The Blindboy Podcast - Brewsters Whoop

Episode Date: April 10, 2019

Meditation, Fainting up a mountain in Donegal & the story of a strange documentary about Michael Collins. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Harang the dangly antlers and the hangman's banister, you sordid decklings. Get bent on the harbour master's hairdryer and sack Leitrim with a rude ballad about tits in your heart. Don't stop until your swords are drunk with the blood of your countrymen. That was a short poem submitted by Charlie Simpson from Busted and later Fightstar fame. He sent that one via carrier pigeon from the highest peak in Dartmoor where he's hauled up with an antique rifle and a 10 month supply of Tesco value baked beans because he's very very worried about a no deal Brexit and he has said that he intends to shoot

first and ask questions later and he's also got a pocket full of pocket full of barley that he's going to grind down with his teeth and make his own sourdough bread using yeast from his eyebrows which he intends to sell by a lake

and he'll be exchanging them for electrical products because Charlie is operating under a thesis that in a no deal Brexit there will be no electricity so he wants to have a monopoly on electrical products such as toasters or blenders

and what he will do is wear several nylon jumpers and move around very briskly and generate an electrical current that will come out through his teeth and then he'll be able to charge

toasters and razors with his teeth using a self generated electrical current so best of luck with that Charlie Simpson from busted and later five-star fame. I hope that works out for you, sir. So welcome to the Blind Boy Podcast.

How are you getting on? I hope you're well. I hope you're well. I had a full-on weekend. I had three fucking. Magnificent live podcasts. That I can't wait to share with you. They were really cracking.

And the first night. A Friday. I was in Nace. I had Colm O'Gorman. Who is the head of Amnesty Ireland. Colm was fantastic. It was. An emotional. Funny. Informative. Colm was fantastic it was an emotional

funny informative fucking night it was it was someone Colm is someone who is 100% congruent with his emotions so when Colm feels something

and then when he speaks the emotion just travels out via the words an incredible sincerity, that was fucking fantastic, Saturday night Vicar Street, we had Junior Brother Cueva from Wyvern Lingo

Keane Cavanaugh from Softboy Records and we just that was a fucking mad night, that was great great energy in the room we spoke about what it's like being an irish musician especially for them being young irish musicians who were only just on the scene um junior brother did a song it was a fantastic night then sunday night in vicar street i had brian warfield lead singer and songwriter of the Wolftones the Irish rebel band

another fantastic night but it was bizarre it was brilliant Brian Warfield turns out is a bit of a character and he was just fleeting

from different stories one minute he's sound checking up in Derry. And the IRA and the British Army are having a shootout while he's trying to sound check. Then he's in Talla with Luke Kelly arguing about communism. And Art Garfunkel is getting refused into a fucking lock-in in Tala. And then he performed like a, this really intense, shamanistic spell or ritual on the entire audience

where he tried to banish the audience of colic, which is an affliction that only affects newborn children as far as I know. An insane night. Highly entertaining. Three fucking great live podcasts. I'm going to listen to them back. And see what.

Actually translates. As a good podcast to listen to. But energy wise. They were fucking crack. And everyone. Everyone enjoyed it. And I enjoyed it. I loved it.

So just a very quick mention. Of what's coming up. Toronto and Vancouver. In July. The Blind Boy blind boy live podcasts they went on sale last Friday as predicted they sold out in under an hour all those tickets are gone thank you you Canadian cunts thank you Canada for buying up those tickets um I'll try and do a couple of other dates if I can, if the space is there, if not I'll be back to Canada at another time alright next live podcast

this Friday we've got Whitley Hall which is the 12th I believe, 12th of April Whitley Hall in Belfast, almost sold out I think there's about 50 tickets left then we have 27th of April Cork, the Opera House Almost sold out. Thinks there's about 50 tickets left. Then we have. 27th of April.

Cork. The Opera House. About 100 tickets left for that. And then a new gig. That's only just announced. Mullingar. Yes. Mullingar Art Centre.

On the 5th of May. Come along to that. Oh and fucking Letter Kenny. On the 3th of May. Come along to that. On fucking Letter Kenny. On the 3rd of May. How the fuck am I going to get up to Letter Kenny? Letter Kenny on the 3rd of May. We've got a live podcast. That's up in Donegal.

Fuck it Donegal. That's a fair bit out of the way. That is. I'll never forget. Years ago. We were doing a rubber bandits gig in letter kenny and whatever happened the lad that was driving us our tour manager right it would have been about 2010 maybe and he'd just gotten a gps thing in his car a parrot i believe they were called just gotten a gps thing in his car a parrot i believe they were called like 2010 this was before like not many people really had iphones or smartphones really in 2010 they were kind of a novelty like this idea now that like you've got a fucking map you've got google maps and this can

get you places that wasn't a thing in 2010 so our tour manager had this shit parrot GPS, and he decides to put the GPS coordinates for, I think it was Letterkenny, into the fucking thing, so we go from Limerick to Letterkenny, anyway, whatever happened, the GPS thing was of the opinion that we were elderly yanks, who wanted the scenic route, so it it's i think it took us nine hours to drive to donegal it took us nine fucking hours because it took us up these mountains and at one point this is how insane this was this this left me actually with a a kind of a mild trauma about doing fucking gigs so this stupid parrot GPS that thought we were elderly yanks

elderly Irish Americans took us up this bog mountain in Donegal and at one point we got so high up the mountain that one of our dancers fainted and nine hours

to get to Donegal so hopefully for fuck's sake on the third of May or whatever the fuck it is I'm doing it I can have a

fairly simple easy trip to Letterkenny that doesn't take nine hours please for fuck's sake it's easier

getting to Toronto than it is to get to Letterkenny but I'm gonna do it for you cause I'd say there's some it is to get to Letterkenny but I'm going to do it for you because I'd say there's some queer fuckers up in Letterkenny there's some interesting people

some interesting guests it's just it's a mad part of Ireland you know and quite beautiful too and that's in the Mount Derrigal Hotel I might just get to fucking

you can get like a bus to Sligo and then Sligo goes up to Letterkenny, doesn't it? But even fucking Sligo's no joke as well. Bus from Sligo to Limerick. You can't get a train. If you try and go... This is how mad public transport is in Limerick.

