EP.229 - GARTH JENNINGS & LAURA MARLING LIVE

Please welcome your host for the Adam Buxton Podcast Live.

It's Adam.

This is me talking Buxton.

All right, that's enough of it.

Now, to help me out tonight, because we're in my well, it's now my hometown of Norwich.

That's not what a hometown means, is it?

A hometown is where you're from.

Now it's my hometown, though.

Here is my eldest and one of the best sons that I have,

Frank.

He's gonna play a little bit of strummy guitar for you this evening.

How are you feeling, Frank?

All good.

Yeah?

All good.

How's your day been?

Busy?

Very nice.

Not busy.

Stress-free.

Very good, as it should be.

Age 21.

Yeah.

What time did you get up today?

10:30.

Not bad.

That's okay.

Not bad at all.

Round of applause for 10.30.

It's not too bad.

Very good.

It's lovely to have you here, Frank, and we are going to do the podcast intro.

Are you confident?

A little bit.

I mean, I'm still not.

That's not the right answer.

Yes.

That's the right answer.

This is a fee-paying crowd, I don't know if you know, and they are notoriously intolerant for any kind of whimsy in Norwich.

You know, the idea that I wheel my Nepo baby on

and everyone's supposed to be automatically charmed, that kind of shit doesn't fly in Norwich.

Yeah, right.

No, of course, of course.

Okay, so we have to absolutely nail this.

And if you don't, I'm going to be very passive-aggressive over the rest of the week.

How's that?

Yeah, okay.

Is this good parenting?

Yeah, I think it is.

All right, here we go.

So I'm going to go low on the harmonies.

You're going to go on the high harmony.

Yeah, yeah, sweet.

Let's do it.

One, two, one, two.

I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin.

Now you have plugged that podcast out and started listening.

I took my microphone and found some human folk.

Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke.

My name is Adam Buxton, I'm a man.

I want you to enjoy this.

That's the plan.

My personal Billy Brad boy.

Brad, thank you so much.

Good work.

Hey, how you doing, podcats?

It's Adam Buxton here, back on my regular Norfolk farm track, squelching through the mud.

Some mud work for you there on a fairly mild grey day just over the midpoint of October 2024.

You just heard me and my eldest son Frank singing the podcast intro theme there back in June of this year.

We were on stage at the Norwich Playhouse for one of the last shows in a 13-date live podcast tour that took us to England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

and over the next few months I'll be dipping into the recordings we made on that tour and sharing a few bits and pieces that I think you'll enjoy.

I'm not going to be putting out all the shows that we did because as well as talking to my guests on stage some of those shows had quite a few video elements which was great fun for the audience in the room but it wouldn't work so well on an audio only podcast.

Oh it's gone all rainy now.

It's not very nice is it Rosie?

Look I've got Rosie with me I forgot to say, podcats.

I'm joined by Rosie.

He's only slightly quivery today.

Are you?

Let's check.

A little bit of quiver in the flanks there.

Frank has been doing well encouraging Rosie to carry on with her walks out here in the fields around where we live.

After a few weeks when she was very upset by some loud bird scaring bang machines which now, I'm very happy to say, gone.

I hope that she's gradually getting over her anxiety.

Are you, Rosie?

Sharp and do your intro.

Let's go back to the kitchen where it's not raining.

Okay, as with most of the live shows this year, my guests were old friends and friends of the podcast.

In this case, director Garth Jennings and musician Laura Marling.

Haven't done an episode of the podcast with Garth for a while.

Some great ones back in the day, looked those up.

And Laura was a guest on the podcast in the lockdown but it was lovely to unite them both in front of the Norwich audience.

Garth and I talked about strange alpha male behaviour in the movie industry.

Some raisin-based tips for getting ahead there.

Oh rain's intensified a little bit now.

Shall we go and shelter in the woods doglegs?

Alright this is good.

We found a little copse and we are sheltering.

What was I saying?

Oh yes, tips for getting ahead in the movie industry using raisins.

I also talked about why I wasn't cast as a hard-bitten police detective.

And I shared a few entries from my argument with my wife log with Garth.

But we began by showing a few clips from our youth and you will hear a brief snatch of audio from a couple of those.

Garth's, just to describe it to you, was of him and a friend punching each other repeatedly when they were young teenagers while a fellow stands behind them playing the guitar.

My clip was a crime thriller that Joe and I made at school and it's a scene that takes place in an office.

There's a couple of stills on my website.

If you want to see what both those videos look like, there's a link in the description.

As for Laura Marling, she joined us to play a couple of songs from her eighth studio album, Patterns in Repeat, which is out in just a few days, as I speak, on October the 25th.

The performances you will hear were recorded completely live in front of the audience.

There were no overdubs or pick-ups

even though it almost sounds like a studio recording.

That's how good she is.

Props also to the podcast tour sound guys.

That night we had Alfie Tyson Brown and Ben Saunders overseeing the recording.

Thank you to both of them.

I haven't seen Laura performing live in the room before.

I've seen her on TV.

I knew she was good, but it was quite something to be sitting just a few feet away when she started playing her first number, Caroline.

Not only was her playing and singing extraordinary, but the song sounded like one that I'd known all my life.

I wonder if you'll get the same feeling listening to it.

It's an instant classic.

Garth and I were kind of awestruck afterwards

and

I felt quite emotional.

And the audience did too, I think.

There was an amazing atmosphere in the room.

There's a short clip of Laura actually playing that song, which I filmed on my phone from my desk.

It's on my website, along with pictures of us all, Garth, myself, Frank, after the show at the Norwich Playhouse.

I forgot to say when I was outside, this episode contains strong language.

Some of it's very strong.

Sorry, my fault.

I'll be back at the end for a bit more waffle, but right now with Garth Jennings and Laura Marling live at the Norwich Playhouse.

Here we go.

Round old chat, let's have a ramble chat.

