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Speaker 2start about how it came about and why it came about. And I suppose it was a kind of pandemic lockdown project. And Stephen phoned me up and said that he was going to delay the release of his forthcoming album. And what about formulating an idea for a podcast? So over about two or three days, we sort of bashed something out on the internet, I think it's called. Then I think once the title. The title of the album years came in, which I'll lay claim to, but Stephen might lay claim to as well. No, that was your idea.
Speaker 3But it was. That's when it all seemed solid. The concept was to avoid. See, the reason is I got fed up with reading about the same classic rock canon albums discussed endlessly. I'm talking about the British music press here mainly, but also people on the internet just talking about the same 100, 150 albums all the time. And I'm thinking, wouldn't it be great to have a podcast that doesn't talk about. That doesn't talk about those canon albums. The same albums that have been discussed ad infinitum, you know? And we talk about some of the albums that perhaps we feel are just as good, but people just don't talk about. And we're going to talk about some of those in the second half. I've got my top 10 quintessential album years albums, some of which we've talked about on the show already. So that was the idea, to avoid the canon, the classic rock canon albums. In fact, we made a point in our very first recording. I think we did 19. 1967, wasn't it? We did 1967, it was on the first museum, so we didn't mention Sgt Pepper.
Speaker 2That is true in 67, yeah. But also I think for us, you know, the whole idea was to kind of give back what music had given to us. I think that both of us have always been, you know, fanatical about music and it's meant a great deal to us. And so it was partly us giving back the enthusiasm that we felt for things. And I think that, you know, one of the delights for me is that when I've looked at comments, I mean, somebody recently, had said, you know, I've bought Common One or I've bought Sunset Wading or I've bought this, never knew of it before. You know, I'm really glad that the podcast introduced this to me. So, you know, some of you will have already known those records, but the idea is that to kind of pass on enthusiasm for things that perhaps are neglected, as you said.
Speaker 3Yes, and similarly, you've probably had people come up to you and say, I bought that album that you were raving about with Steve on your podcast.
Speaker 2It's shit. Quite frequently we get that. Yes. I was like. Well, I mean, this is the thing as well. I think that obviously kind of half our recommendations, people say, my God, how did I miss it? And half of them, it's like, thank God I missed it.
Speaker 3But that's the beauty of talking about music with your friends anyway, isn't it? Yeah. You know, I think that's the point is that myself and Timmy, you can probably guess we've just been talking about music the way we do on the podcast for the best part of 40 years now. And this is our natural kind of dynamic when we talk about music. So it's just kind of opening up you guys to the way that we bicker and talk about music in the first place. And the way we enthuse about the music and the way that we share music and sort of discover music.
Speaker 2And members of the No Man Live band just said, yeah, this is like being on the tour bus, you know, listening to the album years. And it is true because I think the first time we ever met, which I believe was something like June or July 1987, Hemel Hempstead Station. As soon as we got off, we were almost in an album years episode, you know, like walking to Stephen's house at that point. And prior to that, we'd kind of sent one another mixtapes, letters, you know, and we're kind of enthusing. It's basically trying to define what sort of music we wanted to make, what we thought was also missing from the kind of culture that we'd started out in as well.
Speaker 3But also sharing, you know, you introduced me to a lot of the artists we talk about on the album years. Tim originally introduced me to because he was a little bit older, still is a little bit older than me. Things like you introduced me to things like Prefab Sprout, I remember. Momus, you introduced me to. Yeah, Nico. Nico, the Marble Index. Yeah, famously. One of the albums that probably people have gone out and listened to. Associates. Associates, yeah, yeah. So you kind of turn me on to a lot of music. As you say, I think it's a shame for us in a way that some of those albums seem to have fallen off the radar completely in terms of, you know, mainstream consciousness or whatever.
