Stewart Lee: “things overheard in record shops” and a Nightingales kazoo

[@initialsGS]

Stewart’s looking well. He’s not let himself go.

[@davidsanderson5918]

Ha ha I'm desperately trying to think of someone he looks like in this clip who might've 'let themselves go' and I just can't think of anyone.

[@DCI-Frank-Burnside]

I love how the "(insert knackered looking middle aged man) has let himself go" internet game is still going strong over a decade after Lee made the joke.

[@rayscard2477]

Alright, Stewie! But you didn't need to "let yourself go", to get to where/what you are...

[@iangelling]

Under that big beard he has become his 80’s former self. Smooth as a baby’s bum now.

[@AKAtAGG]

@@DCI-Frank-Burnside I love this too.

[@timhall3575]

This is brilliant! My Mum had a row with the man behind the counter @ Our Price in Worthing circa 1988 when she went in to buy me a copy of the 1st Fugazi EP. Hairy man behind counter tried to sell her the Marillion album also called 'Fugazi'.... she insisted he was wrong and refused to budge, found the EP/LP and purchased it for me. Bless her!

[@johnbarry1965]

Christ your Mum's cool, if it was my Mum i'd now have a Marillion album in my collection (I would have thrown it on the fire)

[@timhall3575]

@@johnbarry1965 Yes - she was / still is a cool Mum. To be fair... I think she knew me well enough by the time I was 16 (in 1988) that I didn't like Marrilion:) ha

[@johnbarry1965]

@@timhall3575 My Mum would not have known who they were!!!

[@princeandyonane8946]

Be honest the album was Bros.

[@timhall3575]

@@princeandyonane8946 Ha ha ha. No. It wasn't.

[@norfolkronin6307]

RIP Tony Wilson and Mark E Smith. Both sorely missed. I think Steel pulse are one of the most phenomenal bands from these islands. Bless.

[@Spirit-Of-The-Age]

Stewart Lee is THE best stand up comedian in the world imho (and has been for a good 15 years at least) . The fact he works with and hangs out with Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci ,when possible, just adds weight to my own trust in his real reasons for doing what he does. Btw this is an excellent podcast.

[@paulmaiwaring4313]

I love Stewart and I loved the Fall...great watch...

[@RobertMunro-wb6jb]

I also like both the fall are the Best band ever !!!

[@TimPCasey]

Stewart Lee brilliant as always … and Dave not trying to hard. Perfection.

[@Robutube1]

Neatly summed up Tim👍.

[@alanchriston6806]

Fabulous chat 😊🏴‍☠️

[@Psychedelic-Peter]

A fantastic show. Bravo. To namecheck; The Seeds, West Coast Pop Experimental Band & Jason Crest in one show!

[@brianallen4297]

Very entertaining. Very revealing, very enjoyable, very good 👍

[@littlemascara5204]

I love Stewart Lee's stories of the Fall

[@littlemascara5204]

@Vase of Flowers absolutely, especially the more obscure ones

[@steveh1388]

Best Stewart Lee interview ever! Brilliantly entertaining podcast.

[@CDSarahMillward]

Brilliant!

[@johnbarry1965]

Stewart Lee is great. The last time I saw The Fall I just stood there gazing at the gorgeous Elena XXXXX No Encore, no goodbyes, typical Fall!!!!!

[@trevorbarre5616]

Only saw them once, the Brix iteration in 1985. My now-wife managed to sleep in the middle of the dancefloor for the whole performance. Ironic that the suffers from sleep problems now. The Fall were OK.

[@glynnwadeson5605]

I remember as a teenager i around 1967/8 asking at the Co-Op record store in Bolton for the ‘Incredible String Band, 5000 spirits or layers of the onion’ to be met with, ‘Yer what?’ But it turned out they had it! Amazing

[@mrbenoit5018]

I don’t know enough about records to know why “Joynson has discovered 15 seconds of studio dialogue on a Jason Crest acetate” is so funny but I enjoyed watching you react to that

[@thebluequiche1]

Why don't the BBC give Stewart Lee his own show on BBC Radio Six and make him the New John Peel

[@simfinful]

This is the best thing I've listened to in such a long time. Proper fabulous. Thank you :-)

[@neilbiggin]

Thank God the Daniel Stern reference was made, I was aching for it like a violent sneeze.

