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Peter Cox - We Gave Barney The Purple Dinosaur A Number 1 While We Hovered Just Outside The Top 40 · Lisa & Russell

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  Speaker 1: Go West and special guest Debbie Gibson. That's at the
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  Speaker 1: ASTA Theater tonight. You can still get some tickets that
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  Speaker 1: destroy all lines dot com And with us this morning,
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  Speaker 1: Go West's Peter Cox.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning morning.
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  Speaker 3: Peter, morning guys.
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  Speaker 2: How you doing very well?
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us. Now, gosh, what
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  Speaker 1: a catalog. You've been performing these songs for more than
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  Speaker 1: four decades. What do you think is the secret to
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  Speaker 1: it continuing to connect with audiences.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I hope that I can say as a songwriter
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  Speaker 3: that it's to do with the songs. Those are the
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  Speaker 3: songs that have stood the test of time. And thanks
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  Speaker 3: to Australian audiences for buying our debut album all those
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  Speaker 3: years ago, as they say, and making it possible for
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  Speaker 3: me to be here in Perth forty years later. Amazing.
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  Speaker 4: Well, Peter, I must confess I bought a copy of
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  Speaker 4: that debut album when I was still in high school
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  Speaker 4: when it came out in eighty five.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you still having much appreciate and it's in.
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  Speaker 4: Press pristine condition.
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  Speaker 3: Because you've never played.
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  Speaker 4: It, I have played it. I've played it a lot,
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  Speaker 4: and we've played the songs on the radio from it
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  Speaker 4: a lot. Too, because there was there were a number
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  Speaker 4: of hits from that. I mean, they had a very
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  Speaker 4: very successful album, Close Our Eyes, Call Me Don't Look Down,
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  Speaker 4: Goodbye Girl. I mean you had a pretty good run
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  Speaker 4: with that.
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  Speaker 3: Yes we did. Nineteen eighty five was quite the year.
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  Speaker 2: It was.
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  Speaker 1: You were one of the defining voices of that year,
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  Speaker 1: of the eighties, entirely being you know, someone who grew
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  Speaker 1: up in the eighties. It really was such an incredible
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  Speaker 1: era for music. What do you remember most fondly about it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, at the risk of sounding mercenary, this was in
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  Speaker 3: the day when you actually sold product and made some money.
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  Speaker 3: As we all know, the landscape changed dramatically now, so
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  Speaker 3: I wouldn't like to be eighteen, nineteen twenty starting out
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  Speaker 3: at the moment, although I know that younger people obviously
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  Speaker 3: adapt to the circumstances they find themselves in. But it
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  Speaker 3: is obviously very different now to the way it was then.
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  Speaker 3: So it was nice to make some money, but it
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  Speaker 3: was also nice to finally get through the door of
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  Speaker 3: a record label after years and years of trying. I
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  Speaker 3: know this is a story that many bands would tell you,
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  Speaker 3: but I was twenty nine already by the time Richard
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  Speaker 3: and I got signed and made that first record, so
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  Speaker 3: all right, yeah bye. So by current by current standards,
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  Speaker 3: that's almost ancient.
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  Speaker 4: And of course that was the era of because you
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  Speaker 4: guys were quite a fixture on I mean, we didn't
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  Speaker 4: have it yet, but we were. We had the video shows.
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  Speaker 4: But of course you guys became a feature on MTV,
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  Speaker 4: you know, with this sweaty single, you know, throwing your
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  Speaker 4: your wrench around as they would call it in America
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  Speaker 4: on so we close our eyes so obviously, you know,
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  Speaker 4: so that was a that was a very big part
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  Speaker 4: of getting out there as well, wasn't it.
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  Speaker 3: It was absolutely That video if anyone has it, was
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  Speaker 3: directed by Kevin Godley and Lol Cream Late of ten CC, Yes,
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  Speaker 3: and they were absolutely red hot at the time, having
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  Speaker 3: directed every breath you take, that video for the police,
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  Speaker 3: and a number of videos for Duran Duran. So we
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  Speaker 3: were I'm not going to sit here and tell you
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  Speaker 3: that Richard and I had any very much control over
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  Speaker 3: any of this. We were just going where we were told.
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  Speaker 3: But we were obviously very happy to be directed by
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  Speaker 3: those two guys who were very clever. They knew that
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  Speaker 3: I had zero performance experience, certainly not in front of
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  Speaker 3: a camera. So if anyone seen the video, the main
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  Speaker 3: shot was of me, as you say, swinging a wrench around.