Or sorry, in Ireland. If I was to get a train from Limerick to Sligo it will only go Limerick, fully diagonally up to Dublin, and then Dublin to Sligo. It will do a lozenge shape, travelling fucking east. The most hilariously irrational journey that this country could ever have produced. And it's probably De Valera's fault.

I don't know, but it probably is. That this country could ever have produced. And it's probably De Valera's fault. I don't know but it probably is. And then a bus to Sligo. Up to Galway. You have to fart around in Galway for about an hour doing fuck all. And then Galway to Sligo. And then up to Donegal. Public transport on the west coast of Ireland lads.

It's gruelling. It's fucking gruelling. It's fucking gruelling. It's easier to get to New York. And I try. When I do gigs. I do try and use buses and trains when I can. Because. Just because.

Look it's. I believe in supporting public transport. I want to support Bus Airene and Airene Road Airene. Because they're state-owned businesses. They provide people with pensions and proper jobs. I don't want to see these things run so far into the ground that the whole country goes, fuck them, let's privatise them. Because then that's more neoliberal bullshit taken over.

Just look at what they did in England. Price of fucking tickets for a train in England. They're ridiculous because they privatized the trains. But it's important to... You have to have a publicly run bus service and a train service. Because if you put it into the hands of the private market, they will only keep the routes that are profitable open. Which means that you have a whole swathe of people

living in villages or who can't afford cars who can't fucking get anywhere because the buses are gone and the trains are gone you'll just have a load of services joining the major cities and if you don't live in a major city

fuck off happened in Detroit I believe Detroit which is Detroit is like a horribly famous example of what can absolutely go wrong to a place you know and this is just off the top of my head over something i saw but i believe detroit completely broke detroit went absolutely bankrupt and they couldn't afford to run public Detroit funded buses anymore so they handed the lot over to private interests private interests only kept the profitable lines

open and I remember seeing an interview with some fucking poor man who used to have to walk six hours to work every day because the bus routes that were in his particularly poor part of town were gone simply gone because private corporations

don't give a fuck about that why would a private corporation possibly run an unprofitable bus line but yeah it's in the interest of us we need to be our taxes need to be going towards

public buses and public train lines even if there's no one on them just to keep them open how the fuck did I get onto a bus rent lads how did I start off with Charlie Simpson making sourdough bread

from his yeasty eyebrows and now end up talking about fighting for the cause of Aaron Rod Aaron so anyway nice feedback for last week's podcast especially for the I did a guided meditation

at the end of last week's podcast I got a lot of messages from ye saying that ye loved it particularly what I was happy with. Was. I was getting messages from. The type of people.

Who. Just simply are not going to be doing guided meditations. And they admitted. Admitted this to them. To me themselves. In the messages. Just. Lads.

You know. Just lads. Lads who don't have, you know, spiritualism as part of their life, lads who wouldn't go near a fucking yoga class, lads who wouldn't be in a group of other lads where the word meditation comes up and these lads had a go at it and immediately sent me fucking mails going fuck me you're dead right it felt like washing my brain so if you were affected by last week's meditation and it worked for you and it felt relaxing go and do that every fucking single day. Do it every single day. Start off with the shitty little one that I did,

give it a crack, and then, have a look at more. I don't want to recommend any fucking guided meditations for you, because a lot of them can be a little bit dodgy. Some of them can be good, some of them can be shit little bit dodgy. Some of them can be good, some of them can be shit. What I would say is learn to be your own guided meditation.

What I spoke about last week, that's just counting breaths, lads. That's just learning to be calm and to be focused, counting your breaths, checking in with your body. You can do that yourself, you don't need anyone guiding you. But if it's something that you're like getting stuck into every day, and you're loving it, I would suggest get a look at a few meditation retreats, do you know, they can be very intense, I haven't even done one myself, but I know friends who have done them, and they've been hugely effective for them

if if that little 10 minute thing for you is something that resonated with you and you want more of it look for meditation retreats I think one is called

Vispana I think but you'll often find like there's some meditations my buddy went to one in was in a boarding school in Limerick you'll tend to find the intense

meditation retreats they could be a week long and they'd happen in it could be over Christmas it could be over Easter and they don't cost a lot of money but you effectively fuck off to this place,

for a full week, no phone, you're not allowed to have your phone, none of that shit, a lot of them are silent for an entire week, you don't communicate with other people at all, even though you're present, it's intense,

continual meditation, and, it's, if it works for you, they can be very good. They're very... Meditation is the type of spiritualism that I'm into. I don't know what I am with a god or any of that shit or religion. It's not something I really think about.

