THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.279 - Q&A 1

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

Adam answers questions from the podcats about how he selects guests, whether he'd interview Elon Musk, misheard lyrics to the Like And Subscribe jingle, where the Entertainer jingle comes from, getting kids into music, the best gifts he's received and given and whether his hugs are 'creepy' or not.Recorded face-to-face with Diggory in London on 18 June, 2026Thanks to Diggory Waite and Claire Broughton at Hattrick and Séamus Murphy Mitchell for production support.Podcast illustration by Helen GreenADAM BUXTON PODCAST LIVE WITH MAWAAN RIZWAAN @ Roundhouse, London, 5 August, 2026 (Roundhouse)JOIN ADAM'S PATREON and find out about playing your Patreon content through you existing podcast app HERETHE ADAM AND JOE 30th ANNIVERSARY LIVE SHOW PRE SALE (Wednesday 29th & Thursday 30th July)THE ADAM AND JOE 30th ANNIVERSARY LIVE SHOW GENERAL SALE (10am, Friday 31st July)SEND IN PATREON JINGLES AND QUESTIONS ADAM'S MUSIC FOR CHILDREN PLAYLIST (Spotify)BACKBEAT LEATHER GUITAR STRAPSCOLLAPSIBLE STOOL (Dunelm) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin. Now you have plucked 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. Hey, how are you doing, Podcats? It's Adam Buxton here. I'm reporting to you from a crunchy Norfolk farm track towards the end of July 26. I'm here with my best dog friend, Rosie Buxton. How are you, dog? It's too hot. Yeah. Tell me about it. Well, it's 29 degrees today. It's going to get even hotter tomorrow. It's the latest in a series of heat waves.

caused by heat domes, high pressure systems, and human-caused climate change. I didn't mean literally tell me about it, but thanks. You're welcome. It's not even sunny. That's the thing. Just now, it's quite cloudy. Out here in Norfolk, cloudy and hot, but at least there's a little bit of a breeze. There's a lot of flies. It's party time for the fly community in Castle Buckles.

Also, the cows are back in the field, as of. a few weeks. And when the cows come back, the fly population seems to shoot up. I mean, I guess they love all them pets. Who doesn't love a pat? I like a pat. Sure. Hey, Podcats, I'm sorry this episode has taken longer to appear than I said it would in the previous episode. I've had a very busy couple of weeks getting ready for shows with the band at Latitude and Deershed Festival last weekend. I'll tell you a bit about it. how they went in a minute. And then I will share details of an Adam and Joe show anniversary event later this year. And of course, there will be info about the new Adam Buxton podcast Patreon page

and the exciting bonus content that you will find there. I have to stop thinking of bonus every time I say the phrase bonus content. But first, please don't forget that I will be appearing at the Camden Roundhouse. Next week, as I speak, on Wednesday the 5th of August, as part of the Roundhouse Comedy Festival. I'm going to be fooling around on stage, and then I will be talking with BAFTA award-winning actor and comedian Mawan Rizwan. Currently getting rave reviews for his performance in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a new production from the Royal Shakespeare Company, starring Mark Gaitis. but Marwan is one of the people that critics are singling out for praise in that show.

He's so hot right now. Come and see myself and Marwan getting to know each other in Camden next week. For the under 30s, let me tell you, tickets are only £5. Across the Roundhouse Comedy Festival. Sickeningly ageist. And next week, I will also be recording a podcast, though not in front of a live audience, with one of America's funniest women, Kristen Shal.

You know, she plays Mel, the obsessive fan, in Flight of the Concords. And she stars in The Last Man on Earth. She's in what we do in the shadows, provides voices for Bob's Burgers, Gravity Falls, BoJack Horseman, and too many other shows to mention. But she's also a brilliant and hilarious live performer.

You'll be able to hear my conversation with Kristen later in the year. But if you're at the Edinburgh Fringe, between the 12th and the 16th of August, You can see Kristen's new comedy play, The Legend of Crystal Shell, about, quotes, an extraordinary soul,

hiding from the world because of a fantastic secret. It's at the Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh, and you can also catch it in London as part of the Roundhouse Comedy Festival on Monday, the 17th of August. But I hope to see you next week at the Roundhouse. It was great to meet lots of you at Latitude

when I was there on Friday and Saturday last week. The Adam Buxton band was the first act to play in the big tent there, the second stage. And it was big. That's the biggest crowd I've played in front of. 3K, 3.5K, I reckon. A lot of K anyway. And it was really fun. We had a great time.

It might have been one of the best shows we've done. Even though I wish I hadn't made the decision to put my sticky performer pass on the front of my hat down. dangling down over my forehead for the entire show. I stuck it on there in the dressing room just beforehand and thought it was funny, so I thought, yeah, leave it on there. And I wish someone had said to me beforehand, oh yeah, don't go on stage like that, though. It'll just confuse everybody.

But there you go. Sometimes I despair of my instincts. Oh, well, live and learn. Over the last few weeks, I also spent a lot of time preparing for the bug David Byrne and Talking Heads special that I did with comedian Ivo Graham at the listening post at Latitude. Thank you very much to everyone who came along to that as well. As with a lot of festival shows, especially if you're doing something you haven't done before.