[@terryrichardson8944]

Always fascinating to listen to Stewart Lee. Always reassuring to hear about the complexities of other people's attempts to create order in their lives (musical filing systems).

[@AllOuttaBubblegum123]

I remember hiring LPs from my local library. And have the same memories of my parents gramaphone.

[@keef71]

i absolutely love it when someone 'famous' is just having a conversation and finds something so funny they just let rip, without any shame or self-checking. love his description of 'furious with silent, incandescent rage' - should be in the OED under 'seethe/seething'

[@davidfewtrell3479]

I remember having a book called "The Acid Trip" that was my bible for record collecting pych in the 80's. I remember going taking a special trip over to Birmingham because I heard they had a copy of the first 13th Floor Elevators record when it got re-issued in the mid 80s

[@gargantuk]

Well, that trounces the Big Boy Pete theory.

[@larrycreature7292]

Love love love the Elevators!

[@ackerjawaka1966]

I've also met Julian Cope and seen him live a few times ⚡ when I saw him at the Town and Country in Leeds he played for 3 and a half hours and instead of going off and coming back on again he just said this is your encore and went straight into Out of my mind on dope and speed 🍺🍻😜

[@gordonwhitelock4349]

Very enjoyable, thank you, gx

[@alanwilliams1223]

Stewart Lee's shows on 6Music were absolutely spot on, as is his memory and impression of the two Bill's in 'Plastic Passion / Minus Zero'. That's exactly how it was in there!

[@AirBallers31]

This is wonderful

[@gazriley624]

the Big boy Pete theory was that all his obscure Psychedelic stuff was actually recorded in the late 80's and passed off as lost 60's acetates

[@andrewf9041]

Really enjoyed this. Thanks.

[@SmokeandSteam]

That was really enjoyable, thank you! It was lovely to hear Stew talk about The Fall, Brum and The Nighingales.

[@normanpoulson2252]

Great show

[@GlobalEnglishSupernaturals]

I bloody love Stewart Lee❣️❣️❣️

[@jonah6267]

Lying with my dad with our heads under his Grundig radiogram listening to the Stereo Action Orchestra aged about 10 - good times 👍

[@markwatkins8309]

Great stuff. I hadn't heard of that book, Voyage Around My Room, so will investigate further. Trouble with stuff is it can end up too much and time to listen, read, watch etc is always running out, of course. That said, I still think it's worthwhile to archive and appreciate what you like, as best you can while you can, and perhaps think others might. I suspect general scarcity of stuff whilst a teenager (on pocket money / paper rounds) leads to varying degrees of hoarding when you can afford those things you previously "missed".

[@cosmicdrifter287]

Stewart is a great,great guy.Cool as well.Love this episode,glad i didn"t skip it.

[@OlafProt]

I worked for HMV 1990-92 / 2002-2008, and the best thing I've still heard is "Do you sell CDs..?". It was always fun when someone came in to ask a question, and when you gave them the (correct) answer, they told you "No no no thats not it..." But being serious pop-pickers - we got REALLY good at disseminating the mishears like The Loneliest Monk. And of course in 1990-92 we were all, without exception (even the Bevis Frond fan) walking encyclopedias, we had to be. Whereas now (like politicians) working in a mainstream music shop is just a career choice, no actual meaning.

[@stevebarlow5247]

Nice to hear Minus Zero/Stand Out Records getting a mention. I loved that place. The first time I went in there I did what I have to hope a lot of people did and tried to buy a CD from one shop at the counter of the other one. I think I actually miss being made to feel like an idiot in a record shop.

[@chrisseventeen]

Preferred it when they were Plastic Passion as, post falling out, always felt obliged to buy equally as much from both B.Allerton and B.Forsyth and thusly hold their falling out partly responsible for my latter day mildly impoverished state.

[@hufclufc]

I loved his trousers falling down story. It's on his video.

[@distortion_plus]

Stewart Lee is awesome. That version of Moon In June is also what got me into Soft Machine though admittedly not from that broadcast.

