a bit high and it's making things vibrate around on our tables, so we're just going to have to take some things down, so just bear with us. It was very DIY, but it was very charming because of that. And it was really good music as well. Yeah. You definitely recommend seeing them. Yeah, for sure. What's London actually like for gigs? I imagine it's like the same as being in La. You could have a show every single night if you want. I imagine you could, yeah. I mean, it's definitely not short of venues, that's for sure, and of different size as well, because obviously you've got, depending on who you're wanting to see, you've got things like the Two and Wembley Arena all the way down to, I mean, this place in Hackney that we saw them, I imagine the capacity was maybe a couple of hundred. I don't think it was really even a music venue, it was just a space that had a bar and some space for a stage, so, yeah, and there's countless very iconic venues in London as well, which, yeah, I'm lucky that I've always been close enough that that's been my biggest place to go to. And what do you look for in a concert? What makes a good concert experience for you? Well, I think there's a few factors that make a good concert. Obviously the form that the band are in is definitely a big part of it. I think I'm fortunate enough to not have had to witness any sort of bad nights, as you as you might think. I've not seen bands and thought they weren't really on it. Tonight you hear some stories of major bands or major rock stars and they're sort of not in the mood or they go off in a fuss or whatever, so I've been lucky not to not to have to do that. Although there were a couple of groups I've seen at festivals where they sort of just came out, played the music, didn't interact at all and leave. I'm never a fan of that. I do like a bit of interaction because you've paid to see them and you want to see them and you'd like to think that they want to see you as well. Yes, I'm the exact sameder. Yeah. I think sound systems play a large part as well and especially at festivals if it's windy and you're in a field that can really, really affect what you can hear and what you can't hear and that really can be part of did you have a good experience or not? Well, no, I couldn't hear one of the guitars properly and then it comes down to the crowd and the company you're with. I think we're in a good genre. The rock and metal community is generally a very friendly community despite what other people might expect. The crowds at metal gigs are lovely, lovely people and even though they're thrashing around and like mushing and hitting each other, basically if anyone falls down, there'll be ten people straight away picking them up and you always see if big sort of mosh pit has opened up and people have lost shoes or whatever, you always see people saying, oh, here's your phone, here's your shoe. It's always a really nice atmosphere and I think if you're with the right company, then that can sort of elevate a band that it might just be an okay band but if you're with the right company, it might become something even more than they could have otherwise been. Yeah, definitely. I always find the funny it's the one crowd that are the most intimidating looking out of any genre of music but they're actually I nearly go as far as enter the nicest crowd, you know? Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? Yes. And what is a concert that you would revisit over and over again if you could? So it would probably be I saw the band Architects in Brighton in 2016. I was living in Brighton at the time and I don't know if you're familiar with architecture they're Brighton based well. They're from Brighton at least. But they are a metal band who have sort of developed over the years and now they're playing a lot more metal with a lot of electronic elements and things. But at their core they're a metal band and I just actually worked alongside them in a couple of projects because I'd worked on a couple of music videos for them so in sort of a month before the gig. I'd met them a few times. I'd sort of seen them in the DayToday and things like that. And then seeing them in this gig. Which for them was a homecoming gig because it was in their hometown. It was an album release gig as well. So they were in really good spirits and it was a really fun venue in Brighton. And they mentioned the music videos because they just come out that day in relation to the album, so there was sort of that connection with them, which obviously you don't usually tend to have. And I was just by myself at the gig, so I was totally free to just do whatever I want and be right at the front and get completely stuck in. And I've seen them twice before that night and I've seen them twice since that night and I think that was the most perfect of the five gigs. And then also, it was sadly that summer, their lead guitarist, who was one of the founding members, he sadly passed away about two months after that gig, so it was the final time I got to see them with him as part of the lineup as well. So it's got a lot of special memories for me for a number of reasons. So, yeah, that was one of the perfect gigs, I think. Yeah, sounds like it. Jeez. And I had no idea that you would have worked with them under music videos. Is there more of a story there? Yes, I've worked on a lot of music videos over the years and I was just lucky that because I was living in Brighton at the time and my friend who's a music video director, who I was in a house share with his girlfriend, so I was always hanging out with him and he knew I was a fan of theirs. And I just got a text from him one day saying, oh, I've been asked to direct a new video for Architects. Would you be interested in shooting it for me? And obviously it was a big two thumbs up from me. I was a big fan of them already, so that was probably one of the first times that I'd sort of worked with people I was really aware of and