But I do know that when I meditate, I don't have any word for it other than spiritual um and i don't mean that esoterically when i say that meditation is spiritual for me what i mean is that i experience it as spiritual it could just be you know a heightened state of concentration that causes my brain to organically release chemicals and there's a good explanation for it could be that okay but regardless of whether it is that i do experience it as transcendental at the height of my meditation i think i've said this before but I used to go down and meditate

by the river Yorty's Couch in Limerick and I'd just sit down there for 10 minutes every day and do my little meditation but one time I was in it every day for about two months and I had a real I had a genuine intense spiritual experience where I woke up not once i woke up but i at the end of the meditation where you come out of it and you open your eyes and you bring yourself back into the environment and your immediate surroundings i did that and the first thing i I felt the most gorgeous, beautiful, intense, loving feeling. And I truly, truly felt that myself and that nettle were the same. I felt a deep, deep empathy for a nettle. deep empathy for a nettle as absurd as that is

I felt what how someone would describe heaven I suppose no sense of it's like how some people come away from ayahuasca or DMT or something I'd lost all sense of me

all neuroticism all worries all arrogance that was all out the window and for 10, 20 beautiful seconds I felt that I was a type of flowing energy and this nettle that I had fixated on

that we were both smiling and hugging and there was a connectedness between me and the nettle I truly felt whatever the fuck's going on with me is going on with that nettle and we are one

and there's a symbiotic relationship I'm not fucking I haven't gone mad you know like I said that could be as as cynically simple as my brain releasing a few chemicals that gets me to feel that way okay um but i did experience this as me and annette having an empathic moment and that's my experience of it i'm not saying it's real it's just how i lived it how i experienced it and then another

time um i and now i'm not you know i get like i don't believe in heaven i don't think i really believe in an afterlife anything like that but i mentioned on a previous podcast that my dad died like 10 years ago. And one time I was meditating. And again, both of these things. The nettle thing happened when I came out of the meditation. When I brought myself back into the present moment, we'll say. Into my surroundings. So where I was meditating this particular day.

It was just by the riverbed. So like very still river almost at my knees sitting down my arse on my i used to put my bicycle on its side and i'd sit with my arse on the bicycle and just the river flowing in front of me um i don't know why i used to i think just the water was peaceful i think what it was doing as well as the sound of water cancels out my tinnitus, which is a continual ringing sound that I have in my ear for the rest of my life. But I was meditating and I crossed the river then. It's just beautiful reeds and rushes and trees.

Gorgeous nature. And I came out of the meditation. And as I opened my eyes. Just for one flicker. Across the way. Across the river. I saw my dad. Now I'm not saying to you.

I saw a ghost or any shit like that. I'm just saying my lived experience. At a meditation at that point. Whatever was going on in my brain. I saw. In the distance. My my dad and the pants that he used to wear across the river and i got a feeling an immediate emotion and feeling of him saying to me i'm okay now i'm not trying to say to you i i contacted someone from beyond the grave i'm not trying to say

it was real I'm just saying that's what I actually experienced that's what I actually experienced and it was beautiful it was fucking lovely it was if meditation is an exploration a 10 minute deep exploration

of what's going on inside you, what I think it is, it's a way to delve in. It's like, I think it's like when, you know when your computer is all clogged and you run like a cleaning software on it, like an antivirus or something that goes in and cleans up all the the duplicate files and frees up some space that's what i think meditation is it does that with our unconscious emotions that are bothering us the pain anxiety the anger that hums underneath our being. That we don't really have in our conscious awareness. But yet it still motivates our behaviour.

You can be motivated by a slight sense of irritation. Or anger. Or fear. And not really be aware of it. But yet it is informing. All your decisions. It's informing how you are around other people. It's informing.

Your body language. If you're carrying around anger you're going to be gritting your teeth and clenching your fucking fists all day and you're not even aware of it i think meditation does that you can go into yourself and you can find these things and you're massaging your your it's connecting the heart and the head once again so when i woke up from that and i saw my dad across the way for a split second just saw him in the reeds and the rushes with his white pants and then gone and then this feeling of him saying to me i'm okay I think it was my wherever I'd gone within my unconscious mind 10 years on to use the system restore metaphor

I'd managed to go in there and find find some type of grief some grief that was in there that I wasn't aware of or that maybe was 10 years ago far far too painful for me to process it got released there and just like with dreams you know dreams are are unconscious you know farming the the you know the motivations

of the unconscious into symbols and language and words so that our conscious mind can understand them, I think in that moment that's what happened. Like a waking dream. But because I'd gone in there with intention and I'd meditated and I had purpose and you have a degree of control over it to an extent, I think that's what my mind was ready to feel at that moment.

A letting go of what a complicated grief I'd call it. When someone close to us dies, we don't always process it in a 100% healthy way. There can be irrational elements to it. We can feel anger towards the person for dying which is irrational but that's there's no there's often no rationality to how humans process things like grief and i'm glad that happened i'm glad that happened i'm not coming away from it thinking I had a fucking supernatural experience I just know I experienced that as cleansing and definitely what I needed and it stuck with me as a very profound beautiful spiritual moment that I would not achieve outside of meditation and it was fucking beautiful. It was class.

And that's what meditation can do. When you really get into it. 10 minutes a day. Twice a day. I think you're silly. If you're not meditating. But again. Heed what I said last week.

Some people can store. Trauma. In their bodies. And for those people. meditation can be risky. But glad you enjoyed it. So I'm going to move on shortly to what this week's podcast is going to be about. The kind of activating event for what this week's podcast is going to be about is over the last few weeks, a lot of people have been flagging with me, just mentioned to me something. So do you know Alan Partridge's current program that's on TV?

I don't know the name of it, but Alan Partridge has got a talk show, TV show on BBC at the moment, and it's class. It's fucking brilliant. But there is an episode of it in a segment that went very, very viral, which is Alan Partridge is sitting down and he's playing an Irish version of himself.

