Latest / You Call That Radio? / Q & A w/ Mark McG

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Q & A w/ Mark McG · You Call That Radio?

• 0:04
  As you call that radio.
• 0:07
  The audio podcast is back.
• 0:10
  Season 6, Episode 1 and let's just start off with a little bit of music.
• 0:19
  Dead Thatchers featuring Jackal Trades and Postcode Prom Queen.
• 0:26
  Does it matter where you go?
• 0:29
  No, you will go well never tell we've all been there as well does it matter where you go?
• 0:43
  No, you will go well never yourself We've all been there As I took my fractured foot cocooned and I moonbuilt on I meant they both depew marooned in the full moon suit Every part is broken, every particle's fractured all the brain cells baffled and the nervous system frazzled My boom gleggitt is where I used to own a jakey but the winter has sneaked up in us again Demanding payment It's hard to keep balanced on the shifting sands if you're always disappointed then stop making does it matter where know you go well never turns yourself We've opened there as well does it matter where you go? No, you will go where never doubt yourself We've all been there as well upon the Badgeon and the Carpenter and administration no faith in anyone I'm google mapping the cabin sailed the ocean the horseback and arrived in Arran Might just be a daydream all this land seems barren A daunting mud days and death and lane in January's fell of gold and floating shallow streams of all the memories empty seas I wake up in an airport with a battery and 1% you can't mind the Pasco minfuck Always rough, different culture Waking up, break up time's up got to keep the head up Form a jackal trade union start a jackal trade war Striking while the arms hot Start the way to stay warm A new day free form freedom from full on thoughts racing with the wall and been gone for so.
• 2:47
  You're going to get through.
• 2:50
  You're going to get through.
• 2:54
  You're going to get through.
• 2:57
  You're going to get through.
• 3:01
  You're going to get through.
• 3:03
  Welcome Season six Episode one of you call that Radio's audio podcast.
• 3:11
  I thought we'd start with a bit of music there. So that's half of a song.
• 3:17
  You can hear the rest of it on the Dead Thatcher's Band camp page.
• 3:22
  Kind of rushed that song.
• 3:25
  It was for the food bank. Glasgow food bank.
• 3:29
  Dead Thatchers put together a compilation album and I only had a couple of days notice to do it.
• 3:36
  So yeah, it's a bit of a.
• 3:39
  A bit of a one take effort there. But I do like it. I like it and I think I might need to do the vocals again for a proper release. But yeah, you can get the full version of that on Death's band Camp Shouts to Postco Prom Queen for the back and vocals as well.
• 3:59
  And just the full album for Dead Thatchers, who were fantastic at the weekend. We had had a book launch party for a book I've done called if by Magic at Slay in Glasgow, and we celebrated the book by launching African Seeds, and it was a phenomenal lineup. Dead Thatchers were one of the standout acts on the evening and I just thought I would do get episode one done because I've tried to do this so many times and then I'm like, oh, I'll wait until that happens. I'll wait until that happens. There's never a good time to do a podcast, especially one when I'm interviewing myself.
• 4:48
  But this became almost like a tradition. And you call that radio where we do an ama, which is Ask Me Anything, a little Q and A just in case there's new listeners and they're wondering what this is all about.
• 5:06
  It's season six, which means we are now going into our seventh year of broadcasting.
• 5:14
  Now we do a lot of live streams on YouTube, we do a lot of memes on Facebook, we do a lot of news articles and on YouTube as well. But we usually gather the best news articles and throw as an audio podcast called this Is the News.
• 5:35
  Although I'm changing that to Views from the Sea, because I live near the sea now. I've went rural, so. And I thought Views from the Seas a better name than this Is the News, because sometimes this Is the News isn't even about the news. It's more about opinions or stories. So it kind of opens up a wee bit more.
• 5:59
  So the audio podcast isn't changing too much. We're just going to keep putting out the best interviews, which is usually musicians, but can be comedians, can be authors, playwrights, just people that work within the community, just interesting people.
• 6:18
  If I meet an interesting guy in the pub, I'll say, do you want to go on? You call that radio? And if they say yes, then I'll bring them on the show.
• 6:27
  So we're just going to keep up the interviews. And then when I think I've got enough views from the Sea, we'll put a Views from the Sea to the Place this Is the News.
• 6:37
  And we have five seasons on the audio podcast already that you can check it and yeah, but I think I've done it. I think the first episode pretty Much. I'm not, I'm not going back to check it all and listening to myself and checking what I've done before because I think one day, if I'm lucky enough to make it to a care home, then I can listen to all back and figure it what the hell I was doing with my wife.
• 7:10
  So I might even be broadcasting live for the care home.
• 7:14
  Who knows what the future holds.
• 7:17
  So, yeah, today we're just going to read out some questions from the patrons who support the show at patreon.com ucallthatradio we don't have any sponsors, you're not going to get any adverts and we certainly don't have any Creative Scotland funding. So don't. This show is powered purely by the patrons. Thank you for your service and if you want to sign up, you'll get some bonus material and you get invited to free concerts and festivals and things like that as well.
• 7:56
  And one of the, one of the questions has been, well, there's two questions that I was asked that I've already uploaded to the Patreon.
• 8:05
  One was what happened in Dublin?
• 8:07
  Because we were on tour in Dublin, we did a full Irish tour in November and everyone kept saying what happened in Dublin stays in Dublin.
• 8:17
  So it's not just stayed in Dublin, it's kind of moved on to the Patreon page.
