Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andrew Stoakley: Toronto Mike'd #495

Episode Date: August 2, 2019

Mike catches up with Andrew Stoakley while they spin some tunes.

Welcome to episode 495 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Pal'm Mike from torontomike.com and returning to stately Stokely Manor or from stately Stokely Manor to be discussed is the Stoke himself, Andrew Stokely. Welcome back, buddy. Thanks. It feels like it's been a long time. Well, I actually have that detail in front of me.

Do you want to hear your ongoing history of Toronto Mic'd appearances? Sure. How this works? Okay. Sure. And to be debated if you did two or whatever, but I have it down here that you were the guest on the 11th episode. 11.

Right. Which is, that's amazing. I didn't even, I mean, that's amazing. That's super early days. Like that's amazing i didn't even i mean that's amazing that's super early days like that's before i had my own studio was i your first guest with rosie i don't know because my slow pitch teammate the mom the mom fessional colleen came in early days and um that's a great question and i know anthony from Palma Pasta, believe it or not, he came in really early. I want to say, cause he was a buddy who came in. I can't remember. You might've been my first guest. I just remember that it was funny because it was the first time

we'd met in person, but I have known Rosie for years before that. And Mike even further going back to NY days. So it was kind of it was just a fun it was a good afternoon I enjoyed that so here's the description I wrote at the time anyway so uh for the 11th episode Toronto okay I wrote Rosie and I chat about me getting carded I must have been a long time ago because now they're carding me to see if I get the senior discount that's what's happening now. The media frenzy around Sandy, I guess we had a hurricane coming. Oh wow, you had a hurricane.

Before welcoming Andrew Stokely, former CFN Wire and the guy who makes the Blue Jays audible. That's what I wrote. You still do that, right? Tell us though, you're still the guy in the truck making Sportsnet Jays games sound great.

Yeah, this is my 11th season being the head guy. 10th, 11th season, yeah, doing it. Yep, still doing it. Do about 105 to 110 games a year. I'm actually on a break right now, which is wonderful. We were on a break. Yeah, I'm in the process break right now, which is wonderful. We were on a break. Yeah. I'm in the process of 16 days off,

which is the longest stretch I've had in three or four years. So I'm getting, I'm reaching the end. I'm back. I'm not on this trip with Baltimore. And then they go to Tampa. I was supposed to go to Tampa and then that went away. And so I'm back for the Yankees next Thursday. And then pretty much it's full tilt boogie to the end.

And you knew Rosie because of Dome Productions, right? Yeah, Rosie used to book me. She was a crewer. So yeah, we dealt with that way. And I know Rosie told me you were wonderful to work with and I said, I want to meet this guy. And you were nice enough to do that back on

episode 11. And that's when, because of that, that's why when I know that episode 20 was recorded in my own place with my own stuff. So at some point before episode 20, I literally, I approached you and told you my idea, like to build my own studio. And I've said this a thousand times. It's like a broken record,

but you were so helpful and patient and I've said this a thousand times, it's like a broken record, but you were so helpful and patient and I knew nothing. And now I'm going to say 495 episodes in, I feel I know more than nothing now. Like I feel like I understand how the pieces are working together. This is not the board because I've upgraded that

in the last several years. Yeah, and it's fantastic. And you, but even you, when this was announced that it was coming out, you sent me a note and said, fantastic and you but even you when this was announced that it was coming out you sent me a note and said this would be perfect for you and i i was like oh i do i want to change things up and then i managed to like test drive one and i said yeah the stoke knows what he's talking about well you know this is uh this is my 25th year of of working in television

and congratulations thanks yeah i didn't think I would get, honestly, now, you know, I was listening to some of the episodes. I finally got caught up because I haven't been doing my daily night drive. So we were up and I was able to listen to the Kevin Frankish episode. I was listening to the Gordon Martineau episode.

And to hear them talk about some of the stuff, it's, you know, it really, it hit home. It hits home, if you will. Our industry on the, not only just for the poodles, as we call them, side. On the technical side, it's changing rapidly. More than, you know. Even on the tech, so, but are they in cost-cutting mode on the technical side?

Sure. Everyone is, though. Everyone is. So, like, is that, does that mean that, like, maybe you would have had four people doing this stuff. Now you have two people doing the same stuff or am I reading between the lines? No, no, it's not necessarily, um, loss of people. It's just the change in technology is allowing them to do it in different ways. Shall we say like automation? Yep. Especially in the new side. I feel bad for my buddies who work in news where, you know, you would have eight guys in a control room now they can do it with two you know and i mean the key about news is it it should

be at some point it should be local like not you know your world news your national news but they're usually local it one of the trends i see cost cutting type trends is like all the news for different localities coming out of like one hub sure which doesn't make it very local no and radio i mean we're gonna talk radio in a bit because you're a big radio fan but i talked about this with wise blot on the last episode 494 but there's lots of like uh syndicated like there's a seattle show this is now the afternoon drive on uh energy you know this this is your neck of the woods, right? Energy 95 something. It's fresh, isn't it?

Fresh 95? It was fresh, but now it's Energy. Oh, is it? Okay, well. They have a show like syndicated out of Seattle. They got rid of Colleen, right? Well, Colleen went to Ottawa. Right.

Like I think she did that, I think, on her own. Good. Yeah, boom in Ottawa. And, you know, she's doing that. But like this is a kind of a scary trend for fans of the medium like that you could syndicate a show out of Seattle and put it into Ottawa put it into Hamilton for the Toronto market and wherever else it doesn't matter what kind of music you're playing it's all pre-taped and generic enough yeah you just slot it in, voice tracked. Yep, yeah, it sucks.

Why would I ever? And you know what? You can call me a dinosaur on radio, but. I would never use that word. No, and I am, and I've gotten into arguments with people. The reason you listen to radio is because it's local. Why do people listen to 680 News?

Yeah, traffic updates. Local, local weather, local traffic updates local local weather local traffic local stories why am i why am i going to listen to a vancouver radio station for vancouver traffic now i know with this they can you know you're punching buttons and you're going from here to here and you can route it it's called aip audio over ip it's fast it's the newest thing in radio um but i don't want that i want somebody who lives in my area like for example i'm not a big radio in my area except i used to listen to bigs and bar on 97.7 well guess what right they're in ottawa too everyone's going ottawa what's that about i don't know do you have any plans to move to ottawa nope no no plans to move but no plans to move out of where are you going to stay in the

same uh you're so can we tell the people you're in can i say niagara falls yeah i'm in niagara falls yeah we've been there for seven years moved uh for all sorts of reasons um but you know what because you used to live around here yeah i used to live a five minute drive right to the west end 29th street um but yeah we've we've you know my son is going into grade 10 he's only got three years left before he's gone to school and and our house and property is just it's just too big and you know on that note i've been to your house it is uh it's a ron hawkins coined the phrase ron hawkins uh from lowest of the low he coined the phrase stately stokely manor originally i thought that was a reference to this like in my mind i'm thinking oh he built this studio this is stately stokely manor but in fact

he's referring to your the mansion you live in which is funny because it's not i mean it's just it's yeah it's it's certainly bigger than the house i had in tobiko uh you know my but my lot it's it's a big lot and it was great growing up he's had his friends come over you know it's but my wife and i are looking you know i don't want that when he's gone then it's just gonna be two of us you know so we we've started to make some plans okay and that's all you're willing to say at this time yeah we don't have any concrete plans because i probably turn down two offers a week from agents that come by and just say what you want and i always tell them the same thing yep bring me a million bucks in cash i'll be out in 30 days yeah okay in cash

yeah yeah and i get stairs so you know um until we decide that we want to uh we we have ideas of where we'd like to go um i mean for me it doesn't really matter as long as i'm near an airport right that's really all that matters as long as I can get to an airport. But you have to go to the dome a lot. Like, so you mean you, you're obviously not flying to the dome. No, they only fly twice a day. They have, they have a regional, the Niagara Airways flies from the Niagara on the Lake airport to Billy Bishop twice a day, twice in the morning. What would that cost? Have you looked into that? Yeah, I have. I think it's $80 away. $80.