Speaker 2Yeah. People suggest that something like 90% of us have a reminiscence bump. So basically our growth in terms of what we listen to and how we listen to it is kind of stunted at a certain teenage year. And the one thing, and I've tried to kind of discuss this in the podcast, and I've done it so badly, I've edited myself out every single time, which means I'm going to edit this out as well, is that I've never really suffered from it. That for me, when I listen to music, I still listen to it in the here and now. And this means that while the music never changes, my attitude to it does change. So many of the things that I might have introduced me to, introduced Stephen to, or the things I was fanatical about when I was a teenager, no longer mean what they did. Things that meant less actually now mean more. So it's kind of, for me, I've never sort of suffered from that reminiscence bump.
Speaker 3But you say that, but clearly our podcast has a sort of era that we feel most comfortable talking about. It does. Because famously, every time we try and do an episode around the 21st century, it's like, that came out, never heard it. That came out, never heard it. And we're flailing, aren't we? So I think, you know, there is a sense that we also are not victims. Victims is the wrong word. But we're kind of somehow attached to the era that we were most excited to discover.
Speaker 2I think when we did the early 21st century, we were surprised by how many albums we knew we'd bought. And I actually thought we were fantastic. Maybe the very early 21st century. I think, you know, 2001, 2002. And I think as well, sometimes we try to, when did The Rot set in with what we feel was kind of contemporary music or the album as a statement? Because I think there has been a shift. So I wouldn't say, you know, this is Reminiscence Bump. I would genuinely say that for various reasons, that perhaps the culture that we responded to was sort of dying by the early part of the 21st century. So for me, the album years are still incredibly healthy. Probably. Even up to about 2010.
Speaker 3Yes. I mean, it's worth stating here again, the reason the show is called The Album Years is because we feel there is a kind of window where the album became the primary form of an artist, a musician expressing themselves as opposed to individual songs, singles. And we kind of figured that was roughly the mid-60s, right? From a rock point of view, yeah. Revolver, Pet Sounds, yeah. Through to probably the end of the millennium, right?
Speaker 2Yeah. Although again, you know, we're very well aware of when the album started. I mean, this is the thing for me. I think it's kind of interesting that art sometimes responds to format. So, you know, the album and the concept album, you were having these in the early 50s, people like Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and they were beautifully sequenced, beautifully recorded albums because the LP as a format existed and people were fulfilling this. And I think there were great works of art in certainly easy listening, jazz, country, the Beatles. I think kind of reusing the Beatles and 67, Sgt. Pepper's, because it was almost like everything came together as a supposed concept because we know there isn't really a concept running through the album.
Speaker 3But it feels like there is. It feels like it partly because. It feels like it's a journey that you want to go on.
Speaker 2Exactly. And I think the artwork as well. It's the presentation.
Speaker 3Greater than the sum of its parts.
Speaker 2Well, I think this is it. It's when rock music suddenly seemed to transcend itself, I think, and using the album as a kind of an art statement, really. We're going to discuss the pre-rock album era. The post-rock album era, because I suppose that is one of the things as well that maybe perhaps since the early part of the 21st century, I think that rock as a medium seems slightly more confused, slightly more cult, slightly more under the radar, really. To a certain extent, a lot of R&B and what used to be called urban music, I think, took over. And one of the things that's kind of interesting is that if you have a look at a lot of the R&B albums and the hip-hop albums, that emerged from the 90s, 21st century, and so on, a lot of them are very involved concept albums, which is quite intriguing. They're almost using the language of the album years still. This still exists that quite regularly you'll find these quite epic concepts and often very complex and brought into the live shows. Obviously, if you go to a Taylor Swift gig, in some ways it makes the excess of Pink Floyd in 1979 seem like a sort of killer. But if you go to any of the other hip-hop albums,
Speaker 3it's like, "Oh, it's all about Pink Floyd." You know, it's a bit like the hip-hop era. It's a little bit like the hip-hop era, but it's a little bit like the hip-hop era. There is this sense of, there is all these cycles going on in music, and rock music had its time. And to me, it's very hard for me to be excited about any rock music now, because to me, the musical vocabulary is kind of exhausted. And it's very hard to do anything with guitar, bass, and drums Yeah. To me, it's-- seems like okay the guitar bass drums they had their moment they had their time what can you do that's truly fresh and new and you know of course there are always things that will prove you wrong