• 8:21
  The Dublin debacle in all its glory. So if you, you do what I know then and you might be a patron already and you just weren't aware, but the Dublin story is on Patreon. And I've also put my opinion on the poetry wars that's kicking off in Scotland, which is fear, a fierce, fierce argument as fiercest poetry can get. But yeah, there's been a big follow in the Scottish poetry scene. So I did a 25 minute take on that.
• 8:51
  I don't really want to put it publicly because I'm worried about getting cancelled, basically because it's quite a passionate debate and I feel like if I say the wrong thing, it might get taken out of context. So I needed a full 25 minute video, which I've done on the Patreon. So if you're on the Patreon, you can, you can get those stories. I won't be talking about them anymore today, but yeah, okay, so let's go to the questions. The questions. Okay, first question is from James, who's actually over in, a good Scottish lad, a good Ayrshire boy who now lives in Ireland, who's asked me if the new book is going to have an audiobook. And would I read anything from the book on season one, Season six, Episode one.
• 9:48
  So I don't know how I feel about this because there's a part of me that realizes that I should do an audio book because I've got a studio.
• 9:58
  I could just record that and then maybe get some help mixing it a wee bit.
• 10:03
  But at the minute I'm just mixing everything myself.
• 10:07
  But it's just a wee bit.
• 10:10
  I started reading the other night because, you know, on Saturday nights, a book launch. So you've got to read for your book. But unlike a lot of these poets, I've memorized my words.
• 10:19
  So by pretending to read from the book, it was really putting me off especially.
• 10:24
  Yeah, I was making me worse, if anything.
• 10:29
  But it's not that the book is. Is all the gyro babies. It's called Death by Magic Words and Lord of the gyro babies from 2008 to 2025.
• 10:38
  But, you know, I know the lyrics in it. But I did also write intros and anecdotes to each songs and then there's an outro and stuff like that.
• 10:48
  But maybe I'll. I'll read a little bit, although I'm not.
• 10:54
  Let's go. Let's just do it. Let's do it. I'll read a very small part of the introduction to the book.
• 11:04
  I'm not sure where these words even come from.
• 11:08
  It's as if they magically appear from some sort of unknown source during a time of grief, illness and hedonism.
• 11:17
  Both myself and my friend John Hayes contracts were terminated from a call center in Glasgow.
• 11:25
  We talked about starting a band together.
• 11:28
  And so we started to record multiple demos every day using an old PC, an acoustic guitar belonging to my father, and a cheap microphone designed for a PlayStation Karaoke game.
• 11:40
  We would drink, smoke and upload one take demos to a new obsolete website called MySpace.
• 11:47
  And before we knew it, my friend Martin Yuen joined on bass and we found a French drummer called Claude by putting up an advert on a board at Carlton Studios in the Gorbals.
• 11:59
  It seems like a lifetime ago now, with the world unrecognizable to what it was when we started.
• 12:05
  But I think that that last album that we released, Dreams are mental in 2025, was the perfect way to end the story of the band.
• 12:14
  Every day I would cast a night out to fish for words. And as if by magic, they appeared by the bar load more often than not, have boxes and boxes of lyrics everywhere. And I became obsessed with Making rhymes about everything from social commentary to psychobabble as Louder Than War described it.
• 12:37
  Every song. We started with a fresh page and were never confined by genre or mood. We made rock, punk, techno, folk, hip hop, made serious records and we made completely daft silly stuff.
• 12:49
  We eventually went on to play these songs live to a sold out Barrow and Ballroom Festival, stages up and down the country and shared bells with some of our heroes.
• 12:58
  We would record around five albums worth of songs, the majority of which will be shared within these pages as I look back on them. During the process I felt like flicking through an old book of photographs.
• 13:11
  So many memories trapped in sound and scribbled notebooks.
• 13:16
  I can see where I improved and then when I over complicated things.
• 13:21
  The sweet spot is to keep it direct and leave it open to interpretation and sometimes I think I succeeded in doing that, other times not so much.
• 13:32
  Leonard Cohen once said if I knew where the good songs were I'd go there more often.
• 13:38
  I've interviewed, collaborated and even drank with thousands of artists and nobody's ever given me a straight answer about where they get their ideas from.
• 13:47
  I think history will remember our generation as low iq. Prehistoric creatures. They seem to tap into something otherly from time to time and made something out of nothing that created all ranges of reactions and emotions from complete strangers.
• 14:07
  When I'm naming my albums I have a good idea of the concept and I try to let the concept inform the name and not the other way around.
• 14:15
  During the process there's always three words that ascend off the page and instantly dictate the rest of the project.
• 14:22
  It's always three words for some reason.
• 14:26
  That's why it's social networking. Bus Stop, Apocalypse, Hootach, Utopia, Taxi Driver, Rumour and Dreams are mental.
• 14:35
  I'm not sure why it's three words.
• 14:38
  Well I do know, but I'm not telling you.
• 14:41
  When compiling this book, if by magic danced off the page while I was adding notes to a song called Late Night Sketchy and that halted the decision making process of what they call the book in its tracks.
• 14:56
  You've probably never heard of the Gyrobabies outside the Glasgow because our tours were never normally well attended.
• 15:05
  We were completely diy. No management, no label, no booker, no sponsored ads, no radio plugger, no team, no contacts, no friends and no as in zero budget.