So it's $160 per turn. But they only fly twice. So if the game was to go long, then I'm a $250 cab ride home. So I carpool with three other guys. That's smart. Yeah. You know, we have a parking spot inside the dome, and that's what we do. We just drive

and, you know, I'm driving at non-rush hour traffic, so it's not that bad. So, okay, so that's episode 11. I can't believe that's how far back you go on the Toronto Mike. That's why I was so happy. By the way, and again, when I saw you,

because you came, I was still recording with Hebsey when you came in and I was thinking, I had these, I was flushed with like warm feelings, like nice to see Andrew. And then I noticed that you're, there's less of you, less of you to love because uh you've lost a lot of weight yeah how much weight have you lost just shy of 70 pounds that's good for you that's incredible yeah that's a lot of weight

to lose because you i never thought of you uh although i lost 40 pounds and people are like how did you have 40 pounds to lose this is going back now like several years but i never could imagine you had 70 pounds to lose yeah it was all in the lower part that was just yeah it you know what baby got back damn pretty much yeah it's easier to find pants now let's put it that way um yeah it's just it was something that i wanted to do and you know people first of all i got a lot of the, are you sick? Like, is everything okay? Everything is fine. Everything is great.

My health has never been, my health has actually never been better. But that wasn't the reason why. I just felt towards the end of baseball last year, in August and September, I wasn't, like, I'm'm on the road a lot and I was finding that travel. I was finding hotel rooms, all that. It was just starting to wear me down. It wasn't sleeping well. I could still go to the gym. I could still do exercise. I could still play the sports. It just, it was, I could feel the, the burdens of travel, if you will, starting to get me down. Okay. So when baseball season ended, I had a full month off. I had the whole month of October off before curling started. And I just

started doing that and I quit drinking for eight months. Um, you know, I, I listened to the sky Wallace episode, which was fantastic. And you know, when she said, you know, I need a break. She's on a break. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I totally get that as somebody, you know when she said you know i need a break oh yeah she's on a break yeah yeah yeah and and i totally get that as somebody you know who has lived the lifestyle of the road for a long time it was time for a break um so i did that uh i just kind of changed the way i ate i didn't change my gym structure or anything like that and just you know it kind of it's been and i'm still going like i'm i'm i'm pretty much close to where i want to be let's put it this way I weigh less now than I did in high school wow so wow yeah amazing so good for you this is this is gonna be awkward now when I give you a beer and lasagna but of course uh you're you're a healthy man you can give it away or whatnot but oh and also you mentioned we've

mentioned lowest of low a couple times because you're a massive fan of Lowest of the Low. It's, yeah, you know what? They, the albums, the music came out at a time in life where it was, you know, university days and the music just speaks to me and, you know, it's, that's about it. And it's local. Yeah. You couldn't get any more local. Right. The only cafe, you can go to that. That's right. The Carla. The only cafe, you can go to that.

That's right. The Carla Bridge, you know, you can go to that. Yep, exactly. You can take a streetcar down. Oh, yeah, we missed you at TMLX3 when he said, listen to Toronto Mike and wander around, drink some Great Lakes from a tin. I did watch it on the Periscope.

Okay, cool. I wasn't able to make it. It was my last day before I dropped my son off at camp for a month. Well, I've just given you Agitpop stickers. This is the new lowest of the low. That was created by StickerU.com. I've also got here a temporary tattoo of Agitpop. All right.

Of course, you need a temporary Toronto Mike temporary tattoos. I know you like to rock those. And your son's too old for those now because he's 15. Yeah. And my daughter's 15. I know she won't wear temporary tattoos either. But here's the Toronto Mike sticker. Perfect.

These are going on my guitar, not my guitar. Will you tweet a picture of it at me? I will. Yeah. They're going to go on my guitar with a couple of whole bunch of other stickers I have over the years

because my guitar is a, actually it was the very first present my wife ever bought me for a one year anniversary. She bought it at steve's music it's an old yamaha fg 425 i think and that's going 28 years ago i like your wife very much she says hello she used to work for a very large uh automobile manufacturer and she sometimes had access to like fourth row tickets at what was then the Air Canada Center to see Maple Leaf game. But that's not why I like her. I liked her anyways. Yes. No, those are no longer,

no longer works for that company. So I noticed I don't get those tickets anymore. But yes, when you Stokely, when you need to print up your audio guru stickers, you're going to stickeryou.com. You can do it online, one or as many as you want. Anything that sticks. Fantastic people in Liberty Village. I urge everybody listening to patronize. StickerU.com. The beer, as you know, Great Lakes Brewery. You're probably watching your calories right now, but this is local fresh craft beer.

Whoops, can't get the bottle there too. Courtesy. So thank you, Great Lakes. I was actually there yesterday for a pint with Troy and it was like a beautiful sunny day. People were on the patio enjoying. I actually said to Troy. That's my favorite there.

The octopus? Yeah. Yeah, mine too, by the way. That's funny. Yes. I had some octopus yesterday. I told Troy, Sky Wallace should play Great Lakes Brewery because I thought I didn't know her that well

until I started listening because she was coming on the show. Because I thought, I didn't know her that well until I started listening because she was coming on the show. And I'm with you, man. Skye Wallace is a tremendous talent. Like, she's excellent. Yeah, I remember when I was talking with Lawrence from The Low, and we were going to the show at the warehouse.

And thank you to Lawrence because when I went to go buy tickets, it was sold out. It only holds about 250 people, 300 people. Right. So Lawrence was kind enough to get myself and my wife on the on the guest list so when we came all he said to me he goes i'll get you tickets he says but you better shit be here for the opening act he says you will not be disappointed right and i had heard her name but i hadn't heard the music and you know

i was blown away it was The entire place was full. And her band, her voice sounded perfect. It's a great venue, the Warehouse in Niagara. And it was, I bought all her music right there. Like, as I'm standing in listening to her, I'm on my iTunes buying the album. I know you know this, because I know you probably listened,

but she played right there in that same seat. She played live. Yeah, Midnight. It's a great track. The whole album, you can tell that it was, and I know she talked about it, but not hearing her interview,

you can hear that that album was written with a certain vision. She took that vision into the studio. Her producer stuck with the vision, whether or not he helped create it. But sometimes you go into a studio and the producers will change that vision and that doesn't necessarily end up

with what the artist wanted. But the songs are very powerful. And what Lawrence said to me was just so great. He said, listen, she might look like she's going to start singing Joan Baez. And the name sounds like that for some reason, Skywall. But she came out and was like, holy shit.

Yeah. You know, it's, it's, that voice is powerful. The music is powerful. Her bass player, Jenna,

I think she is fantastic. She was, the whole band was great, but I especially, I enjoyed watching her play. You could tell she was into it and it seemed to like each other. Like sometimes you can watch bands,

they're on stage and I'm going to talk about that a little later. Yeah, okay. So let's tell the people what we're going to do today is we're not kicking out the jams because you kicked out the jams.

We've done that. In fact, in fact, I talked about you being my guest on episode 11. Can't believe that, man. Episode episode 11 but you also were my guest on the 50th episode see there's all this hoopla and who's going to be the guest for episode 500 you were up more i think it's sexier to be the guest for episode 50 so you were number 50 yeah what did i say then audio guru andrew stokely

drops by to check out the news studio and tell us why he thinks Indie 88 has already gone in the shitter. That was a... That's a... People... A lot of people tuned in, especially people from Indie 88. I heard from some of them, yeah. So have I. I get...

You know what's happening now? I get lumped in with the opinions of my guests now. So I'll have a guest on who will say something like, oh, that sports media personality is a dinosaur. And then next thing you know, apparently I'm painted with the same brush, even though I don't have that opinion. You need to start running a disclaimer.

You need to have somebody voiceover disclaimer. The opinions expressed on Toronto Mike do not necessarily reflect those of Toronto Mike. Because I'm having trouble getting, in the 88 people are saying no to me believe it or not like the Lana Gaze and stuff and Carlin and all these people so I'm wondering if it's all your fault but I digress

so you shit all over Indy 88 but then you came back for episode 72 to tell us why it says here that Mike talks to audio guru Andrew Stokely about his 88.1 and 102.1 analysis and then stories from CFNY. So we did, ironically, we did one hour and two minutes, 102.

Wow. I forgot about that one. Yeah, there was another. You came back for more. So do you want to summarize for us your thoughts at the time and your current thoughts about 88.1? I haven't listened to it since. They lost you. But do you want listened to it since they lost you but do you want to remind us uh how they lost you i just honestly i felt that it was the old bait and switch and now i think i talked about fact commercials and all that and i totally get that but their

expanded playlist they had in their introduction all of a sudden went back to a standard rotation. Right. And, you know, But they play Sky, I don't know, I didn't know this until Sky told me,

but apparently they're playing some Sky Wallace. That's good, right? That's great. I hope they're playing more independent artists. I hope they're playing

more local Toronto bands the way that NY used to do in the 90s and 80s. Yeah, it was like Bare Naked Ladies and Lois at the Low. All that, you know.