We'll focus first on this, then concentrate on that.

Come on, let's chew the fat and have a ramble chat.

Put on your conversation coat and find your talking hat.

La

la

la la la la la la la la

So, without further ado, please welcome to the stage the king of music videos from back when they used to be really good, director of the films Son of Rambo, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the planet conquering animated features Sing One and Sing Two.

But more important than any of that, he's a friend of the podcast and one of my oldest and least abusive friends.

It's Garth Jennings.

Thanks very much.

That was lovely.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, you're good with your mic technique, Garth, but, you know...

be informal if you want to hold that thing you can unwrap it from the go for a little freestyle okay whatever you like and you're going to stay on that mic you know sometimes you'll get a guest and they might be a star of stage and screen, and yet they will have no compunction about just doing this and talking to you like this and getting them all the answers.

Well, it is quite exciting up here.

I can see why someone could just lose it.

Yeah, yeah.

It's very exciting.

I wanted to take a little trip back into the nostalgia past.

Yes.

That's what I call it.

The nostalgia past.

The nostalgia past.

And I wanted you to tell me about this clip.

Oh, okay.

So paint a picture.

This is young Jennings.

We're digging.

This is me on the right in the stripey t-shirt.

I was 11 years old and my mum and dad had recently got a video camera because the guy at my dad's office left the country, sold his electrics, and my dad bought it, didn't know how to use it.

I fell in love with it immediately and constantly made little short films with my friends.

And sometimes if my mum and dad had friends over and they had kids, they'd say, go and play with those other kids.

And a good way to keep us all going was to make a little film.

And I just learned how to dub sound over something I'd already filmed so we could put sound effects over it.

So this is a tiny clip from what was a very long film.

Here you go.

Here's a clip from it.

Snap!

Why are you up?

Oh!

Oh!

Ow!

Oh!

Oh!

Oh!

Oh!

Oh, there you go, that's the good old days.

It's almost Andy Warhol, isn't it?

It's like a.

Yeah.

What year would that have been then?

That's something like...

So it would have been 1983.

83?

Yeah, because I was 11.

Good old days.

Kids these days, they'd be making torture porn, wouldn't they?

Well, yeah.

Well, I mean, it is a bit tortury.

It goes on for hours, that's funny.

My poor parents, I would always make them watch stuff thinking I'd just created something of, you know, work of genius.

Yeah.

They'd be like, oh, God.

I used to force everybody to watch my home videos as well, the stuff that me and Joe used to do.

But we also made films, though.

That was the thing.

Cornballs always wanted to be a filmmaker.

And when we were at school, we did

a thing called Twitch of the Death Nerve.

Joe was like a sineast, deep level.

He bought Cahiers du cinéma.

Did you ever buy Cahier du cinéma?

No.

No.

No.

You're not a proposine.

But Cornballs did.

He knew all the foreign films and stuff.

But he also liked splatter movies and horror.

So he also bought Fangoria and all those kind of movies where you would see pictures of heads coming.

I was too scared of that stuff.

Were you?

Oh, yeah, I found that too.

I would have nightmares all the time.

Right.

We loved it, man.

We absolutely loved it.

Like, the thing came out around that time, John Carpenter's version.

Yeah, you couldn't watch that.

And really?

Yes, not at the time.

Right.

Yeah.

Sensitive boy.

Oh, yes.

I was.

I was one of of those kids that cried all the time, even though I was actually really happy.

It's the happiest kid you've ever met.

I mean, it's ridiculous.

But I didn't have a shut-off valve.

So if somebody said, why have you done that?

You know, a teacher, I go, I don't know why I've done that.

Oh, mate.

Yeah, I was always crying.

I remember I got cast as Albert Schweitzer in the school production of his life story, which is ambitious for a little comprehensive, like, grain chill, isn't it?

So, and on the day of it, I was so nervous that I just cried all the way through it.

And I remember all the kids that were cross-legged in the front row, like looking at me.

I remember there was this lovely little girl called Zoe who was playing my wife.

And I said, I had to do this bit where my wife, will you come with me to Africa?

It was the worst thing you've ever seen.

So yeah, I couldn't watch her scary stuff.

I was about 13 or 14.

I managed to sort of rein it in a bit.

But yeah, prior to that,

it was ridiculous.

Do you cry in meetings now?

No.

No, I'm a hard-nosed fella now, yeah.

I feel like

I get very emotional with things still,

but not like that.

I'm getting worse.

Yeah, I think it's sort of coming back around.

It's almost like I've got better.

And then, yeah, as I've started to get older, and yes, things, though, emotional stuff's coming right back.

Yeah.

Worryingly.

I nearly cried on an interview the other day.

It was a Zoom interview that I was doing for the podcast.

Hasn't been out yet.

Don't know if it'll go out.

because, you know, I've cried before on the podcast when things are sad and parents die and all that kind of thing.

That's different crying.

That's fun crying.

Yes.

But that's great fun.

Yeah.

It's a bit of fun grief.

Who doesn't love a bit of fun grief?

Uncomfortable laughter from the audience.

You do love it.

But this was not grief-based.

This was just like

feeling totally freaked out because this guy was really angry with me on the Zoom call.

Oh, that'll do it.

Yeah.

You were being told off, were you?

I was not even being told off.

It was basically, they were in another country.

We had

about a half an hour of fiddling around with mics trying to get them working.

And by the time we finally started, this was someone a few years older than I am, and

very accomplished person.

And they clearly felt their time was not best spent fucking around with microphones on a Zoom call with this little child man in Norwich.

and it got so chippy.

Oh, and I just couldn't deal with it.

And I was just like, oh, my voice went completely, and

my breathing went, and I couldn't really.

I was trying to keep it together, but I was very,

very close to crying.

Oh, no.

I mean, that isn't the response I was aiming for.

I wasn't fishing for it.