• 15:18
  As well as being the only surviving member of the original lineup, I've also released three hip hop albums under the name Jack O Trades. I'm a spoken word poet called Mark Me G previously Mark My Words Until I found out that name was not the unique thought that I thought it was. And I host a podcast and YouTube channel called. You'd call that Radio Primer. Promoter, manager, booker, songwriter and producer for other bands, as well as being a curator, programmer, artist, liaison, stage manager and booker for events and music festivals.
• 15:50
  None of these things would have happened without being sacked from my job on the same day as Hazy.
• 15:56
  This book is dedicated to everybody. It helped me along the way. The doors miraculously opened up and the adventures these songs have taken me on. As if by magic.
• 16:09
  And that's the. That's the intro.
• 16:13
  I don't know what I think of that.
• 16:16
  I wrote both the intro and the outro while I was in Ireland and a bit stressed it.
• 16:22
  So it does. It does get better. The book does get better.
• 16:26
  You can check it. It's on all the places. It's on Waterstones, ebay, Amazon.
• 16:33
  But if you want to buy direct from the Gyro Babies Band camp page, then I get a better cut. So you can always do that. And also there's a discount code if you're a Patreon.
• 16:45
  And yeah, that's. That's it. That's it. So, yeah, I've decided to create my middle age avatar as an author.
• 16:56
  That's what I'm going to do this year.
• 16:59
  I'm going to do this. I'm going to. You call that radio.
• 17:03
  And I might do some spoken word gigs to keep myself busy.
• 17:09
  I'm going to do a Jack of Treats album. Keep the pen sharp and yeah, work on. Work on the novel, which I did start a few months ago and it was going quite well. I've just been too busy to get back into it. But the novel should be finished by the end of the year. I don't know if it'll be released by the end of the year, but I'm working on it.
• 17:31
  And that takes me to Big Al's question, why have you left Glasgow?
• 17:40
  And I suppose that's why, Because I want to be an author.
• 17:47
  I think I can be an author. I don't know, it just feels right.
• 17:52
  I'm still up for playing live events as a solo artist, but I think the organizing a few festivals with a full band, you know, booking things a year in advance, sometimes 18 months in advance is too much. It's too much. My batteries need the Dreams Are Mental album. Explains why the band is over, really.
• 18:21
  I have actually got into a nice. Had a nice conversation with strange exiles about it. That podcast should be out soon, but every time someone Asks me the question, why?
• 18:33
  Why stop the band?
• 18:36
  I seem to give a different answer.
• 18:40
  And that's not because I'm being untruthful, it's just because there was more reasons to stop the band than there was to keep it.
• 18:50
  Although your question wasn't about the band Dial, your question was about Glasgow.
• 18:55
  So I think they kind of tie into each other and feed into each other and I don't think either the city or the band is particularly good for my health.
• 19:07
  And so I've went somewhere a bit quieter where nobody knows me.
• 19:14
  And it feels good being a wee anonymous ghost.
• 19:19
  I mean, it probably won't last for long. It's a small place, you know, but I'm enjoying it just now.
• 19:26
  And apparently winter's the hardest time to live in these rural places.
• 19:31
  So if you can handle the winter, you love the spring and summer is what I've been told.
• 19:36
  So if that's the case, I'm excited for the spring and summer. I'm always excited for spring and summer, but even more so this year and not having about 50 gigs already in the book, I will. I'm open to doing some stuff and also you call that radio does events. So I hope to bring people to a quieter part of Scotland and I'm still going to visit Glasgow, I'm still going to put on events in Glasgow.
• 20:09
  I suppose that I've kind of got a love hate relationship with live music at the minute.
• 20:15
  Everything from the current financial climate to the.
• 20:22
  There's a million reasons why it's more difficult than ever, but I still love it and I will still be putting on some events.
• 20:33
  I mean right now I usually have a. I usually have a quiet January, but there was a big launch last week and we did a lovely Soul Coach Burn supper as well at the Seven Sisters, which was great.
• 20:51
  And yeah, as I record this right now I'm about to head up back to Glasgow to do a little spoken word set with Victoria McNulty, who's the legendary Victoria McNulty and Donald Jenkins, legendary Geordie Port.
• 21:10
  He's got a show called Still Raven in your 40s, which I've heard amazing things about. I've seen clips of Looks Great. I've not seen it myself because it's not been to Glasgow yet.
• 21:22
  So I'm doing that. And then my friend, I'm organizing stage managing a gig, Ivory blacks, for Nico's 50th birthday, a headline by Colonel Mustard and about 50 acts. So it's gonna be a. It's gonna be a bit of a busy night for me.
• 21:40
  So I'm still, you know, I'm still traveling back and forth.
• 21:44
  I've not left the city properly in fact, you know, since I moved here, I've probably, I've probably been in Glasgow half the time, so. But yeah, I want to do less of that.
• 21:58
  I would love to just get a full month in the middle of nowhere then.
• 22:05
  Yeah, I would like to go back to Glasgow once every six weeks. In an ideal world, if I didn't need, if I could afford to, it'd be great to just do that every six weeks.
• 22:19
  But obviously, yeah, I need to, I need to work and I need to earn money, so.
• 22:25
  And the podcast pays for itself thanks to the patrons. I can pay for all the things that you need in the podcast world.
• 22:38
  But yeah, it's not enough to, to live off of, but we can try. If I could double my patrons, I could actually just full, timely, full time be a broadcaster and a writer, which is the dream. And I think probably if you listen to the other season episode ones of the beginnings of the seasons, it's probably not the first time I've said that but it would just nice be nice to just do this full time and be a writer full time because I have these boxes of ideas and there's never any time to do it but without the distraction of the city, who knows?