And that's the way it should be. You know, I listen to CBC Radio 3 sometimes. But yeah, you know, I just, in all honesty, I just stopped listening. And it sucks because the signal actually is pretty good in Niagara. It comes straight across the lake. And I can pick it up clear as bell in my house if I wasn't listening to it via the web stream. Right. And they are getting a signal boost.

Did they get it approved by the CRTC? I believe so, yeah. Oh, that's good. That's great for them because you can't hear in the east end of the city. Right. So yeah, you know, radio in general to me is still,

and I've said this all along, radio still is about personalities. Radio still is about personalities. Radio is still about people. It's the theater of the mind. People tune in because they want to hear people chat. When you had Danny Elwell on and you had some of those old clips, especially the old clips

where she went through the concert listings and all that, I remember those days. Why did I listen to Danny Elwell at night? Why? Because it was local. She'd talk about who was playing she would talk about but her voice she would seduce you into the music sure you know she has a great voice absolutely you had brian master on the other week you know and my wife her first job out at university was working as a promotion assistant at 680 news when it just flipped from cftr to 680 and at chfi right and she worked with brian and he was great why do people tune in and listen to rick

at night for lovers and other strangers that though for a show that started at nine o'clock at night those numbers were huge and because they wanted to tune in it wasn't the music you ever listen to music on that show it wasn wasn't the best, but he would be reading poetry. He would be doing, it was something unique. Like Venus Flytrap. Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, that's why I listen. Why did I listen to Dave Marston?

Why did I tune in to listen to Live World Jive? Why did I tune in to listen to Alan Cross? Why did I tune in every Friday night or Sunday nights live with Martin Streak right but in the 88 until the very tragic and sad passing of the

man had Bookie right but isn't Bookie kind of the guy you're digging he loves the music he's super local hyper local but was he allowed freedom I feel like there might have been some times he was allowed a little bit of leeway on the playlist more than but not

necessarily playlists playlists or playlists but if you're going to give me the time the weather and who it was and that's about it or you got to read your like look you know your latest promo right anybody can do that and that's, that's sadly what's happening with, with, with radio now, right? You can, if you can, if you can voice track a,

a, a duo who's out of Seattle for a local station in Hamilton, Yeah. then you're not talking about what's going on. Nope. You know? And now what's going to happen? All right,

am I going to start hearing US news all the time? US bits? Like, are they going to talk about? No, they just ignore anything that puts it in a certain time or place or genre.

So that's hard. So I feel bad for those guys because now they're being pigeonholed to only stick to X, Y, and Z as opposed to A, B, and C or whatever. You know, I don't know. But there's so few radio jobs, those guys are probably ecstatic to have one.

Yeah. And all those kids coming out of radio school, you know, where you would move to Northern Ontario or Northern Saskatchewan and learn and make mistakes and do all those things. Are those stations going away? Yeah. Yeah.

In fact, I had a gentleman visit last week, Kevin in Alberta, who was telling me he lives in a place that has the boom morning show. That's apparently the same boom morning show was in like dozens of small Albertan markets. Uh, like, so yeah, so yeah, yeah, there's only now. So what used to be, for example, what used to be like 15 morning shows is now one morning show. Yep. Yeah. Sad about you. Okay. Yeah. Now, uh, you came back again to kick out the jams,

and that's why you're not kicking out the jams today. But you came back for episode 250. Have you noticed you've been getting milestone numbers here? Wow. You were 50 and 250. What? And you couldn't hold out until 500? No, I'm kidding.

I'm letting... That's my... By the way, just to give an update to listeners, because there's been a bit of Twitter buzz and stuff going on about... Yeah, I was reading that. I invited the former host of primetime sports uh just a tweet that inviting him to be the guest for episode 500 and that blew up into this whole thing so i'm actually of the opinion now although hebsey just told me i should write a letter to don cherry and invite him to be episode 500 so just for him i might do that but assuming cherry doesn't get

back to me or says no, I'm going to let the chips fall where they may. Like whatever my calendar says is 500 is 500. Like I don't know because it's in flux all the time. So I would have been happy if this was 500. I would have been happy. You know what, Mike? I said to this a long time ago.

I said, you know, whether this was your vision for what you had in mind, it's not, it's evolving. You haven't closed the door, the periscope thing here. Um, you know, I've, and I've listened to it. I don't know if it's really changed how people react. Cause I said to you, once you start introducing a camera that conversation will change people's attitudes will change um now that's not so bad if you had a little camera up there if you had a camera up here if you had a camera up here and then you had i was worried about this andrew and i now that there's been you know dozens of periscoped episodes i'm of the opinion it hasn't changed anything like i know i haven't changed like i actually don't i don't play to the camera

in fact maybe i i get you know i get the odd criticism i'm you know maybe not it's just i I know I haven't changed. I actually don't play to the camera. In fact, maybe I get the odd criticism. Maybe not. I don't play to the camera. I don't think of this as a TV show. And I'm personally delivering the exact same content I would have delivered if there was no camera. Yeah, and that's what I said to you, you have to be careful of.

Because I can't stand listening to radio on television, like watching it where they're cutting and they're at like are you radio or are you television you know well it sounds like you're uh describing the former host of primetime sports because that's what he was on tv but he was a radio show first sure right yeah but he was also yeah he was he did bat he was the original sports line host oh sure, sure. I miss listening. I used to listen to primetime sports all the time. I just had Dave Perkins on. Give me a Bob Elliott or a Dave Perkins.

I'm a big Brunt fan, a massive Brunt fan. I even like Damien Cox. I like Damien Cox. Give me these guys with Bob McCowan if I'm in a commute from home, and I'm a happy duck. Like, that was great. I haven't listened to Jeff in the afternoon. I actually, I know a lot of people don't really like Jeff.

I liked Jeff in the morning. I see him every day at the ballpark when he's down there. Jeff O'Neill. Yeah, Jeff O'Neill. So, you know, but again, I don't, sadly, I don't get to listen. But wait, okay, because you're talking about Jeff Blair. Yes. Now, he blocked me on Twitter, just throwing it out there.

I think he blocks a lot of people on Twitter. Okay, because I never even said anything to the guy to get blocked. But okay, go on. So Jeff Blair, not Jeff O'Neill. Yeah. So I see him all the time, you know, down at the ballpark, and especially when he's on doing hits with Hazel or with Arash or whoever. Right.

Yep. Arash is a good boy. You know, Hazel's a great person too. Actually, all those have been great guests. Arash and I went out for a really good steak dinner in New York back in July, June. Okay, so you could expense it. Well, I was on per diem. We call those per diem busters.

Gotcha. That was the one night off I had. I met up with Rash and a couple of his buddies that he went to university with who live in New York. Oh, okay. So we went down to the old homestead steak in the meatpacking distance and had a great dinner and a great chat.

It was fun. Amazing. Yeah. Okay, so now that you're kind of talking shop here, I have a question from the guy who wants to help you sell that million dollar home in Niagara Falls. So here's Brian.

Hi, Andrew. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Mite. My brand-new Minto Westside condo for lease is off the market, and I got my client a quick close which he wanted. Since I am now a lease expert I was just asked to list another one later this month at Mount Pleasant and Eglinton. Contact me at 416-873-0292 not just for leasing needs I am a hell of a listing and buying agent as well. Andrew I'm curious on Jay's broadcast if there's a delay to handle any F-bombs by players and fans near open mics that sneak through,

or is it just more acceptable and part of the game? F-bombs. Yeah, I try to minimize them. So tell us, how is this sausage made here? Do you have any, is there a moment at all for you to like mute something that picks up an f-bomb or like like do you have to have preventive measures because you can't do it because it's really live like i i want to understand like there aren't um there aren't any

delays it's live everything is live um there aren't any delays i try to minimize it obviously you know i've gotten to know the sport a little better if something happens but I've got mics all over the building and sadly, with only 20,000 people, you know, the two main mics are right behind home plate

and they're the ones that pick up all the noise around the crack of the bat. The crack of the bat. Which we all want. Chatter and all that. We all want to hear when Vladdy...

Exactly. And he's got a great sound. So I try to, obviously, if something's happening or getting heated, I will kill those microphones. I will bring them down. But, you know, sometimes I will kill those microphones and you can still hear them yelling on the crowd mics, which are almost 200 feet away up above.

