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Welcome to Namaste Motherfuckers, the only podcast where the worlds of work, comedy and well-being collide.The podcast where the life-changing stuff happens.
I'm your host Callie Beaton and this episode is called Piano Man and today's theme is the piano. Can I ask you a favour before we get started?Would you mind liking and subscribing?You can just pause now and click the follow and subscribe button.
It's dead easy and it's free.And if you'd like to give us a star rating or a review or both, please don't hold back, especially if you're thinking of giving us five of them.That's five stars.You don't need to give five reviews.One is fine.
Anyway, I'll stop wanging on and let us get back to today's episode, which is obviously one of my favourites we've done so far. So, the piano.Douglas Adams said, beauty doesn't have to be about anything.What's a vase about?
What's a sunset or a flower about?What, for that matter, is Mozart's 23rd piano concerto about?
At 6.30pm on the 18th April 1930, a BBC announcer reported that as there was no news that day, the listeners should sit back and enjoy some piano music, which is what they did.
The sequel to The Phantom of the Opera was delayed for quite some months because Andrew Lloyd Webber's kitten had deleted the musical score from his digital piano.
And there's a piano in the Abba Museum in Stockholm, which is linked to Benny from Abba's studio piano.And apparently it starts playing whenever he does and it duplicates exactly what he's performing.I hope he doesn't have a cat.
Almost like a professional.
Here we go.You sound... That's today's guest, Alistair McGowan. Freddie Mercury is said to have had a piano as a headboard so that he could play melodies that came to him in his dreams.Chopin wrote his Piano Concerto No.
2 before his Piano Concerto No.Don't ask. And let's end with a bit of trivia about Eric Satie, who is one of Alastair's favourite composers, as you will hear.
Satie wrote a piece for the piano called Vexations in 1893, that is supposed to be played very slowly, 840 times.The first actual performance of it was quite some time later in 1963, and it went on for more than 18 hours.
And at the end, one audience member shouted, Encore!
Do you need more light on me for the image or are you happy with that kind of moodie?
Alistair McGowan is an impressionist, actor, comedian, and latterly pianist.His early career on Spitting Image and The Big Impression made him a household name.
His celebrity impressions include Gary Lineker, Richard Madeley, Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Terry Wogan, and Ross from Friends.He and Ronnie Ancona are probably best known for their portrayal of Push and Bex.
He's written and starred in three plays for Radio 4 about Eric Satie, John Field and George Bernard Shaw and he took part with Eddie Izzard in the first ever stand-up show performed by two English comics totally in French.That was in Sheffield.
Where else? At the age of 49, Alistair went back to the piano, having reached grade 2 as a 9-year-old just 40 years earlier.
He has since achieved a number one Sony album that grew into successful live concerts where he combined stand-up and piano pieces.
Alistair and I talked about reinvention, age, cheese, theatre, leaving London, classical music, impressions, Ireland, India, travel, breakups and kebabs.And, as you would hope, he does a myriad of impressions during this interview.
But I started by asking Alistair about the period house he was recording from.
It's 1614 or something, this house.
God, all that taking the piss out of celebrities has paid off, hasn't it?Not that you were.You were paying homage, weren't you?
I was pointing out the idiosyncrasies of their voices, the brilliance of their individuality.
And I should, of course, know you would have quite a good mic set up, having made a lot of your living from your voice.
I suppose so.Yeah, it does surprise people, though.It's very useful.It was very cheap, actually, relatively speaking.
Was it?Well, after we finish, I might ask you what your tech setup is.Mine's quite basic, but doing okay.We're sort of surviving.
Indeed.That's true.I've got good lighting.That's where I specialize.Anything that makes me look under 40, I go for that.
Most things make you look under 40.I still can't believe you're 80.
Bless you.Right.Well, let's hang up there.I think that's all I needed to hear today.
So I'm in the- I wonder if you exaggerate it.See, I used to do that when I was doing my piano tour initially.I used to say, I've only been playing for four years, which I had, and it was sort of impressive.And now I've been playing for eight years.
So it's not that impressive that I'm the standard I'm at, because after eight years, I should really be better.So I wonder if you've made up your age just so that people go, oh, you've only been doing it for four years.All right.
Sadly, not.No, I am.It's definitely all true.And people, I have to sort of, I think about raising it, because I need a gasp when I say my age, as you know, because you've seen my stuff.
And increasingly, the age needs to get quite high before anyone doesn't just go, yeah, we knew that.So I've also realized I'm now 54.And I've realized one of my favorite jokes, I have to be 53.It's a bit of a maths joke that I can't do if I'm 54.
So there's a dilemma, which I won't bore you with on your busy Monday afternoon.
It is funny the way those things happen.I remember writing a joke which I was really pleased about.Actually, you can keep this on.Well, you're recording anyway, aren't you?You can always dip this in if you need to.
But I wrote this joke about how your idea of what a good night out was.What a good night out.Yeah, what constitutes a good night out changes as you get older. I used to say when you're in your 20s, you know, it's going out.
Actually, I better not go into it, it was a bit too crude.Well, I like crude, especially because you say you don't, so I want you to be crude.
No, it was something like my idea of a good night out at 21 was making love to a beautiful girl on a beach in Greece, hearing the susurrations of the sea.I think that's my perfect night out.
And when I got to 30, 34, I think it was 24, 34, my idea of a good night out was making love to two beautiful women.
on a beach in Greece to the susurrations of the sea and i said then i got to 44 and my idea of a beautiful night out was uh yeah and i said now i'm 44 my idea of a good night out is just staying in and having some cheese and my perfect night good i don't tell that joke anymore i made a right pig's ear of that but anyway that was when i was 44 and i did that until i was about 50 and then you think oh i was 44 when i wrote it and now i'm 58 you think that's 14 years ago and it has such a nice ring to it 24 34 44
I'm just thinking I need to get more into cheese.Now I'm 54.It's not my favorite thing, but I'm obviously missing a trick.Yeah.Yeah.
You're missing a lot of tricks with cheese.
That's the future.And just tell me, because you've moved out of London, obviously.Have we started yet?Do I need to be talking properly?Well, we dive in on this and we may well have started.We listen back and see what should stay in.
But I'm not asking for an address in case you're worried that my listeners and I are all going to drop by.But that doesn't look as if it's in London.
My house.No, Shropshire, the forgotten county.
So a 17th century house in Shropshire?
Yeah, never thought I'd end up somewhere like this.I never intended to.In fact, I hoped to really.I used to, when I lived in South West London, I was there for so many years and I had neighbours around who'd been in the profession in various guises.
One was a wonderful actor called Murray Watson who died 2016, 2017. But Murray was well into his 80s when he died.
And he was still, up until like two years before he died, going into the West End on the tube, seeing the latest shows, all that sort of thing.And I thought, that's going to be me.
I'm going to be in my 80s in London, still going to shows, still doing things.Charles Brandreth was a neighbor, still a very good friend.
And Giles, obviously, was always performing, always busy, always going to the West End, always talking about the latest shows, always happy to be around artists and the artistic hub of the country.
I thought that'll be me, that'll be me in my eighties.And then suddenly I just got completely disillusioned and thought, no, I'm ready to, ready to go.So it was a real shock.It's a real shock.Did you make the leap?
It was three years ago, more or less exactly, June 2020 during lockdown.