It was occasionally shambolic, but in a fun way, I hope. And there were some wonderful sing-along moments culminating in a full tent of people, standing and singing Psycho Killer, while a small band that included my son Frank on guitar played on the, the stage. It was a very happy moment. That is a good song to sing along with. Hard one to sing on your own, unless you're super confident, but in a crowd, it's great fun. Then of course, we got to see David Byrne himself, performing at latitude that night on the main stage. Had a little bit of a cough at one point. It was very dusty over the whole of the weekend. Maybe some of that.

festival dust got on his tonsils, but he turned in a beautiful set, nevertheless. I sang along with pretty much every single song. I was in the crowd with my family, and we made good use of the little plastic collapsible stool that Ivo Graham had distributed to various people at the bug show earlier, intended to give the more vertically modest festival goers like myself a better view when watching your favorite performer.

and it really worked. My wife, my wife, didn't need it because she is a person of more flamboyant stature. But the shorter Buxton's took turns standing on it and getting to experience the high life. That's pretty good up there with the tallies, isn't it? You can see a lot better. Even the sound is clearer.

Seriously, if you're a fellow short person, I recommend the collapsible stool for your next gig experience. I'll put a link in the description to something similar. Not sponsored, I should add. But I'm very grateful to Ivo for the thoughtful gesture

and indeed to everyone who came along to that show and the show with the band and then the Deershed show in Yorkshire on the weekend. There's a lot of young children there. A couple of them had made flags out of shorts and decorated the shorts.

and I got them on stage. While we played shorts and they waved them around, it felt like a beautiful moment, but it's possible that it looked incredibly creepy. I hope not. Okay, the Adam and Joe show 30th anniversary live show

is happening on Wednesday the 11th of November, 2026. Joe Cornish and I are going to take to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall, new That is not a joke.

And there, we will waffle nostalgically about making the Adam and Joe show for Channel 4 back in the late 90s and early 2000s. That's right. Our silly, homemade show that we made at the end of our misspent 20s gained enough of a minor cult following for us to have gained entry to one of the UK's best-loved and most legendary. live venues. I saw Pixies playing there a couple of months back and was reminded what an extraordinary place it is and what a good atmosphere you can have in there when a bunch of like-minded enthusiasts get together to watch something they love and I hope that's going to happen on the 11th of November. There'll be a big screen there. Joe and I will play some favorite clips from the show, including seldom seen and never seen behind the scenes nuggets. We'll perform some.

Some classic music from the Adam and Joe show with the Adam Buxton band who are going to come along. Let us know which ones you'd like to hear. You can either email me, address in the description, or get in touch with Joe on his Instagram. General ticket sales for the show will start at 10 a.m. on Friday the 31st of July via the Royal Albert Hall website. However, exclusive pre-sale tickets will be available as I speak tomorrow morning, Wednesday the 29th, at 10 a.m. via the link in the description. You'll also find it on the front page of my website, Adam-Buckston.co.uk.

And on the new Adam Buxton podcast, patron page, so yes, a subscription of three pounds a month will enable you to access two extra episodes a month. One of those episodes will be a Q&A with me answering questions that you have sent in, a taster of which you're about to hear in this episode. The other monthly episode

will feature bonus content. I've done a new jingle for that. Here's a little bit of it. B-O-N-U-S-C-O-N-T-E-N-T. It's time for some bonus content. The bonus content will consist of either whole interviews that have never been heard before, or they might be compilations of excellent sections,

of excellent sections that, for whatever reason, were cut from previous episodes. This month's bonus content episode is already up on the Patreon, and it is a previously unheard conversation with Best Friend of the podcast Louis Theroux, in which myself and Louis talk more about staying abreast of podcast trends, and also some of the horror films that we've been watching recently, and the general enthusiasm for horror in the culture. There's a very short section of that bonus episode conversation in the Q&A later by way of a tease when I'm answering a question about how we select the guests for the podcast.

Patreon subscribers will also have the option to listen to the podcast without ads. There's also access to group chats with other Patreon subscribers. Plus, you will be the first to access any. experiments, outtakes, bits of video nuggets from my audio archives, etc. That I post on the Patreon page from time to time. It will also be the place to find early or maybe discounted live show tickets like the Adam and Joe 30th anniversary show. And at some point, we're hoping there'll be some merch available there too.

To sign up for the Patreon page, go to patreon.com slash Adam Buxton or follow the link in the description. Now, I would recommend signing up on a browser first rather than via the Patreon app if you're on iOS, as Apple add a cut, which will make it more expensive for you. And it's important to note,

you do not need the Patreon app to listen to ad-free or bonus episodes. If you subscribe to the Patreon, you can link your existing podcast app as long as it is one of those that is supported. And get the bonus and add-free episodes there. If you want to know exactly how that works,

I will leave a how-to link in the description. Also, for people who are not going to sign up to the Patreon, please may I assure you, but nothing is going to change about the main podcast. It'll still be there, and it'll still be free. So anyway, we'd love your questions for future Q&A episodes. Please do keep sending them in. You'll find the email list.

in the description. By all means, send in a voice note of you asking your question. Please keep it concise. And also, if we answer your question on the Q&A, Diggery, who is managing

the Patreon page, promises to give you your first month for free. That's generous. Also, as I know, we have a lot of musical listeners, if you would like to, please do send in

jingles for the Q&A episodes. Nothing too long. 30 seconds max. and if we get some good ones in, we'll play them on the Q&A episodes. Send those to the same place as the questions. Okay, that was a lot of info. So, for the six of you remaining, let's get on with Q&A episode number one. By the way, this was recorded with podcast production support assistant Diggery Wait.