So, you know, again, I try to do my best. I try to minimize what is picked up and what isn't picked up. Um, but you know, you can only do so much. You can only do so much. Yeah. You know, if somebody's, you know, if it gets heated, yeah, I'm going to kill those mics quickly. And you will hear that out. You, you'll all of a sudden hear the sound go, you know, and I'll, I will bring them down. Um, but yeah, there yeah there's no um there's no inline delay like if you were on uh on a radio the thought of that would be uh i don't even know technically how well i know how he would do it but it's it's confusing enough right now in 4k

um that i'm doing it's uh that would add a whole other layer of yeah Yeah, because it's the 4K. So are all the Jays home games in 4K? Yes. Every home game is in 4K and every road game is in 1080p HD. Okay. Yeah. And how does that affect the audio though? Like wouldn't the audio be the same?

No. No, sadly it's not. No, it's just without, you know, going into the techno nerd stuff. Oh, the good stuff. I use eight masters. So I have eight full masters that I create. Some have delay for a certain type of camera.

Some has delay for this. Some has delay for that. The way that the process, the signal processes between HD and 4K. Yeah. So there's all sorts of different ways that we have to manipulate that to make sure everything is in time.

Like how do you get when this new tech arrives tech arrives yeah do you get like a training session like what is it like are they expecting you to be uh you hope aware you hope this year um with the uh on screen box the pitch tracker the on screen yeah we had two meetings i had a day with the guys from mlb um excuse me and then we actually had a day with the guys from MLB. Excuse me. And then we actually had a full setup day that we were able to go in and test it. And it's been ongoing, you know. It's been a challenge in some retrospects.

At home, it's easier on the road. It's a little more difficult. At home, I'm lucky that I get the same truck all year. So I'm pretty much dealing with the same file. So we've got that down to a fine art. But when I'm on the road, I'm dealing with a different truck you know it might take a few innings

to get everything sorted out and then we're good to go after that okay so thank you Brian great question anybody looking to buy and or sell contact Brian from propertyinthesix.com so okay so you got your stickers, you got your, oh yeah, so again, that lasagna is courtesy of Palma Pasta, fantastic Italian eatery,

also retail store if you go to the new Palma's Kitchen, which is on Seminic Court, not too far from Burnham, Thorpe, and Mavis there. But go to palmapasta.com to get the directions, check out Palma's Kitchen. It's amazing. And they're on Skip the Dishes now. So I urge you to give Palmapasta a try and tweet at them and let them know you heard about them on Toronto Might.

So we're going to play 10 songs and you're going to tell stories about 10 songs. But I have a couple more questions about like inside Blue Jays stuff. Okay. But first I want to tell everybody about Rupesh Kapadia at Kapadia LLP CPAs. There is a pop socket for you in here, Andrew, from courtesy of the Kapadia. But if you're looking for a good accountant who sees beyond the numbers, I urge you to do a free consultation with Rupesh Kapadia. I can help

set you up with that complimentary consultation. Maybe you have a question, Andrew, about, I don't know, something to do with these millions that you've got from your real estate ventures and where to put that and to save money on taxes or whatnot. Rupesh Kapadia is not your father's accountant. He's the rockstar accountant. Let's hear from Rupesh. Hey, hey, hey, this is Rupesh here. And today I wanted to call you up and let you know that we are all going to die. But there is a silver lining. The silver lining is if you are a corporation,

you can ask your company to pay the life insurance on your behalf and still get all the money out to your family on a tax-free basis. If you would like to know more, please contact Kapadia LLP, myself, Rupesh, or any of my associates, and we'll be happy to guide you through the process. Thank you. Thank you, Rupesh.

Okay, here's a couple of questions about Blue Jay stuff. First of all, you mentioned the crowds are thinner, around 20,000 or something. Yeah. we're not that far removed from when you had 45 000 in there like for the probably leaked into 2017 right because of the hype from 2016 spilled over to 2017 yeah i think there was a bit of um i think people had bought their tickets right so tell me like from an audio standpoint, like, is it like way more difficult for you to do your job when that dome is half amp,

half full, if you will, as opposed to when you got 45,000, uh, hyped fans in there? Yes. How does it make your life different? Well,

I had to remove some crowd mics. Um, because cricket sounds is all that was being picked up. Fan noise, to be honest. Um, and I don't mean fans. Like individuals,

as opposed to a collective. No, I mean actual fans, blowing fans. You'd be able to hear those, especially when the dome was closed. Those fans. So we moved some of those. And also,

there's a lot of plastic chairs and sounds just echo when the roof is closed. It makes it way more difficult because there's a lot of reflections. I was at a game. Jerry Howarth gave me tickets for the July 5th game and it was both very empty.

The dome seemed very empty and the dome was closed even though it wasn't actually raining outside. And yes, it's a bad recipe. It really does take away from the experience. Like being there, so I'm sure the experience, the audio experience is also uh suffers as a result of those two yeah and i mean you can i mean obviously you can see it because you can see natural light but you if you didn't have the video portion you could definitely

tell when the roof is open and when the roof is closed it just has a distinct sound right now and it was even more difficult when it's if the roof is closed and there's 45 000 people in there especially on camp day which is my least favorite day of the entire summer um which is the kids yes because they tend to close because every every every hit every fly ball every strike oh it's a home run it's a home run yeah every fly so they scream and when the roofs close that all just comes back down i, it's great to see all the kids. I mean, I love when the camera guys between commercial stuff they're showing, these kids have spent so much time

on their posters and on their signs. It's fantastic to see. They're all in their camp shirts, right? But man. But it makes your life more difficult. Oh, it's a frequency that just my head, by the end of the day, I'm just, it's a frequency that just my head, by the end of the day, it's pounding. Why can't they, let's say there is a forecast

saying there's a chance of rain later. I always notice then the dome's closed because this forecast says rain is looming somewhere. But why can't you just start the game with the dome open on these warm days and then just spend the, people love watching that thing close anyways like it takes what 20 minutes or whatever i don't know if there's a mlb rule i don't know if there's a local home rule it i think it's up to the umpire i think too um the head umpire if if it if it opens

if the roof is open when the game starts they have to close it but if the roof is closed i don't think they can open it there's i don't know there's okay because i know i've been at games where it's closed yep and i believe i believe especially back in like the early 90s or whatever i'm sure i've been at games where the dome opened like i have memories oh yeah there has been yeah okay but i don't know again all right wrong guy that yeah i just wondered if you had uh i just sit in the basement near the dumpsters and push faders. As I like to say, there are people way above my pay grade who make those decisions. Well, I just wish that it was open more often. Obviously, when it's actively raining, no one wants the dome open.

But I think sometimes they exercise too much caution. And I can't wait. I mean, you know, for all the, you know, and I think I've said this in the past. I'm not a sports nut. I'm not a sports fan. I'm not a... Well, I was going to ask you, like, do you care about what Atkins is doing with the asset management?

I don't because, honestly, I don't know the game well enough. These are people who are involved in the game. Yeah. As I like to say i just want good competitive baseball you know what and i want you probably want high tv ratings so more people enjoy your work and i think with these young kids up here now i think that's going to translate i really do i think people you know because you're going to pitch for the Jays. They're going to need somebody. I think today was a TBA again. Right.

But, you know, I've seen Vlade come up. I've seen Biggio come up. I haven't seen Bichette because he hasn't been here. And that was great. But so far, so good. Yeah, I'm glad they brought him up on the road and not here with all the hype that it would have been if it was a home game.

So I can't wait for the New York series. I think there's going to be, I think that the home is for the New York series. I think there's going to be, I think that the home is going to be jammed. I think it's going to be packed. You think so? I take that bet. I think for that four game series, I think there's going to be people there

because they want to see these young kids in. Now, are people upset that Sanchez is gone? Yes. Are people upset that Stroman is gone? Yes. Are people upset that Hudson's gone? Probably not. But I think they had to do it

for whatever reason you say they had to do it and you know there's a phrase you know trust the process who knows what i don't know what everyone said well look what they do with cleveland well cleveland now i mean for all the the time they had it was a bad team until they came in. The cupboard was bare with Toronto. Anthopolis traded off all of their top-end prospects, really, to go for it, which is what he should have done, and they were that close. We can't remember. Dalton Pompey was on third base with nobody out, and we were down by a run.

I mean, yeah, and that's the alcs game seven right yeah we were that close yep and it didn't work out yep but we all we went for it and i think the other thing i just brought up of hebsey so it's really fresh my mind is that uh the al east is an interesting division and that you it's like haley's comet you had a there was a window where the red socks and the yan Yankees were gettable, if you will. And we went for it during that little window

and it got us out of the division twice. Yep. Right? Yep. Two ALCSs. Yep. And now that,

windows shut down now anyways. Right? So even if we were like competitive, we'd be hoping for the second wild card or whatever. So yeah,

like. We're still better than Baltimore. That's true. That's true. That's true. They had like 9,000 people at that game yesterday in Baltimore, which is... We haven't hit that depth yet.