And it wasn't lockdown that promoted the move, it was just really, I suppose really, it was realizing, boringly, the long story is I had a boot on my foot for a while, I had a foot injury and I had to wear one of those sort of ski boots.
And hobbling around London for a month with this foot protector on made me feel 80.
And I just didn't like the fact that everybody was rushing by me and I couldn't get around London quickly and I felt vulnerable and I thought if this is what it feels like as a metaphor to be old in London, I don't want to do that, it doesn't feel safe.
And so I just thought no, this is, that was the first drip of insecurity about living in London anymore. And also for me, I mean, the whole thing with the theatre had changed.
You know, I used to love being in the West End, the idea of being on the West End stage.And suddenly again, that lost its appeal, really.
Why did that lose its appeal?Because you and I have done a thing in reverse.I've gone from not on stage to on stage at a very similar life stage and age to you doing the absolute reverse.So what's it like from your side of the fence?
Uh, well, there were two things again, it was about feeling your age and noticing that everybody was very young.And I remember once going to the festival and, um, Dare I mention names or should I just keep it vague?I better keep it vague.
I saw a few comics there early on in the street.I bumped into them.So I was about 50 at this time, maybe late 40s.And one of them had been very sort of cool and alternative for 20 years.I'd known him up and down in Edinburgh.
And he was always going out, going to parties, staying out late, going to shows, and suddenly he had children.And I said, you know, are you doing much while you're here?And he said, no, not really.I've got the kids now.
So, you know, just not really doing that much.You might be able to guess who it is by the impression.
Hello podcast pedants, it's producer Mike here with another handy clarification.We think he's talking about Stuart Lee, but you probably guessed that.
And I suddenly thought, oh, well, that's really sad that you're your age and now you're not going out anyway.You just got the kids.And then I met another comic later on who was similar age, who was still going out and doing this stuff.
And I thought, how sad that you're still going out and doing all those things now that you're in your mid 50s.And I basically thought it's a young person's game comedy.
And either way, it wasn't a good look, whether you were staying home and being boring or going out and doing things that you should have done in your 20s or did do in your 20s. But that's just prejudice.
And I suppose it's just maybe we just get jaded with certain things.We've just seen every angle of it.And I think for me, maybe we'll come on to that, but I've got a new passion and a new interest like you have with your comedy.So it's all still new.
You haven't got jaded with it and probably won't.But yeah, I just started to think, oh, it's better in the old days.And I felt more at home in the old days.
And I had more to say in the old days and empathize more with the audience in the old days and didn't mind all the traveling all around London or around the country in the old days.
And, uh, it's, it's that dangerous thing of sounding like a grumpy old man, I suppose.Uh, but it's just human nature.
I think you said something very interesting that I hadn't really thought of in regard to age.And when you, um, and when we start out doing things and you said, you know, you're gonna.
be at this age and life phase and you're not going to be jaded because it's new to you.So you'll have the craft and be in your 50s and it'll be fresh and you're not going to feel cynical and jaded, which is how I feel.
You know, it's new as in I don't feel cynical and jaded because it's so fresh for me.
Did I just say that or say that when I first met you?
You said it when you met me.Yeah, when you met me when we were at Brentford.At Brentford, when we were playing for Brentford.Do you remember?We were good.
We were in Brentford Stadium for clarity, but luckily for everyone, they're not playing football.And I was only just there because I was extremely late.But you said that, and it struck me.And then I said to you, what are you doing these days?
And I now realize that if I'd been paying any attention, I would know what you're doing these days, because you've not been doing it entirely under the radar.And you said, I'm playing the piano, and you were very understated.
And I then quickly realized that wasn't quite the understatement.So you got back into the piano at 49, is that right?
That is correct, yeah.I played for two years when I was young.My mother sent me for piano lessons aged eight, as a lot of people's mothers did in those days.And I just didn't bond with it at all.
I didn't like it and perhaps didn't have the most inspiring teacher and just thought it wasn't for me.Gave it up and then at about the age of
17 I think, I was suddenly aware of classical piano music around in films and things and so I thought, if I stuck with this I could be playing some of this stuff and then I went off to university and met people there who, there's one boy in particular called Piers Nichols I remember and Piers had spent a year off which is a concept I'd never heard of where I came from, you didn't have years off or gap years.
You just went on to college because that's all you could afford to do.Anyway, he'd had his year off and he had gone around France playing the piano in cafes and restaurants, you know, week by week until they had enough of him all around France.
That's how he'd been.I thought that just sounds heavenly. And to this day, I still sort of dream that maybe one day I'll do that.I'll go around France and play the piano in little restaurants and cafes.It was just something I really envied.
So again, it lit a spark.But then everything was, life was just too busy.And it was only really, I tried to play a bit in my mid-30s.I had a few lessons then for six months or so.Learned a couple of pieces by heart.
And what piece, so it's been classical, has it?What were the pieces you learned when you had a dabble?
Yeah, I went back to it in my 30s, had a few lessons, and it's always classical music that's attracted me.And I went back to Eric Satie, who was one of the people that I heard his Gymnopédie No.
1, which is one of the most famous pieces of classical music, and it's a piece probably people will all know, even if they don't think they do. Absolutely beautiful.And you hear it all the time under films and adverts and all sorts of soundtracks.
And I just thought, I want to play that.And so I learned a couple of his pieces at that age.But again, then the career really took off in my mid thirties until I was about 48, 49.
And suddenly it was just sort of winding down and I finally had the time to play.So that was my Namaste moment, if you will.
uh i was on a cruise doing a show uh with my wife about noel coward and also doing some stand-up as a different show on the same cruise and i just there was a piano on there we had an accompanist who was assigned to us to play for us for the noel cowards show my wife sang i sang a bit we did some of his poetry dramatized and it was a good show um but i was just noodling away one night going near the arctic circle it was a cruise to norway and it was a beautiful summer's night it didn't even get dark because it was the arctic circle
And our pianist just heard me playing, and she just said, you've got some talent.And I said, Lucy, I can play two pieces.That's it.I learned them in my mid-thirties.
And she said, oh, you've got a real nice touch there and nice feel for the keys and sensitivity to music.And I said, it's too late.I'm 49.And she just said, it's never too late.When we get back on shore, I will teach you.I went, what?
And she said, I knew somebody who took the piano up at 60, and he was playing the Greek piano concerto by 80.So I said, you're on. And that was the beginning.
So that was my moment of my whole life changed really in this whole new relationship with the piano.And it's, I wouldn't say it saved me because I'm not a depressive person.
I'd have found something to do, but it really changed my life and took me away from, um, Being aware of having been at the top of my profession, having your own show on BBC One with the impressions, it doesn't get much better than that.
I'd done what I wanted to do, but suddenly coming down the other side, if you like, was odd.There were certain realisations, you think, gosh, I used to be on, and now I'm doing this.Is this what I should be doing?Do I need to go back to there?
Should I be ambitious?Has the ambition gone? I was asking myself a lot of questions.And the minute the piano came along, you just go, this is what I now want to do.This is what I now want to do.And I started to construct shows around that.
So when you first started playing again in your late forties, And it's lovely, isn't it, when those Damascene moments come in such a lyrical setting with everything right, the lighting, the characters, the soundtrack.
You gave me a proper all over goose bumpy feeling when you described all of that and did it in a polite way.And did you...
When you started playing, was it a sort of instant, because I know you talked about when we spoke at Brentford about how many hours a day you play and that you almost have to hold yourself back from doing it almost too much.