• 23:18
  Maybe it's gonna be a good year, maybe everything's gonna be alright this year because last year was a shocker and I blame it all on Glasgow.
• 23:28
  Unfairly maybe, but I think a fresh start is always good.
• 23:33
  And what was the year of the year of the snake last year? Shedding the skin.
• 23:39
  So I think I've shared a lot of skin last year and it's time to start fresh as a middle aged author, as my new avatar.
• 23:51
  So there you go.
• 23:53
  Still love Glasgow but I'm blaming Glasgow.
• 23:58
  Love you but blaming you.
• 24:01
  Next question.
• 24:06
  Gregory from Nottingham has asked me what my tips are for 2026.
• 24:16
  I'm assuming he's talking about music.
• 24:20
  So yeah, actually meant to do a wee thing about that anyway.
• 24:28
  But I think the, there's some really positive acts with loads of potential this year and I think, I think they're all Scottish. Obviously I'm biased, some bias, but I would say Cowboy Hunters 100%.
• 24:47
  They are doing some amazing things. They're touring me, Bob Villain, Sleaford mods doing European things like Iceland Airwaves and they're just smashing it.
• 25:00
  And they played our little festival, we saw our fest on the Isle of Arryn for two years in a row and they just get better and better.
• 25:12
  They really could do it. They're only a two, they're a two piece.
• 25:17
  They seem to like each other, they seem to just love playing live and I think that they've just got that, that little bit of luck, well deserved luck. I'm not saying luck, I don't mean that in a bad way, but sometimes people get opportunities too late when it all becomes a bit of a drag and they just seem to be having the time of their lives just now.
• 25:46
  So Cowboy Hunters for sure and a similar band, you know. Sorry, I'll just describe their music quickly. It's sort of. It's grungy, it's fun, it's some humor in there.
• 26:03
  And yeah, they're just great musicians and they're, I suppose, similar, but very different. It would be dos.
• 26:11
  I've just signed a deal with Alco Pop Records and we've been talking about DOS for ages. But they. They've got the art school gig at the end of April, by the way, we've got an art school gig in March 28th. I forgot to mention that while I was talking about myself earlier on.
• 26:29
  Gyro Baby's farewell show is the 28th of March.
• 26:33
  I maybe didn't make that clear earlier on.
• 26:36
  So, yeah, tickets are going well for that one and I mean that.
• 26:40
  Thank you to everyone who's supporting that. But yeah, it's not all about me. Yeah, it's all about me. Just ask me anything. This show is about me.
• 26:48
  But we're talking about other people. So let's get back to that. DOS have got an art school gig at the end April. They'll sell that. I'm pretty sure they'll sell it.
• 26:57
  And they've just got the. The hunger, the enthusiasm and brilliant songs and the fan base is growing all the time.
• 27:09
  And yeah, they've done the European thing already as well, the European tours and I think they've got what it takes to just actually just ride the wave because they're about to become quite famous like Cowboy Hunters and I think that they'll actually enjoy it.
• 27:29
  So I think Doss has got to be mentioned.
• 27:34
  Who else?
• 27:36
  Well, I think my Mamero, you might have heard of my Mamero yet, but my Mamero made an amazing album during lockdown called Almost Home and. But it was more Cliff plays keys with the Gyros sometimes. She is an amazing singer, poet. But the last album, it was a kind of sort of ballady, I would say, kind of lo fi folk music.
• 28:09
  And now she's got an incredible nine piece band or maybe seven piece, but there's a lot of them anyway and they're all wearing golden capes.
• 28:18
  And yeah, it's a kind of sort of heavier rock sound but with the. With multiple female harmonies and it sounds magic. And they blew me away Knocking on festival they were on before us and they were definitely a hard act to follow.
• 28:38
  And after we listened to the unmixed demos from their forthcoming album and I think they put just a lot of work into the. The craft of making this album and they've taken their time.
• 28:53
  We're getting it right and releasing it properly.
• 28:57
  So I would expect them to surprise a few people over festival season and release.
• 29:04
  The critics will love it because it's just undeniably good music. Quite accessible but quite unique.
• 29:12
  And the albums always seem to go well.
• 29:17
  And off the top of my head, Dr. Normal, she's not very good at promotion but she did release a 30 track album this year and a five track EP and there is absolutely no signs of her slowing down. So she's just full of ideas and energy and yeah, she seems to have found a productive flow and confidence and just a great songwriter.
• 29:48
  So shout out to Dr. Normal as well.
• 29:53
  Who else?
• 29:54
  Ian, I would say, hip hop wise Ian, he played the Burn Supper on Saturday, but he's just the reason I picked him because we didn't really have any hip hop artists on the bill and I wanted one because the whole point of us doing the alternative Burn Supper is to give working class Scottish voices a platform.
• 30:15
  And I think he worked harder than anyone else this year within the hip hop scene, which is a tough scene because it's very niche, it's very underground and yeah, we just played. He played loads of gigs, he just worked on his craft. He got better and better. The stuff he's doing lyrically, it's incredible. The breath control is insane.
• 30:41
  He's got a good year for a beat.
• 30:44
  He knows what he's doing and I think the. Just the reaction he's getting online suggests that the fan base has grown.
• 30:53
  And yeah, I think Ian will be great.
• 30:56
  Also. The next gimmick.