fans of. And I remember turning up on the first day and the director introduced me to him saying, this is Sam, this is Tom. And in my head I was thinking, of course, I know exactly who these people are. I've had pictures of them. Yeah. Oh, man. And not to get too negative now, but what would you consider some of the worst concert experiences you've had? Now, it can be the band or it can be something that happened at the concert. Well, I don't know how you're going to take this answer because I know that I think they're maybe one of your most favorite bands, but unfortunately this story is going to be about Guns and Roses, I'm afraid, right. Because I was at Reading Festival I think it must have been around 2009 or 2010 maybe, and they headlined and obviously, whatever situation you're in, guns and Roses are not a name that you turn down. You are not going to miss that gig. Regardless, they're a massive name and we were a little bit skeptical going in because we knew stories about what Axel can be like. And this was after the actual breakup, so we knew it wasn't Slash and Duff and the original lineup, but regardless, it's still the classic song and it's still Axles. So we went over and lo and behold, they came on stage about an hour and a half after they were supposed to, so the whole crowd was a little bit peed off with them anyway, but we had a good time. It's always the classic songs. Of course, there was a slight strangeness to it because I don't know who the guitarist was at that point, but he was sort of dressed as Slash. He had the hat and the sunglasses onto it sort of felt a little bit inauthentic in that respect. And then the lasting memory of it is basically because they came on an hour and a half late, it meant they went into the curfew. So the festival has a hard cut offs. It doesn't matter what's happened, they got a hard cutoff that they have to stop the music. So the PA system got completely turned off and Axel obviously decided he wasn't done. And so he tried to protest and sing Paradise City, but without the backing of the band or a microphone or anything, and it was just a little bit embarrassing by the end. So it was amazing to hear some of those songs live, but it wasn't the greatest experience of it, sadly. Yeah, you actually are the perfect person to ask this now. You've heard him singing without the backing of the band. How bad were his vocals? Yeah, it wasn't great, I got to say, but also, I was probably in a crowd of about 80,000 people, so I think there's probably very few people that could actually hear about that point. Yeah, that's the thing. They have such a bad name and it's like they have a bad name for two different things. In the early days, it was a bad name for him being a diva and not showing up for concert, stuff like that. And just, you know, taken to Pace and then now is, of course, to have the bad name for him not being able to sing at all. Like he used it. Like, I've seen him this summer for the first time and, you know, I've kind of described it before as like you said, you're not going to say no to Guns and Roses, and I was kind of thinking, no matter what they sound like, I'll be able to say that I've seen Guns and Roses live. Yeah, exactly. Once you take the nostalgia and everything out of it. If he was up there singing karaoke in a bar, he'd be booed off the hitch. He doesn't have the voice anymore. No, I mean, it's sad and obviously it does happen. You see a lot of I think the same things happened with Vince Neil from Motley Crue. They've done a comeback tour this year, I think, and people are saying the same thing. And obviously it's just decades of doing the wrong things to your body. It's obviously not going to enable you to sing like you might have used to being able to 40 years ago, but as you say, it's a chance that you're not going to say, oh, yeah, I had the chance to see Guns and Roses, but I said, no, you don't want to be that person. No, because they might be on form. You never know. Yes, exactly. They could, because they've released a couple of newer songs now as well. And it sounds like when he's in the studio, he's perfect. Now, I know there probably a hell of a lot of stuff done to his voice in the studio, but you know what? You wouldn't listen to it now and say, oh, my God, he can't sing. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, let's check it out. And you mentioned Motley crew. I've heard rumors that they're going to extend that tour over to Europe next year. Would you go see them? I can't say that I would, unfortunately. I think again, I know they're a massive name, they had the legacy, but for me, they don't have the sort of the same stature and classic songs as someone like Guns and Roses. For me, there's a couple of Motley Crue songs that if they come on on a playlist or something, I'd be happy with it, but they're not actually a band I've ever really planned to sit down and listen to. I can only imagine what the ticket prices would be. I had a guest recently telling me that in the States, it's $300 for a ticket to go see, that's crazy. They're not the type of act that can command us. Their egos already can command us, but not their music. Yes, I would agree. I think you'd expect that from a band like Rolling Stones, for instance, but I think they can still achieve a lot of things that they would have done a ton of years ago. Whereas I don't know if a band like Motley Crue, they're still putting out the same live show, I'd love to be able to go back and see if they didn't have the notoriety, you know, for their antics off the stage, would they still have been as big? Because it was a great marketing ploy, really, as well. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think it often is, isn't it? Yeah. And next question, is there a favorite experience as a concert that doesn't have to do with the band? Oh, that is a good question. They were experienced a concert that doesn't have to do with the band.