You're just so drawn to it.Was it a kind of instant love affair?
uh yes it was it was um just when you just hear yourself even play one bar of something that you've always revered and always thought well that's just for me to listen to i'm never going to play that and suddenly you feel that one bar even coming through your fingers and through your brain and then through your soul and through your heart there's just nothing like it um but it's tough it's not easy i remember still now the first time i put sort of
Two lines of music together or systems as they call them in the trade to two lines of music together you think I'm exhausted I've been concentrating for two lines of music I'm never gonna get to the end of the page And then suddenly you get to the end of a page you think this is great And then suddenly you're playing pieces of three pages or six pages as well.
It's still about my limit and But to feel those pieces going through you and to lose yourself in the music is the most wonderful experience.But it's hugely frustrating.It takes a huge amount of time and patience and skill.
And I still have, obviously always will have, huge admiration for those who've played from the age of three.You know, he's the earliest I know somebody who's played from the age of three.
And it's just in their bones, and they know exactly what to do.They know their way around everything.They can improvise.They can make things up.They can hear things in their head and play them.
They can sight read anything, you know, and I will never be that.
I remember years ago, I'm a big football fan, as you know, from our time at Brentford, but Kevin Keegan was often referred to as a sort of a workhorse player who'd made himself this international superstar by really working hard.You know, he wasn't.
Um, Pele, he wasn't Maradona.He just really worked hard and got to the top of his profession.And I think of myself, if you like, as a Kevin Keegan of, of piano, you know, I've got a modicum of skill.It's been there.
I didn't know it was there, but I've worked hard at it, you know, and I'll always work hard at it and, you know, don't take anything for granted.
And, you know, I'm, I know I'm performing above my stature and, you know, got a great respect for all those who've just got a natural ability, which I haven't got.So I have to work hard.You just have to.
As long as you don't get the hair, I think that you should keep with the analogy.
I wouldn't mind any hair, perm or anything, I'd take it.
You've got hair.And in terms of the sort of music you play, because you also did your, you had your Radio 4 plays, one of which was also Sati, right?It was Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pair.
I was interested also that you chose John Fields, which not always has obvious a choice.Is that to do with your Irish heritage?
No, no, I mean the Irish heritage was something which I don't really still have an affinity with.We found ourselves on Who Do You Think You Are?
um but no john field for people who don't know which i'm sure is probably the majority because a lot of classical buffs don't know john field 1782 to 1837 were john field's dates and i just heard a lot of his music suddenly within a short period of time on classic fm or radio 3 and they'd say this was john field and i thought well i had a friend whose dentist was called john field so i thought well this must be a modern person writing in the style it's such a modern name and such an english name
looked into it and found out that he was an Irishman, one of the first people to play the piano because before that it had been the harpsichord or whatever else and he was, the piano was a very new invention in John Field's time and he was a fascinating man, born in Dublin to a fairly well-to-do family but not hugely wealthy and he was spotted at a very young age, played his first concert at the age of eight in the Rotunda in Dublin which still exists, you can still see the Rotunda
And this was a time when Georgian Dublin was very, very wealthy.And it was only wealthy for a very short period of time because of the famine and the English takeover and everything else.
But Dublin had this great boom time for the arts and feel just happened to be there when all these Italians were there and people going to Dublin as a center of the arts and music.And he was spotted and taken to Italy and trained.
And then he was used, I could go on about him for a long time, but it is quite interesting.He was used by another composer called Clementi, who was a huge composer and still is, I mean, wrote a lot of stuff Clementi in the late 1700s.
But Clementi took John Field as a small boy to Russia with him to demonstrate his pianos.So remember, this is a new instrument. and he's taking the piano all around the world, weirdly.How they did it, I don't know, with transport.
You just don't think about these things then.But he took field in these dilapidated coaches, pianos going around the world somehow, and he used field with all his brilliant pianism to demonstrate these pianos.
and barely paid him a penny, this young man, and there's a description of Field being so poor in Leningrad, I think it is, or Moscow, where he lived, so poor that he blew his nose on the lining of his hat.That's the description.
There's a thing to do if you can do it.We couldn't do that nowadays, poverty, we wouldn't even have the hat, would we?
You wouldn't even have that.But he didn't have a coat.Clemente wouldn't buy him a coat, barely paid him any money, and Field was freezing cold and was seen blowing his nose on the lining of his hat.
And Clemente was very much the Ed Sheeran of his day in terms of success.So it seems very unfair not to give your piano demonstrator a little bit of cash for a coat and some gloves.
It was, yes, yes.But the weird thing, two more things about Field.
he lived down in Ireland for the rest of his life, was a huge drinker and reportedly would turn up at concerts totally drunk, sometimes to play a new piano concerto by another composer or himself, not having rehearsed it and would sight read the concerto from the stool and then fall off the stool drunk at the end of the 25-35 minutes.
But he was referred to by Liszt and by Chopin, who are composers I'm sure people will have heard of, as their inspiration as a pianist and as a composer.But he's just sort of totally forgotten about now.
Why do you think he is forgotten about?He's not forgotten about by you because on your album, the piano album, you play John Field.So people can hear some John Field played by you.We'll put links to all of that.But why do you think that is?
Well, his output wasn't huge, partly because of his drinking.And also, he was a good teacher in Russia at the time when this instrument was just taking off, as they say.
So a lot of wealthy women, not always by their own means, but their husbands' means, would go to John Field for their lessons.And Field enjoyed teaching these wealthy women, shall we say, in lots of ways.
So he wasn't always cold, was he?
He wasn't always cold.No, once he established that he wasn't cold at all.He had two sons by two different women.And, um, he rather enjoyed the life of the ruway, shall we say.
So he didn't always feel the need to compose because money was coming in, you know, the trappings of fame and success.
Everything was coming in.
And he just gave the occasional concert brilliantly.Didn't go on tour until he was, till 1833, I think it was.So not long before he died.When did he die?Yeah, four years before he died, he toured.
And by that time he was past his best and had, bless him, rectal cancer.So he had to have a special cushion made to sit on in the coaches and on stage so that his bottom didn't touch the seat of a coach.Can you imagine being on a coach tour
around, not a coach coach, a stagecoach going around Europe to Britain, up to Manchester, you know, when you've got the sorest bottom in the world.And he's sitting on this special cushion made out of rubber, which was a newish thing.
It's called a Dupuytren's cushion.And he sat on this thing so his bottom didn't touch either the piano stool or the seat of the coach, poor bloke.
It was all highs or lows for him, wasn't it?There was no in between.He was living the absolute dream of sitting on a sore bum.
That's why his music isn't that well known.He wrote, I think it's 17 nocturnes, which are beautiful.If people want to go to John Field, they are absolutely superb.Every single one of them, beautiful, moving, lovely pieces.
But he wrote, I think it's six piano concertos and two or three sonatas, and they are not as good.So in terms of output, that's why he's not so well known.He just didn't write enough, really.But he had a nice time on the whole.
Sounds like it.We don't need to feel entirely sorry for him.And it is lovely.You recommended me to your piano album, not because you were being egotistical.I said, I want to hear some of your piano music.
And you said you can say you weren't just going around making everyone sign up to it on Spotify.But it was you and I bonded over talking about Debussy.But there is no Debussy on your piano album.
There is on the second one, the second one, but not on the original.
Is that because it took you a while to rev yourself up to Debussy?