It's him interviewing an Irish version of himself fucking brilliant accent, it's hilarious it's a fella who looks like him from Sligo and he sings Comouchy Black and Tans which is a rebel song about the IRA and it's brilliant

it's class and that segment went hugely viral for good reason because it's hilarious but loads of people were flagging with me because I hadn't seen the full thing they said that bears a lot of similarities to

a documentary that the rubber bandits made in 2016 called our guide to reality so basically what happens just to to kind of show you the similarities of the two episodes and what people were telling me about which I

I agree with them but if I'm wrong it's the maddest coincidence on the planet so anyway in our guide to reality which I think you'll see on the RTE guide or the RTE player, if you're in Ireland, and if you're not in Ireland,

I'm sure there's other ways, to find it, but the, rubber bandits guide to reality, it's a half hour long, documentary about, philosophy, and the nature of reality,

whatever, so, there's a segment in it, where, we, interview, a reality TV star, called Stevie Johnson,

and the whole purpose, of our interview, is is to confuse him and destabilise his reality. Anyway, long story short. Stevie Johnson has been interviewed by us. He's an Englishman. During the interview, he wins a prize. And the prize is a live terrapin, which is a type of turtle. So we hand him a live turtle and then by the end of the interview we radicalise him

he joins the IRA and then we sing a rebel tune about him which is inspired hugely by the wolf tones come out ye black and tans, it's a rebel tune so we give him essentially a live turtle and then perform a rebel tune in the Alan partridge episode from a couple of weeks ago alan partridge's irish guest is on he gives alan partridge the gift of a live turtle in a box and then sings a rebel song

so those are two things you've got a live turtle and a rebel song. Two incredibly bizarre, vastly different things that occur in two interview segments and they're strikingly similar. So loads of people were saying, he's nicked you, he's nicked you. Now firstly, if fucking Steve Coogan was in any way influenced by that, I am filled with pride. Because I grew up looking at Steve Coogan was in any way influenced by that. I am filled with pride. Because I grew up looking at Steve Coogan. I grew up looking at the day to day with Chris Morris. Where I first saw Steve Coogan. And he was a writer on that. I grew up looking at Alan Partridge.

Steve Coogan's comedy massively massively informs and has influenced. Loads of rubber bandit stuff especially like the the earlier sketches that i was writing for republica telly so to have someone who was such an influence on me potentially being directly influenced by something that i wrote and then to put that into his own work sure that's perfection that's what more could I possibly want as an artist that's it and if it's a coincidence it's just mad but

if it is true and Steve Coogan can hear this I wouldn't mind you Steve if you are actually being influenced by the rubber bandits please use your gigantic platform. To tell some Brits to like our stuff. Tell some Brits to go and buy my book.

Tell some Brits to listen to my podcast. Tell them to look at my BBC series. It's going to be out in a few months. That would be very very handy. Yeah I'm not complaining about. If Steve Coogan took influence. More than welcome. Absolutely do.

Please. Because that's a huge part I mention all the time about music being a conversation about you know there's no such thing really as originality you take on influence influences from other artists and you respond to it comedy and writing is the exact same like even this the segment in our show in the guide to reality where we interview somebody and give him a live turtle and perform a rebel tune i was hugely influenced by the eric andre show which is an adult swim it's it's the last go and watch the fucking eric andre show it's it's on 4od the four channel four player is after getting all three seasons of the eric andre show it's it's on 4od the four channel four player is after getting all three seasons of the eric andre show go and fucking watch him for me it's it's comedy genius it's the best comedy

television i think of the 2010s my opinion my opinion it really excites me massively and makes me want to create so that segment is hugely influenced by eric andre but i also have a track record going back at least 2013 of non-stop roaring and shouting about how good eric andre is on twitter so if you are going to borrow from someone or take influence from someone you then also have a responsibility to acknowledge it and publicly say it and then try and use your platform to help that other artist

and then you can ethically borrow all you want so if old Stevie Coogan is actually influenced be a sound cunt Steveve will you tell the brits about our stuff god bless so that's kind of what this episode is going to be about what i want to talk about is we made a documentary called the rubber bandits guide to 1916 and it's about it's a history documentary about the 1916 rising it's one of we're both incredibly proud of it we both love it it was nominated for an ifta

um you know rte spent fucking millions on their rte on their 1916 programming most stuff was absolutely panned and loads of money was thrown at it. Our 1916 documentary was given barely any money and it was one of the few things that would have gotten critical acclaim. So I'm incredibly proud of it. I want to talk about a very obscure and strange documentary

that influenced our guide to 1916 before we do that i think it's time for the ocarina pause so yeah i'm going to play the the large depressing ocarina the one that isn't very melodic um the banjo again is at the other side of the room can't be arsed going over to get it but we play the large ocarina and this is so that there might be a digital advert advert inserted i don't know the ocarina and this is so that there might be a digital advert advert inserted i don't know the ocarina is like a little warning for you so it doesn't scare the shit out of you if all of a sudden there's a fucking advert for an audi or some shit so here's the ocarina

let's let's try and get an actual let's see if we can get something nice out of it this week because this big ocarina is breaking my heart. Rock City, you're the best fans in the league, bar none. Tickets are on sale now for Fan Appreciation Night on Saturday, April 13th, when the Toronto Rock host the Rochester Nighthawks at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton at 7.30pm. You can also lock in your playoff pack right now to guarantee the same seats for every postseason game.

And you'll only pay as we play. Come along for the ride and punch your ticket to Rock City at torontorock.com. On April 5th, you must be very careful, Margaret. It's a girl. Witness the birth. Bad things will start to happen. Evil things of evil. It's all for you.

No, no, don't. The First Omen. I believe the girl is to be the mother. Mother of what? Is the most terrifying. 666 is the mark of the devil. Hey! Movie of the year.