No, and I don't think we will. I don't think we will. Again, these young kids are coming up. People are going to be excited again. You know what? It might not be great baseball. They might make a lot of mistakes, but it's going to be exciting mistakes.

And you know what? That's great. If we can get that excitement back so be it and if this is the crew if this is the group if this is your core that you're going to stick with for the next five seven years and you finally get some pitching and you get close and then they bring those free agents in for whatever reason so be it let's just see what the pro, let's see what happens. Right. Yeah. Only time will tell. That's right. People have been, I mean, I'm, I'm 47. I've never seen the Leafs make the Stanley Cup finals. Right. You know, are you going to enjoy the process? They look like they're getting closer. It's going to take a while. So enjoy the ride. Look what happened to the Raptors.

I'm not a basketball fan, but I couldn't be happier for those people and everyone said oh kawaii's leaving i said enjoy the ride right just enjoy the ride and what a ride it was amazing now before we kick out your what do i call this we're we're spinning jams and shooting the breeze is what we're doing but there you wanted to play a song on your phone right so we have your phone if if you guys hear a phone call come in it was it's for andrew his phone is connected to my board via bluetooth which is exciting so anything andrew plays on his phone we should be able to hear he wants to play a song and tell us about it before we do his uh the 10 songs he submitted to me yeah so how's that for an intro that good. I've talked about this guy before. I know you've played him.

He went to school with my niece who graduated finally from Ithaca College with her degree in music, performance, and education. Yeah. So this is a guy named Aaron Rizzo. I know his dad, Joe, is a listener of Toronto Mike.

So is Joe listening right now? I hope so. Joe Rizzo, peace and love, my brother. So Aaron's got a new EP out. I'm hoping there's a new album. I know he's coming to Toronto next summer, he said. So this is the first single.

It's called Gone Mad off of the album Deference. So see if I can get this to work. I tried to eat, but I couldn't stand the heat Maybe I fall asleep, but it's just too hard to wait I can't lose the news feed My body's giving up on me so easily Things used to be so sweet I could spend a week by the given tree Do people call him A-Riz? I don't think so.

I think it's Aaron. Reminds me of that Key & Peele bit, like A-Ron. Aaron Rizzo. Yep. You can find that in all of your, wherever you purchase your music. Aaron's doing really well. His first full-length album was called black t-shirt you've played some tracks off of it um he had four tracks uh featured in a showtime show and i can't remember the name of it it was uh last year and it's gonna drive me bonkers

well we'll drain one of your jams you can google it i will i will so anyway so this is out it's going to drive me bonkers. Well, during one of your jams, you can Google it. I will, I will. So anyway, this is out. It's out. I know he's touring in the U.S., so I'm really happy for him, and I can't wait to see him live because every time he's been playing, either in The Haunt in Ithaca,

I've been on the road or whatever, so I haven't had a chance to see him live, but he's a great guy, and I wish him nothing but the best. I love the stuff he's putting out, so it's good. guitar solo The world was on fire And no one could save me but you Strange what a desire to make foolish people

I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you. And I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you. No, I don't want to fall in love with you. Andrew, this is an awfully sexy song you're playing on my bass. I thought I wanted to start the mood. All I can think of is that video. Holy smokes. That video came out in 1989.

Christy Turlington, right? Yeah, when they actually played music videos. Talk to me about Chris Isaac's Wicked Game. Well, first of all, it's, I mean, what can you say about the track?

Yeah. I mean, this is warm and fuzzy, and it's just a, A, it's got a fantastic voice, first of all. Yeah. But the track itself, it's just a great, well-produced, awesome track.

Anyway, so the reason I chose this is that when I first started, when I was volunteering and working at NY... CFNY. I will translate all the shortcut lingo. So I grew up in Brampton. The radio station was at A3 Kennedy Road South, which was a five-minute bike ride from my house. I've told the story about how I kind of fell in there and all that.

Anyway, during the height of the song, Chris and his drummer Kenny came to the station to promote the single and played live and so forth. But that station never played Chris Isaac, did it? How come I... What year are we talking? 89. 89, okay. So this would be maybe 89, 90-ish?

Oh, yeah, because they had that period, the McLean-Hunter sale period, where they popularized their format. That's the era. The modern rock slogan era. Because, I mean, there was a time there where they might have like a Phil Collins song on, right? Like a Madonna song. Yeah, I remember when Martin used to do the Thursday 30 and like you could literally see the week prior and the week after the buyout,

the difference in the tracks played on the Thursday 30. Quite an interesting time in the history of that station, actually. Before Reiner Schwartz, but post-Marsden, before Reiner Schwartz. Yes. Okay, please continue yeah so anyway this is a little kitchen

just off the side of reception and I was in there getting ready to have some lunch anyway and the door opens and Chris

and his drummer Kenny who is still his drummer to this day right came in and they wanted some food and I said to you guys, they said well

we haven't eaten yet, I said great I said do you like Caribbean food and they're like sure, so as any CFM wire will know that there was this great restaurant in the strip mall called Calypso Garden and you would get the Caribbean fried rice, so I went downstairs picked up a couple orders

of Caribbean fried rice, came back sat in the lunchroom and ate and just shot the shit with chris isaac and his drummer kenny like it was just um but christy turlington wasn't there sadly no no so it was great you know they were the nicest honestly the nicest people you've ever meet he's got a bit of like an elvis vibe going on and he's a fantastic actor he's in one of my favorite movies of all time which is that thing you do right he plays he plays um the drummer shades his uncle he's the one that records that thing you do in the church do you know i've never seen this movie really i'm missing out right it's it's it oh yeah it's in my top 10 of all time oh i'm gonna watch it yeah i just love

it because it talks about it it just it sheds a light on how music in the 60s was you know you were owned by the label right and you toured with other artists on the label and you promoted and you know you were told what you were going to do it In the 50s and the 60s, even the 70s, there were a lot of one-hit wonders. That's what the song's about. It's about a one-hit wonder and how bands come together and how they fall apart.

I just love it. Tom Hanks is great in it. I'm going to see it. I don't know what took me so long. I've also never seen Top Gun. You've never seen Top Gun? No, I know. I'm just thinking of those movies that everyone's seen

that for some reason, I don't know how it is I've never seen Top Gun. Well, wait for Top Gun 2 and then watch it as a double feature. Done. Yeah. So yeah, it was great. You know what? And that was kind of one of my very first brushes with famous people, if you will. Yeah,

that, yeah, that, that, Chris Isaac's a very famous guy and you got to spend some, listen, I,

I just had 20 minutes chatting up Chuck D and I'm still kind of gonna, I'm gonna ride that high for decades. I would. That's cool, right? I was,

I was very happy when I saw, at first I saw the pictures like, that's Chuck D? I didn't read the headline. Right. I just saw this, and like, first of all, he's in a concrete bunker yeah yeah where is he because that's not his uh and then i'm like that's chuck d right and it takes a nation a million is unbelievable and that name came from a now uh i read that what uh well that yeah he disclosed that like that's the and i that. And I said to him,

because I didn't edit that, so I'm like, that's the stuff I'm looking for. And he goes, that's the stuff I'm giving you. I'm like, Chuck T just hit me right back. He's got a great voice, doesn't he?

Oh, yeah. Are you kidding me? Yeah. So I was very happy to see that. I was happy for you. Thank you. Thank you. And that's a great chris isaac

story i love i love that story too but you got more coming let's kick out another jam here this one takes a while to uh i love you from the bottom of my pencil case pick up speed. And I love the PRS checks that you bring Cheap, never cheap I'll sing you songs till you're asleep When you've gone upstairs I'll creep And ride it all around Down, down, down, down Oh, Shelley, oh, Deborah

Oh, Julie, oh, Jane I wrote so many songs about you I forget your name I forget your name Jennifer, Alison, Phillip, or Sue Deborah, Annabelle, Sue I forget your name. Jennifer, Alison, Phillip, Sue. Deborah, Annabelle, Sue. I forget your name.

Jennifer, Alison, Phillip, Sue. Deborah, Annabelle, Sue. I forget your name. The Beautiful South. Where are they from again? England. England? Yeah.