A few weeks ago back in June, 26. Today, I will be back at the end, answering another couple of questions that a few of you have been asking recently, but right now with the brand new Q&A jingle, here we go. Yes, I invited you to send in questions. I said, ask anything you want. We read every single one and picked some that were fun. And then I bollocked on and on and on.

In the Q&A, the Q&A, in the Q&A, the Q&A, it's the Q&A. The first one's from Mark, and Mark says, I wondered what your process is for selecting guests for the show. I know you've had a number of guests who you've already had some connection with through comedy, but do you just get interested in a particular person and then invite them on the show? It's a combination of factors. Certainly originally, when I started doing the podcast, I just thought, I'll just talk to people I know.

That'll keep it simple. Easier to track down because half the ballache of doing a podcast, like more than half, is securing guests. and it's really tough and quite humiliating. No. In a funny way. Because you're begging people. Please come on my podcast.

Please, it'll be so nice. Anyway, how do we select them? Well, it is a combination of people being dangled, just the treadmill of promotion that people are on for books, films, music, whatever. And if it is someone that I am interested in or like already, then yeah, great. Sometimes it'll be someone who just seems interesting.

And then it's just lucky that they've come along. Like, oh yeah, I guess Harry Enfield had a tour. And that's one thing that happens quite a lot is people say, yes, but not now. Because they're in the middle of doing other things or whatever. And they say, can we do it like when my book is finished or whatever? And then a lot of the time, you know, there are returning guests, friends of the podcast, the Louis Theroux, the Tash Dmitri, the Tim Keyes, the people who I just always love talking to. And if it were up to me,

it would just be them, I think. Yeah. All the time. Yeah. But, no, it's nice to keep it varied. And actually, I do meet people quite often who say, I really like the podcast and I particularly like discovering new people that I wouldn't otherwise have known about. So that's always a nice compliment. And I do too. You know, it's really nice to be able to check things out and slightly broaden my cultural horizons. I do have a follow-up question. Yep. From Dan, from Chester, who says, how long does it take you to prep for a guest? You always seem to have to read their books, a few interviews and other materials. When it comes to a guest like, say, Patrick Radden Keefe, this is no mean feat. His books are not short. No, that's true. It takes a while,

especially with someone like him, I think the most prep I ever did was Colum Tobin and ended up reading in inverted commas, I think three or four of his books. But, you know, the big thing here is audiobooks. And so that is what I use most often. Of course. But I don't put them on like triple speed. I'm enjoying them. I'm munching them properly. But it means that I can do other things.

It means I can listen to them on walks. or on the train or, you know, there are parts of my life where I probably wouldn't be doing anything else. And in those moments, I do stuff my brain with audiobooks and it'll usually be prep for a guest. So that's very useful. Sometimes you don't get the audiobook option and you end up having to read with your eyes like in the olden times. It just takes so long. It takes ages. It takes ages. But also the bad thing is that sometimes you just get a PDF and you have to just read with your eyes on a PDF and that's kind of a pain in the ass but on the other hand you can copy and excerpt things more easily than

you can with the audiobook but yeah so it takes a while certainly if it's a writer and certainly if it's someone who's done a lot and it's kind of legendary Ian McEwan. People like that. Caswo is you guru. Yeah. You do think, like, I do not want to be caught looking like an absolute tool here and not knowing some obvious stuff about your back catalogue. But obviously, there's no way I can read everything.

No. So you read the latest thing. And I think most people, like, no one's ever going to call you out. Like, have you not read my early trilogy? Yeah. But if they did, that would be great radio. It probably would. Yeah, yeah.

I just have to say, no, I'm sorry. Yeah. Your PR people assured me that I didn't need to. Okay, we've got another one here from Sasha, from Germany. Which person would make you two starstruck so that you would decline an interview even if it was offered to you? I don't think anyone would have that effect on me. I mean, the thing is that there are people who are so famous and you feel so anxious around and that you really don't want to humiliate yourself in front of that

it paralyzes you. And I felt that with Paul McCartney. And I felt very viscerally anxious and nervous. And I was starstruck. I think if you're not starstruck by a beetle, then you're not going to be starstruck by any other human being. But that was something which just met, you know, I just had to do loads and loads of prep

and boost my McCartney knowledge. And in the end, he, made it fine because he's a charming guy and he, you know, put me at my ease. And I think it worked well in the end. But that was as starstruck as I've ever been. I think, I mean, I was quite starstruck with Jeff Goldblum actually. Really? Yeah, because he's like, I really like a lot of Jeff Goldblum films.

The Fly is one that made a huge impression on me when I was younger. But also The Tall Guy. Yeah, I haven't seen that. It's really good. Yeah. There's a couple of very, very funny scenes in it. Anyway, we liked that movie when we were younger, when I say me and Joe and our pals.

But he also has a fairly impenetrable firewall of charm. A lot of very famous people you meet, either they're standoffish or they're charming, but it's a protective veneer. Because everybody wants something from them and everybody's trying to connect with them and get through to them. And it's not practical, really, to exist in that way day to day. So you do have to just screen people out to a certain degree.