It's not real. It's not real. What's not real? Who said that? The First Omen. Only in theaters April 5th. It's not great really, is it? that was the ocarina pause this podcast is supported by you the listener via the Patreon page

if you'd like to be a patron of this podcast I the Patreon page it allows me to earn a living as an artist it allows me to know how much money i'm getting every month to plan my life to create it's life-changing so if you're getting something this podcast and you're enjoying it and you're liking it and you'd say to yourself jesus uh this blind boy cunt you know he's giving me an hour a week that I enjoy I'd love to buy him a pint or a cup of coffee you can do it

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I want everyone to get the same podcast, regardless of whether you're a patron or not. Some people can't afford it. That's fine. You get the same podcast as everyone else. But if you can't afford it, please do. Please consider it. It's a model that's working really well so far. Also, on iTunes, like the podcast. Also. On iTunes. Like the podcast. Subscribe to the podcast.

Leave a review of the podcast. We're now on Spotify lads. Okay. If you're listening to this podcast on Spotify. Which earns fuck all money. But if you're listening to this on Spotify. Make sure and follow the podcast okay because that can help me as well so there you go there's there's some ways that you can support this podcast

and tell a friend you know i've got two sold out gigs now in canada because my wonderful canadian listeners have gone and told their friends in work or in their neighbors about this podcast to listen to and now I have enough Canadians listening where I can go over and sell out a gig so this is a communal experience it's a community type of thing if you're liking it you know there's no huge budget behind this it's not sponsored by a giant company it's just me in my bedroom with a sock that's all it is so you can really use your agency to do small little things that will help this and help the this fucking podcast community so please do um so yeah what i talk what i want to talk about is just how previous existing pieces of work can go on to inform and influence another piece of work, in particular something that we made, our Rubber Bandits Guide to 1916.

we were given the commission, we were surprised to fucking be, to even be given it, about, we probably would have found out about it, mid 2014, or early 2015, and,

up until that point, I'd written a half hour pilot for Channel 4, actually we had the fucking, yeah, the Impossible Game Show, which was on, ITV over in the UK, I can't tell if that was before or after might even have happened at the same time but the rubber bandits guide to ninja 16 it was an hour-long documentary to be written and performed in and edited a big big big

task so for me it was a first it was a first it was like right okay how the fuck am i gonna how am i gonna write an entire fucking documentary so in the earliest stages of research for the 1916 documentary one of the earliest things i do really you know before i even start talking ideas is i suppose it's what you'd call the mood board stage when you're making tv when you're making an album if you like any large creative project what you want to start off with is what's known as a mood board and a mood board is it's where the earliest stages of the creative process, you immerse yourself in the creative work of other people. So I went looking at documentaries that I enjoy as a way to establish a mood board.

So, you know, anything by Adam Curtis is going to be in my mood board. I fucking love Adam Curtis's work, the way that he uses voiceover, visual and music to create meaning. That's there. But while I was Googling and trying to, you know, find, first off, what was already, what else was out there

in terms of documentaries about the 1916 rising, documentaries about early Irish Republicanism, what was out there? So I went looking all over the internet, on YouTube, and then I stumbled across this documentary

from 1973, which was called Hang Up Your Brightest Colours, The Life of Michael Collins. And I didn't know, I didn't know. I didn't know what it was. I just saw it on YouTube.

And I decided to press play. You know I'm going right okay. It's in the 70s. It'll be alright. I'll get a squint at it. So I flick it on. And immediately. I'm presented with.

Even by the first ever scene. I knew. This is weird. Something about this is almost comedy. So I'll play for you the very first scene. Visually, what this is, it's a long shot, which means that it's a shot taken kind of from the distance. It's not up close long shot which means that it's a shot taken kind of from the distance it's not up close of a man emerging from an old kind of stone type famine hut and delivering some lines introductory lines walking in a very awkward fashion the only When I first saw this, the only way I can describe it is this is... This is mad.

Something about this is really strange and I don't know if I'm supposed to be laughing or not. An Irish friend said to me, please remember one thing. There's no Irish problem, only an English problem. Well, this film is about that English problem.

And not so long ago, a distinguished Englishman described the gunmen of Ireland as baboons. Well, this film also explains, explains, what made one Irishman named Michael Collins a baboon. So, I saw that opening, that opening scene and it felt like a joke. I was like, what the fuck?

What's this guy's game? Who is he? There was something about his, his diction, how he delivered his lines, there was an extra level of, what I can only describe as an eccentric passion, just at the end there, like where he says, this describes how one man named Michael Collins was a baboon, he ends with a question mark, so I'm like, right, something, this lad, this lad is, he's a special character, you know, this, this, I'm looking forward to what's going on, so I kept going with it, and immediately, what I was struck by was the use of, I myself consistently laughing even though i knew that this isn't comedy

but yet i'm laughing and i don't know is it because the person making it knew that they were creating comedy or not or if they were just simply eccentric one of the reasons there's a lot of comedy in it is they use quite a lot of long shots now from a from a cinematography point of view funny things tend to happen on long shots by which i mean when you're looking at the screen if the action is happening in the distance it tends to be kind of funny right um what would be a good example of this here's a recent here's a recent uh internet viral example that i'm assuming everyone will know do you remember that video from about four years ago and it's it's not a comedy video someone recorded it on their phone so basically what it is is it's a camera phone camera in a in a park in England.