• 30:58
  I'd like to show the next gimmick who I've only been seeing little small clips. He's been teasing this new album, it's out in February 14th and you know, I don't know the guy well, just met him a few times. He seems dead nice and he actually was on our.
• 31:17
  You call that radio's poetry slam in December and the music sounds really interesting, kind of like, I suppose, sort of an indie rock back trip, backbeat to it all. But it's still definitely in the Scottish hip hop realms.
• 31:35
  And yeah, I suppose all those acts are just taking Scottish dialect and pushing it forward.
• 31:43
  My mama Merrill has obviously got an Irish accent, but she's Scottish, she's lived in Glasgow for ages. She's one of us now. So I'm glad that she's keeping her authentic Irish accent and making good music. So yeah, that was just.
• 32:00
  Sorry if I've forgotten anyone, but that was just off the top of my head.
• 32:06
  Greg Phenoton, Check them all out.
• 32:14
  Next question comes from Stuart on Patreon, who actually left a voice note. So the idea was I set up a thing on Speak pipe which is somewhere you can leave a voicemail. Because I thought it'd been quite good idea if everyone left me a voice note and I would answer the questions. I thought that would make everything a bit more personalized, more like a phone in radio show.
• 32:44
  But I can't remember my logins. But I did hear the message and it was something to do with the guy for Westlife.
• 32:53
  Now this is an ongoing question from Stuart, who attended our gig at Carlton Studios about a year ago, maybe even been nearly two years now.
• 33:06
  And there was a man who looked like he was from Westlife. He did have an Irish accent. He said he enjoyed the gig.
• 33:14
  And I don't know if Stuart is trolling me or Stuart genuinely believes that the guy is from Westlife.
• 33:23
  I do not know. I had a very brief conversation with the guy. It could well have been the guy from Westlife.
• 33:30
  I was. I didn't know.
• 33:32
  I'm not an expert in boy bands or how boy bands are getting on these days, never mind back then.
• 33:43
  So I don't know Stuart. The answer is I don't know. I don't know if you believe this to be the guy for Westlife or.
• 33:51
  Or you're just kind of bombing me up. But yeah, I'd like to speak to you in person the next time I see you to try and figure it if you're at the wind up or the guy for Westlife was actually at the gig. If he, if he was at the gig, then he said that he enjoyed her set. It was Alabama 3 after party.
• 34:10
  There's a pop manager that's got an office in the building, I believe as well. So who knows?
• 34:18
  But I have nothing to go on apart from an Irish guy, tall, blonde guy, could have been Westlife guy. He said he enjoyed the gig. That is all I know about that one. Next question.
• 34:33
  Ricky from Calendar writes asking what football team do I support now before I actually answer that Calendar was one of the worst places I ever went to for a job.
• 34:54
  I went there when spent a night or two there as it was on holiday.
• 35:00
  Beautiful place.
• 35:02
  It was a sunny day so I've got fond memories of the sunny sunny holiday. But I was, I had to go to Calendar one day doing business to business sales. Sales selling giant calculators and the people at Calendar shouted at me and hounded me out of all their, their shops and garages. In fact one of the garages that let me stash my giant calculators and I think we had Disney books as well they bumped it. So it was a mechanics. They bumped it. I was in commission only they and I got back to the, the, the, the cult office. It was definitely like a. Some sort of pyramid scheme or was it not? Maybe multi level marketing is maybe the right phrase but if you came back upset, raging.
• 35:52
  I think I made minus 40 quid that day and that was Calendar. Yeah but anyway I know that Ricky would never shout at me but, but y trying to sort of put me in a corner by talking about football and every time I talk about football it causes arguments. People unsubscribe, people don't like it, our audience don't like it.
• 36:21
  You know what team of support Ricky, you know, find me what team I support.
• 36:27
  If you don't know what team of support I'm sure you can guess.
• 36:31
  But I do try and keep football off of you call that radio because nothing good ever comes it at all.
• 36:42
  I mean I did do a thing recently when Scotland qualified for the World cup because I felt like that was a big enough news story.
• 36:50
  And then I did a. I did briefly try and do a thing about Martin Neal coming back as well but yeah, nobody watched it, nobody cared apart from four people unsubscribed from my YouTube.
• 37:04
  So I try and keep it music in news or whatever my guests want to talk about.
• 37:12
  So yeah, you know, to my support Ricky, everyone else I'm sure knows as well. I don't want to talk about Faba on this episode.
• 37:24
  Next question.
• 37:25
  You call that radio?
• 37:29
  Sally from Dumbarton has asked about the Epstein files.
• 37:38
  Now it feels like I'm pretty sure this was a question last this time last year.
• 37:44
  Well I had to look. I hadn't listened to it but I look at the, the info in the last episode one season five and I was asked by somebody with anything good come of Trump being in power.
• 37:59
  And I said no.
• 38:02
  But the playing devil's advocate, the only positive that I could potentially see was that the rest of the world may be a bit of a safer place.
• 38:12
  Which was an absolutely wrong, wrong prediction.
• 38:17
  Cuz now you've actually got a president who would rather start World War Three than be exposed of what he is.
• 38:30
  And I suppose the other thing about Trump is kind of like football in the sense that no, it's not, it's not as divisive because I don't think there's anybody left who listens to call that radio who still is a fan of Donald Trump.
• 38:49
  I don't think there was anyone a year ago, I don't think there was anyone four years ago. I think there was a couple of people that thought, I don't know, maybe that he was funny. There's maybe a couple of folk out there who thought he was the the least of two evils. But that's not a thing anymore.