Sort of.It's an extraordinary thing actually, the genesis of that album.It's not a Genesis album.Genesis of that album.
Thank the Lord for that.Sorry to any Genesis fans.
I'm a Genesis fan, so watch it.
Yeah, there you go.Great in their day.Peter Gabriel, fantastic keyboard player himself.Anyway, yeah, I just, so when I started the piano, I immediately had this idea of doing a show about Eric Satie, not John Field.
Eric Satie, who had been my piano hero.And Satie not only wrote wonderful, I was going to say simple music, some of it is quite simple to play, but it's just very few notes.So it's a very simple, pure sound. He also had an extraordinary life.
And he wrote lots of articles, which he performed in local cabarets and things as well, as a humorist, if you like.And he had an incredible sense of humor.
So I thought, I want to do a show where I use Sati's words and his music, comedy and music in the same show, which is what I did in 2016, having just been playing for less than a year.
So I learned about six of his pieces, bits thereof, when I couldn't play the whole thing, put it into the show.
Somebody from sony music happens to be in the audience with my very first run through when actually another pianist played the heartbeats for me cuz i haven't got them in my fingers yet.
And they just said would you like to do an album to my agent and i said to my agent i can only play two pieces all the way through you can't do an album of two pieces and she said. This sort of offer doesn't come along very often.
Alistair, she said, learn some more pieces and do it quickly.So, okay.So that's what I did.I learned the pieces very quickly, but I learned 34 pieces thinking that'll be enough for an album with some to spare because some won't work.
I thought we needed maybe 25 pieces, three minute pieces each, 75 minutes. Anyway, I worked, it was like Whiplash, if you've seen the film Whiplash.
I love the film Whiplash, incredible.
Yeah, not my tempo, not my tempo, not my tempo.So I wanted Project Whiplash with this wonderful pianist who lived down the road from me, proper professional, called Anthony Hewitt.
And Anthony, we did Project Whiplash and he just coached me through these 35 pieces.It was an incredible experience over six to nine months.
Recorded them all and then sony said i said which ones do you want to drop in this we don't drop any of them we like them all so what this is we want to do two albums seventeen pieces on one eighteen when it was on the other.
Will bring the second one out six months after the first so the first thing came out did very well six months later no second album six months later the person who commissioned it leave the company. You know that sort of story.
Somebody leaves, nobody else is behind you.So I was pushing and pushing.When's the second album?When's the second album coming out?After six years, the contract expired.They no longer owned the music.So we brought out the second album.
My agent did it for me last year alone, just so that those recordings could be heard, because I worked so hard on the album.
And were those the original?Because in the intervening years, you would have got better, as you do when you keep practicing.So did you use the original recordings rather than go again with some of them?
Yes, because actually Anthony Hewitt, as I said, just stood over me and he practically conducted me through rehearsal and he conducted me through the recording.So those pieces wouldn't actually have got any better because Anthony, he was brilliant.
He just said to me, I want people to think this is me playing.And you think that's amazing.
You know, he didn't say, oh, I'll just let you do the best you can or I'll teach you a bit, but not that much because I don't want somebody thinking they can play like a professional after a few months.I want you to sound as good as you can.
So I don't think I could have played those pieces better, actually, because he was just so painstakingly good.
But one of the pieces is on the second album, to answer your question, Callie, is a Debussy piece called Pas dans la neige, or Footsteps in the Snow.And it's a beautiful piece.
Very beautiful chords in.
Absolutely.And it is just the feeling you have when you're walking through snow and that's Debussy's genius.I think the thing that's disappointed me most about the whole piano experience actually is the reluctance.
It's wonderful to talk to you about it because you know stuff. But a lot of people I did interviews at the time were almost reluctant to admit that it was classical music.
It's almost as if people don't want to betray either their ignorance or they don't want to suggest that they are interested in it because it will cut them off from public taste if you like.
It's almost like it's been a dirty word and that's really disappointed me all the way through.
I thought people would be much more welcoming to it and I think there's a real sort of still a sort of a weird prejudice about it, you know, we're not talking about that sort of music, you know, which I think is a shame.
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Do you think it's because it's quite hard for people to join the dots up?It's so easy to think when people see you doing your impressions and we saw you doing something in the days when television wasn't fragmented.
So when you had these massive, you know, when you had, you know, the big impression, whatever, I don't know what your numbers would have been, but it would have been a hell of a market share because we were all watching similar shows.
And so you had sort of traction on a level that nowadays is very, very hard to attain.
And also therefore very hard to know which impressions, I guess, would appeal to enough people because our tastes are so fragmented that there also aren't those seven people or 12 people that everyone has a consensus about.And do you think
Because you obviously make that look effortless, it looks like that is your natural talent.It obviously is a natural talent, but obviously you don't just sort of come out of the gates being able to do all of that.
And do you think it's that people need the dots joining up for them to realize that those might be transferable skills, that you've got those things you can do in one field, and then you move across to something that's much more erudite, but in your mind, there's a through line that might be quite hard to package neatly in PR terms.
Yes, yes, very possibly.When I went into drama, actually, TV drama after doing the Impressions show, because I trained at Guildhall and, you know, had done stage work and everything in my youth, it seemed like a natural thing for me to do.
And I still remember a journalist, he's become a good friend actually, but he said to me when he was doing some publicity for the first TV drama thing I did called Mayo, which sort of sunk without trace but did have its fans at the time, a detective comedy series,
Um, he said to me in the interview, uh, do you not feel you're performing with one hand behind your back doing this?I said, what do you mean?He said, well, you've got this great skill as an impressionist yet.You're not showing it.
People will tune in expecting you to be doing that.And yet you're working with your best tool, your best trick out of sight.I thought I'd never thought of it like that.And of course, that's what we think.
Of course, you see somebody think that's what that person does.That's what I want to see them do.But if you're that person, arrogantly or egotistically or whatever, you think, oh, people are interested in me no matter what I do.
And with some people, Joe Brand, Frank Skinner, Lee Mack particularly, they can cross over into presentation.Lee can do absolutely anything and do it brilliantly.Really, really, I mean, he's amazing like that.
He has a whiplash approach to life though, doesn't he?Everything's done with that level of forensic perfection.
Yeah. But he's always funny and always good.And even when he does his quiz shows, I still think he's very sensitive to people, which is what you need to be on those and yet still manages to be very witty and cutting at the same time.
But yeah, generally people want to see you do your thing.So I think, yes, you're right with the piano thing.Maybe, uh, I was expecting too much that people would just be interested just because it was somebody crossing over into another field.
But I wanted to bring people into that piano world.
And that didn't really happen as much as I or Sony actually, uh, to excuse their dropping of me had hoped because they wanted me to bring people into the field of classical music and to reflect on their other artists and to boost their other artists sales, I think.
And it didn't quite work like that. Partly because it's just, there is so much stratification.
But the point I was going to make as well, which does frustrate me from a classical point of view, is that when you have classical festivals now, like the proms particularly, well, only the proms really, they really go, bend over backwards to the organizers of the proms to say, all music is valuable, all music is interconnected, we are going to have concerts that celebrate, every Franklin or that celebrate.
David Bowie or whatever as part of the proms.But you never see a music festival such as you might refer to it or listeners might think of music festivals like Glastonbury or whatever.