And from the left side of the screen to the other, going from the left to the right, you see a herd of deer running in the distance. And then you hear a man shouting, Fenton! Fenton! And then a dog following the deer. And what it is, it's an accident and clip that somebody took of some man who was out walking his dog, and his dog, whose name is Fenton, which is a gas name for a dog, chases a herd of deer and creates chaos. Everyone knows that clip. It went hugely viral. The reason it's so perfect, and the reason I believe it went so viral

it's not just because there's a dog called Fenton chasing deer it's because it's on a locked off long shot and the action happens in the distance within the screen this is the cinematographic language of comedy the Marx Brothers used to do that you'll see it in a Stanley Kubrick film called Barry

Linden which is has elements of dark comedy in Barry Linden there's a scene where two there's a duel a duel where two men pull out pistols to shoot each other that's not particularly funny one man getting shot by another is not funny but because Kubrick chose to show the shooting on a long lens we interpret it as comedy there's something actually funny about it so this documentary hang up your brightest colors uses a lot of long shots so as a result of this you're naturally fed this comedic, humorous language. But what I soon quickly notice is like, at all times, I'm very conscious. I'm like, this man sounds to me like he's English.

You know, he's definitely, he's not fucking Irish at all. Sounds very well spoken English. At all. Sounds very well spoken English. And. I approached the documentary. With the sense of. This is going to be biased.

The Brits have made this. So it's going to be really biased. And it's going to make Michael Collins. Look like a terrorist. And it's going to make the RA. Look really bad. And all of this stuff. And it won't call out. British tyranny.

Or anything like this. I was. So far from the fucking truth this documentary is almost completely radicalised it is the most vicious takedown of British

colonial violence that I've ever seen in any fucking documentary it might as well have been made by the fucking RA. And it's this really posh British voice. Speaking over it. Here's one example. This is something that really.

Made me jump back from my chair and go. Holy fuck. Where the narrator. Describes. The. Horrendous. Shooting of. Thomas Clarkark who was one of the leaders of 1916 who would have been one of the older leaders and the humiliation uh that he was submitted to when he was being executed by the british after the 1916 rising but just listen to how the narrator

how they get so emotively described this is that they sound like they're in the rat became a hard man he witnessed appalling cruelty one english officer though unhappily an irishman by birth a captain lee wilson selected victim after victim and finally settled on old Tom Clark. Captain Wilson had the old Patriot stripped in front of watching women and tortured him till he bled. It is recorded that neither Tom Clark nor any of the other victims uttered a word. But Michael Collins watched and the day came when he found Captain Lee Wilson on a quiet country road in County Waxford and Michael Collins

had him shot dead so it's about at that moment in the documentary where I fucking paused the laptop because it's about 15 minutes in and I say to myself, what the fuck am I watching, what the hell is this,

this is not what I expected, this, this is more, kind of hardcore, than anything I've ever seen, any documentary, this isn't impartial, this is a,

a British person, passionately, calling out British cruelty, British imperialism, British occupation. Passionately. He sounds radicalised. So I have to go finding out what the fuck is this? What is this film, Hang Up Your Brightest Colours? And I find out it's made by a dude called Kenneth Griffith.

And he's the person there who is narrating. And Kenneth Griffith was an actor from Wales. A Welsh actor. And he was working with the BBC, I believe. And David Attenborough, that David Attenborough, happened to be like the head commissioner in the BBC. And he said to Kenneth Griffith start making some documentaries now Griffith was like I don't make documentaries I'm an actor

but Attenborough believed in him and said work away so he would have been in Wales and would have had a kind of what would be known as a regional budget so the way the BBC works is that they'll divide money regionally so you know Welsh branch of the BBC will make a certain amount of television

and they kind of harmlessly said to Kenneth Griffith just go make a few documentaries Kenneth Griffith's like about what and the BBC made the mistake of saying, go on, whatever you want, whatever the fuck.

So Kenneth Griffith goes off and makes a very radicalised, angry documentary about the life of Michael Collins and the history of the Irish War of Independence in 1916. Kind of underneath the BBC's nose, but without anyone in the BBC really getting involved in the process because they believe it to be so harmless. They're like, it's just some cunt down in Wales.

He's just making regional TV. We're just throwing money at him who cares but meanwhile he's making this incredibly anti-imperialist radicalized documentary that is absolutely contrary in every way to the colonial lens of history that british people are taught in school or certainly that the bbc would represent now griffith himself is a welsh man who doesn't appear to have any connection whatsoever with Ireland. He doesn't have any Irish blood. He doesn't have any Irish relatives. The closest thing I could find out when I was trying to discover, like, you know, what the fuck? Who is this dude and why does he care so deeply for Irish independence, for Irish rebels, for Irish fighters? Irish independence for Irish rebels, for Irish fighters.

The only thing I could find out is that when he was a child in Wales, he said, I overheard a strange whispered conversation in our darkened kitchen. Flynn, a neighbour, had been a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary and was forced to leave Ireland when the roof of his house was burnt over him. I longed to understand why. So when Kenneth Griffith was a little kid in Wales he heard about an Irish neighbour who would have been in the RIC which they would have been considered traitors by the IRA in the early 1920s or whatever and Griffith was just like why was he burned out of his home and from there obviously went to learn

about the colonization and oppression of ireland by the british and he is somebody who appeared to be a great ally like a real proper ally of ireland he's someone who was a very proud Welshman, and throughout the documentary speaks about kind of the shame he feels as a Welsh person, and the connectivity he feels with Ireland, because he believes the Welsh to be a Celtic people, and the Irish to be a Celtic people. Anytime a Welsh person is seen, like someone like lloyd george who was a welsh person to be brutal against the irish he calls out their welshness so he has no irishness in him he's never been to ireland he just for some reason is this massive ally of the country who sees this huge injustice and just says no and is a bit of a rebel but in the meantime he's making

this fucking documentary and the bbc don't know about it this is 1973 lads that's one year after bloody sunday 1973 the provisional ira have farmed a bombing campaign has begun on mainland Britain there was a massive crisis the the provisional IRA were about to become at their fucking height so whatever British propaganda machine was going to be out there they certainly were not to be seen to be not to be seen to be broadcasting or making with british taxpayer money this incredibly honest and historically accurate but not only that radicalized and biased documentary that dissected and burned british imperialism brit power British capitalism and it got me scratching my head going how the fuck what the fuck is this thing how did it get made how was it