And he was a bit like that. He was a bit like charming as a defense, I would say. Was it helpful with Paul being on Zoom? Did that make it, were you less starstruck or did that? I think it makes it worse if they're on. Because if they're in the room, you just have to kind of get over it. And also, you know, human beings generally, as long as you're not a total psychopath, part of what you do when you're meeting someone is you send out physical cues to relax them and to indicate that you're friendly

and you're not going to hurt them. And it's all going to be fine. And so generally, that's what would happen in a kind of friendly interview environment. I don't really end up doing the kind of interviews that, for example, Louis does where he is perhaps talking to people who are, well, he does it in his docks, I guess, much more, who are perhaps not well disposed towards you and who are defensive or even aggressive. And I would find that very difficult. The physical ticks that would show on my face when I get anxious would have a chilling effect on the interaction, I think.

Was it, Lou, you talked to about, he asked you if you'd have Elon Musk. on your podcast? Yeah, we were talking about that and... That's a no. No, I don't think so because obviously there's a kind of curiosity value in having someone

like that, in having a public figure who is so extraordinary in a way, whether you approve of them or not, would you have Elon Musk on? Yes, would you? Wouldn't you? No. Why not?

Because what am I going to say to Elon Musk? What are you not going to say? I feel like every time I stray into any fairly serious political area on my podcast, I feel totally out of my depth and that I'm not really contributing much of value to that conversation. Do you know what I mean? Well, that's fine. I mean, I think Joe Rogan would say the same.

Like, Joe Rogan, when he was doing, I remember one of his first or his second Elon Musk interview, there's a bit goes, I don't understand it's making my head hurt. Like, he sort of owns up to how confusing. Yeah, but isn't that generally seen as being part of the problem with his style of podcasting? He's just... He's just platforming people and... And not properly cross... Not interrogating them, yeah.

Yeah, that's... I can see why people would say that. But, you know, on the other side you get some on for three hours and so you kind of learn about them. Perspective? No. Reproduction. No. Silence.

No. Dots. Yes. This is from Isabel. And Isabel says, my question for Adam is about the age of his listeners. I am 24 and started listening to a podcast last year at 23. And I'm very interested to know if Adam knows the average age of Adam Buckson podcast listeners. I'd like to imagine I'm amongst the youngest, but I could be mistaken.

From the way he talks, I often feel Adam imagines he is speaking to listeners close to his own age. But I want to fly the flag for young listeners like me. Hello. Hello, Isabel. How are you? Gosh, you've grown. Look at you. God, standing up on your own.

That's great. Well done. Thank you so much for writing. I bet that took a long time, didn't it? That's a joke about talking to young people. Thanks so much for that message, Isabel. I'm very flattered that you would listen. I do feel like there are younger people that listen generally because their parents listen.

And they grew up listening in the car or whatever and being. forced to hear my stupid voice and maybe they responded to some of the sillier bits or the jingles or whatever and formed a relationship with the podcast in that way. So yeah, there are some younger listeners in that mold, which is fantastic. I mean, there are times when I feel I have to explain some of my references, but on the whole, what you're getting is my perspective as a man in his late 50s with a family. This question is from Carol Green, from New Zealand. Hello, Carol.

That's New Zealand's, that's pretty cool. Beautiful. Question, says Carol. What is the line in your like and subscribe song after, Give Me Little Smile and a Thumbs Up? All I hear is the egg corn, nice sycophant with me bum's up. And I know it can't be that. Similarly, Paul asks, in your podcast and song,

when you sing, Give a little smile and a thumbs up, nice sycophant when me bum's up. Who is the sycophant you're referring to? and why are they being nice when your bum's up? I mean, it does make sense as a lyric, but that's not what the lyric is. It is... Isn't what the lyric is?

No, it's nothing about being a sycophant. This is an exclusive, by the way. It is like classic albums now. I've pulled up the session for like and subscribe. And isolated the vocals. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe.

please like and subscribe give me like a smile and a thumbs up nice like a pat when me bum's up give me like a smile and a thumbs up nice like a pat when me bum's up a nice lick a pat that's what it is a nice little pat ah

honestly this is massive this is actually massive and you know what I'm just going to ask another question off the back of this is from Dan who says I'd like to know if the pops on the two and four in each bar of like and subscribe as samples of you making the noise yourself or something already in Garenged band, etc.

Although I imagine that's logic. This is logic. Trying to find it. There it is. You can hear me breathing. That's me doing the pop sound. There you go. This is genuinely crazy.

And how did I do it? I can't remember. I may have just been very close on the mic just going like that. I think that's it. because I'm not going to lie, I feel like going, like, actually moving it over and over again. It's crazy. Really?

Well, maybe not crazy, but I think, understand it. Like Dan says, I think that's the kind of thing that you might just think, oh, I found that in Garage Man, I just go on. Well, a lot of stuff I have done like that. Like, I'm not always finding homemade solutions. Listen, you know, the theme tune is a piece of library music. Really? Yeah.

I added one more podcast. That's a piece of country library music. I just sang over the top of it. That was like ages ago when I was trying to think of theme tunes and what would work for a new podcast and I think I was up quite late and I'd had some wine. Yeah. And sang over that one and that worked quite well.

Yeah, I mean, you know, that's how me and Joe... Actually, we didn't use library music that much. I don't think it was mainly loops. But every now and again, find a nice bit of library music. Why not? You've paid your subscription. Yeah. Have some fun.