I knew they were European, but I thought they were somewhere else in Europe. But they're the remnants of the House Martins and a couple other bands that formed. It was the core two singer-songwriters

for the House Martins, and then they joined up with some other people. Always liked them. They had another big radio hit that I was madly in love with. It'll take a little time to think things over A little time by yourself And it's in my head.

I'm not doing it justice. I'll have to Google. Here, you tell me your story, and I will google the name of that sure well i mean um i i know when you had alan cross on uh you asked him what his worst interview was of all time and he said the beautiful south and i could see why so that was on this tour. This was, uh, there, this album had come out and this was the first North American tour and they didn't want anything to do with it. I know they gave him a hard time, all that. Um, so they were playing at the concert hall and I was there on behalf of the station doing my usual stuff, which was just putting banners up, getting promotional stuff,

whatever, um, whatever those general duties were, if you were. And we were down, I was downstairs. If anybody had ever been in the concert hall, the green room and everything was underneath the stage and the bottom, you had to go down a set of stairwells and go down and so forth. And it wasn't a great green room, but it was there, it was big. Anyway, we were standing around

and I was wearing my CFNY modern rock jacket, right? Like I was at all events. Modern rock. Modern rock. The colorful, remember if it had the colorful logos, it was like a black and then a turquoise and then a purple and whatever. I don't know who designed it. I don't know if that was Phil, Captain Phil, or if it was Noni Raskin or whoever came up

with that logo. Anyway, so the band basically said, we want to go have drinks, and we didn't know where to go. So I said, well, there's a pub across the street called the Morrissey Tavern, which in those days, for those people who aren't or didn't grow up in that era,

at Yonge and, oh, what's the cross street? Where the concert hall was. Daven davenport thank you yeah where the canadian tires across the street so now the masonic temple right so yes the masonic temple so south of that was where there's a condo now i think was a great old pub called the morrissey tavern everybody who grew up in toronto that time, you either went to the Morrissey or you went to where you have tea students, you went to the Madison, or you went to the place where they recycled all the beer.

That got shut down. The Brunny? Thank you. The Brunner goes. Anyway, so at the time, I didn't know any of this, but I guess, and Alan mentioned this in his interview,

there was a photographer and a journalist with the New Musical Express who was documenting this tour. And I guess they were taking pictures and so forth, and there were shots, and they were behind the bar, and they were doing, anyway, show goes on, whatever, they go off. Six months later or so, it's a Saturday morning, it's six o'clock in the morning,

and back then, when people had landlines and not cell phones right the phone in my house rings and i guess it woke up my mother and she wasn't too happy about it and she says she came downstairs and knocked on my door and opened the room she goes scott turner's on the phone i was like okay it's like hello he goes, he says, are you up? I said, well, I guess. Now I am. Yeah. He goes, you're not going to believe this. He goes, but your ugly mug is on every cover of the New Musical Express over here in England.

I go, what? He goes, it's this beautiful South thing from the shows from Toronto and everything. He goes, and your mug is in behind the band, he says, and you're in the magazine a couple of times. I said, I didn't know. So anyway, sure enough, the magazine a couple of times i said i i wow i didn't know so anyway sure enough he brought a couple copies home and i had it uh and then i had it when i was at raihai and then some kids stole it um and i've never been able to find oh but have you hunted for it like because nme went under so like on like i don't know i have gg or something i've looked for years online to see if somebody's archived or whatever,

and I've never been able to find it. Interesting. Maybe I'm going to see what, yeah, that's, first of all, fantastic story. Love it. The song, of course, is called A Little Time. That's the name of the beautiful self. I was trying to sing it there. Take a little time to think things over.

But yeah, The Beautiful Self, that was a beautiful song. And I like that radio hit you chose here, too. Yeah, I mean self that was a beautiful song and i like the that radio hit you you chose here yeah i mean that was that song for song for whoever and that was their big hit if you will off it they released a couple and then they had the controversy with the next album with the track 36 double d uh with the the female uh artist they had um yeah there was a lot of uh there was a lot of issues there with that track. Um, but I was a big fan of the house Martin. So, you know, it was kind of a natural progression.

Uh, and I liked the, you know, I, I, that whole album is good. There's some great tracks on it. Sure.

Sure. Well, I think that there's a problem here Her voice just don't sound right But I left myself on an answering machine Said I'm back in town tonight. I feel I stepped out of the wilderness. I'm squint-eyed and confused. But even babies raised by wolves, they know exactly when they've been used.

See, when it starts to fall apart, man. Up to here, it was a great album, man. He's heard a great era in Canadian music. And this was not, I did not have a hip track in my top 10 songs. I'll be honest, I have never been a huge hip fan. But that doesn't mean that I don't like them. And this is a fantastic album from track one. Just this morning with Hepsi,

I dropped a 38 years old reference. Like that happened this morning. Yeah. And that's probably, if I was to choose a hip song, that would be my favorite song, which they never play live, right? I saw it at Fort York though.

They played it, yeah, at Fort York. And I don't know when that was, 2005 or something. Yeah. He stopped playing it after a while because I guess they... No, he had not played it for 21 years. Apparently, it ended like a 20-year streak when he played it at Fort York,

and I'm surprised. I think it's because he talks about his older brother, Mike. He has an older brother, Mike, so maybe it was misinterpreted as being autobiographical somehow. I'm not sure. I just know he stopped playing it for a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of like when, you know,

Gordy Lightfoot wouldn't play the record of Edmund Fitzgerald for a long time or, you know, some artists don't play. Anyway, the reason I chose this song, I think everybody has heard

about the 19th, so one of the things we used to do at CFNY, you know, was the Canada Day Picnics. Right. And they were fantastic. They were awesome.

The 1990 show, I know Captain Phil tweeted out a picture of the ticket. I still think that's the best lineup that they've had in terms of Canadian bars. So I wrote it out because I wanted to make sure I got it all right. Oh yeah, do it up. And shout out to Captain Phil Evans who does listen from BC. Yeah, I'm hoping when I get out shout out to Captain Phil Evans, who does listen from BC.

Yeah, I'm hoping when I get out there, we can get together. When are you getting out there? Well, I have to go out for the J Series in Seattle. When is that? August something or other. Oh, because I'm out there in August. Yeah, August 22nd. I'm there August 22nd.

In Vancouver? Yeah. Are you going to be near the airport? I don't know. I have to near the airport? I don't know. I have to ask my wife. I don't know my itinerary. But I am. Anyway, I'll talk to you about that.

Anyway, I can see you here. I don't need to see you there. By the way, yeah, I want to hear the story, but just a quick, because as you mentioned, I'm going to have a visit with Jesse and Gene, of all people. Awesome. When I'm in Vancouver.

So yeah, please continue. That's a flashback. Anyway, so 1990, for anybody who was there at Molson Park, Canada Day, during that song, that was the one where it, this went on a long time.

That's where Gord took off his boots, went to the side stage, got a bottle of La Ronza lighter fluid, lit the boots on fire and finished the song and I'm sitting side stage with with Don Burns

and Alan Cross and the late great well both late great Don Burns and Martin Streak watching this performance and 35,000 people losing their minds

in the field they finished the set and then the box were about to come out and everybody left like the place cleared out for Le Bois They finished the set, and then the box were about to come out, and everybody left. The place cleared out for Le Bois. Right.

I could see that in 1990s. So for the lineup, it was Lava Hay, Crash Vegas, Sky Diggers, Satellites, National Velvet, Grapes of Wrath, Northern Pikes, Tragically Hip, and the box were the headliners. Yeah. There's some great can-con in that list. There's some great bands. Especially, I mean, at that time, Northern Pikes were huge. Grapes of Wrath were really big.

They had a Teen Land jam. Yeah, they had Teen Land, and I think Snow in June was just about to come out, so they might have had singles. She ain't pretty, she just looks that way. The Grapes of Wrath had just, were getting ready to go or had already been in the studio. I'm seeing them. I want to say September.

I can't remember if it's September or October, but they're opening for The Watchmen at the Danforth Music Hall. And I'm going to check out that show. You should come, man. Grapes of Wrath. Let me know. And The Watchmen.

I do have a Grapes of Wrath story on here. Oh, save it. We'll talk more about it then. Yeah. So that was, I mean, as I said, the only thing that was missing in the lineup at that era was 5440, and I think they played the year afterwards. And they played the year previous.

What about like a Pursuit of Happiness? I never know where to put those guys because they're kind of an 80s thing, and they don't really fit in with a lot of these 90s bands, but they were there and they were great. Yes. But we always overlook them somehow.