I'm going to get, we'll get a little hug after this.

I can't do it now.

This is me back when I used to be tougher.

Cool, hit it.

In Joe's film, Twitch of the Death Nerve, named after an Italian horror film.

But this was a tough, gritty drama about police work.

I was a cop called Donovan Spanner.

And I was.

So, could you say, like, there's a spanner in the works?

Yes.

We didn't have that line, but that would have been very good.

That's nice.

There's a fucking spanner in the works.

Children, there's a spanner in the works.

Yeah, that'd be good.

But But I remember in this scene was the first time that Joe, because we had done plays before this, and I always went for quite a large performing style, still do.

Yeah.

Still do.

This one, this was the first time in this scene that Joe had said, admin, just tone it down.

Tone it right down.

Keep it straight.

So this is as naturalistic as Buckles

has ever got on Video Lloyd.

And see if you can spot my co-star as well.

He's a murderer and he's free.

Now I want a priority one report filed to all units plus a photo fit arranged by you, Harvey, and don't mess it up this time, alright?

I think we can overlook the red tape in this one case.

We're obviously dealing with a terminally psychopathic madman.

It might be wiser just to grab him off the street.

You know that's not how I do things, don't you, Harvey?

I know, sir, but this is a special case.

We could grab him off the street, bash him around a little bit, and then run him in.

That would solve all our problems.

Yeah.

Pretty drama.

That's good.

A young Louis Theroux outshining me as ever in the acting department.

Bash him about a little bit.

Bash him around a little bit.

I think he was 14

at that point, something like that.

14 or 15.

It was pretty good.

Solid work.

Do you know, like, one time I actually went in for an audition as a real TV policeman?

An actual TV show.

Yeah.

Like, I don't can I tell, say the name of the thing?

I think

I suppose it doesn't matter.

You're amongst friends, let's hear it.

Amongst friends, it was for DCI Banks.

And I went in to play the main

Stephen Tompkinson part, if you've ever seen DCI Banks.

Gritty, like serious ITV procedural drama.

And I think the character was described as a tough alcoholic, divorced cop.

And the scene that I was given to read was he goes into a hospital and there's a young woman who's coming round having been badly assaulted.

And I have to sit there and

try and find out.

a description of the person that assaulted her.

They were like, we've got to get buckles for this.

They were like, yeah, yeah, get, no seriously get buckles

i mean exactly i just thought what's happening here and i said to my agent like

this isn't a good idea is it like

this isn't gonna work and she's like well they asked for you specifically yeah so why don't you just go in take the audition and something else might come of it i was like really okay

So I go in, I spend the weekend thinking, DCI banks.

So I thought I'll find a a voice.

Sometimes a great actor like myself starts with

a voice.

Shouldn't do a voice.

Why?

Don't do a voice.

Why don't you do a voice?

Corn, what did you do?

What was your voice?

I mean, I think you're right.

I think that is a serious point because for someone like me, the tendency to want to do...

Do your voice?

We're going to find the bastard who did this to you.

Don't you worry.

It was sort of halfway between my Bowie impression and and Keith Richards with a little bit more grit.

Yes.

And that's how I envisioned DCI Banks.

So I went in there and basically the guy is like the head of drama or something and the casting person who was there.

And

he was very nice.

He liked my stuff and he said, thanks for coming in.

And I was like, yeah, I mean, I must say I was surprised.

I didn't think it was like a natural fit, me in this kind of role.

He's like, oh, I don't know.

Let's give it a go.

Let's see how it goes.

And so I did it.

We're We're going to catch the bastard who did this.

Afterwards, he was like, let's try one more, maybe without the accent, even.

Just try it.

Let's see how it goes.

So he did it.

And he was like, Piga, it felt a bit better.

I mean, it was terrible.

It was absolutely terrible.

And it was excruciating.

Were you feeling the stress of it at that point?

Oh, I was nearly crying then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, but just wanted to be anywhere else.

You know, it's just like, going one up.

And

you're thinking, why are we doing this?

We all know that I'm bad at this.

Why do we have to go through it all?

And I'm sort of thinking, well, my agent told me I should do it.

Something else might come of it.

But I just felt so fraudulent.

And I felt that I had to say, like, you know, that was pretty bad.

And I guess, you know, probably I'm not right for this.

But anyway, thank you so much for seeing me, you know.

Yes.

And he was like, oh, no, it's nice to meet you.

Thanks for coming in.

And then I leave and walk down the corridor.

And the casting person catches me up.

I'm thinking she's going to go, oh, thanks so much for coming in.

She didn't.

She was very angry.

Oh.

She just said, you just talked yourself out of a job in there.

If you don't want to do the part, then don't fucking come in.

She did DCI Banks in a way.

Don't want to do it, get out.

That's how you do banks.

Don't waste my fucking time.

Exactly.

Unless you're Maximum Banks, fuck off.

It's a great casting director.

Fuck off.

This isn't DCI wanks, you twat.

Of course, she was absolutely right.

But it was a silly thing to have done.

You're not supposed to talk yourself down in an audition, even if you don't think you're right for it.

But

do you find yourself having to kind of play the alpha in certain situations?

You're a successful movie director now.

Yeah, What do you mean like a?

I mean, like a sort of tough guy that doesn't cry and knows what he's doing and

you play the tough guy.

I sometimes meet alpha-type people.

Uh-huh.

And

there's some funny ones.

There's a classic one that is the sort of powerful American person.

Let's not do the name.

Can I not?

I can get up.

Yeah.

And they'll do the close-up handshake thing.

Do you know what I mean by that?

No, what's a close-up handshake?

You have to get up and do it.

They'll be like, Garth, nice to meet you.

They pull you in.

Pull you right in and hold you there.

And it's like a little test.

So I just stand there grinning, go, yeah.

And we just stand there, and then, because what they're wanting me to do is either pull away or let go, but I just hold on and grin at them.