Speaker 2yeah no and i think they're always ways of doing it because you know one of the fascinating things about the 80s because you're right there are certain periods where it almost seems like it's a kind of home like we were doing 1985 at the moment what was interesting to me was how many albums i knew how many i bought and how in a way it almost felt comforting there was something about it that there's almost like almost going back home in a way but what i think one of the fascinating things with the 80s also is when you got plain guitar bands you're talking about the possibilities of guitar bass drums you did have bands whether it's the police whether it's you too doing extraordinary things with absolutely simple lineups the cure quite often you know these people smiths of course that you know in a way they were using the language of the mid-1950s but really breathing fresh life into it and i suppose i'm slightly more optimistic than you in that i still feel there are possibilities of processing guitar sound bass sound drums and even the use of space in music that you can do something different with a plain guitar bass drum lineup there's not a lot of it about at the moment well i don't hear it i
Speaker 3i guess i don't hear it because i'm not listening out for that music so much now than i was once upon a time
Speaker 2i'm talking earlier as i said that i think that you know the album to a certain extent accommodated the new format of the lp and i think that one of the things that we discuss quite often on the album years is how when the cd came in on one level it was revolutionary in terms of the way in which it presented sound and i still think it's a great medium but the problem is that people felt they needed to fill 80 minutes and so for me for certain reasons i think it's a great medium and i think certain types of music and especially certain types of music that i like i think 35 to 45 minutes is the optimum in terms of concentration losing yourself in it and i felt that the cd age ushered in a real era of kind of excess a lack of discipline in a sense of filling a format for the sake of filling a format and similarly i think with streaming that people listen to music in a different way that it comes through in a different way and therefore there isn't quite the same level of course there are always exceptions but there isn't the same level perhaps of concentration attention ownership you know we often talk about this idea that we'd buy things and if we hated them initially these often became our favorite albums because you would persist and persist because you actually invested in them and it almost brought a different quality of attention to the music that whereas now i kind of feel that people are almost like disgruntled a and our men from the 1990s you know five seconds i'm out and they and they have said this with streaming that a lot of people one of the reasons why the introduction doesn't exist anymore in a lot of tunes that you basically go straight into the chorus straight into the hook and all the pieces is because people will dismiss it after five ten seconds and also audio quality which is something i thought would be quite important say to steven that producers know how people are now listening to things and there is almost you know there's not quite as much an attention to detail as there is to the music i mean some recordings because of this yeah
Speaker 3i think there's also the the fact that the way the way people engage with music i was talking about this earlier you know that music fulfills a different role now i think than it used to so because we're all multitasking all the time and the speed of life is such that we're all kind of our mind is going in all these different directions simultaneously how often to people in fact let's ask the audience how often do you sit down and listen and engage with an album from beginning to end without checking your email texting someone or doing something else how often does anyone get to do that put your hand up if you've done it in the last month okay more people than i would have thought see i see i don't i don't do that anymore and constant the reason i mentioned that consequently, I change the kind of music I listen to to accommodate my life. And I think a lot of people are doing that, such that some of the biggest songs, some of the tracks that stream the most on streaming platforms are things that are easy to program into things like playlists for yoga, insomnia, coffee break. So you get some of these artists like Nils Fram and Max Richter who have millions and millions and billions of streams. But people couldn't tell you the name of the artist because these songs are being programmed into, I mean, there's the ultimate irony, Max Richter's Sleep, apparently the most streamed classical piece of music ever, is a piece of music made to be listened to while you're unconscious. I find myself very often, music now is less about, when I was a kid, I used to turn the lights off, I used to put the new Pink Floyd record, a new Prince record, or whatever it was I just bought, and I would turn the lights off and I would listen to it in the dark from beginning to end, and my mind was completely focused and engaged on only that record for that 45 minutes. I