reacted to I'll play you another clip which for me like this wouldn't even this next clip wouldn't have even been made on Irish television Kenneth Griffith goes into describing the black and tans this next clip wouldn't have even been made on Irish television. Kenneth Griffith goes into describing the Black and Tans,

who were... I'll just let him say it for you. David Lloyd George, Welsh Prime Minister in England, organised the terror against Ireland. First he sent in the usual spies and informers, and then he sent in an independent volunteer army known as the Auxiliaries. The Auxiliaries incidentally were one of Winston Churchill's jolly ideas. They were comparable to Nazi SS troops. They were well-paid ex-British officers, and their motto was to shoot first and ask questions

afterwards. They fought hard and efficiently. They also murdered and tortured freely and the Welshman Lloyd George and the Englishman Winston Churchill turned a couple of blind eyes. Next, Lloyd George and his government sent in Ireland an army called the Black and Tans. Now, it is usually believed that many of these Black and Tans were convicted criminals before leaving England.

What is certain is that most of them were worthy of criminal conviction before they left Ireland. The Irish, admiring English efficiency, tended to prefer the barbarism of the auxiliaries to the obscenities of the Black and Tans.

So that, like, fuck me. To even hear something like that from an English accent. Sorry, not in English. To me, he sounds English. I know he's Welsh. No disrespect to Kenneth Griffith,

but to my ears, you know, that's a British accent. So to hear that. He's calling. this is fucking britain this is the bbc he is comparing british officers to the ss he is calling them he's saying what they did was terror he's calling them terrorists he is saying that british officers this is happening just after world war one he's saying that they should have is happening just after World War 1 he's saying that they should have gone to jail that they were criminals for their actions

1973 BBC funded what the actual fuck is going on here so these were the thoughts that I would have had in my head when I first saw this my heart would have been pounding I was so excited to see something which I think have had in my head when I first saw this. My heart would have been pounding. I was so excited to see something. Which I think it had fuck all views at the time.

It was just this thing uploaded on YouTube. There's two or three copies of it uploaded now. And I hope by me. I obviously encourage you to go and watch the full documentary. Hang Up Your Brother's Colors. The Life of Michael Collins. I hope me mentioning it on the podcast doesn't get it deleted off youtube but i was shocked i was shocked and inspired i thought it was fantastic um to be honest even how how biased he was was too far for me he was too

radicalized but the use of humor the use of accents all these things i found to be massively inspirational and went into my mood board for what i wanted to do then with our guide to 1916 I was so excited to have found this thing but still I started scratching my head going how was this made and of course then I start researching more and more and finding out yes it was made in 1973 yes it was kind of made under the nose of the bbc but like i said because he was just some cunt from wales who'd gotten a couple of quid from him they didn't look they didn't uh oversee it so he arrives back to them with this this fucking film meanwhile the ira the provisional IRA have a mainline bombing campaign going on in London you've got a year after bloody Sunday

tensions are ridiculously high tensions in the early 70s are so fucking high that the threat of the intervention of the Irish Republican Army not the IRA but the

official army of the Irish Republican Army, not the IRA, but the official army of the Irish Republic, our actual army, tensions were so high where people didn't know, would Ireland have to declare war on Britain, which could have, it would have sparked something pretty fucking, some NATO shit that would have been of world importance, But in the early 70s, people didn't know because the brutality that was happening up north was so extreme that it was being discussed in the Dáil that should the Irish intervene, should the Irish army intervene

and declare war on Britain. So it would have been utterly unthinkable and shocking. A documentary like that, it wouldn't get made today by the bbc i know because i'm making bbc documentaries right now and they're rigorous and there's many legal procedures that need to be passed through if something is approved of in a script they're bullet. So what happens is that Kenneth Griffith arrives to the BBC with his fully made documentary

that they funded and they go fucking apeshit. They go, are you fucking mad? What are you after making? Are you in the rah? And they ban it. They ban it completely. They say, not a fucking hope.

We're not showing it. And it doesn't get broadcast until 1993 but in the meantime kenneth griffith is fucking furious he is furious he is like no this is an anti-imperial imperialist film i'm telling the story as it is the british government and the british army committed acts of brutal fucking terrorism in ireland and this story needs to be told bbc are like no it fucking doesn't so he takes into court he takes um i think it wasn't the the bbc but there was an organization called was it the ibc it's an organization doesn't exist anymore, but it was the... It'd be like the Independent Broadcasting Authority, which would be like the BAA in Ireland.

So this was a governing organisation that decided what was appropriate or what wasn't appropriate for British television. So because this was funded by taxpayer money and the BBC commissioned it and the IBA come in and say no it's not going on TV Griffith takes him to court

for political censorship and a long battle ensues and he fucking wins he wins, he successfully sues the IBA for political censorship because that is what it is the mistake that was made,

is that the BBC didn't really oversee it, they should have asked him at least, what the fuck do you want to do it about, can we see some of it, what's the script look like, but they didn't, they weren't expecting it, so they allowed,

this very biased and radicalised, film to be made using their money so they fucked up and he successfully won political censorship and he ended up getting they still didn't put out the documentary like I said that didn't get shown until 1993 but

he got a load of money he got a couple of million quid out of it i believe so what the mad bastard then does is he buys himself a house in islington in a part of london that is incredibly posh those really fucking the house is probably worth 10 million now but he buys a house in this really posh area where he's surrounded by people who are loosely connected to royalty, the establishment politicians, ex army

generals and he buys this house in the middle of them and legally has the house's name changed to Michael Collins house just to piss him off this is a unbelievable House's name changed to Michael Collins House. Just to piss him off. This is a. Unbelievable ally.