• 39:11
  And if you stole like Trump in 2026 then well, I don't know, you could be.
• 39:22
  You would be a racist right winger ranging a triple R.
• 39:29
  And that's not really our target audience at all.
• 39:35
  So I don't think it's divisive to talk about Trump.
• 39:39
  I suppose the problem with it is is that when I do a news article on the guy then it kind of sinks. The algorithm doesn't like it when I talk about stuff with us, so it just disappears.
• 39:56
  I don't get any views whatsoever, but it's not about views. I suppose it's never been the case, but it suggests to me that the listeners don't want to hear about it. I'd actually like to hear if you. I think if you can comment if you're on Spotify or you can send me a message in Patreon if you want to hear me talk about global politics and rapey presidents. If that's if you want to hear my opinion. But I think he's normal opinion on it that the. The guy is evil, demented and there is nothing really in the Epstein fails that has came out so far that's surprising at all.
• 40:41
  It was best pals with Epstein.
• 40:44
  He thinks P. Diddy's a good guy.
• 40:47
  He got. He gave the. And he gave the Tate brothers a free pass from Romania.
• 40:54
  Russell Brand sniffing a bit.
• 40:57
  He just surrounds himself with nonstery everywhere he goes.
• 41:03
  So there's nothing that's really surprised me. I suppose the one surprise this the 4th of February today.
• 41:12
  So if you listen to us in the future. Probably more stuff's came out because 3 million documents have just leaked.
• 41:18
  I had a couple of gigs at the weekend and I came back and I've just been trying to catch up with it all, but there's just so much stuff happening.
• 41:27
  I noticed that Prince Andrew was all over the news yesterday, but he always feels like the useful idiot that gets flung under the bus. Nobody really cares about Prince Andrew and I'm sure that he was covering up that by bringing Andrew down, because he's already down, there's bigger things going on and hopefully Prince Andrew goes to jail.
• 41:52
  Hopefully he goes to jail.
• 41:54
  But the one that's on the news today is Keir Starmer has just reported Mandels sacked Mandelson and reported them to the police because Mandelson has committed espionage, treason, whoever you want to call it.
• 42:13
  But he was best buddies we Epstein given a convicted sex offender free tips on bailouts and all sorts of insider information from the heart of the government. I think things like Gordon Brown was going to resign, there was going to be a 5 billion bailout, he was trying really hard to make sure the bankers still got their bonuses, stuff like that, as far as I'm aware.
• 42:40
  So do you know, the one good thing is because I think it's been quite disheartening to see all these revelations come out and yet nobody has had any accountability or any consequences because we live in a society where rich people don't have consequences. They have good lawyers, they have good PR teams and they always seem to spin it away.
• 43:05
  So I don't expect Trump to have any consequences. I expect him to build a ballroom that is actually some sort of nuclear bunker or some sort of place he can hide surrounded by ice and people with guns so they can steal the election. And Trump's in the news today trying to change the subject from Epstein once again by saying that they need to nationalize elections because he's poll his ratings are really bad and he's going to lose the midterms.
• 43:40
  And the way he's going to stop that is by being in charge of all the states votes, which is not in the Constitution. So he's trying to steal the election and to be honest was let's make a prediction. This is until November, so we can look at this next year.
• 43:56
  But I think he may get away with it. I think he might steal the midterms and if anyone complains, he'll just go into his new secret, secret dungeon. I'm sure it's a very fancy Dungeon, but that's where he'll stay.
• 44:11
  And I don't see Democrats doing anything about it. I don't see the media doing anything about it.
• 44:17
  And the only way that Trump will ever leave office is in a coffin.
• 44:23
  And.
• 44:25
  Yeah, and he may have dementia, who knows?
• 44:29
  But he's either going to be. Get. He will need to get ill or die before he's removed from office.
• 44:38
  But he's not going to go there willingly and he's definitely not going to go there for a vote. And if he does go, he will have some sort of super pardon that means he never deals with any consequences.
• 44:51
  But it's good to see that Mandelson may go to jail.
• 44:53
  I think that Mandelson may go to jail for this, for this one.
• 44:59
  Everyone else, Prince Andrew get away with royalty, always do.
• 45:04
  And anything else stands out. Richard Branson is in the files, which is good because anyone's been listening to show. I've always had an issue with Richard Branson. I always said that he didn't get to the top by being a nice guy who helped lollipop ladies cross the street. Sorry, sorry, didn't. By helping sweet old ladies cross the street.
• 45:25
  I just think that the, the press just kind of made Richard Branson look like he was some sort of lollipop man helping the world.
• 45:34
  And he's done loads of bad over the years, so it's no surprise that he was cozy with one of the worst people in the world, potentially the worst person in the world.
• 45:44
  So, yeah, that's no surprise.
• 45:47
  Bill Gates, that's not really a surprise.
• 45:50
  He's been acting shady for a while.
• 45:53
  Noam Chomsky was a surprise. It's not looking good for Chomsky, so that's disappointing.
• 46:01
  But I think everybody else were bad people.
• 46:05
  And none of it is really surprising. I mean, it's. But it does make you wonder what's redacted.
• 46:14
  I mean, what is, what are they, what they're not sharing.
• 46:17
  But, yeah, I think the more stuff comes out, the more wars will be going to change the subject. And I think that the, the, you know, kidnapping the Venezuelan president was a really good example of, you know, Trump knows how to get attention and he knows about ratings.