Exactly. Okay, I feel like for the music people up there, we loved that. Okay. We loved that. This is a question from Rachel. I absolutely love your musical interludes between your chats. My favourite is the school band rendition of the entertainer. Oh, yeah.

It's brilliant and it makes me chuckle every single. time. My question is, is it a real band? If so, where and when is it from? Or is it you and your hugely talented musical skills? I really wanted to be real. Yes, it's real. Of course it's real. It is a concert from one of my children's schools. I won't say which one. But, yeah, it was when they were very little. And I went along and taped the concert, which my dad used to do as well. He used to come to things I did at school with his dictaphone and he would tape stuff. So I got into that habit and that one was so sweet. It really made me laugh. I like a album that Brian Eno did with the Portsmouth Symphonia. Do you know about the Portsmouth Symphonia?

I don't. Founded by students at the Portsmouth School of Art in 1970 and it was open to absolutely anyone, but it ended up having a lot of people joining it who didn't actually know how to play music or couldn't really play the instruments that well. So they was, maybe they knew a little bit, but they were by no means top notch. And so they were just, you know, rank amateurs who were just having fun, having a go at sort of approximating what they thought they should do for whatever they were playing. And, like, let's see if I can call one up. This is them doing Alzo Sprak Zarathustra,

aka the theme from 2001. He's nailed it, Tiffany Man. Everyone else. Yeah, everyone else. A couple more goes. But so it's often thought of as kind of a comedy novelty thing, but actually it's really, quite cool that you know you get some much more interesting refreshing sounds sometimes out

of people who don't necessarily know what they're doing and I'm not saying it's better than a trained orchestra it's just different and it's just a sort of fun alternative and I don't think by the way that my kids orchestra that I recorded was in the kind of Portsmouth Symphony category. They were very talented young players. But there was a sweet wonkiness to it. Yeah. And I really loved it.

And when I put some beats on it. Of course. It worked really nicely. Plus the entertainer by Scott Joplin. Ragtime Genius from the early 20th century. You know, that's a pretty uplifting piece of music, I think. Thank you, Rachel. I'm glad you like it.

I really like that one too. This one's from James, and James says, I've listened to your podcast since before I had children, and now I have two boys, age nearly four, and nearly nine. Your musings on getting your own children into listening to your music tastes warn me a lot. Do you have any advice in how to get children receptive? What should one avoid? What's the most obscure you've tried to push it? Do you buy the music as gifts?

Have they started listening to anything now that you just downright disapprove of? and you wonder where you might have gone wrong. Well, I remember when they were very little, my kids, I did not want to listen to those kind of cheesy kids CDs that you get, which is like kids music that drives you, fucking nuts. And there was also a lot of things that were like, the Ramones done as kids music and things like that, you know.

I didn't like any of that really. I thought, let's just listen to the Ramones, shall we? That's pretty good. And I think if something's really catchy and fun, you're going to respond to it whatever age you are, really. I mean, there's some music that's quite downbeat or a bit scary that I wouldn't necessarily play for kids. Can you expand on scary?

Scary music. Have you heard the song Frankie Teardrop by Suicide? No. I mean, already the title is... Yeah, I don't know if I would play that in the car with some toddlers. Right. Stuff with screaming or very extreme swearing or... Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like, stuff like that I would generally avoid. I mean, I did a sketch about all that for a show called Rush Hour, a sketch show on BBC three years ago that I was in in the early 2000s, I think. And it's me and Kerry Godleman. in a car, and we did a few as me as rock dad, trying to shape the tastes of his children by playing them difficult and challenging music on the school run, including in one sketch, NWA's Fuck the Police. But the sketch was about me riding the volume knob so that every time there was a swear

or a bit of, you know, problematic language, I would replace it with something kiddie friendly. Did you do that live? Yeah, it took ages. I was going to say, the timing had to be, wow, okay, I've got to check this out. That's amazing. It took a long time. Yeah.

But yeah, we did several sketches and it was all about what do you play to your kids in the car. But it was so important to me, you know, I had a sketch as well where I was trying to teach my kid all about, you know, I was quizzing him about Bowie's career or, you know, who did Brian Eno produce? I can't remember exactly what it was. and getting very angry with the kid if they got any dates wrong and stuff like that. And I think there's definitely a part of me that is that person. But I would never get angry with them. You know what I mean? All I ever wanted to do was introduce them to this stuff.

And like, I remember my parents' friends playing the Beatles. I remember going around to their groovy friends' house in Scotland. And I think their friends were a little bit younger than my parents were, certainly quite a bit younger than my dad, I think. and they were playing Sergeant Pepper and it must have been you know about five years after Sergeant Pepper

came out and I was digging it you know I can remember being beguiled and intrigued by the music and the sound and their voices and when music's really good you get it you just want to hear more you're like what was that I want to hear more of that anyway I write in my book

Rumble book about connecting with my son Natty when he was in the depth of of teenage unreachability on the school run when he was pretty grumpy and I always used to have this thing with the kids like

of saying how was your day almost to antagonize them really because I knew they were just going to go fine it's like what did you do nothing go on you must have done something tell me about it what lessons did you have

English how was that what did you learn about I can't remember you know it's just that every fucking day until I learned how to just shut up. And then one day it was just so depressing, me driving along, just total silence in the car. This was before they had phones and things like that. So they, you know, they were just staring out the window and I was just driving and feeling sad. And I put on green onions and I watched my son

listened to Green Onions for the first time. Just thinking like, this cannot fail. I remember the first time I heard Green Onions. I think maybe it was on, maybe it was being played on TV or something. And I just thought, wow, we, that's mad. That is the best thing I've ever heard. It's just primal, everything about it. It's great, you know. And I thought, I can't go wrong with this. He's got to respond to green onions.