They never have a bit where they put on somebody playing a piece of Eric Satie which has been sampled by people like the Foo Fighters or a bit of Chopin which was the basis of the Barry Manilow Could It Be Magic and the Gary Barlow Could It Be Magic.
you know, or Rachmaninoff, which was the basis of, what was that song?Oh, by myself, don't wanna be.
Yes.That's from Bridget Jones.That's Rachmaninoff.
Don't sing that.I'm just going through a breakup.You'll lose me.I'll have to hang on.Sorry.That's okay.Another breakup.Yeah.Hold on.54, there's gonna be more than two.Yeah, true enough, true enough.But it, and in terms of.
But you know, those, those, it's all connected.That's the thing.And it frustrates me that people think, oh, that's not for me.You're actually listening to it.Football fans are singing Elgar.
you know, when they sing, we hate not to go for us, we hate Liverpool too.That's Elgar, that's pomp and circumstance, you know.
And well, also, if you look at films and how popular film scores become, there are so many film scores that are either based upon kind of classical music from long ago, or certainly would be absolutely as challenging to listen to as anything that you would be playing now in terms of the
the sort of structure and the melody.And, and it's, it's almost, yeah, it's, I'd never thought of it in that way in terms of the reverse sort of, well, I guess it isn't an inclusive world, is it?
We're almost keeping bits of things out of popular culture unwittingly.But you tried, you've merged them though, haven't you?So your piano show was merging stand up with, with piano pieces.
So you did bring the whole of you to the table or to the piano.
Yeah, that was a show I did until last July, more or less, and I did it on and off for four years with a break for COVID, obviously.And that was the hardest thing I've ever done, but the most satisfying, because yes, it was.It was complete.
It was me introducing 15 short pieces of piano music, which I played, by going from George Gershwin to George Clark from Channel 4's Amazing Spaces.
So one minute I'm doing George Clark, and the next I'm playing George Gershwin.
And it was wonderful to go from, you know, then from Gershwin, I talked about Gershwin liking, no, I think Shostakovich liking football.And then, you know, from that I was able to do my Harry Kane impression or however it was.
And it was wonderful to see people laughing one minute and listening to Harry Kane and some people going, who's that?
And then suddenly playing Shostakovich and other people going, this is Shostakovich, you know, and other people going, what's this piece of music?So that was lovely.It challenged everybody's expectations.
And I talked a little bit about each composer in between, which I also think is a nice thing because sometimes I go to classical events, not that often, but if I do, the context is given to you on a piece of paper in a program.
It's nice to hear the performer, which is happening more and more actually now, speak to the audience and say, this piece was written in this year and it's an evocation of such and such.
One of the pieces I used to play on my tours called The Sunken Cathedral, another piece of Debussy.
And that's an amazing piece of music about a cathedral in French mythology which had got, you know, overcome by water but at times would rise up out of the sea and its bells would suddenly chime and its choir of monks would suddenly chant and then it disappears back into the bubbling waters.
And you can hear all that. But only if someone points it out to you, I think.And then people would say, I could hear, I could hear, I could hear.And that, again, was what I was trying to do using my skill as a speaker.
Because a lot of people, it's very hard to do both things.A lot of pianists spend eight hours a day just practicing.And they are not as good at actually doing the talking.And I thought, here's a chance to do both.
But it did absolutely exhaust me every night.
I'm not surprised.Well, it's a hell of a lot to bring to the party.
One of the things that people, I don't think people realise, and you can often find out, I'm sure you know this, but for people listening, wanting to access more classical music, a lot of the biggest orchestras in the world will obviously have a rehearsal room, as you know, before they go into the Barbican or the Royal Festival Hall, where they're rehearsing for a day or sometimes two days.
And often you can, they're usually open to the public and you can usually just turn up and come and go and just go and sit and listen to these.And a friend of mine plays viola with Sir John Elliot Gardner.
And so I've got a couple of classical musician friends who will put me onto these things, but I think you get a massive insight into pieces of music by being there through the rehearsal as well and seeing the interaction with the conductor and the musicians and overhearing what musicians are saying.
So I think that's another, almost like the reality TV version of putting together an incredible classical concert.So that's it.And you can find where lots of these rehearsal rooms are.
I mean, in London, we're blessed with lots, but that's another very beautiful way to, in a low stakes, inexpensive way, find out more about the music that you love.
I think also though, you know, with some of those bigger pieces, the orchestral pieces, they're so huge in every sense, you know, big instruments, a big sound, and they can be quite long.
And that can certainly be thrilling, but can also put some people off because it's a big commitment.
And I think that was the other thing with the little show I did, you know, was that all the pieces were, I mean, the Debussy Cathedral en Gloutie, the Sunken Cathedral, was the longest.It's about six minutes.
Everything I played was about three minutes.So if you didn't like it, there's another one along in a minute. Um, so I think in a way, shorter pieces are a great way to introduce people.Potentially.
Um, but also I think, you know, when I used to do musicals before in between all this, I did about five or six musicals back to back and I'd always loved, you did cabaret, didn't you?
Yeah.That's gotta be a good gig.I just went to the latest, um, one a couple of weeks ago.Yeah.
That was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life.Actually.It was really, uh, wow.Yeah.Uh, I get goose pimples.I'm afraid I still say goose pimples.I get goose pimples just thinking about it.
But people would come to that and some of them would say, you know, oh, it's not really a musical though, is it?Because you don't go out feeling uplifted and you think, well, hang on a minute, there are different sorts of musical.
And there's musicals that I wouldn't go to that I don't like.I went to see The Jersey Boys, not expecting to like it.I had a friend in it.What a show.That is absolutely fantastic.
I loved it.I went similarly.Yes.Not expecting anything and loved it.
But then you go to We Will Rock You, which I love Queen, grew up with Queen, my sister was a massive Queen fan.
But the story in between is so ropey, you just think, you can't even call this a musical, it's a concert with some ridiculous dialogue in between.
So you can't say you like all musical theatre, you wouldn't expect to like all musical theatre, nothing would drag me to Hamilton. But, you know, it's the same with classical music.
I hope people just don't write it off and they say, oh, I heard one piece once and I didn't like it by Beethoven, therefore I'm not going to like anything.You know, there are so many different composers.There's so much different sorts of music.
And, you know, there will be pieces that anybody would love.And this actually was one of the things I thought was excellent about the piano program on Channel 4 recently. that initially I thought, well, they're not all playing classical pieces.
Some people are singing, some people are playing 90s dance themes I've never heard of on these pianos at the railway stations.
But what cut through to a lot of people, particularly A, because it was one of the most beautiful and moving and impressive and unforgettable moments of television you will ever see,
But when Lucy, who went on to win the competition, such as it was a competition, you know, she's blind, she has additional difficulties and disabilities, and played with such tenderness and such beauty and such expression.
And I watched Gogglebox, which I love to watch.
I love Gogglebox.It's all this good about humanity.
Yeah, but even the Malones, you know, in Manchester, even him, he's sitting there going, that's a lovely piece of music.That's a great piece of music.That's really moving, that is.I'm really upset by that.That's a brilliant piece of music.
And it was Chopin.You know, it's written in, what, 1835 or something, the piece that she's playing.It's nearly 200 years old.You don't need to know the composer.You don't need to know the history.
You don't need to know anything about the world in which it was created.You just kind of go, that speaks to me. Whether or not it was Lucy playing it, you know, and she played it so well.
But that was a thrill to me, that this music from 200 years old.And if you said to somebody, listen to this piece of music written 200 years ago by a Polish man in France, you know, they go, I don't listen to that.