• 46:37
  And, you know, that's why kidnapping a president in the middle of the night or threatening to go to war with Europe and stealing Greenland, things like that will change the subject. And everybody. It does work. It works because nobody mentioned Epstein for a couple of weeks there while the, the, the Greenland thing was going on and the Venezuela thing was going on. So I expect there's no point in talking about Trump. That's my point. There's no point in talking about Trump on a podcast like this because there's people listening to us in the future that are just catching up and it changes so fast. The news is just ever changing.
• 47:14
  So, yeah, maybe I think what I'm going to do is maybe just keep the, the topical stuff on YouTube if I've. If people want to, we'll do the topical stuff on YouTube and of course the, the Patreon as well. On the Patreon, I'm doing a bit more topical stuff also.
• 47:33
  But for the sake of things like this, is there any point the news will change. The news cycle is going to change ridiculously fast tomorrow.
• 47:42
  And I suppose the only surprise of the Epstein files is that there's no mention of Vince McMahon so far, who's another one of Trump's rapey pals, the, the husband of Linda McMahon who's in his cabinet or used to be in his cabinet, so have to keep up with that roundabout.
• 48:02
  And yeah, he was the, the head guy of the WWE who had to resign in disgrace.
• 48:11
  But yeah, there's rumors he's going back to the wrestling.
• 48:14
  I don't know if that's true. Who knows? But, yeah, that's what I think. The Epstein fails. It's a, it's disgraceful, it's disgusting.
• 48:26
  Just, it just makes you feel helpless and it's just infuriating that these billionaires just run around doing what they like.
• 48:38
  And also the, you know, the political side of it as well.
• 48:42
  He's basically admitted to causing Brexit.
• 48:46
  Mandelson admitting that he was going to take Corbyn down. That was his first week in thought every day.
• 48:53
  So that, you know, the Labour government, also. Nigel Farage is in it a lot. Tommy Robinson's in it a lot.
• 49:01
  So all these right wingers who keep on talking about grooming gangs are being paid by the biggest grooming gang of them all and following their orders. So hopefully nobody believes the hype and votes for, for a reform government.
• 49:19
  And just look what everything's happening with ICE in the way that they're treating not just immigrants, which is disgraceful, but also killing U.S. citizens.
• 49:30
  And that's a, that's a world that Farage and, and Peter Thiel and all these horrible people want to happen.
• 49:39
  So, yeah, don't, don't believe the hype. Don't fall for the, the, the culture wars.
• 49:47
  It's always, it's always things about immigration and it's never anything about class.
• 49:56
  And I think we need to start holding politicians and the ultra wealthy to account for these ridiculous decisions that mean even people that have got good salaries are struggling as it kind of continues. As Jinx Lennon once said with the song, these are the last days of cheap food.
• 50:18
  And this might be the last time to try and nip the. The downward trajectory and the butt and the bud and the butt and the ass mere like.
• 50:31
  Next question.
• 50:37
  Barbara from Coventry, how you doing? Babs is asking for New Year's resolutions, which you. If anybody knows me, that you know that I'm a. I'm a New Year resolution guy. I'm gonna be not a resolution guy, but every January, I like to change my life.
• 51:01
  Every January I make big moves.
• 51:06
  I big claims.
• 51:09
  And so I'll tell you what my new resolution is right now.
• 51:15
  I've been taking supplements. I've been taking cod liver oil.
• 51:20
  L theamine, cod liver oils for the brain.
• 51:24
  L theamine is.
• 51:27
  It's kind of like. It's quite relaxing.
• 51:30
  It's quite relaxing. It shows me it and it's. It doesn't get you high or anything. It just shows you, in a sense that I can enjoy coffee again.
• 51:42
  It helps me enjoy coffee with the running around. Like, I've taken amphetamines.
• 51:49
  So, yeah. L. The. I mean, it seems to work. It may be a placebo effect. These things usually are.
• 51:55
  But I like it. So I've been taking that as my new resolution. What else?
• 52:01
  I have been. I've got a new bike, so I've been cycling, keeping healthy that way.
• 52:07
  And the weather's not been great, but if it's not pushing the rain, I'm out there.
• 52:16
  I'm looking forward to better weather, but I've still been getting about it.
• 52:21
  Sometimes I think I'm fit again because I'm cycling really fast one direction.
• 52:26
  And then I realize that the wind was giving me a wee push because on the way back, I can barely breathe.
• 52:33
  I have done a wee bit of dumbbells.
• 52:37
  Oh, no. The more. Most importantly, though, I don't know where I got this for you. I think someone told me, or potentially I seen it while I was doomscrolling or on YouTube or something.
• 52:51
  It was about practicing gratitude.
• 52:54
  So every morning I wake up, and while my eyes are still shut, I resist the urge to look at my phone.
• 53:06
  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I may have important things to deal with, so I have to look at it. But in general, I just say to myself, because I'm getting up Quite early these days. So I'm like, there's a world going to end if I just don't look at my phone for 40 minutes.
• 53:26
  And it usually, usually doesn't end. Usually not. Anyway.
• 53:30
  So I just think of three things to be grateful for.
• 53:35
  Now, the trick is not to think about anything abstract or, you know, anything complicated.
• 53:44
  It's got to be something that you can actually touch, that you can see with your own eyes within the first half an hour. Awakening.
• 53:51
  So I got an electric toothbrush for Christmas, so shout outs to my bro, he gave me some Argos vouchers and I got dumbbells and an electric toothbrush that were allegedly on sale.