Fantastic album. Yeah, Love Junk. Todd Rundgren produced that. Yeah. They used to play ball hockey at a Catholic school on College Street

and I used to do tech support for Dave Gilby from the Elm Street Computer Terminal. He was a Mac user and this was in the era when they used to do music stuff on old, old pro tools. Right. So we used to do,

I used to see him, you know, all the time, him and Margaret Atwood. That's my other brush with, uh, with, uh,

Canadian literary. She would, I would did tech support for, I would be in there and I would get phone calls. Wow. And it'd be, hello, Andrew.

Is that you? Mrs. you mrs at hello it's it's margaret atwood amazing yeah she and she was very nice she she used to have an old macbook 180 color and she would type on that she was a pleasant pleasant lady that was going on 25 you know you could argue she's never been bigger because of this whole handmaid's tale uh thing it's one of my way it's carrie's favorite author like she loves and i i mean the handmaid's tale is a classic right right um and she's still uh consulted as they go beyond the book and all that jazz like she's still uh involved so yep anyway so that was that was my uh i mean on top of all the other hip stuff you know you've seen over the years um that was that's

still one an experience i'll never forget seeing those boots you know wow you've seen over the years. Um, that was, that's still one of them, an experience. I'll never forget seeing those boots, you know, on fire. And apparently Robbie J Rob Johnson. Hello, Rob Johnston. You got to get that tea in there. Um, there was a promotional board that they hung up that I, that we got copies of and I lost mine in a move. Um, apparently you can see my foot in this picture from this side stage. So Rob said he's got it in his basement somewhere. So if he ever finds it again, I'm hoping I can get a picture of it. Hook it up, Robbie.

Awesome. Oh, and FOTM, I'm trying to coin this phrase, Friends of Toronto Mike. Here we go. One, two, three, four. You couldn't believe when they told you That you'd never been around here before But she hung out in the Kelowna Hotel With the Cubans and the Puerto Del Sol And when she smiled all you thought about

Was running up a suicide hill And nothing short of a bullet Could have broken your will And all for the hand of Magdalena Your boots planted in the soil of Spain Like good tears in the Spanish rain All for the hand of Magdalena Okay, I'm so glad you chose this song

because not only was it performed right where you're sitting, live, but it was also performed at TMLX3. Yes, I saw that. Both instances. Tell us why you've chosen to play the lowest of the lows for The Hand of Magdalena. Well, I mean, I think I've said this before. You know know when people

say uh what's the one album you could take if you were on a desert island this is my album shakespeare my butt i would take this over anything else um that's uh let's let's take a moment to digest that high praise well you know music is nostalgic right let's be honest and in saying that I love new music like I think the new album is Fent is awesome agreed and I listen to it all the time still I take it on the road with me

if I'm on the road with the J's I play it for all of our American guys just to play it you know I think he's in Buffalo right now he played last night Ron did so this album came out you know? I think he's in Buffalo right now. He played last night. Right. Yeah. Ron did. So this album came out at a time in my life where I was on my own, going to my first year university,

you know, still working at CFNY, traveling back and forth, doing all that. And I'd seen these guys before. And anyway, so I got involved in the music programming for concerts at Ryerson and helped to book bands

and helped to put the shows on and all that. And we had them in all the time, whether it was to the Eye Opener Bar or the Ryersonian Bar or whatever ones they closed in then in the big in the actual cafeteria with big shows so I used to introduce them and so forth um and then the last time I got to intro them uh it was probably in my third year I think I had a fever of about 103 I had some kind of and it was I was hallucinating all night long. Yeah, it was just, you know.

Hallucigenia. Yeah, hallucigenia had just come out. So, you know, this was more of a, and, you know, we just saw him a couple weeks ago at St. Catharines. This is just, thank you. They sounded as good as ever. They sounded great. Maybe better than ever, if that's possible.

Well, adding Lawrence full-time with the full-time harmonica with keys with the other guitar, it adds just another layer as opposed to just the two guitars, the bass and the drums. That adds that. And the new guys, they picked up...

Because there's some horns, I want to say, or maybe just for the album. I don't know. I think in some of the shows they've had them. The Niagara show... They came out for the... I saw them at the Danforth Music Hall pretty recently.

You're right. They did come out. Yeah, they didn't have... The stage isn't big at the warehouse, so I don't know if they had actual space for everybody that they might be touring with. It's just the new album translates really well to live in venue stuff.

I couldn't talk about all the stories I've seen these guys. There's so many. Right, because we should tell people that you did kick out when you kicked out the jams. Which one did you pick? So Long Bernie. So Long Bernie.

Which is my favorite track on the album um yeah it's you know uh again thanks to lawrence and and i didn't get a chance to say hi to ron they were busy you know you know i i i'm i'm of that where i'd like to just stay i'm still the technician guy right i like to be behind the scenes uh i like to say hello to people but i don't want to get in their way um so it was you know that was that's basically have you ever met ron's mom no no no i have not i got to meet her uh before that last show and she listens to oh no it's funny she said she loved my show but i think uh her next line was especially when her son is on i got the vibe maybe she only listens when her son is on. I think that's all the cases, isn't it?

Yeah. Which is okay with me, but great. That's great, like early 90s CanCon. Do you want to kick out another one? Yeah, this one is definitely in that same era. One, two. I never thought that you would love me the way that you do I never thought that you would love me half as much as I do. You say you want to know everything about me.

Well, here you go. You say you couldn't live your life without me. I don't know. But if you want it, girl, you got it. It's all right. I'm not going to say. If you want it, girl, you got it. It's all right.

The number on the set. I never thought that words like product could ever be my lips. That's Steve and Paige delivery. This is Bare Naked Ladies box set. But something happened to me somewhere. From their diamond-selling certified first full-length record. Gordon, which just, I sent out a note,

it just turned 27 years young a couple of days ago. And recorded with finances earned by winning the New Music Search, right? CFNY contest? Yeah, I think they won 100 grand. Right. They were at the station all the time. But that was when it was just Ed and Steve. They used to the station all the time But that was when it was just Ed and Steve They used to come up all the time and just play

They'd play in the lobby I think Karen and Joanna who used to I think they might have gotten sick of them They are listed in the credits If you go through the CD booklet The liner notes Karen Fisher, joanne faluna

they are part of the scarborough tabernacle choir that they had sing on if i had a million dollars that chorus um i mean what can you say i mean shakespeare my butt was the biggest selling independent album until the yellow cassette came out And that yellow cassette has a song written by Chuck D. Yes. I just wanted to bring it full circle there. Yes, yeah, fight the power. I don't have a copy, sadly, anymore of the yellow cassette. I probably went through four or five of them.

Did you? Because I went through two, and that was very rare for me to need a second copy. See, I used to play it when I was DJing, so it would get worn out. It was so good. That yellow tape was so good. I'm trying to remember what was on it.

A Blame It On The Rain song. What was it called? Blame It On The Rain? Is that what it was called? Blame It On The Rain. You can blame it on me. Blame it on me, maybe. Maybe Blame It On Me.

Yeah, but it had Brian Wilson on it. It had Brian Wilson. Yoko Ono, of course. If I Had A Million Dollars. Fight The Power. And Frank Zappa. I'm In Love With A McDonald's Girl. No. It wasn't on there. I thought it was. No way'm in love with McDonald's Girl. No.

No? It wasn't on there. I thought it was. No way, because it wasn't on there. No. Yeah, I'm 99.9% sure that never made it on any. There was never a... It was only a live recording that CFNY played the mess of.

Is that what it was? Because I asked Tyler about it when he was on. Well, Tyler went to school before me. He went to Rye High as well. And he graduated just as I was starting. He's an FOTM, Tyler. Yeah, Tyler went to school before me. He went to Rye High as well. And he graduated just as I was starting. He's an FOTM, Tyler. Yeah, that was a very good episode. I listened to that.

But I used to see these guys. Anyway, so getting back to the station, one summer they did backyard barbecues where, as promotions, you would go with somebody to a winner's house, set up a barbecue. They would play in the backyard. And you'd hand out samples and so forth. Sure.

And so we used to see them all the time. And, you know, then you would run into them at concerts or whatever. I'm happy for the success. They were always nice to me. They were always nice. I mean, their music speaks for themselves, you know. Look, you know, they must be down-to-earth good people if a member of the band would come

spend 2.5 hours here just answering all my questions. That takes a good soul to do that. And he was honest. I watched that Junos where I thought, great, here are the Barenaked Ladies. And when he said that,

I was like, good. It shouldn't be. you guys have moved on you know you've he's gone that way the four of you guys have gone that way and that's the way it should be bands evolve you know speaking of that thing you do bands bands break up bands change right spoiler alert come on uh do you know that Stephen Page's cousin is local sports columnist Steve Simmons? I believe I've heard that mentioned somewhere, yeah. Fun fact for you, Andrew. Thank you. Good to know.