[@matty7dream1]

Lovely to see you guys again. I had to google you for the names!! Brilliant program and fantastic to hear an intelligent thought provoking, and humorous conversation. I love the Fall too. I went to school with Spencer Birtwhistle who drummed in the Fall. Good luck Spencer.

[@colinfuidge8660]

Excellent interview.

[@900BEN]

I'm so old I remember when these two were the young fellas on the old grey

[@MrKubr1ck]

Great to see Stewart Lee, but even better to have Uncles David and Marks musings on KZbin. I miss Word Magazine and Whistle Test.

[@bobfrisbee9764]

this was great!!

[@markforster2794]

Good to see Jason Crest getting a mention

[@kildogery]

He's just a big kid. Great guy.

[@davidsanderson5918]

I love Stewart Lee so much. Same age, same references, same attitude...he was strangely late in getting into records though, how bizarre!! Anyway 'I'm digging the Neu! teeshirt. :)

[@angelomicciche3044]

Seen Stew a few times, as he appeals to what I am pleased to call my sense of humour. Love his description of comedy being like John Coltrane’s music, where various strands are eventually pulled together. In Stew’s act, that’s normally at the point he pauses and then says “Now…” which slays me every time. Unlike me, as a kid he sounded far too cool for school: although, like him (as if to illustrate my point) I did once have one of those Geoff Love albums of Sci-Fi covers.

[@AKAtAGG]

lovely post this

[@phaethon3124]

interesting to think about comic timing like music.hooks and riffs..was there a moment when early hiphoppers realised they were just writing limericks

[@sohosteveuk]

I remember walking around the countless record shops that used to exist in Croydon and asking "Do you have 'Keep Yourself Alive' by Queen' after hearing it on Kenny Everett's Saturday show and receiving the relentless reply of 'By WHO??'

[@InvidiousProductions]

Brashes - Frankston, Victoria; Australia (circa. 1990) Buying a CD of 'Never Mind The Bollocks' by The Sex Pistols. I took the cover to the counter where the blonde dolly bird shop assistant attempted to find the disc among the stacks behind the counter. She fumbled about for some minutes before appealing to the manager for help: "Hey, Greg - I can't find The Bollocks?". Oh, brother...

[@redstrat1234]

Brilliant

[@steibster6690]

that was great!

[@pifflepockle]

Lovely stuff

[@glyngasson8450]

Whilst working in a record store I was asked if we had anything by Keith Christmas, I said no so the customer they said " do you have anything by somebody called Keith?".

[@theinsectgod]

Number 2: you can leave a comment here. I just discovered this channel (I assume KZbin's recommended it to me because I watch so many Stewart Lee clips on the platform) but you guys are great and exactly the kind of conversation I want to listen in on. Subscribed, and looking forward to hearing more. (Also, this episode answered a question my son and I have been debating, which is whether Lee's story about orienteering with Napalm Death is true or just a surreal bit, and I'm glad to announce I won the bet.)

[@garyshepherd9226]

Agree about the later version of The Fall - a stonking line up.

[@DustyCustard]

13:01 JMFC Stewart Lee's got original Napalm Death demo tapes!!!

[@newsles2]

I wonder if, as a fellow West Midlander, Stewart explored Reddington's Rare Records, and another place named Second City Sounds. Also The Diskery on Bromsgrove Street Off Bristol Road. Lots of gems behind those doors.

[@tinametcalfe654]

Yet another great show!

[@ACoincidentalLife]

I find that alphabetical cataloguing works much better than any other system as my taste is eclectic and I can go from genre to genre with no relation to each artists as I go. I throw a dice and count along from the last record I played. I have a more specific system to include different sections and rows of my collection. It's a great game too! Blessings All!

[@kevcatnip7589]

sTILL HANDSOME THE WHISTLERS ARE ,,LOVE THE PODCAST ,,NICE TO SEE SANTA READY TO ROCK TOO ,,LOV TO STEWART

[@SpencerF6]

I used to dream of just being able to go into a record shop and buy what you'd heard and wanted. I live in the southern most part of Africa, and being a fan of Nick Cave, Bauhas, etc it wasn't easy to get hold of anything. The S African John Peel, Barney Simon, used to have 2 shows a week on the radion and he was the only person playing that sort of thing. I just thought that it wouldn't be a problem in the UK, until I heard a similar story from him reagrds needing to go to the bigger towns to find music.