But just when you hear it with no preconceptions, no prejudices, you go, wow, that's beautiful.And I was so pleased that that was an introduction to music for a lot of people.
Would you play a piano if you walked past one in a railway station?
Oh, I have done.Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.I played the one at Euston.The one at Euston is quite nice.It's tucked away under the stairs.
It is, yes.Good look.And do people go by again?That looks a bit like Alastair MacGowan.
It's funny, no, once or twice people do, but normally in such a rush they don't.
But I did have one woman, I played a piece from Amelie, by Jan Tiersen from the film Amelie, and she just stopped, I could feel her on my shoulder, and she just was there all the time I was playing, and then when I finished she said, I was in a rush, she said, and I just had to stop and listen to that, it was the most beautiful thing, what is it?
And I was so pleased, but frequently at those railway station pianos, people just go past.They don't really stop.I did play at Glasgow once.I had half an hour to kill, and I sat down there, and that was a nice piano at Glasgow.
And I played practically everything in my head for half an hour.And I turned around expecting, arrogantly, maybe there was a little crowd had gathered in half an hour.Nobody.Absolutely nobody.
Well, it's better than getting that poor woman at Euston fired.You probably didn't hear how that story played out.She turned up, missed her train, was told, we don't need you anymore.But at least she went out in a blaze of beautiful auditory glory.
Tell me about your pianism, because you've made some very precise comments about Debussy.
How much do you play? Well, I don't play at all really anymore.And my parents always listen to the podcast and they'll know how much I don't play and how, because both my parents are very musical.
And so I was brought up with music from three or four and a piano and learning to, I sort of learned to read music pretty much the same time I learned to read. So it was sort of in me and music was around.
And the reason I got good at the piano was because I went to almost all boys school.My parents, we grew up in a boys boarding school and I used to just play the piano.There were a couple of beautiful grand pianos, one in particular in the school.
And I would just sit and play the piano every time.It wasn't structured lesson time.So as not to have to socialize with not to have to sort of yet just not have to be with boys all the time talking.
And also because there weren't many sort of sports activities for people who were female and bad at sport, I might add.So I used to just play for hours and hours and hours for years and well for about 10 years.
And then when I went to the local state school,
and actually was much happier socially and also discovered boys and drink and all the things that people discover in their teenage years in rural Dorset, because there's not a huge amount else to do, I just stopped really playing.
And I haven't really, I mean, I've had pianos since I was in my 20s, and I've got a piano here, a nice upright piano, but I don't really play.Both my kids had lessons and my daughter's actually a decent classical pianist.
But yes, I've really let that go.So I've done a proper reverse trajectory as compared to what you've done.
But I'm very heartened to hear what you said about people who even start at 60 and can play beautifully at 80, because I sometimes think it's too late to start to take it up again.And obviously, I'm quite disappointed.
I sent you a text to ask you on the podcast after we'd met.And I said, I've just been playing Dr. Gwadar Sadpanasam.Do you know who this might be from? And I can still just about bash that out because I used to be able to play it beautifully.
I can't play it perfectly, but I can still play it, but obviously not as well as I could when I was 12.So it's quite depressing.
Well, yeah, but it comes back, you know, it comes back and that foundation is there.And I think I'm finding a lot of people I go on courses with or talk to about the piano, piano courses.
I mean, um, they had a similar thing where they played and then stopped playing and then go back to it and just find it so liberating and.
pick it up again very well and even it was a list i think i learned last week on a course i was doing in in county cork for a week um list apparently said we learn to play the piano every day of our lives yes you're still improving you're still learning you never feel i've finished with that now i've mastered it there's always something to do so
The temptation is to think, well, there's no point in me learning, because I'm never going to be as good as this person or that person or as good as I could have been.But everybody is always improving.So that's what's so nice about it.
It's a never-ending thing, never-ending improvement, really.
When it's nice to get better at something, as you're finding with your comedy, nice to get better at something in your 50s and not feel that everything's falling away or falling apart or falling off.
It's massively liberating.And also there are some things that we can theoretically keep doing till the end of time.Because when I used to play for hours and hours a day, it didn't ever feel like I was sort of training for an Olympic sport.
I just loved it. it never felt that I needed self-discipline to do it because I just wanted to play.I played other instruments which did require self-discipline because I didn't love them in the same way, but the piano just invited me in.
And is it the same for you that you don't feel you have to go, I've got to go and practice, does it?Is it just what you want to spend your time doing?
Yes, I mean it depends if I'm doing something like a performance or even just last week this course in cork, you know, you're asked to prepare six pieces.So you do have a deadline you want to get them finished.
So then there is an element of I've got to do another hour today because it's not ready yet.I've got to do another hour today because it's not ready yet.
When you start learning a piece the other thing that I've got into later in life, which I never thought I would have become my mother and father. uh, is cryptic crosswords.
And in a way, tackling a new piano piece is a bit like crosswords in that you, you do a little bit here, a little bit there, and it builds up, uh, and you solve this area and you solve that area.
Then eventually you hopefully get the whole thing together, but it takes a lot longer than doing a cryptic crossword, but it's just the challenge of it bar by bar.Can I now play that bit?Can I play that bit?So it's enticing cause you back.
And sometimes you think, well, I can't wait to work on that bit today or see if I can get that bit further. But there are days, yes, where you think I've just got to do it.
And you do it every day, do you?I mean, presumably, unless you're abroad without a piano.But if you're within spitting distance of a piano.
Yes.And even then, you know, um, some people would say, well, you know, you've got a grand piano, blah, blah, blah.
It's easy for you, but there is a lot of work you can do on anything, including an electric keyboard, which I bought years ago, 200 quid from the Yamaha shop in London.You know, that's the price of a tattoo.I imagine.
I don't know quite what tattoos are or three trips to the mall bar. Um, so, you know, you can do that lessons.Yes.You know, you can pay top dollar or you can 30 quid a week or 30 quid every two weeks.I mean, what's that?
That's a meal out or something or a third of a therapist.So yes, you need to spend a bit of money, but, um, not huge amounts.And, uh, I can't remember where I was going with that now, but, um,
terms of the self-discipline and whether it ever feels that you have to practice as opposed to just wanting to play.
When lockdown started, that was the only time I properly started to play, but I literally probably for the first two weeks when we were all determined to start to knit and commune with ourselves and write a novel.
And that did translate to me playing the piano a lot. And within two weeks I got so much better and I thought, oh God, I actually, probably the trajectory if you used to play would be very quick for the first few months.
And then I'd probably hit a ceiling very quickly where I was still about as crap as I was when I was eight.
You do plateau.I felt I plateaued and almost lost interest.I thought, oh, you know, I've got as good as I can get now.
But you do learn things and you go on to new pieces or you hear something new on the radio or somebody points something out to you or you find it online wherever you think, I really want to play that.
I want to feel that going through my body, going through my fingers.You know, and I'm not a big fan, dare I say, of the phrase mental health.So I use the word soul, but it is really good for your soul.
Why do you not like the phrase mental health out of interest?
Because I have seen people in mental institutions, as we used to call them, I don't know what you call them now.
Psychiatric hospitals, yeah.
Thank you, thank you, with severe issues.And when people talk about it's good for my mental health, I think.
You think it's used a bit lightly.Yes.
Yeah, I understand.Because when you see people really suffering who, yeah, it's just, let's talk about our soul.