Of Ireland. From Wales. Who has no connection whatsoever. Just simply identified an injustice. And really cared about it. He then went on to make. He received. He received death threats from the fucking UVF and had him framed

and used to frame them and hang them in Michael Collins house and invite guests in to brag and boast about his death threats from the UVF he made several fucking films documentaries about Irish Republicanism he made one about Roger Casement he made a documentary

in 1980 I believe what the fuck was it called I can't remember the name of it but he made a documentary about 1916 and he interviewed anyone who participated in 1916 who was still alive he made documentaries

about the Boer War really impassionate alive he made documentaries about the Boer War really impassionate angry documentaries that criticised British imperialism and British military force and British war crimes

and that's what Kenneth Griffith did and I just thought it was fantastic I just thought it was and that's what Kenneth Griffith did, and, I just thought it was fantastic, I just thought it was, amazing to see, it was so entertaining,

so bizarre, so eccentric, and I still can't get my head around the film, when I watch it, and it's something I throw on regularly, and a huge inspiration, so that's what I wanted to talk about, I don't think there's any other details, I just wanted to mention that.

And play those few clips. And say to you. Go onto YouTube and get a look at. Hang up your brightest colours. The life of Michael Collins by Kenneth Griffith. And. Fair play to Kenneth Griffith. Fair play to him for being a fucking mad bastard.

And a creative force. And. A fearless person. He was buried. in a tricolor that was his choice and also strangely enough buried in a tricolor and the flag of israel and i can't get my head around that um you used to get a lot of old school heads who supported Israel at the start especially when it was mandatory Palestine and it was controlled by the British

and the Israelis set up like the Irgun and fought the Brits the Israelis had a fair bit of support from Sinn Féin at that time I think fucking De Valera was buddies with, what was his name?

Shyam Herowitz. I think that could probably be wrong, but there's a president of Israel from the 1960s with a full-on Irish accent. And he was born in Ireland and his dad was called the Sinn Féin Rabbi. irish accent and he was born in ireland and his dad was called the shin fein rabbi and he was uh a jewish man living in dublin who used to hang around with michael collins and hang around with devil era and kind of learned as well this this rabbi and his son went on the son went on the farm like the air gun i believe and the air gun were like an israeli version of the ira that fought the british out of what was known as mandatory palestine and then went on the farm israel so in the early days of israel with kibbutzes as well which were kind of founded on

almost communist principles you found a lot of anti-imperialists and kind of left-wingers supporting israel in the early days before israel themselves went on to become quite aggressively imperialist you know so maybe that's why he had the israeli flag in his coffin because he wasn't jewish i can't get my head around that um i haven't seen i've seen the documentary i made about 1916 i haven't seen the one on Casement I'd love to see his documentary on Roger Casement

I'm going to get a look for that so fair play Kenneth Griffith I'm going to leave you go how far are we into this just over an hour yeah I'm going to leave you go I'm getting

I'm up in the morning I'm getting my blood'm up in the morning, I'm getting my bloods done, in the doctor, mainly just because I have a fucking birthday coming up, I just, I just like to be aware of what's going on at my health, I challenge myself in not being one of these lads who's scared of a doctor, which is, it's a powerfully irrational way to be so i'm gonna go to the doctor get my bloods tested and they're gonna test for all sorts fucking diabetes uh my liver health kidneys probably um cholesterol all this stuff just so i can check in with how i am and depending on that blood test then i'll see if I need to go for that full.

Full male health check thing. Which I don't know what's involved in it. But it's like an NCT. It's like an NCT for lads. And there's one for women as well. Which. I'm going to see how I get on in the bloods. And then the doctor is going to advise me.

But. If you're the type of lad. Who's scared of going to doctors. I get on in the bloods and then the doctor's going to advise me. But if you're the type of lad who's scared of going to doctors and scared of finding out, and you might have no complaints, but you're simply going to a doctor, getting your bloods done, and going, how am I doing? I'd encourage you to do that because people get sick out of nowhere and early detection of anything is the safest and smartest thing you can do. And as well, a huge part of my mental health regime, you know, part of my cognitive processes as regarding my mental health,

if I'm feeling down or anxious and I'm trying to deal with it and cope, one thing I do say to myself is I always I always remind myself that I'm very very privileged to have good health I have good health I don't as far as I know I have no complaints I am able-bodied I don't have a chronic illness a little bit of asthma it's grand but I have good health and I've got my hearing I've got my eyes all of this and i consider every single bit of that to be a privilege that i have right now in my life and i use this as motivation to live the best life that i can right now that's what i do so if i get a hint of depression a hint of anxiety and like that i use this as part of my coping stuff i

go whatever is up with me right now i can cope and isn't it so good that i can go for a run that i can go to the gym that i don't have a a physical complaint that's keeping me from these things isn't that such a huge privilege. And. I owe it to myself. To live my life. The best I can right now. So checking up on my health is part of that.

Which I would. So I'm just recommending to ye. Do that. Check your balls in the shower. Check your balls for ball cancer. Tick cancer. Whatever. Do you know what I mean.

Alright. Best of luck luck God bless have a good week enjoy yourself be compassionate to yourself be compassionate to other people yart Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. rock city you're the best fans in the league bar none tickets are on sale now for fan appreciation night on saturday april 13th when the the Toronto Rock hosts the Rochester Nighthawks

at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton at 7.30 p.m. You can also lock in your playoff pack right now to guarantee the same seats for every postseason game, and you'll only pay as we play. Come along for the ride and punch your ticket to Rock City at torontorock.com.