cannot remember the last time I was able, not even by choice, even if I had the time, I was able to just keep my mind concentrated. I've got so much stuff going on in my mind all the whole time. So consequently, I think I've changed the kind of music I listen to. I think I've changed the kind of music I listen to. I think I've changed The kind of music I listen to has changed because my life has changed, because the life of all of us has changed. So I listen to a lot more ambient music. I listen to a lot more jazz music. I rarely listen to music with lyrics and vocals, because vocals and lyrics are too distracting when you're trying to do something else, like writing something or trying to reply to an email or something. So I find that I listen to a lot more instrumental music than I ever used to. I can't remember the last time I put on a Joni Mitchell album. I still think Joni Mitchell's got one of the greatest catalogues of all time, but I can't remember the last time I put on a
Speaker 2Joni Mitchell. But not even when we're doing an album years and you need to sort of refresh your memory. I don't need to refresh my memory because I know those records so well. Well, this is the thing. I don't need to. I sort of feel I do need to refresh my memory because I was saying earlier that to a certain extent, I find that my emotional reaction to them can be very different. So things that meant an awful lot to me might seem incredibly overblown now. Like what? Give us an example. I can't. You won't. No, I won't. Actually, no, that's true. You can, but you won't. It's more I won't. I can, but I won't. I sort of feel that with the album years, we should be generally more positive. Sometimes I give my opinion that I had when I was younger, because that was the more positive opinion.
Speaker 3But actually. But actually. But actually. Oh, bloody hell, yeah. No. I think this is true. The internet is full of people being negative. And we try to. Yeah. Try not to be negative. But at the same time, when we do have a disagreement about something, that's kind of part of what we're talking about here. This dynamic of friends discovering music, discussing music. One of the things we do as human beings, isn't it? We always express our opinions as if they're facts. Very rarely do we say, "In my opinion." We don't do that, do we? We don't. We're down at the pub with our friends. We don't say that. We just say, "Oh, I knew I would buy such a shit." And that's part of the problem. Yeah. But that's part of the joy, too, isn't it? That's part of the fun, too. So we do do that on the Album Music Podcast. We tend to edit most of that out, though, don't we? Oh, well, I think. Because we just. We listen back to it and say, "It's not really fair."
Speaker 2One of the worst ones was that, and obviously, again, I can't mention this at all, but Stephen just went in, "My God, this was all. I can't understand the point of that band." Who was that? I can't tell you. But part of the reason being that the person is a listener of the podcast, a friend. Oh, I know who it is. Yeah, I know who it is. And it's like. And then I told you and you went, "Okay, that's going out." But yeah, but also, I mean, I don't think it's particularly constructive just to say something is poor as shit and so on. Of course it isn't. But what's interesting is that sometimes. It's funny, though. the nature of the internet. It can be. But the nature of the internet is that. I think this time around, we were mildly, and I think it was incredibly mildly critical of the way in which Rush used technology on power windows. And I think the way in which things work these days is that that builds up critical mass. So hundreds of people are reviewing this going, "How dare they say this, trashing this record," when we've been mildly critical. But that's Rush fans for you, isn't it? Because they've read other people's comments. So it's not actually watching the podcast. I think, you know, lives, there's so much information overload. It's, "You know what? I'm not even going to listen to the podcast. I'm not going to listen to what they say." But if this person says they've criticised it, they've criticised it. "How dare they?" I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 3And I think there is this kind of impulse quality. But I mean, for example, you and I, when we discussed the podcast very early on, one of the things we said would be part of our remit is that we would slaughter the odd sacred albums. That's true. That's true. That's true. But sometimes it's funny to say, you know what? That first Stone Roses album isn't really that good. Well, also as well. Yeah. It's not that good, really, is it?
Speaker 2There are some albums that, you know, are these kind of, as you say, these sacred albums that are often in the top five of lists. And it really does sound to me as if mud is being forced in my ear. And I suppose I've got to say something other than that. So negative, Tim, honestly. So negative. One of the things I think is kind of interesting with Stephen is that we shared an awful lot in common in terms of sort of interests musically, literary, also cinema. And in some ways we came from the equivalent towns, but north and south. You, in a sense, were almost that suburb of London. I was almost that suburb in between Liverpool, Manchester.