And you've diffused it.

And actually, the first time that happened to me, after that, we had the most brilliant time with that person.

Yes, you can meet some sort of scary people, and then the worst ones are the people that work for the scary people.

They're even more scary.

Agents and people like that.

Well, it could be anyone in the pyramid of whatever you're dealing with.

But you try and make a little culture of kindness.

I know that sounds a bit sort of flimsy, but

you try and get, yeah, you try and surround yourself with really nice people who are brilliant at what they do.

And so that's the kind of thing Harvey Weinstein used to say.

Trying to create a little culture of kindness.

Oh, God.

In the shower.

I feel bad to be.

Oh, God.

Okay, just so we're all clear, that is not the culture of kindness I'm going for.

It's much more down to earth.

Yes.

And

it's harder to be a bit of a pain in the ass when you've created a community that are positive.

I mean, that's the way it should be, of course.

But I mean, I went to one of the worst examples quite quickly there.

But there is so much abusive behaviour that does go on in the entertainment industry that you hear about in music and in film and in all the arts.

I guess the reason, not an excuse for it, but the reason is, of course, it's highly pressurized.

There's people doing quite stupid things for a living.

It's very hard to kind of nail it down.

Everyone feels insecure, competitive.

There's all these kinds of tensions flying around that produce bad environments sometimes.

Yeah,

but there's no excuse.

No, not really.

Tell me about it.

But in films and stuff,

you don't need to throw things at each other.

No.

There's been, I've seen all kinds of terrible things, but there was never a, I never thought, oh, well, he has got a high-pressure job.

No.

Have you ever had a Bale-style meltdown on set?

Me, personally.

Yeah, while you've been directing?

No, I've never had that.

But I mean, with an actor or anyone?

No, we've never really had that.

We've just had people that were late a lot, so we would...

you know, make sure they were told off.

But not in a big dramatic way, just please don't do that again, you know.

And one time there was one actor on the on a film who was really brilliant but he'd really got into a rhythm of just not showing up and hours late and so when he did arrive finally one morning everyone cleared the set i'd queued it so when he arrives everybody leave and just leave me on the stage with him and so he went they all left and he's going where's everyone going i said come and sit down

you know you do that thing you know when your mum and dad were going i'm so disappointed in you yeah

Absolutely worked.

He's like, really?

I was like, yeah, the disappointed word.

It really worked.

So he cleared it up.

I've had to send everybody out because I just can't seem to get through with you and I'm so disappointed.

And it was brilliant after then.

Wow.

Yeah.

Was it Matthew McConaughey?

No, no, no.

He's great.

Are you able to say that story about the agent guy with his raisins?

Oh, raisin guy, yeah.

Well, this is a classic alpha.

I was having a meeting with my producer and a very, very big star.

And he'd come along with his agent and his manager.

And I think because he had the two of them with them, the manager thought, I'm going to have to be a bit more of a macho guy in this room.

There's all this stuff, there's all these men.

And it's me, you know, I'm the least threatening.

You don't have to do anything, it's fine.

This guy comes in with his big star friend and he sits him down and we're all sitting down, we're about to discuss this project.

And he grabbed a packet of sunmade.

Do you know those little raisins?

There was a bowl of snacks

just around

mini boxes.

Little tiny box.

And he puts his feet up on the table, chugs this packet of Sunmade,

and then throws them at the studio boss.

And it hits the studio boss.

Yeah.

And we all had to carry on, but I was like, ooh, look at that.

And it was so pathetic as well.

Sun made.

Oh, honestly.

And he wasn't angry or anything?

No, it's just like, what the fuck are we doing here?

All right.

Wow.

I am buying some boxes of Sunmaid.

You could feel the agent going, oh, I wish you hadn't done that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Get a bit of that.

And the famous person, were they looking sad?

Yeah, really uncomfortable.

Yeah, it was really weird and uncomfortable.

And didn't the studio boss come, what the fuck are you doing?

No, it's more like, okay.

Just a a little bit.

Because they're used to it.

No, it was just, it was better to just get through that one.

Style it out.

Yeah, style it out.

He did it well, actually.

I've got to say, he was very cool.

Afterwards, we were like, ooh, woo-hoo-hoo-hoe.

All right, we are coming towards the end of our first half now, and I think it is time to introduce our musical guest this evening.

I'm very excited to introduce to you my guest, one of the country's most talented singer-songwriters, who always, I won't do the voice.

This is sincere, and I got very music journalisty on this intro.

One of the country's most talented singer-songwriters who always manages to sound both exquisitely modern and like sun-kissed 70s Laurel Canyon nobility.

It's Laura Marling has come here to sing to you tonight.

I didn't go for the hug there because I suddenly thought, like, I don't know if she's a hug person or not.

I'm a hugger.

Are you?

Yeah, I'm a hugger.

Okay, the interval is coming up.

It was nice.

20 minutes of hugging.

I'm so pleased that you're here.

You told me that you haven't, this is like I've coaxed you out of retirement, more or less, right?

Because

you haven't been playing live for a couple of years.

I haven't played live for over two years.

Whoa, whoa.

So, Laura Marling's return here for you podcasts at the Norwich Playhouse.

I'm very honoured and excited that you agreed to do this.

Thank you so much.

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Only for you, Adam.

That's it.

Well, and you're a friend of the podcast.

Listen to my episode with Laura.

We had a fun, stupid chat

during the lockdown, though, wasn't it?

That was a remote one.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm glad that Zoom interviews are over.

Though I enjoyed it.

Of course.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You don't mean my interview specifically.

That was one of the old-time great Zoom interviews.

There was no crying in that one.

What have you been doing these last couple of years?

I had a baby.

Well done.

Thank you.

Thanks, thanks.

Highly recommend it.

You guys know all about that?

Yeah, I've got loads.