• 54:03
  So I say to myself, oh, I'm grateful for my electric toothbrush and I'm grateful for my egg roll that I'm about to eat. And I'm grateful for the bike, the new bike. Well, it's an old bike, but I got it for charity.
• 54:19
  And then within half an hour, I've had my egg roll, I have had my electric toothbrush, I have had my cycle. I'm not really sure what order I do, and I've not quite nailed it that way, but there's something.
• 54:33
  It's gratifying in the sense that you are grateful for these three things and within half an hour you actually get to put your hands on the toothbrush, the egg roll, the bike, and then get that daylight into my eyes before I look at any of the bad information that is the. The breaking news that the world is still run by cunts or the mess of an egg of my inbox, as people usually are asking me to do things for free in a potentially rude way.
• 55:20
  So I.
• 55:22
  It makes a big difference.
• 55:24
  And, well, I've not really been drinking. I didn't quite manage dry January, but where I live, I've got nae pals, nae pubs, so it's. Yeah. And pretty much still off the cigarette. That cough reminds me that I'm kind of off the cigarettes. That's been a bit over a year now, but I'm still addicted to the vape, so.
• 55:46
  Still. Still vaping.
• 55:48
  So maybe I should try and reduce the vape and end the vape.
• 55:53
  Because sometimes, occasionally on a big night out, the vape runs out of battery and I smoke a cigarette, but I just don't do it the next day again.
• 56:02
  So, yeah, that's my. It's my usual cliched January health kick that I'm trying to abide by.
• 56:11
  And these small changes seem to be working great. I feel good, feel Better for it. So my New Year's resolution is to keep all of that stuff going and write the book.
• 56:25
  As I talked about earlier on, the book is important.
• 56:28
  So I'm going to write the book.
• 56:30
  And I'd also like to do consultancy. What? Music consultancy. Because there's a part of me that just wants to turn my back and doing live events and things like that. There's another part of me that goes, don't do that. You're. I've got all this experience and love for live music and contacts and I just would like to do it, but maybe from afar, you know.
• 57:00
  So a couple people have recommended that I do music consultancy, whereby I can advise people for tours, for management, you know, that kind of thing. I'd like that. I'd be good.
• 57:14
  So that. That's another.
• 57:17
  I wouldn't say it's a resolution, but it's another idea. It's something I'd like to go down and just collaborate this year.
• 57:26
  Just make some music and collaborate with other people. I've you heard the wee clip of the song I did with Dead? That's. I've also got a song with Doogie for Mickey Nines.
• 57:35
  Yeah, I've got. I've been working on a few songs for other people. I've been writing some songs for other people and yeah, just.
• 57:44
  Just. I want to keep making music and.
• 57:47
  And I'm also gonna be working really hard on our last ever gig, which is 28 March at Glasgow Art School.
• 57:56
  We're going back to the.
• 57:59
  Probably our prime. We haven't played there for about nine years, but I think that was probably.
• 58:05
  That was probably the most fun times, probably for the gyro babies.
• 58:11
  So going back there will be an emotional night, but I think we're going to go in a high because, you know, there is the highs, the lows, and we've had many highs and many lows and this feels like this gig is going to be a high.
• 58:26
  So, yeah, if you want a ticket, they're available on schedule. I think it will sell it. We're doing really well, sales wise. And if you're a patron, then you get a discount code. If you're a Patreon or not, you go to patreon.com forward slash, you call that radio.
• 58:45
  And if you sign up, you get a discount code for all the events that I'm involved in and some bonus content as well. And if you are a patron, then check it out to see what I think about poetry wars and what I think about what was the Other one, Dublin. Yeah, the Dublin Story.
• 59:04
  But anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the the question and answer session this year round.
• 59:10
  The haven't put a lot of thought. If you like it, let me know because if this is actually good podcasting then I could just do this a lot more.
• 59:19
  But I've just taken the questions, answered them, no notes, just went right into it and did it as quickly as I can because I'm away for another few days and if I don't do it today, then I will not do it till next week and then it's next week and it's next week and it's time to start season six off because we do have a lot of cool stuff coming up. We recorded two episodes of beyond the Cringe with Jim Mornin, the panel show you might remember from last year. We did two shows last week that are ready to go. I just need to do a wee bit of mixing and editing and they'll be with you shortly on the audio platforms. And they had a great conversation with Prestige, sorry Scotland by Prestige. We talked about Scottish history and medical cannabis and that was a good one. And the folk drama who a brilliant two piece. Who. I should have actually put my tips for 2026 because they've been working on an album with the beautiful South Polkaton's co writer. So that album is going to be brilliant. I think they've got an album coming in May time as well. They were sensational at the so called Burn Supper along with Mellow.
• 1:00:29
  So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That, that'll be coming soon. That may be by now, by the time you, you listen to this and yeah, loads of, loads of good guests lined up and yeah, the one more, one more weekend in Glasgow and then it's just I'm going to be focusing on the, the podcast, the book and the other things.
• 1:00:50
  So thank you for listening this far if you've got this far.
• 1:00:55
  Thank you to everyone who supports the Patreon and just keep an eye on the YouTube channel for more up to date topical stuff. And if I do a live stream on YouTube then it will eventually turn into an audio podcast. If it's good enough.
• 1:01:13
  If it's good enough.
• 1:01:15
  And that's all I've got to say about that for now.
• 1:01:20
  Thank you. I hope you, I wish you all the best for 2026.
• 1:01:24
  Bye.
• 1:01:25
  You call that radio.