Speaker 3Yeah, it was a very boring town, you know. And it still is, yeah, Hamel Hempstead. How dare you, sir! We're talking about Hamel Hempstead here, yeah. He is working for the Hamel Hempstead Tourist Board now. It's, you know, like there was nothing to do. There was one bowling alley and that was it. That was the action intended.
Speaker 2And again, it's like, again, a common commonplace. I think, you know, when you had only sort of three to five television channels and very few radio stations, to a certain extent, there was a much more broad shared culture, I think, in that particular era.
Speaker 3Yeah, for sure. You'd all come into school and everyone would have seen the same TV show the night before.
Speaker 2Exactly. And I think that no longer exists in the era of streaming. To a certain extent, now everything is very, very fractured. So one of the things that's kind of fascinating to me, is I was looking up a singer last night, because you've been in a sitcom, I think her name is Sarah Burrell. And I'd never heard of her. And then I looked, sold 15 million albums, 147 million streams on YouTube. And this is something that's existed since the mid-2000s. And I think what's kind of curious is that in the era pre-streaming, that almost everybody, you know, my dad would know who Bowie or The Cure were, because he'd have come across it in some way, because there were. There were so few mediums. But what was interesting is, using very little, it tended to be very eclectic. You know, I found that these shows, whether it's The Tube, The Ogo Whistle Test, The Chart Show, it covered a massive amount of ground.
Speaker 3Yeah, Top of the Pops was like a ritual, wasn't it? It's all sit down and watch Top of the Pops. And everyone would have seen the bands on the show. And if something was a very exciting performance, everyone would be buzzing about it. No, I mean, that's right. You know, sort of popular consciousness has become so fractalised now. There's so many different. There's so many different strands. Which is why I think the whole Taylor Swift thing is so extraordinary, because she has somehow managed to become a magnet for, you know, for everything in a world where those kind of artists just don't seem to, you know, exist anymore. But she, you know, I mean, she's here in London now, right? I think she's just arrived here. She's here in the UK now. And everyone talks about the new Taylor Swift record. But that is the exception now, isn't it? Almost. Although it's Oxford, I don't know anyone who's heard it. How many people here have heard the new Taylor Swift record? You know it's out, though, don't you? Yeah, you know it's out. And I think that's the point. You know, there were records in the past that you would always be aware that these were out and these were big successes. You wouldn't necessarily like them. But like you say, there are these other artists that you look at some of their streaming figures. And I have the same experience sometimes. I go on YouTube and I think, how is it I've not heard of this artist and they've got 500 billion streams? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that. Like you say, that would never have happened.
Speaker 2No, and say, artists like, say, Jarvis Cocker, Pulp, made a tremendous cultural impact in the 90s and beyond. And their figures are infinitesimal compared to these artists we're talking about who weirdly seem more specialised. Or at least I'm not coming across as people. I think it's partly because there isn't that common television radio culture and everything is fragmented. So it's. It's more difficult, perhaps, to have these sort of. Critical mass and major. Yeah. Yeah, and I think the thing is, again, with streaming, I mean, as we know, one of the things Spotify are doing, they're not paying for artists who don't get 1,000 streams or more. And it was staggering to learn that only 20% of artists have 1,000 or more streams, 1,000 more streams that won't buy you a cup of tea. And 20%, which means that, you know, if you're on 15,000 listeners or 20,000, you're possibly in the top 12% of Spotify. And so the only people that benefit is kind of interesting in a culture that seems to have a kind of a 0.1%. And I think that Spotify does.