And he did. And I looked over and he was smiling. I was like, what do you think? And he's like, yeah, this is good. Oh, my God. That's amazing. Yeah. I was like, yes, I fucking got through to you.

Did it. Thanks to Booker T and the MGs. I mean, I've had lots of moments with them, with all of them like that. I had another one playing, I Want You She's So Heavy from Abbey Road. Hang her. And that was one maybe where I just thought, I'm going to intimidate you with how good this is. Because that's scary. Yeah, that is a scary song.

I wouldn't play that to young kids. Yeah. Because it ends in this wash of feedback and scary. like, it's like the end of the world. Yeah. But that was, that was a good one. He had to admit that was pretty epic. Yeah.

And I played him that one. But, you know, my happiest moments at home are when music is being played. And when people are taking turns, are calling up songs. My daughter's got tastes that are quite different from mine. She listens to much more hip-hop. And she has got really good taste and plays me lots of good stuff there. And now my... My eldest son plays even more obscure indie rock than the stuff I got him into.

Plus, he went off on a whole psychedelic Brazilian music JAG during the lockdown. Made a really good playlist, actually. It's the gift that keeps giving. I don't know if I've answered the question. Oh, like, what should I play people? Well, you know, I tell you a good thing to play people is Bugsy Malone. The music on Bugsy Malone is by Paul Williams. who wrote a lot of stuff for the Muppets as well.

He did the Rainbow Connection. And he's a really interesting musical figure, Paul Williams. And the music is not exactly kids' music, but it's so appealing and tuneful and wonderful and funny and inventive. I don't know if Bugsie Malone has stuff that has aged very badly. Yeah, I don't know. Or not, but I don't think it has. I think it's pretty great.

Like we loved, I was obsessed with that film when I was little. All these kids playing gangsters and having these splurge gun fights and running around in these sedan cars and the music was just phenomenal. So, you know, I grew up with the Muppets and Bugsie Malone. And I think as an introduction to great music, because all that music is very muso-literate, like all the stuff on the Muppet show, they were huge music fans, Frank Oz. and Jim Henson, and they were steeped in the whole world of groovy 70s music, and they fed all that into the Muppet show, and the kind of music that the Muppets would cover, Mississippi Mud and being green,

and all these lovely songs that they would do, fantastic versions of. Anyway, the Muppets, that's a good way to inspire children with a love of music. Yeah. And Bugsie Malone. Yeah. I think that's great. Also, I think, I have to be honest, when I read this question,

the first thing came to mind was I was just thinking, like what you said, it's in the car. That's when it will just naturally come through. Yeah. Listening to music in a car is pretty good. I don't drive very often. I'm always on my bike. So when we do find ourselves in the car on long drives,

and especially if the family's together, it makes me sad if everyone's listening to their own thing. Yeah. And it's more fun if everyone is listening to the same. same thing. That's why I like the sessions where we're stood around playing stuff at home. But yeah, if everyone's jamming on something in the car, life doesn't get much better. That's why that scene in Wayne's world cut through so much, you know, because everyone has had a euphoric moment like that, which is like, this is the fucking best. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll post a link to

a playlist on Spotify. I apologize if you hate Spotify. You can just look at the list and play the song somewhere else. It will be a compilation of songs that, you'll be a compilation of songs that used to be big hits in the car when my kids were little. A bit of Bugsie Malone, some Muppets, but also a bit of Peret in Kingsley, early electronic pioneers and Apex Twins. Some of that stuff used to go down quite well, the more tuneful moments.

And a song by Robin Hitchcock called The Man Who Invented Himself that my son used to really love when he was little. Anyway, I'll put a few fun things that you might be able Play with your kids, listeners. So how am I pronouncing that name? Alistairi. Alistari. Alistari.

This next one's from Alistari. I'm so sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name. A-L-I-S-D-A-R-I. Maybe they misspelled Alistair. Oh, could be a typo. a typo. I wonder if that was part of their email though. Maybe they missed type it all the time. Too late. You are now Alice Derry. Alice Dari says, what's the best gift you've ever been given?

Wow. My wife gives me some great gifts. She gave me a big framed poster of the man who fell to earth, an original man who fell to earth poster. Nick Rogue film starring David Bowie. I love that one. That was pretty early on in our relationship. And then I really thought, ah yeah you're great I'm going to marry you um and she always gives me good gifts actually she got me a neon sign as well like quite when I was not aware that you could get neon signs now you can get sort of LED signs fairly easily every podcaster has them in the back of their podcast set but anyway she got me an amazing proper neon sign of a design that I had like a heart with a cog around it that I used to put all over the place when I was at art school. So those were pretty great and she still smashes it out

the park gift-wise. I get some lovely gifts from listeners sometimes and someone sent me a few years ago. She's called Barbie. A leather guitar strap. I'm going to give her a plug. It's called Backbeat Leather and she's based in Brighton. But it is one of the nicest things anyone has ever given me. And she, you can get her to do custom designs on the, you know, these guitar straps and she will sort of decorate them with things that are very particular to the person that you're giving it to. So for my one, it's covered in like ticket stubs from gigs I would have gone to and images from the Adam and Joe show and like the young ones and tiny references to the things that

she knows I like alien and talking heads and Bowie and like. pretty much all my interests are represented in this very intricate design on this guitar strap. It's so beautiful. And I feel a bit of a wally. I mean, I wear it when I'm playing with the Adam Buxton band. I was going to ask, yeah. Even though I do feel a bit of a jerk because I feel like the artistry that's gone into making my Godan A6 guitar that I play. And this beautiful strap so far outstrips anything that I could ever do musically.