[@ppixilation]

In 2004 I went into Virgin Records, as was, in Sheffield, and asked for La Maison De Mon Reve by Cocorosie...The little berk behind the counter turned his nose up, saying "It's not the sort of thing we would have".......

[@GlobalEnglishSupernaturals]

I know Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa but Mark E Smith… I shall indeed have a listen!

[@MartinvonBargen]

As someone who's gonna be fifty next year, this is a fucking goldmine. I bought my first LP with money from a couple of birthday postal orders, at the age of nine or ten. Coincidentally it was Absolutely by Madness and I picked it up in the original Virgin in Liverpool on the same day that I got a pair of Adidas Kick from Jack Sharp's. The LP lasted longer than the trainees, as both tongues fell out after a summer of footy and sweaty feet.

[@ackerjawaka1966]

Just watching this and you mentioned someone swapping your records around well my cousin did exactly the same to me, my CDs were all in alphabetical order and he moved them all round, i was gutted 🍺🍻

[@cyclesgoff9768]

I think he may have been referring to Ernie Ball guitar strings. Acid green regular slinky’s etc.

[@terryrichardson8944]

I fear the moment I hear Stewart Lee has overdosed on all the cheeses will hit me as hard as John Peel's demise did.

[@tobydavies6366]

Don’t think the world was ready for a naked Norman Wisdom.

[@kimberleyaxxxx934]

This was highly interesting and very funny...😂

[@amaninthestreet8002]

Great stuff 😁👍

[@TheSoapCompany]

Interesting to hear the Mercury Rev 'Piano' story. Memory serves that The Rev's David Baker and Grasshopper were taking heavy tools to a poor Piano as an intro to their set. I know this for sure, because at the same time at the Clapham Grand Bar, I was nervously buying a very gracious Michael Gira from Swans a beer. We both turned round simultaneously to see this spectacle unfold in a genuine WTF moment.

[@RobertMunro-wb6jb]

My favourite fall lp is hex enduction hour !!!! But there are so meany good albums and ep’s like slates etc !!!

[@volksy7261]

Fkn hell, I'm your age. I fkn love this. I love this happened.

[@Malegys]

Excellent video. Really enjoyed that. Can relate to being a NWOBHM fan in 1981 :-D

[@hixyhicks]

I Just bought my tickets for the 22nd of May .

[@billshire2681]

Blimey. Vinyl bonding brotherhood !

[@dominicbriggs2418]

I tell my son how when i started work i was chuffed that i could by a new album (7-14) new sngs a week and whatever u could recrd of radio 1 peel / evening sessions

[@davidbowieglamour5477]

Fabulous

[@razzle1964]

Aah, the early-mid 70s … my Dad had a wooden-trimmed ‘hi-fi’ music centre, made by ‘Garrard’ I believe, with a ‘smoked’ plastic lid, which we weren’t really allowed to use. Mum had long since mothballed her Dansette record player, Fats Domino, Carl Perkins & Little Richard 78s, etc. and Duke Ellington albums, to bring up 3 boys. Dad only had two albums worth mentioning - ‘Sound of Tijuana Brass’ & ‘Great Western Music Themes’. He wasn’t one for music. I blew up his music centre with ‘Foxtrot’ by Genesis, my first purchase. He wasn’t best pleased. He forbade me play my second purchase, Sabbath’s ‘Vol 4’ I think. Wanker.😉😅✌️

[@lyndabowen4797]

Had to pause and rewind as laughing too much. Oh man, that filing system... 🤔 (Maybe all of us with vinyl habits need to do some Swedish Death Cleaning??)

[@wayneclayton5426]

I remember going into Tower Records in Kingston Upon Thames and asked if they could order a Hollywood Brats CD. Was told No it was no long available, and they didn't have it in stock. Then, I walked across the road to an small indie record shop and told 'Sure, should be in by Wednesday'

[@TheOnlyCathyCat]

35:20 I wonder if that is where the germ of the idea for the "Norman Wisdom On Acid" on TMWRNJ (that's what all the cool kids call it anyway) came from.....