I've got loads of them, yeah.

That's pretty much it.

I've got loads of threads.

But have you, have you been, are you allowed to say if you've been working on new stuff?

Have you got...

Oh, yes, I should say that.

I am out of practice.

I made an album.

Nice.

I made an album when the baby was really small before she started walking, which you can do because you just put them down and they can only roll about half a meter away from you.

So I did that.

Were you working at home then or do you take the baby into the studio?

I did it all at home.

I had a studio at home, but I couldn't do it there because it was too dangerous.

So I had to bring her up into the living room or bring my studio up into the living room.

And I did it there.

And then I finished it at

the finishing bits at a studio with her.

It was great fun.

Loved it.

When's that going to see the light of day?

November.

November, that's before my album is coming out.

Okay, pew.

We deliberately timed it like that.

I didn't want to steal Laura's thunder.

And you've also been sub-stacking.

Yes, I have a sub-stack now, which is like podcasts for introverts, I guess.

And what do you write about there?

I write about...

I write about songwriting, but I also write about...

I try and relate it to the Arc of the Major Arcana of the Tarot.

I was going to do that, but then I

did something else.

It's not as woo-woo as it sounds.

Yes.

I'm not like into New Agey.

I am into New Agey stuff, but

I don't talk about it there.

That sounds good.

So what are you going to play for us?

I'm going to play a new song called Caroline.

Now you're tiptoeing a little bit there.

Yeah, it's because I sing upwards.

Oh, you sing up.

Yeah, upwards.

But because I have to talk.

Why do you sing upwards, Laura?

Because I like the timbre.

Ah, the timbre.

And also, I don't have to look anyone in the eye,

which I generally like in life.

So

okay, cool.

Great.

Well, away to change an evening.

Was my number hard to find

You know I've given up believing

But the song had somewhat lingered on my mind

It went la la la la la la la la

la la

Something, something, Caroline

Caroline, you're like an ember

A rock that bursts back into life

A song I only just remember

That goes, oh something, something, Caroline

La la la la la la la la la

la la

Something something Caroline

Caroline, we are old now

I got married and I loved my wife

We have kids, they're good and grown now

All in all I was happy with my life

Though I was never really far from you

Was I

something, something, Caroline

I'd ask you not to call again

I like to keep you off my mind

You're the one who went away, Caroline So

the song was forgotten over time

It went

la la la la la la la la la

la la

Something, something, Caroline

La la la la la la la la la

la la la

Something, something

Caroline,

That was amazing.

Are we the first people to hear that?

Yes.

Wow.

That was so good.

What was it called?

It's called Carola.

I've never heard anyone do that.

That's a funny idea as well to have half-remembered lyrics in there.

I actually, you're not the first people to hear it.

I sent it to my dad, who was a songwriter.

And he was like, oh, it's very good.

Would you like me to finish the lyrics for you?

Oh, man.

I love that.

Thank you so much, Laura.

Will you come and sing another song in the second half?

Absolutely.

How about this?

Will you sing halfway through the podcast at the beginning of the second half?

I sure will.

I'm quite nervous about it, but you know.

Oh, you should be.

That's one of the big numbers that everyone.

do another jingle now, podcasts.

And I couldn't help noticing, I know you didn't know if it was appropriate to join in the first time around.

It is appropriate.

If you know the words, please do join in in with one of the greatest jingles ever written.

Joe Rogan hasn't done any jingles, but if he did, they wouldn't be as good as this one.

It's halfway through the podcast, and to help me sing it, please welcome back to the stage Laura Marling.

How are you feeling about halfway through the podcast?

Let's see.

Okay.

See how it goes.

What sort of style are you thinking?

I'm going to go finger picky.

Okay.

But harmonies aren't my 40.

Are they not?

No.

I would have thought you were queen of harmonies.

No, I'm the main event, not really the harmonies guy.

Quite right.

We're halfway through the podcast.

I think it's going really great.

The conversation's flowing like it would between a geezer and his mate

All right mate

There's so much chemistry It's like a science lab of talking

There's fun chat and there's deep chat.

It's like Chris Evans is meeting Stephen talking

Oh yeah, thank you very much.

Laura Morning.

So let's get my guest Garth back on stage right now.

It's Garth Jennings.

How are you doing Garth?

I'm doing great, thanks.

How are you?

Do you spend much time on social media?

No.

No, I mean we did find some nice bathroom tiles.

There's this lady in Bridport who makes lovely

tiles, but other than that, not really, no.

Best to avoid it.

You don't get anything done really, otherwise.

But aren't you obliged to engage with it when you're promoting movies and things like that?

No, I'm not on it.

I've had to do junkets and things where you meet.

That's the thing I wasn't used to on the last film.

We had to meet people that

are influencers on TikTok and Instagram.

And that's quite strange.

One of them was a tiny eight-year-old boy who was famous for doing a special little dance.

And I thought they were setting me up for, I know, I thought they were setting me up as a candid camera thing because all these adults from newspapers and things coming in.

And then this eight-year-old boy in a fedora came on.

And I did that thing where I go,

what's he doing here?

And his mum's going, his mum was one of those showbiz mums, they're terrifying.

And then he started asking us questions and it was the most uncomfortable, strange thing.

Because he suddenly went from being this little kid to like, I want to ask you, when you you made it was like the most professional little child person and it's all like oh

very weird and then we had to do a special dance

what was the dance is a sort of a shimmy thing that I was supposed to know

oh you had to do the dance I did it with this little guy oh mate

and then you think what's going on what am I doing what am I doing here

I just did this whole film and now I'm doing a shimmy with this little eight-year-old in a fedora.

Just feels

really wrong.

There's a lot of weird stuff now you have to do when you're promoting.

Dennis Villnerf doesn't do the dance, I bet he doesn't.

He would never have, he would have

had someone fired for that.

I just carried on.