Speaker 3Isn't it interesting, though? Isn't it interesting also that some artists that we think of as, like, legendary artists, if you look at their streaming figures, there's this kind of. There's this kind of. Well, I was going to say there's almost this reductive aspect to their whole career. Like, if you look at the police's streaming figures, every breath you take, it's like 20 zillion billion. Roxanne, 10, 20 billion zillion. The rest of the catalogue, nothing. Yeah, yeah. Nothing. Even a band like The Who. I mean, it's like their whole career boils down, in terms of public consciousness, I mean. We think of The Who as a band that had loads of classic tracks. Loads of classic tracks. But when you look at their streaming figures, it essentially boils down to two or three iconic tracks, mostly because they've been used in American TV shows. So it's CSI, isn't it? The one with. Ray O'Reilly. And My Generation, kind of, is something the kids kind of. But a lot of tracks that you and I would have thought of as a classic Who track, they have fallen off the radar.
Speaker 2Well, again, it's how people engage with music, how they listen. It's like, for me, if I hear something that blows me away, I will listen to the entire album. I'll listen to the artist's catalogue. But clearly it doesn't happen. When people are being introduced to The Who via CSI or what have you, they're not. They're then listening to Who's Next. It's utterly bizarre that that's
Speaker 3the track on the playlist. Now, is that partly because that was the only way you could hear those tracks in the. So, for example, my mum, she might hear a Donna Summer track she really liked on the radio or see it on Top of the Pops. She would go and buy the album so she could listen to that track at home or she'd buy the single and listen to it at home, yeah. Now, because you can just go and add it to your playlist, you don't need to engage with the rest of that artist's career. There's no need to hear. Look, for me, it's odd that there's no curiosity
Speaker 2that if something really does blow your mind.
Speaker 3Yeah, but I think that's because we're the kind of people we are and I think the people in this room probably would sympathise. Most people, they're not really interested in going beyond the greatest hits. And possibly it was always that way. Possibly it was always that way. But now it's easier to kind of ignore the trajectory of an artist's career just for the two or three songs that you know. Yeah. It's easier. It's easier to kind of pretend that all the other stuff they did doesn't really exist. That's why I'm staggered by the whole Taylor Swift thing. That's the anomaly that I don't understand. Because she seems to have people who will engage with her as an album artist and a singles artist.
Speaker 2But I think that's a case of critical mass, isn't it? In the sense, in that case, you have. It's a phenomenon, yeah. Media, TikTok, YouTube, podcasts, everything working at the same time. In sync. So it's kind of. It's a brilliant campaign that actually has cut through. But you're right. You know, it's one of the few artists that, again, going back to parents, my dad might be able to name from this era. Yeah. That's it. Whereas, you know, take it back to 70s, 80s, 90s, quite obscure artists that kind of sneaked into the public consciousness. You know, Sparks won Top of the Pops performance, had almost an entire nation talking about it. And, you know, I think traditionally we would hear music, you know, via television, radio, but also discovery. I mean, for me, there were various cheap record shops in Manchester that were a goldmine. And then also discussing these with friends and then getting recommendations and so on. And actually, how I often discover music now is from television programs where something comes in because generally it's a curated soundtrack. It's curated to fit the mood, fit the atmosphere. A lot of brilliant actual soundtrack music, but also there's very good curated song lists and often new bands I might have got into over the last sort of 10 years I've heard on a television program or other. I mean, Baby Reindeer, I don't know whether any of you have seen that, but it's got a fantastic and diverse soundtrack. And even to the point of obscurity, where I think it has the Judy Dybal version of I Talk to the Wind, the King Crimson piece. You know, this is clearly curated by somebody who loves the music. You can find examples of that. But I suppose this is it as well, that, you know, record labels once seemed to be curated. There were labels that had a certain identity that you would follow. And even if you didn't like, you know, let's take a label like 4AD or Factory, even if you didn't like what they were putting out, it was always interesting. Same with Charisma label in the early 70s. And that doesn't seem to be out there as much.
Speaker 3Well, I don't think there are many labels out there anymore. That's the problem. You would start a record label if they wanted to, you know, have an easy time and make money. You wouldn't start a record label these days, would you? So I think those kind of entrepreneurs probably don't go into music anymore. They go into other things, you know, developing an app or something.