Yeah, or our spirit.I like the idea of being spirit in the body.That's a lovely way to look at it.Yeah.
So here's a challenge for you live on air then, Kelly Beaton.Did I tell you about the Ludlow Piano Festival?
You did, and I've actually got, look, I've got this, I've got this here in front of me just to show you gave me this.
There you are.So if you open that Z-fold leaflet, as I believe they're called, and you turn to me.
I was going to give this a good plug.
Okay.But if you turn to the first concert on there, don't tell me what it is.It should say celebrity concert.
Yes.But your name isn't on there.
Would you like it to be on there?
If I could play Chopsticks, or a possibly very simple, you know, bit of Bach at the absolute element, if I could play a grade one piece, or perhaps grade three,
Well, you could.So not Dr. Grados Adparnasan then, which is really difficult.
But also, can I just say for anyone listening, right, so people we've got on here.It's changed significantly.Oh, has it?Is Rachel Parris still coming?
Rachel Parris is still coming.
So that's quite intimidating, I think.Sue Perkins?
Sue Perkins, not very sure about that.
I mean, this is quite an incredible.Who else is coming?
Ed Balls, no, sadly too busy now.
Rob Rinder is hosting and also is offering to improvise some jazz at the end with one of the other pianists.
Well, I'd love to be there watching.
You're very welcome to come and watch.We also are, which we were doing before the Channel 4 program, using two street pianos.
So we're putting two pianos in the streets of Ludlow for the duration of the festival, which anybody is welcome to play if they bring music or have pieces in their head.And they can play and people can hear that obviously for nothing.
But there's a series of concerts there over four days, four and a half days.
Incredible stuff here.Yeah, yes, we'll put a link to this.Well, either way, and I was also thinking for my dad turns 80 this year, and we're looking and as you know, he's a timpanist.
And he sort of went more down that route when he stopped teaching when he was not dissimilar age to me doing that with my stand up.So at the very least, I was thinking maybe I can find a way to go and bring my pa with me.
So you notice I've not really picked up the challenge wholeheartedly. It would be an amazing thing if we're recording this for anyone, we're recording this at the very beginning of April, it'll go out mid-April.
Wouldn't it be amazing if I could dust off some fabulous piece by the 24th of May?That would be impressive.
Well, if you can, you know, just let me know.Or if you're coming to the festival this year, have a look.
And then maybe, which is what I would say to anybody who thinks I'd like to start playing the piano or I want to go back to it, is to give yourself a goal.Because without the goal, it's easy to think, oh, well, yeah, OK, but what's the point?
And that goal, really, the first goal is to play in front of somebody.Give yourself that date where you say, I'm going to play in front of
my wife or my husband or my children or maybe some neighbors and then that just gives you a goal on that date you will get that performance ready or get that piece as ready as you can and it is terrifying initially but it gets easier and easier.
I have a friend for instance who hosted the course last week in Cork and she hired a room in Clapham once a year until quite recently and she would play in front of whatever 40 friends six pieces but it gave her that incentive to get them ready.
So if you're not up to it this year, maybe you think, okay, because we're hoping to do this Ludlow Piano Festival for a good few years.Next year we'll do a similar format, definitely open with a celebrity concert.
So it may be that next year, that's your aim is, okay, I will get Gratis Ad Parnassum or whatever else ready for Ludlow next year.There's an opportunity for you.
I feel you may have been sent into my life in that Brentford Stadium at a very good time and for a very good reason.So yes, I may be having a Namaste MFing.
I won't say it because I know you don't like profanity, even though it is the name of the podcast.But yes, you've given me quite a lot of food for thought, let's just say.
You mentioned you said, I'm turning into my mom and dad, and you also mentioned you did Who Do You Think You Are back in 2007, you did it?Yeah, yeah.
And you did have, though, for anyone who doesn't know, a couple of surprises, not just the Irish rather than Scottish origins, slightly more surprising things than that.
Yes.Well, yes.My father had been born in Calcutta in India, which I knew about as a young man, having talked to him about it a little bit.But I'd always say to him, so why were you there?
And then realizing how people got born, I said, so why were your parents there in the first place when I was, whatever, eight or nine years old?And he said, oh, they just happened to be there. And I thought, okay, they just happened to be there.
They must have been on holiday or something or passing through, you know, with my ignorance.And I never really pushed him on it much.And if I did do, even in my teens and into my twenties and thirties, why were you in India?
Oh, they just happened to be there.And my father worked for Caltech, so an oil company, and they were based there.Okay.So then we did the program. And then I found out that the family had just happened to be there since 1750.
And you go, oh, right, okay, so that's not just passing through.And I learned all about the Anglo-Indian community, which briefly was created by the British government
who were in control of India at the time and wanted to basically, well, two things.There were mutinies taking place.There was a Sepoy mutiny in the 18, well, that was after 1820s.But they wanted to create a new race, which they did.
They wanted somebody, people who were resistant to diseases, who were strong, as they thought the Indians were, but who would also be loyal to the crown.So they encouraged soldiers to marry Indian women.
And they took people over from Scotland and Ireland particularly to India to marry and to create this Anglo-Indian race.
And the Anglo-Indian race, as with much of the Indian system anyway, the caste system, were allowed to go so far but not to the top.
And after independence in 1947, they were suddenly really neither, having been both Indian and English, suddenly after partition, they were neither English nor Indian.
So they were really lost and the majority of the Anglo-Indian population fled and mostly went to Canada, Australia and King's Heath in Birmingham.
For some reason there's King's Heath in Birmingham, Croydon and somewhere else in England that the majority of Anglo-Indian population went to from India.
And so my father was part of that exodus really and he was the first McGowan in his line, my line, to live in England and I was the first to be born in England since 1750 in that line.
And you started the, I remember watching it and you used to, where was it?Where did you start?Calcutta?Was it that you started in the filming?Yeah.And that must've been a hell of a culture.
So it's one thing to go and have, you know, lunch in Venice, but going to Calcutta filming that I would find that one hell of a undertaking.
It was, and I'm not a traveler either.I mean, a lot of people, the majority of people now, but certainly in my youth, used to love traveling and traveling was everything.I've never been that interested.I've always loved England.
My mother's side of the family were very, very much Worcestershire, Worcestershire, Worcestershire, Worcestershire, market gardeners, railway workers, and then latterly teachers.So I never had this big desire to travel and see the world.
I just was very happy in rural England. So suddenly yes, I'd been a bit abroad to Europe but never to somewhere like India and it really was a total shock.
But after about five days, I think we were there for about eight or nine, I remember suddenly thinking would I rather be in America now with all its modernity and its wealth and everything else or would I rather be in India with its sort of spirituality and honesty and
this weird sense of kinship somehow between the people I felt, and I thought I'd much rather be in India than go to America.
And in America you can clean your teeth without using bottled water, so it has got its advantages.
It does have its advantages.Yes, I'm sure.But in India, probably, you know, if you live that life, you're not eating the amount of food that would rot your teeth.You were eating proper, proper food.
But obviously it has a lot of people don't get to eat at all.So there's a lot of a lot of poverty there.But there's something about the way people looked out for each other and looked after each other.
Even on the roads, you know, in India, the first thing I noticed is it's sort of no system.People just do what they want to do, but they still look out for each other.People and cows.
But you could see that they were just careful so that they could let people in.Otherwise, I mean, there are huge amounts of fatalities, but they still seem to just create their own system by looking out for each other.