I bet you, I'll tell you who else doesn't do the dance: David O.

Russell.

I bet you he's not going to do that.

He's going to beat the kid to death

with a staple.

This is nice.

You've seen that footage of David O.

Russell losing his mind on the set of iHeart Huckabees.

It is upsetting.

He screams at Lily Tomlin, uses the C-word as he's kicking a load of props off the table in front of her.

But then I found out the other day, she's totally fine with it.

There's loads of videos of her online just saying, oh, wow, that's what life on high-pressure film sets is like sometimes.

Well, anyway, that seemed extreme to me.

Yeah.

And Lily Tomlin wasn't that bad.

No.

She'd been a bit late or something.

Anyway.

She was getting frustrated because it was taking too long to block a scene.

Yes.

Yeah.

Or something like that.

I used to have crew get frustrated with me when I was younger.

Right.

Because I didn't look very experienced and they would think I was the runner.

And then they'd go, I'd be filming something.

They'd go, do you even know what you're fucking doing, mate?

What, the crew guys?

Yeah, like someone on the camera grip or something like that.

Oh, mate.

And you go, yes, I do, actually.

Yeah, would you stand up for yourself or would you go and have a little cry?

Didn't do a little cry.

That happened quite a few times, but I would just sort of carry it on.

See ya, see you later.

That's what Kenneth Branner did.

I was reading Miriam Margulies' book, and she talks about the fact that on his first feature, which was some sort of thriller, Dead Again, was it?

Dead Again, I don't know if it was the first, but he definitely did that, yeah.

Yeah, call out if I'm wrong about that podcast, but I think it was that.

And

he was first-time director, he already had a reputation as a star of the theatre.

But I think maybe his film crew perhaps thought, Who is this upper T

guy who's coming in here thinking he can direct a film?

And they were very contrary

and wouldn't do anything that he wanted them to do.

So, a few days in, fired all of them and just started again.

Yeah, I would love it if he did it in a really sort of Shakespearean way.

You know, like said, Can I have you all gather, gather round, and then stand on something tall and say, All of you are fire.

You're fucking fire.

You're fucking fire.

Fuck off right now, you little fucking man.

That would be good.

He doesn't talk like that, but I would have asked him to do it.

Yeah.

Hello.

Fact-checking Santa here, the Mariana Spring of the Adam Buxton podcast.

Quite lazy, though, I don't check that many facts these days, but I did think I should step in on this one.

Kenneth Branner's directorial debut was Henry V.

Dead Again was the first film Ken made in Hollywood where he found the original crew for his film to be too sluggish.

I don't know if you read my book, Garth, Ramble Book, but within there,

I debuted the use of my argument log

with my wife.

And this is something that has proven to be quite useful in our lives.

Do you read it back to her?

No,

I mean

sometimes, a little bit.

I mean, the whole point is to cut down the risk of covering old ground during valuable argument time.

Which can happen.

You know, you get into it and then you go round and round and you find like.

So you could bring out the log and go, we don't need to cover this, check it out.

Exactly.

He did it.

He did it, and he was right that time.

So that's the point of the argument log.

And, you know, for the record, my wife strongly disagrees with that being a good thing to do.

But these are some of the more

recent ones.

And you can give me your response as a married person yourself.

Subjective argument, me picking Banshees of Inner Sharon as our Christmas Day family movie.

Yeah.

She didn't like that, I guess.

I hated it.

No, no, that wasn't a great idea.

They went down so badly.

I really genuinely thought it was going to be a smash because I loved In Bruges.

Right.

And I thought they've got the Imbrug guys back together again.

It's part of time.

Mainpoint's wife, after we saw it, it was depressing, pointless crap designed to win awards.

Wow.

It's a bit harsh.

Wow.

Buckles came back with it, it was a powerful allegory about cis men yearning for immortality because they can't give birth.

And mental illness, and the troubles in Northern Ireland, and donkey nutrition.

It's all in there.

Additional points' wife, it was a big, depressing wank.

And we should have watched Top Gun Maverick again.

She was lobbying hard for viewing three of Top Gun Maverick within the same holiday period.

And I just.

This does deliver.

I mean, it does.

Yeah.

If you're not into fingers being flung around.

No.

Yeah.

My wife won that one.

I think she deserves that one.

That was a very bitter row over Banshee's of Inisharin.

How about this one?

Being moody?

Do you ever get this one?

Generally, no.

We're not a moody couple.

You're chirpy.

I always get that.

Yeah.

Yeah, chirpy.

Oh, yeah.

Who was it that described you as chirpy?

Oh, it's awful.

I've never said this either to anyone out.

It's somebody who's great, and I get on really well with him.

But when I was at art school, there were lots of young, talented people around.

And I loved art school because I couldn't believe you could just do this all day.

I was just great.

I was just making stuff fantastic.

And there's a very well-known film director called Joe Wright.

who's gone on to do Atonement and all kinds of wonderful films.

And he's brilliant.

But he was in the same year as me.

And I remember walking past him saying, hello, Joe.

And he just took out a cigarette,

sorry about the swearing here.

He went, James, you're a chirpy cunt.

I was a bit like, ooh.

I sort of went into the next room, and Dom, my best mate, was there, and I said, Joe, just called me a chirpy cunt.

And Dom just said, well, you are.

I was like, ah, yeah.

So basically, yeah, that's been it ever since.

I like it.

It's a fine quality, but maybe that's because I'm a little bit moody.

I don't know.

Anyway, when I get accused of being moody, my main points are: I say to her when she's moody, I don't understand why you're so moody.

And her response is, you're the one that's moody.

It's like a toxic cloud.

Does she use those actual words?

Actual quote.

I don't think you realize how moody you are.

Get a bit of upspeak there.

My comeback is, you were moody first.

I'm moody because you're moody.

I'm normally fun, like on my podcast.