Speaker 2Well, I think that's the thing, isn't it? I think that probably from the 90s, early 21st century onwards, that in some ways, if you were that kind of curious, creative young person who wanted to make money and wanted to make a difference to the culture, you might have got into video games rather than music. And I think that perhaps we were blessed, we were lucky in a way that there was a window of opportunity where the best minds of the generation had rock music as their voice. And it really did count.
Speaker 3I buy CDs as well still. I love CDs. I'm going to put that right out there right now. I love CDs. I buy vinyl and CDs, yeah, still. But I don't buy a lot of new records, I've got to say. And I think that's the change for me. And I completely acknowledge that's partly me getting older and less curious about what just doesn't speak to me the way it used to, new music. I buy a lot of records of jazz music going back 60, 70 years. I just spent £500 on vinyl a couple of Saturdays ago, all free jazz stuff, like rare John Coltrane Japanese pressings and stuff. But that goes into what this lady was saying about the collector mentality kicking in. But that's always been a fun part of it for me too, you know. And I still, one of the greatest joys in my life is just spending an hour in a record shop, just flicking through records. Even if I end up walking out without having bought anything, I just enjoy that. And I always have. And maybe it's a nostalgic thing. But no, I still do. The answer to your question is I do buy records and CDs, but mostly things from the past now. I think I'm sorry about you, Tim.
Speaker 2Yeah, no, well, I still buy vinyl. I still buy CDs. I'm old. I also buy an awful lot still on specs. I love going in charity shops and that sense of seeing something either you don't know and you want to educate yourself about and realise you still really hate it or you. But the point is I want to give attention because when I buy something, the quality of attention I bring to it is greater. I'll make sure I listen to it. Even if I bought it cheaply in a charity shop, I want to listen to this. Whereas I don't use streaming. I mean, I occasionally. I only use YouTube to find out about whether I like something or not, whether I should invest in something. But I'll buy things on spec in charity shops and I will still buy albums by artists I admire or I'm curious about on vinyl and CD. But I kind of find that I listen to them very seriously as a consequence. And a lot of them end up in Stephen's collection soon afterwards.
Speaker 3For years, myself and Tim, we've always swapped stuff. Going back to. Right after we met, we'd swap things. We'd have these bartering sessions. Well, you know, does two Peter Hamill CDs equate to like one Prince vinyl? I don't. So we're bartering, you know what I mean? But now we've recently got to the stage now where we do blind swaps. So he'll just give me a bag of stuff and I'll give him a. It's almost like we're meeting clandestinely in the back alley, sort of swapping plastic bags. We kind of look over our shoulder, pass that bag. And I get back and I find I've got like, you know, the entire, I don't know, Paul Young collection. Or, you know. You know, or a solo album by Stephen Tintin Duffy from 1987. And he'll find he's got, what have you, what have I given you recently, Tim? I've given you some good stuff. Ken Dodd? No, I gave. Did I give you Ken Dodd? I might have done. Actually, you gave me Benny Hill. Benny Hill, I gave you Benny Hill. Yeah, The World of Benny Hill compilation by Jim. What else have I given you recently? I've given you some good stuff recently. Norman Collier? Stick around for the fun part of the evening, folks. Because this. See, this will be
Speaker 2for your ears only because we won't broadcast this.
Speaker 3We certainly will. It's going out live, Tim. Is it? No, don't worry.
Speaker 4Mr. Monopoly here. Miss me? Monopoly is back at McDonald's with millions of prizes. A 2027 cheap charity. A carnival cruise vacation. Gift cards from DoorDash. And Best Buy. Peel then play in the McDonald's app. Get your bag.
Speaker 5No purchase necessary. 50 US and DC, age 18+. See playatmcd.com for rules and playatmcd.com. Slash AMOE for info and playing without purchase by mail by November 2nd. Chance card game ends November 8th. Game ends November 22nd, 2026. See rules for prize details. Monopoly is a registered trademark of Hasbro.
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