Maybe there's more soul in India than you would find in America.I think that's probably true.We've almost come to the end of the podcast without even mentioning impressions.
So that's the first that you've been interviewed with all piano, no impressions.I think we should wear that as a badge of honor.But back in the day, who was your favorite one to do?
I enjoyed nearly all of them.Now I don't really do anybody in my acts that I don't enjoy but in those days we were being encouraged to do certain people from television programs I didn't necessarily watch.
Some worked better than others physically you didn't really know until you got all the makeup on because it was so visual who would work and who wouldn't work visually but I suppose really the favorite was for me it was probably was Gary Lineker weird like
I used to really enjoy doing Gary partly because, um, it's very quiet doing Gary.There's lots of stuff where you have to be high energy and, you know, even doing Doc Cotton, you have to throw yourself around a lot or, um, David Schwimmer.
Hey, you know, there's lots of energy and everything else.
Um, and so many of them, even Richard Maitley was, you know, I was just sitting down, but there's a lot of, you know, a lot of thought, a lot of, a lot of arm action and lots of, lots of words.
But with Gary, it was all just a moment where I thought, oh, okay, I can just sit here and be really quiet.And the lookalike was surprisingly good as long as we filmed it full on.
And I really enjoyed the sketches because they were all based around language on the whole, or football, two things that have always inspired me.
Well, if only we'd thought about it, the BBC needn't have worried about cancelling him.You could have just been slipped in and no one would have known the difference.
You know, it did cross my mind latterly, I thought in the old days, that's what would have happened.
You know, they would have said, oh, what can we do if Gary can't do it?And I'd been on TV.They said, let's get Alastair to present much of the day.But of course, then the cultural implications of all that now would have been so huge.
You know, what does it mean and what are you saying if you sit in his seat?And you didn't have that in those days.
No one could be canceled because it was, uh, as we know, because there were some people who should have been, as it turns out and others, it's very good.They weren't.What's your, um, I heard you do, I think it was on Gabby Roslin's podcast.
I heard you do Louis through and, um, to the point that I stumbled across it and was like, is that Louis through?And then I was like, no, it is you doing Louis through.
Yeah, yeah, no, Louis.I mean, Louis was he was kind of new on the scene then.So it was great to do him.And yeah, he was somebody as well who obviously we put a wig on because I wasn't going to look like him without that.
And the glasses were a great signifier, too.But. you know, he had this, didn't he?He had this wonderful way of, you know, which he, I mean, he, you know, hasn't he still got it, you know, that way of just, you know what I mean?
Just sort of putting himself secondary and just sort of teasing and something out of people.And that was, yeah, that was kind of fascinating, wasn't it?Do you know what I mean by that?
I also am so excited because this is the closest I think I'll ever get to one of my absolute, not even secret, crushes.So thank you for giving me 10 seconds with Pretend Louis Theroux.
That and the piano playing to be resurrected are two very rich gifts for which I am ever in your debt.
And I do want to ask you, you've answered one of the three questions I ask everybody, your incredible, beautiful moment where the piano came back into your life.Is your wife musical as well?Is she a musician?
Oh yeah, yeah, she's the real deal.I mean, I'm a very much a, I love the word parvenu.It doesn't get used anywhere near enough nowadays, but I'm a, I'm a Johnny come lately.That doesn't get used very often either.A pretender, maybe that does.
I don't know what word people would use now, but I've come to the party later.That's what people would say now. But my wife, no, she's a proper dyed in the wool, fully trained singer.
She went to the Royal Academy of Music and sang lead roles in operas and light operas and musicals and recitals and everything for years.So she really knows music, but she's not really singing now.
She's got to an age where the voice changes or she thinks it's changed.She doesn't have the confidence she had, doesn't get the opportunities she had.So she's sort of semi-retired now, or more than semi-retired.
But I mean, she's got a beautiful voice.She's only got to sing one song and I'm in tears. Beautiful voice.You can catch her if you check her out, Charlotte Page.
If you're interested and move to have a look, look online for Charlotte Page singing Losing My Mind by Stephen Sondheim.It was voted as one of the top 10 performances of it of all time.
What a beautiful piece of music.We will not make people search for it.It will be in the show notes.People just need to click on it when they're listening to this. in the description of the show.
So from your wife, your beautiful, talented wife, to your favorite joke, what is your favorite joke?
That's really difficult.I'm not very good with jokes.It's more lines, I suppose, funny lines.I'm sure that counts.I remember years ago, and it's always stayed with me.Is it my favorite joke?I don't know, but it stayed with me.
There was a fabulous act on, and I'm sure you've had this or will have this.You should have come through with various people on the comedy circuit.You see their acts a lot when you're doing those.
gigs and you get to know their act almost as well as yours.There was a fabulous act I used to do a lot of gigs with back in the late eighties, early nineties called Niall McKenna.Don't know what happened to Niall McKenna, but he had some good lines.
He's very handsome, young Irish comedian.
Um, but one of his best lines, and it's always stayed with me was, um, he said, don't you hate that moment late at night in London where you've got the night bus, you get home, you're walking past a kebab shop and there's a sign outside the kebab shop saying, sorry, we're open.
And every time I see a kebab shop, I always think, sorry, we're open.And poor Niall, having to have a kebab because it's the only thing that's on offer and then regressing it for the rest of the night and millions of people the same, I'm sure.
But I always think of that.Every time I walk past a kebab shop, I think of Niall McKenna saying, sorry, we're open.
And you're able to deliver it as him.So we'll look at what has happened to him.Thank you.Beautiful delivery and a lovely choice.And if you were to give one bit of life advice to anybody listening, Alistair, what would it be?
Oh, that's tricky as well.Um, the only thing I would deign to say really is, is something my father said to me, which I think has stood me in great stead through my life.He just said, treat others as you would be treated yourself.
And I think that's just the best thing we can all do.
That was Alastair McGowan.We've put links to Alastair's music, the Ludlow Piano Festival and all the other good stuff we talked about in today's show notes, so do have a look for it there. And that is it for this week.
Thank you so, so much for listening.We will be back in your feed next Thursday, as always, when I will be talking to writer, comedian and actor, Diona Doherty.
I started getting commissions to write plays, and I had never written plays before, like comedy plays.
Namaste Motherfuckers was written and presented by me, Callie Beaton, and produced by Mike Hansen and Karusha Dhami for Pod People Productions with music by Jake Yap.I'm Callie Beaton.Until next time, motherfuckers.
Hi, I'm Sam Baker, and welcome to The Shift, the podcast that aims to tell the no-holds-barred truth about being a woman post-40.
Anyone that's worried about turning 40, I say, hurry up and get here.This is where the party is.This is the good place.
Created and hosted by me, journalist and author Sam Baker.I started The Shift because I was so tired of the absence of older women's voices.
Three little injections around my eyes and suddenly I was like, oh, I just got the last year back.Not trying to look 30.I just want to look 42.
Where had all the women over 40 gone?You know, nobody ever gets addicted to kale.
You get addicted to things that kill you.
So I created The Shift to make a space to talk about everything from life, love, sex, to careers, confidence, mental health, menopause.I mean, seriously, if you want to walk about in your pajamas for the rest of your life, we're invisible.
Each episode I speak to an inspiring woman about her shift, the second half of our lives.
I feel very strong and think I genuinely don't care what anybody thinks of me and that does come with age.
Join me every Tuesday wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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