Have you seen the logo from the podcast?

Sometimes I show her the logo on the movie.

Look at that guy, smiley guy.

That's who you're dealing with.

In fact, right now you're gaslighting me.

Winner Buckles.

Because I used gaslighting.

Have you invoked gaslighting in an artist?

No, no, no.

We haven't reached that point.

It's pretty powerful stuff.

Yeah, I was going to say,

Works for all kinds of things.

I think she was just like, oh, God.

All right.

I want that one.

I'm going to have a damn subjective argument.

Me throwing away the random crap that's been in the big bowl in the hall for years, including old chargers, membership cards, lanyards, packs of pills, cables, remotes, mini-toiletries, shoelaces, receipts, incidental brushes, the red ones, hair clips, knackered headphones, phone numbers on scraps of paper, keyrings, and keys.

That's in one bowl?

Yeah.

Nice one.

Have you not got a bowl like that?

Or a, you know, like a box.

No, again, I'm saying no.

I feel terrible.

I'm letting you down here.

I should be joining you in.

Yeah.

You've got a neat house, that's why.

It's quite weird.

Oh, there's four boys.

You've got to keep it together.

Four boys.

Neat house.

Holy shit.

Dogs and stuff.

You've got to stay on top of it.

That's the dream.

But anyway, I binned all of that stuff.

And it was pretty satisfying.

Mainpoint's wife, there might have been stuff in there I needed.

I came back with, you haven't needed it for the last 10 years.

Well, it's good.

Yeah, it's good.

Your honour.

But she said, you should have checked with me first, and that is true.

Yeah.

I should have done, and I knew that I should have done.

And I just went ahead and did it anyway.

So I did feel bad about it.

I came back and I said that if I checked, it wouldn't have got thrown away.

And that was also true.

Yeah.

But I did feel bad, and so the winner was my wife.

But the stuff did get thrown away.

So

It all worked out.

This is wife updating me on which friends and family members have cancer just before scheduled marital relations.

I love that they're scheduled.

And my main point, you've got to schedule them, otherwise they're not going to happen, are they?

I mean,

my main point is that it's not exactly sexy.

Main points, wife, it's the only time we get to discuss important things.

And I'm the winner of that one I think I have the stronger point there as it were subject yeah thanks mate and subject of argument wife finally wife leaving dirty plates and coffee mugs by the sink to clean later where do you stand on this

she's probably going out to do something important right yes she's not going to do it out of laziness she's doing it she's rushing to do something else yeah but I'm trying to make a case.

I know what sales like, and I think that's what she's doing there.

Of course she works incredibly hard, but

I always think it's better to clean as you go.

And I say it like that in that, like oh, in that fun voice, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

If you want a fun hack, I always think it's better to

clean as you go.

Try it, it's fun,

it's fun to do it, not chippy in any way at all.

And her comeback is, I always think it's better to fuck while you off.

I don't know what that

is supposed to mean.

But anyway, that's the situation, argument-wise.

And we will welcome back to the stage.

If she's there, I didn't really give her a fair warning, but if you're there, Laura.

Yay, let's welcome back, Laura Marley.

Good to see you.

Is this a new one or an old one you're going to do for me?

It's a new one.

It's a new one.

Oh, it's another new one.

Yeah.

Have you got an album title yet?

Yes, it's called Patterns in Repeat.

Patterns in Repeat?

Yeah.

How long does it take you to come up with a title?

Pretty title.

Is it easy?

Yes.

Hmm.

They tend to be song titles.

You just pick the best song titles.

Oh, yeah, okay.

Yeah.

That's the way I'm going with my album.

Nice.

Have you got a title?

Pizza Time.

I thought about Patterns in Repeat and then I thought,

I think pizza time.

And can you can you tell us a little bit about the song or is that something that you don't want to do?

That's not really my forte.

But you know, you can subscribe to my sud stack if you want to.

Oh yeah, okay.

I'm not really bad at talking about the subject of songs.

Sure, I don't want to put you on the spot and make it all uncomfortable.

Great.

Tell me exactly what it means.

What's it called, though?

It's called Child of Mind.

It's pretty self-explanatory, actually, now I think about it.

Child of Mind.

Child of Mind.

Oh,

okay.

You and your dad are dancing in the kitchen.

Life is slowing down, but it's still bitching.

Got myself a rod, but I could break it.

Back is still as strong as I can make it.

Plus, you're mine.

So, who would rush right through it?

Child of mine,

child

of mine,

Child

of mine

Everything you want is within your reach right now

And anything that's not I have to teach somehow

Everything about you isn't you

So those who miss the point might rush right through it

Because it's fine

But I don't wanna miss a child of mine

Child

of mine

Child

of mine

Last night in your sleep you started crying

I can't protect you there though I keep trying.

Sometimes you'll go places I won't get to,

but I've spoken with the angels who protect you

because you're mine.

They'll cast their golden light across my child.

Child of mine,

child

of mine

Long nights,

fast years,

so they say

Time won't

ever

feel the same

And I don't wanna miss it

And I don't wanna miss it

And I'm not gonna miss it child of mine

Child of mine

Child

of mine

Child

of mine

Child

of mine

Child

of mine

Beautiful.

Laura Marling.

Child of mine.

That was lovely.

That's it for Laura Marling.

Thank you so much for coming along, Laura.

Amazing.

Oh man.

That is that's sort of the loveliest representation of what it's like to have young children.

Yeah.

That was the best bit.

It doesn't include any of the.

We should just not talk now, Ad.

No.

We're just going to ruin it.

It just went so incredibly well.

Whatever we do now is just not going to work.

There you go.

Anyway, that is the end of our presentation tonight, folks.