that it's a bit mad, but anyway. So there you go. That's my favorite thing. And is it just really comfortable as well? Yeah, it's great. It's all, everything about it is good. I mean, it deserves to be framed. After I have expired, I hope that it'll go to a good home

or just be displayed for all to appreciate. It's so fantastic. I love it. I love that. What's the best gift you've ever given? Oh, blimey. Now you're putting me on the spot. Yeah.

I thought I did a good job with Joe at Christmas. and I gave him the buttons, the dog buttons, with the designs on them. I thought they were pretty good. And next time I've got some more time on my hands, I'm going to do some more buttons. So if you didn't listen to that episode listeners, well, you can find it on my website, on my blog,

adam dash buxton.com.com. And you can look up the blog post for each of the episodes. And for the last one with Joe at Christmas, you will see a photograph of the buttons I gave him. with the I'd drawn like the faces of the people whose voices were on each button. You press the button and you have a little recorded bit of audio that comes at. It's supposed to be for training dogs. Yeah.

But I've been using them as gifts. So there's a bit, you know, there's like a little sample of Werner-Hurzog. And I did a little cartoon of Werner Herzog on the front. Anyway, so there you go. I thought that was a good gift. That's a seriously good gift. Thank you. Oh, that was interesting and I'm really grateful.

I love information and you're serving by the plateful Tom says I have a complaint Tom says I have a complaint Here we go A serious one Oh geez Why have you stopped playing the blog jingle when you say blog? Few. I'm glad it was

I'm glad that was the nature of the complaint You hardly say blog that often, so I refuse to believe this is some sort of anti-repetition measure. Frankly, every time you say blog and then don't play the jingle, it's such a letdown. The blog jingle is my favorite of all your jingles. That's a surprise. These days, I'll be happily enjoying an episode. You'll say blog and then continue talking like normal. I'm not angry.

I'm just disappointed. Anyway, love the podcast. Love you. Bye. Who's that? That's from Tom. Thanks, Tom. Does anyone say blog anymore, apart from me?

Like, no, they don't do that. I don't think so. No. Does anyone have a blog? The blog remains. What do you call? Is it not a blog? Like, what I've got, my website?

Is it just a website? I guess it's a website? Is a blog what people used to call, you know, kind of like substack back in the day? Yeah. A web log. Yes. Is what it was. And you would go on there and it would be like a sort of public diary and list of things.

That's sort of the way I think of my, website and that's why I call it the blog. And everyone, for a while, everyone just called things like that blogs. I swear to you. I'm not just imagining it. They did. They said blogs. So I still say blogs.

And yeah, I did have a jingle. I do have a jingle. Yeah. Which I did while we were on XFM, I think. I've got a blog. I've got a blog. Rootty, rooty, shputi, ruddy, ruddy, blog, blog, blog. I've got a blog.

Is the address. He's the address. It's Adam dash buxton.com.com. So check it out. I'll try and play it more. I mean, it might be that they're being ironic. They are driven mad by me saying blog. And that the last thing they want to hear

is the fucking blog jingle. I think they're being deadly serious. Okay. That makes me... Do you have a favourite of your jingles? Well, currently my favourite is... This is deep level stuff, isn't it? When you think about what's going on in the world

and we're talking about my favorite jingles that I've made. But no, this is good. This is what we need. I like this one. You know that one? Wait, and this is... When was the last time we did it? I think I used it in the last episode with Kathy.

Burke maybe. I felt like that was almost an album thing. I felt like, oh, this is, I think this could be a song. Yeah. And I did try and turn it into something but now. Some things should just stay as jingles. But I've got a long version of that one that's like, well, longer than it should be. Come on, how long is it? About four minutes or something. Okay. Oh, 320, okay. And is that how, so with

With something like that, do you build the sort of music out first and then add lyrics? Or does it work the other way? Well, that one never got any lyrics. I did try lyrics for that one, I think. And they just didn't happen. Usually, I try lyrics and then I end up stripping them off. That happens sometimes. That's interesting.

So you'll start, but you think, oh, that's a funny line. Yeah, like there was one called, uh, there was, One that was, that ended up as the holiday, holiday, holiday time. Hey, hey, time out. Take a brain. Oh, relax it back. Holiday time. Have a cabat.

So there was a lot of waffle at the top of that one, I just thought, now. Less is more. Fair enough. Less is usually more. Yeah. Okay, so your favorite one, does it have a name? Yeah, yeah, they've all got names, yeah. What's the name?

The one I played, the favorite one, that's called Back to Bright. Back to Bright. Yeah. Maybe I was going to Brighton or something. Yeah. And I was feeling happy. That's nice. I love that.