[@paperclipsquash]

Music Junction in Mell Square was it Stewart Lee?

[@garysmith5641]

Met mark doing Terrazzo on somebodies path . he was a nice bloke and as interested in my work as i was about his journalism

[@900BEN]

My mum went into Rumbelows by us and asked for " Don't work me over " by Dionne Warwick

[@MysteryProductsLtd]

99th comment. I used to have that Spiderman comic, Johnny Romita Jr I think, who took over the pencils after Ditko's tenure on the comic ended. I lived at a place where the Incredible String Band lived too, a place in the Highlands, in the countryside, where a guy I knew lived, a playwright, who also had known Syd Barrett back in those days when Barrett was still vaguely attached to Floyd but fading out of it, turning up late for gigs, with a chair, sitting down and playing his own tunes while the rest of them were doing their gig. Small tiny world. Edit: Oh. I thought the Nightingale's kazoo was going to be a joke i.e. a metaphor for someone who has the ability to produce beautiful songs, something the nightingale is synonymous with in folklore, but deliberately plays something grating, something the kazoo is also synonymous with in terms of its rasping and comically stupid sound, as if to obscure their brilliance. Like Leonardo's little known nursery school crayon pictures and powder paint and glued-on macaroni works. Edit: Oh weird. I was the live action painter at a gig in Paris that a bunch of Liverpool bands played at, including the Boo Radleys. And I know one of the artists who did a lot of work for The Cramps. What is going on?! And that story about Chuck berry's autograph? I did the same with a 1990's letter from Chris Ware that is my only proof that the great artist offered to help me get a comic art gig with Fantagraphics. I put it somewhere "safe" and I have never seen it since. Re: his Liverpool bands collection, I bet he doesn't have The Pit Stop Jamming band in there aka The Wankers of The Apocalypse. And yes, further proof of the small world theory, I also know a guy Julian Cope used to work with, and that guy bought one of my art pieces in 1999. One thing Stewart Lee doesn't know about me is that once, I started an argument about whether I was in fact Stewart Lee, when I made a comment reviewing a video of one of his stage shows on Amazon. Someone commented suspecting I might be Stewart Lee because of how I had written the review and the fact it was under a pseudonym. What swayed it toward people not believing I was Stewart Lee was that someone noticed I used the wrong word in the context it was in and wrote 'practise' instead of 'practice' adding that Stewart Lee would never have made such a mistake. I also donated money to a donkey sanctuary out of guilt at illegally streaming a full length video of one of Stewart Lee's stage shows. None of this is egotistical because no one knows who wrote it.

[@nigelstansfield1644]

Stewart should write the book.

[@honkynel]

Gotta love Stu.

[@kareljbeer]

so what section is Bachdenkel in Stew? Maybe they haven't been sectioned...

[@JimDriver]

The guitar strings packaging art was for Ernie Balls, wasn't it?

[@butterflymoon6368]

how do you keep all of that vinyl clean?

[@getinthevantim]

Genuinely overheard of two schoolgirls flicking records side by side in The Music Room in Tonbridge circa 1976: " Cor, look Sharon, Paul McCartney was in anuvver band before Wings."

[@presstodelete1165]

That summer I spent a week with Alison Moyett calling her and her mate Blodwyn and Blodwyn while Madness rehearsed for TOTP in the village hall.

[@robertgough508]

Real treat and he likes soft machine

[@Smudgie]

My friend's Gran wanted to get him the new record by "Maltloaf" for his birthday. The guy in the shop told her there is no such band.

[@highdownmartin]

Meatloaf tribute

[@johnbarry1965]

I prefer Maltloaf especially Soreen!!!!

[@anarchoautism]

I never imagined I'd hear Twenty One Pilots pass Stewart's lips

[@ephre]

Did these guys work at Ray's?

[@no_one_of_that_name_here]

27:17 you can't tell me that's not in case Richard is watching

[@dalriadaskillen]

Look at them in their man caves. Tush. Loved it.

[@letmegoletmego]

This is muy divertido.