Please join me in thanking everyone who helped on this tour and indeed tonight thank you so much to all the folks at the Playhouse who have made us feel so welcome it's lovely to be back here and thank you very much for coming out tonight it's really nice to see you in person thanks for listening to the podcast I left a gift for you all if you want it you don't have to have it oh yeah but I stuck a little QR code in the lobby and also on the wall across the street just I don't know if like me if you ever have an alarm clock on your phone they're horrible aren't they?

So, I made a recorded birds in my garden and made a 30-second loop.

So, if you want

birds from my garden as your alarm clock, you could just do it on the QR code.

Yeah.

That's my little gift for you.

A typically thoughtful and lovely gift.

Perfect from a chirpy cunt.

Yes, exactly.

I never ever, I just feel like I made the biggest mistake in my life by saying.

Teed me up for that one!

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Continue.

Continue.

Hey, welcome back, Podcasts.

That was Garth Jennings there at the Norwich Playhouse back in June of this year 2024.

And of course, we were joined by Laura Marling.

Thank you so much to Garth and Laura.

Her album, Patterns in Repeat, is out on the 25th of October.

I've put a link to her website in the description of the podcast so you can see what she's up to.

And there's a link to Laura's Substack page where she writes about songwriting and other things.

Check it out.

The sun is out and shining through the trees but we're still under this rain cloud and I can see that it's raining out there in the field.

We'll head out shortly Rose.

I think it's nearly past.

Before I leave you today I just wanted to give you a couple of recommendations.

First one is for a podcast that I would imagine Many of you podcasts are already familiar with.

It's been around for a few years and already has a large and devoted fan base.

It's called A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs.

This is some blurb about it.

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs is a podcast created by Andrew Hickey that explores the development and evolution of rock music by analyzing 500 significant songs from the genre's history.

Starting with early influences like the blues, gospel, and jazz, the podcast traces rock's roots from the 1930s and 1940s through to, I believe, he's going to go to the end of the 90s and draw a line there.

He's got a long way to go.

He's been doing it for a few years.

He's only at 176, I think, at the moment.

Four-part are about Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones, which was excellent.

Each episode delves into the backstory of a song, examining its cultural and historical context, the artists involved, and the song's impact of the evolution of rock music.

With deep research and detailed storytelling, the podcast offers both an educational and an entertaining look at rock's rich history.

And there is a depth of knowledge and nuanced analysis in this thing, and also a willingness to explore tangential details and connections that you just wouldn't get, I don't think, with a mainstream broadcaster because there isn't the time.

And

broadcasters are generally nervous about putting off casual listeners and scaring them away with something that's too deep level.

But if you're willing to go deep and if you can roll with his sometimes idiosyncratic presentational style, hundreds of hours of joy await you on the History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast.

Can I ask you a favor though?

In the style of Andrew Hickey, in case some of you were thinking of messaging Andrew Hickey via social media to let him know that I'm singing his praises, praises, you know, in a nice way.

Please don't.

I've listened to enough episodes of Andrew's podcast to know that he's not necessarily comfortable with what he calls the parasocial side of podcasting.

He wants to keep it all about his project and the music.

He himself asks his listeners not to contact people that he mentions on his podcast to tell them, oh, Andrew Hickey's been talking about you, because he appreciates that sometimes that isn't necessarily going to make their day.

And he's very thoughtful in that way, as you can hear from the content warnings that he does at the start of each episode.

He's very careful about what he puts out into the world with the podcast.

So, I hope you don't mind if I ask you to respect Andrew's privacy.

He's got a lot of work to do.

This guy does incredible amounts of work on the podcast.

And the thing is, one of the things that elevates it above other similar types of podcast music shows is that he uses clips of the music very well.

And he makes a point of saying that he thinks he does so in a way that is kind of legally defensible.

He is only using clips that illustrate specific points he is making.

It's all within the context of a show that is very much educational.

And he's doing that 100%.

I really think it's an amazing educational resource what he's doing.

I've discovered lots of bits and pieces that I never knew anything about listening to episodes of his podcast.

And it's really inspiring the way he weaves everything together.

History of rock music in 500 songs.

See how you get on.

Also, there are still music documentary gems to be found on the lanestream media.

And one of those is available on BBC Sounds.

I have linked to it in the description.

And it's called Bowie in Berlin.

It's about Zay Vid.

Documentary filmmaker Francis Watley, who directed the excellent Five Years TV documentaries about Bowie, reveals what really happened to Bowie when he decamped to Berlin in the late 1970s to live with Iggy Pop and work on the albums Low and Heroes.

The doc is lovingly produced by John Wilson, whom you might know from This Cultural Life, which he presents on Radio 4.

Bowie in Berlin tells its story in a series of cinematic sonic montages woven between the testimonies of three women who knew Bowie intimately, all talking publicly about their relationships with him for the first time.

Bowie in Berlin.

That's it for this week.

Come on, Rose, shall we venture out?

Let's head back.

Here we go, Rose.

Come on, doglegs.

Let's go through here.

There we go, that's better, isn't it, dog?

Okay.

Thanks very much to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for production support and conversation editing.

Thanks to Helen Green, she does the artwork for the podcast.

And she's also working away on the cover for my next book,

which one day will be finished.

Thanks to everybody at ACAST for all their hard work with my sponsors.

But thanks most of all to you for coming back again, for listening right to the end.

Sometimes I'll bump into a podcast in the outside world, and it's always a pleasure.

Come here.

Hey,

good to see you.

Thanks for coming back.

Until next time,

go carefully.

It's absolutely nuts out there.

Take care.

I love you.

Bye.

Like and subscribe.

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Please like and subscribe.

Give me like a smile and a thumbs up, I say a pat when my bums up, give me like a smile and a thumbs up,

I take a pat when it bums up,

like and subscribe,

like and subscribe,

like and subscribe, please like and subscribe.

Give me like a smile and a thumbs up, I take a pat when my bums up,

give me like a smile and a thumbs up,

I take a pat when it bums up,

like and subscribe,

I can't find.