Now, Diggery, I did say to you and Claire, like, yes, filter the questions as far as what are the most fun ones or whatever. But also I did say, like, don't necessarily screen out critical stuff, right? I'm happy to engage with people with genuine criticisms or be. or whatever like that as long as they are engaging in a respectful way. But you haven't presented any of those to me at this point. No. If I can be completely honest, the messages have, I think all of them have been very positive. Also, I've read out the complaint.

Yeah. We've had the complaint. That's my favourite kind of complaint about jingles. Exactly. And what I will say, actually, is we did have someone actually Isabel. And this wasn't just Isabel. that said this, she said, I wish Adam wouldn't call them creepy hugs. They're not creepy, they're lovely.

Come on, they are creepy. I'm a creepy old guy. No. That you don't know. I mean, you do know me. You know me in the way that really matters. You know the edited version of me, the heavily edited version of me. No, I mean, it's only a joke.

I'm just joking. It's a creepy hug. I'm acknowledging the fact that these days you can't hug anyone without someone making a complaint of about it, can you? I think that was the joke really, was that it was just obviously it's not creepy because not only is it, you know, it's not physical.

I'm not physically touching you. I don't know if you realize that. But it does feel physical. I think maybe partly I was acknowledging the fact that Joe Cornish teased me about it. He was like, oh, I switch off before you start doing that. Really? Yeah, he doesn't like it.

I appreciate that some people don't like it. I mean, I think it started in the lockdown when I was, like everybody else, feeling genuinely like I needed a hug and I wouldn't mind giving people a hug. But, you know, I think for some people it's a bit of a turnoff. And for some people, it's sort of indefensibly soppy and, do you know what I mean? Like, it's like, oh, is this, is this what we've come to? Yeah. Honestly, genuinely, from all the emails that we've had, the ones that have mentioned,

mentioned it have all said please tell Adam it's not creepy and then also the other people have said similarly that that and I love you bye is always my favorite part of the episode which is quite funny because it's the ending yes well maybe what we've done here is filtered out absolutely everybody else and just kept the soppy listeners who like all that stuff I'm just kidding listeners you're not the soppy you're the best listeners yeah we've got to think of a name for these guys the... Sopcats.

Sopcats sounds horrid. A little bit depressing. We'll think of something. Continue. Welcome back, Podcats. Thank you so much for sending in those questions. Obviously, we've had a lot more sent in.

Since then, and I've already recorded another session with Diggery, answering more of those, which will be available to Patreon subscribers. next month. But before I go today, I wanted to address a couple of very important questions that several people have asked recently. After talking to Rob Orton on the last episode about feeling ignorant when I was asked by a electricity engineer, whether we had three phase in Castle Buckles, a lot of people were saying, so, do you have three phase? I kind of left that mystery hanging.

Yes, we do have three phase. Hair transplants. Obviously, there's been a fair bit of hair loss chat from me over the last couple of years in the podcast. After the Harry Enfield episode recently, on which I was talking to Harry about whether he regretted not getting a hair transplant back in the day, I had several people wanting to know who the celebrity was that I had bumped him. into that recommended a particular transplant service. And I'm not going to say the name of the celebrity because I haven't asked if I could and I don't really want to.

But I would say all of you, I think, pretty much guessed correctly as to who that was. Jamie, if you're out there listening, he sent in one of the questions, yes, you had the right person. but I can tell you that the actor James Nesbit, who has been entirely open about his transplant and where he got it, went to the same place. So Google that and you'll find out. Anyway, if you're one of the people affected by that situation, good luck on your journey. Either of becoming comfortable with your retreating hair. That's the route I'm currently on, though never say never. Or alternatively, going for the... procedure if you have the means. The main thing, I believe, is to love yourself. But not too much. Spotify playlist. I made a playlist, as I said I would, in the Q&A, filled with songs that I think kids might enjoy, although I think people of any age would enjoy them. There's a link in the description to that. Guitar strap, my beautiful guitar strap,

I'm not sponsored by the way by the person who sent me the strap. And you can see a picture of me with my strap either on my website or on the Patreon page. And there's a link to backbeat leather guitar straps in the description of today's podcast. Okay, I think that's pretty much it. Thank you very much once again to Diggery Waite and to Claire Broughton at Hatrick for all their help setting up the Patreon. and general production assistants. Thanks as well to Seamus Murphy Mitchell

for his production support. Thanks to Helen Green for her beautiful podcast artwork. Thanks to all at Acast for liaising with my sponsors. Okay. Non-creepy hug time. I was thinking the people who like the hugs could be the huggernauts like juggernauts. And the people who skip the hugs

could be called the hugger nose. Like the Huguenots. You know, the 16th century French Protestants who followed the Reformed or Calvinist tradition. I think they preferred a more formal side hug so as to maintain strict physical boundaries between the sexes and avoid any hint of impropriety. Although now all the Calvinist podcasts are going to be saying,

no, that is not correct. We love hugs just as much as anyone else. That's how Calvinists speak. Anyway, come here, Calvinists and everyone else. Hey, good to see you. Thanks for listening to all of that. Really appreciate it. There's a lot of info to lay on you.

But hopefully, now we're up and running with Patreon, and I hope that it'll be a fun bonus area for people who feel they need more from the podcast. Let's see how it goes. Until next time, we share the same sonic space. which for the main podcast will probably be sometime in September. Please go carefully, try to stay cool in every conceivable way. And if it's of any help whatsoever, please bear in mind that I love you. Bye!