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  Speaker 3: I didn't know anything about that wrench until the morning
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  Speaker 3: of the videos. I saw it on the side when
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  Speaker 3: I came in and I said, what's this for? And
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  Speaker 3: they said, oh, that's going to be your prop. How's
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  Speaker 3: that going to work? So if you can picture the
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  Speaker 3: scene facing the camera about six foot away, and the
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  Speaker 3: two guys are obviously out of shot either side of
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  Speaker 3: the camera, and they just shouted instructions at me until
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  Speaker 3: I was too tired to hold the wrench over my
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  Speaker 3: head any longer. And that's when they would switch over
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  Speaker 3: to Richard in his suit looking cool with a guitar. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it was.
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  Speaker 2: You got a guitar you got to reach That.
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  Speaker 3: Hasn't that hasn't changed. Yeah, we that video, as you say,
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  Speaker 3: introduced us to an American audience via MTV, which was
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  Speaker 3: in its infancy, and we got decent rotation on MTV
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  Speaker 3: with that, so that American audiences had half a clue
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  Speaker 3: who we were when we finally arrived in America.
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  Speaker 4: Check it out on YouTube.
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  Speaker 1: If you haven't seen it to this day, you know
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  Speaker 1: and more so than not, everyone does break through in America.
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  Speaker 2: So just was it as life changing as you thought
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  Speaker 2: it would be? Or and then some.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we struggled with that first album for reasons much
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  Speaker 3: too lengthy to go into here. The label pulled the
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  Speaker 3: promotional budget and we close our eyes just as we
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  Speaker 3: were outside the top forty. So the record was doing well,
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  Speaker 3: but we didn't break into the forty with that song,
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  Speaker 3: and Chris Liz had another artist on the label, Barney
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  Speaker 3: the Purple Dinosaur, who went on to have a number
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  Speaker 3: one record, while while we hovered outside the forty, which
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  Speaker 3: was somewhat disappointing. But yeah, then we had the cliched
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  Speaker 3: archetypal difficult second album, which brings us along some years
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  Speaker 3: later to starting to write the songs for what would
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  Speaker 3: become our Indian Summer album. And in a classic case
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  Speaker 3: of being in the right place at the right time,
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  Speaker 3: EUMI America, our new label, was just then putting together
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  Speaker 3: the soundtrack for a film called Pretty Woman.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was fortuitors.
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  Speaker 3: It was indeed.
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  Speaker 2: The king of wish we're thinking now, Peter.
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  Speaker 1: Music streaming means younger generations are finding eighties music every
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  Speaker 1: day and they're realizing, of course, what a great era
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  Speaker 1: of music it's like. And now they come along to
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  Speaker 1: your shows, probably with their parents. What is it like
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  Speaker 1: when you know, you see these kids singing along to
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  Speaker 1: songs you recorded before they were born.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it's amazing. I mean, they're members of the
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  Speaker 3: band who were playing who were they came out? But yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's obviously I'm My main feeling is of gratitude that
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  Speaker 3: I still get to do the thing I love to do,
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  Speaker 3: and to travel halfway around the world to do it
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  Speaker 3: as well. It's just incredible. If you'd said to me
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  Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty four, when we were making that debut
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  Speaker 3: Go West album, what are your aspirations for nineteen eighty five?
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  Speaker 3: I would have just said, I hope they let us
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  Speaker 3: make another record, because my motivation was never about being
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  Speaker 3: famous or any of that, and that all, as naive
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  Speaker 3: as it sounds, that all really took me somewhat by surprise.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Well, well, for people heading to the show in Perth
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  Speaker 4: tonight at the ast, obviously they can expect the hits,
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  Speaker 4: plenty of hits, few surprises. Maybe the backstory on Barney
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  Speaker 4: the Purple Dinosaur and the legal problems that surrounded that
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  Speaker 4: you'll have plenty of stories to tell.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure, yes, indeed, although I think I might leave
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  Speaker 3: Barney the Purple Dinosaur out. That would be a long story.
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  Speaker 3: From the stage, we try to try to keep the
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  Speaker 3: momentum of the show going and not send everyone to sleep.
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  Speaker 3: Fair enough energy.
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  Speaker 1: Well that's all tonight at the ASTA. Thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for joining us, Peter Peter to talk to you.
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  Speaker 3: Really appreciated