Participant #1:
I guess anything sort of will maybe like trickle down would relate to the band. But I think I had myself and that same director. We were fortunate enough to make a music video for a band called Bear Tooth. Which they flew us to Los Angeles to make and whilst we were there. They had their album release and so we got to go see them at the Roxy on Sunset Boulevard. Which was amazing. And so for me, it wasn't necessarily about the band or about the music that I was seeing because I wasn't sort of an existing fan, I wasn't at the gig to see the band necessarily, I was just there because I had been invited. But it was more about being in such an iconic place as the Roxy and we'd been for drinks at the Rainbow Lounge. Beforehand it sort of felt like I was ticking off these major rock and roll milestones, but it wasn't necessarily that I'd planned to do it, so that was a great experience. Anything could be done now. Jeez and before we move on to the last couple of questions, you mentioned at the start that both you and Coil play music. Would you like to tell us a bit about that? Sure, yeah. So I play guitar and bass and I have done in various bands over the years since I was being a teenager. Nothing to any real extent, school bands and a few battle bands and those sort of things. And nowadays I make music under the name of OSMR. Which is my initials backwards and it's all sort of instrumental. Progressive rock. I guess it would class as post rock or postmetal and I just do it all myself and a lot of programming and stuff at home and it's more of just a creative outlet for myself rather than anything I want to take to a live show or anything like that. It's more just a nice project that I have at home. Yeah, to feed your creativity instead of becoming a rock star. Exactly. Right, we'll get on to the last couple of questions. So if there was a band or performer from history you could see in concert for one night only, who would it be? I think it would either have to be someone that has died before I've become a fan and then I could go back and see so maybe Nirvana in their prime or Alison Chains with Lane Staley as the singer or Eddie Van Hayden. Of course it would have been incredible to see him when he was young or it would be a band that's still around and still has the same lineup, but I would want to see them when they were just hitting the scene rather than sort of doing a legacy thing. So if you could see Black Sabbath in 1970s and not know what was going to happen, I think that would just be such a wow moment. Yeah. I often think to myself, I'd love to see these bands as the exact gig that broke them, you know? Yeah, exactly. It'd be unbelievable. Yeah. Because I know like a band like Black Sabbath. I know that they did headline at Download Festival with that original lineup not too many years ago and so of course you're seeing the same guys and you're seeing the same songs but I think there'd be a world of difference seeing them when they're in their twenty s and the albums don't have the same legacy and it's just you're going to see a band and you don't really know what to expect. I think that would be so different to seeing them on a sort of legacy tour. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And the next one if there was an artist or musician you had to be locked in a room with for 24 hours, who would it be? Wow. Well, someone talkative and someone with a lot of stories. Yeah, maybe someone like Dave Groell. I've sort of always heard that he's a lovely guy and he's obviously got a lot of stories to tell so maybe someone like him would be nice. I heard us a couple of times rs Dave Grawl and I'm not surprised he does come across as the nicest guy in the music industry but I often think, wouldn't it be so strange if like it's all an act and in the background he's some sort of like Bond film. Yeah, I mean, it almost wouldn't surprise me. Maybe not so much about him, but you hear stories about some people being great or you know, you see actors and you think you'd love them and then you hear stories about them being kind of horrible and I think it happens so often that I guess it wouldn't surprise me about anyone now, sadly. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The thing with David as well, I was thinking if I ever got the chance to talk to him it'd be so hard because obviously one of the first things I'd want to ask him is about Nirvana and Kurt and you know, it'd be hard to actually bring that up. I don't think I'd be able to because I'd feel like he'd be like he either wouldn't want to talk about it or he's sick of it because that's what everyone wants to talk about. Yeah, that is true. Yeah. I actually brought out a book. The end of last year called Storyteller and I read that recently and it's really fascinating. Really cool stories in there about his days in Nvana and his days in Scream actually. Before Nirvana and then sort of how Foo Fighters evolved and I mean. He definitely has some really fun stories and someone of his stature. I just think he's probably met every single person in rock and roll and in music generally that you could probably just ask him for 24 hours what's this person what's this person like? He'd have a story for all of them. Yeah, definitely. I suppose you probably would have mentioned it already. You obviously didn't get a chance to go to the Taylor Hawkins Tribune concert. No, I didn't, sadly. I was working. I wasn't able to do it. It did look pretty incredible, though. I mean, the lineup of artists that they got for that. Yeah. It'd be unreal if they could make it a yearly thing or something similar, wouldn't it? Yeah, that would be very cool. Yeah. It was almost like Levad from rock music. Yeah, exactly. I was lucky enough to see Food Fighters about ten years ago. They played a couple of sort of arena size shows and we saw them at an outside venue just north of London and yeah, that was a fantastic night. And they had you always sort of expected special guests to just turn off with Foo Fighters, as I say, because he's sort of friends with everyone. And the night we were there, John paul Jones from Led Zeppelin turned up. And C 16. Do you remember him? Yeah, actually he had this sort of the handmade guitars and handmade instruments and he played some very slidy bluesy style guitars and yeah, so he was on guitar, dave went to the drum kit and John Paul Jones played bass and they just jammed out for a while. It's very cool. Oh, man, that sounds like such a cool gig. I seen him back in 2019 in Dublin, and unfortunately there was no special guests, but still, it was one of the best concerts I've been to. I feel like they're the band that no matter how many times you see them, you'd never get a bad experience. I think so, yeah. Or at least I'd like to think so. I think they just have such a strong back catalog as well. Yeah, exactly. And the final question, if there was a song that could appear on Soundtrack To Your Life, what would it be?

Participant #1:
Soundtrack of my life. That is a tough one. I think

Participant #1:
it would probably be probably a song that I this is a difficult question. It would probably just end up being one of the songs that I've listened to the most in my life. Maybe something, but I'm trying to think of something witty in terms of a title, but I can't really think, so it would probably be something like Master of Puppets, Metallica or something like that. I'm just trying to think of what are the songs that I've probably listened to the most number of times in my life? Probably something like that. That's a good choice. It's actually one that's after coming up recently in the last month or so, I think it's funny when it seems to always happen. Like a couple of songs or a couple of answers will come up the same time in the space of a month, and then I'll never hear them again. Yeah, that's weird. But no, that's a pretty solid choice now. It's a good one, right? Well, Rich, it's been an absolute blast. I've really enjoyed chatting with you. Now I feel like we could have probably chatted for about six or 7 hours about music and concerts. Yeah, I would love to at any time. Yeah, we'll have to do it again sometime for sure. Yeah, it's been real fun.

Participant #1:
Hey guys, I really hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please rate and review us on itunes and Spotify. And if you're interested in signing up the Band Builder Academy, use the link in the show notes below and enter the code. Concerts and you'll receive 10% off. So until next time, keep rocking.

Participant #1:
Hey, what are you guys still doing here? The show is over. It's over. You can go home. Go on. We'll see you next time. Good to be here.

Participant #1:
Bye.