And yeah, like I said, I've got a friend of mine who lives in the States. She's a huge Bare Naked Ladies fan and has been for years. So she's the one who I always get feeds from her of where she's been and where she's seen. She saw the hoodie in the B&L tour

when they, she lives in Orlando and she said it was, she left after B&L but she just went to see them. Did she ever do the chips and dips? Is that what they called it?

Whatever they called their, they have that cruise, that Bare Naked Cruise. I don't know how to ask her. Because my, Jason, you might know him, Jason Agnew?

Does that name mean anything? No, I know the name but I don't know. Who went on, uh my jason you might know him jason agnew does that name no i know i know the name but i don't know who went on uh in fact he tells in fact i got this confirmed by tyler he was on the cruise which has like you know bare naked ladies but you know sloan was on this cruise a bunch of other canadian bands and stuff and he this is he it's been confirmed this was the last time prior to that juno awards it was the last time that the bare naked ladies played of stephen Page was on that cruise. So there's another egg new fun fact. I got more for you. I did not know that.

Okay, more Great CanCon. All right. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 guitar solo There are times when all is wrong And no one knows who's side you're on It's not too clear to me Everyone sees what they see But I don't see you listening to me It's not too clear to me I've learned to talk of everything

And I'm not trying to disagree And all I know is I I'll be there And I will care Sometimes it's like I'm not, but I am here. The aforementioned Grapes of Wrath.

Yeah, the track is I Am Here from their last original member album band these days. So this is a long story. So in 1990, my last year of high school, if you will, I guess it was 91?

91. Sorry, 91. In the winter of 91, I was on an exchange program with a sister school in England. Ah, 91. In the winter of 91, I was on an exchange program with a sister school in England. Ah, cool. And so I was there for a month. On my way back, my stepfather worked at Air Canada and I was flying on passes. So I was flying from Manchester home. It was close to the Easter break.

On the day that I was supposed to fly back, the flights were sold out. So Air Canada called people I was staying with and said, we need to get Andrew to London. So I'm 19. I end up on a plane, 6 o'clock in the morning,

Manchester time. Fly to Heathrow. Missed the flight to Toronto because we were delayed. The flight to Montreal was full. There was a flight leaving at 4 p.m. England time for Vancouver. So I ended up getting on this thing. It's a big old 747.

And I ended up getting bumped up to first class because they had a first class. So I sit down. And as I sat down, I looked to my left and there are Tom Hooper, his wife Suzanne, who was in the band Labahae, Chris Hooper, Kevin Kane, and Vince, their keyboard. Anyway, they were all sitting next to me. Wow.

They had just spent the past month and a half mastering and engineering this album, and they were on their way back to Vancouver to press it, to release it. Gotcha. So we sat and chatted and talked about it, and I worked at Music World in Brampton at Shopper's World for five years, all the way through high school and into university on top of the stuff I did at CVY.

Suzanne would come into this music world. I don't know if her mother lived in brampton or somewhere so i would see her all the time this is before anyway it was it's a really long that was before that time it was just this is bizarre so we we chatted about it and i talked about i asked them about how the recording process went and so forth anyway go forward a full year they had released the album they were on tour and it was at the end of the tour. This was, and I can tell you this, and I had to write this down. I said, have you ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time

in your life for no other reason than by sheer accident? I said, this is the ending of this story. So on the night of October 3rd, 1992, Grapes of Rath are playing at the concert hall. I was there with a buddy and I was there to do some CFNY stuff.

I was meeting some winners, and Suhud won some backstage passes, and they were going to see the band after the show and meet them. And so I was going. The show had ended, and I thought they were done. They had done their encore.

I thought, okay, they're great. So we went through security and went down, and we got stuck in this hallway. Anyway, so we're standing there getting ready to go down. Anyway, they came off on the side stage. Now, if you know the Masonic Temple, if you were looking from where the soundboard was at the back, they had two exits.

The right-hand side went nowhere. The left-hand side, so stage right, as we would call it, camera left, that would lead you to the downstairs part where the green room and everything was. So there was a little wing that you would come off and so forth so i am standing in here ready to go downstairs and they had come off the stage and they were screaming at each other and i mean screaming at each other they were yelling they were swearing each other and it was my buddy brendan and i standing in this hallway frozen with embarrassment going oh shit i shouldn't be here you shouldn't be witnessing and i yeah i should not be witness and and i can't but i can't i'm trying not to draw

attention to myself because anyway i felt so so awkward. I felt embarrassed. I was like, this is, so we went downstairs and then, and then, you know, you've seen what's happened because they went out and did another song. And then, and, and then you come down and you see them. And I saw Tom afterwards who he recognized from the plane ride and all that. I just said, listen, I'm really sorry I was there for a moment that I shouldn't have been. I thought about that for years. Anyway, two shows later at the end of the month of October, they announced their separation.

Wow. They are still one of my favorite canadian bands of all time one of their songs is one of my favorite forget canadian songs one of my favorite songs of all time is all the things i wasn't so it's a that's a that's a cancon class that was in my top 10 right oh shit yeah yeah yeah so okay well there then you know what i'm talking about. Great, well, sad, but great. Very interesting how you kind of cross paths with these Canadian bands like that. That's pretty cool.

Yeah. That's pretty cool. Let's, yeah, we'll leave the CanCon for a moment here. Here we go. I'm trying to tell you something about my life Maybe give me insight between black and white And the best thing you've ever done for me Used to help me take my life less seriously it's only life after all yeah well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable and lightness has a call that's hard to hear And I wrap my fear around me like a blanket

I sail my ship of safety till I sink it, I'm crawling on your shores And I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains, I looked to the children

I drank from the fountains There's more than one answer to these questions Pointing me in a crooked line And the less I seek my source for some definitive Closer I am to find, yeah Closer I am to fine And I went to see the doctor of philosophy Beautiful. Closer to fine. Indigo Girls. Yeah.

Wow. Grammy winners for New Artist of the Year. The year that album came out. This is the song that made me want to learn to play guitar. And I taught myself. Two amazing musicians. And you didn't come here to play live no no no I would not subject anybody to that but this is I just you know I heard this song and I thought you know what and I've been kicking around

and I thought ah you know what I can teach myself how to play chords and it's a gorgeous composition this is a really pretty song. Yeah, and that's why it won the Grammy. Yeah, right. I guess so. And they've been around for however many, I think this is now,

this is Indigo Girls, came out in 89? 1990? It was in around that era. What's it called when one singer is singing one part and another singer

sings another part? There's a word for that in music land. Harmonizing? Yeah, is that harmonizing? Harmonizing is when you do it together, though, isn't it? Like this is when they go off and do it. Skydiggers do it a lot.

Oh, when one sings one verse. Yeah, except they do it in a song, and I really like that. Yeah, and they each have two distinct voices, Emily and Amy. Anyway, so that's one of the things. The other one is so, I'm a fan, I have all their music. I've seen them a bunch of times in concert. But during the Lilith Fair tour, when they were on, we shot that. CBC recorded, we went on tour with them for a couple of weeks

and did multiple cities. And when we were here in Toronto, Amy's guitar tech, and I want to say her name is Sarah, but it was 20 plus years ago. My memory is not that good. Saw me, because I was pulling cable. I wasn't doing audio at the time, so I was pulling cable for one of the camera guys. Saw me offstage singing to all of the songs.

Anyway, so when the set was done, she came over and she says, do you want to meet them? I said, well, yeah, but I'd love to. She said, but I'm kind of busy. I just said, please tell them. No, the answer is yes. No, well, hold on.

It gets better. So fast forward a couple of years and during one of the summers, I was directing the video screens at the Molson Amphitheater. And they were on tour that summer, so I got to do their show. Same guitar tech, same band. And she saw me again, and she said, oh, I'd really love to take you up on your offer that you gave a couple years ago to meet with them. I said, because I'm directing the video boards, and I'd love to see what the song list is.

I'd love to see what the lineup is so I can prepare. So they have lunch or dinner every day. And so I ended up having lunch, eating with them and chatting about and just enjoying, just chatting about what was going on in the world, if you will, what we had. And then I got to see the set list

and we did the show. And it was, you know what, they could not have been the nicest. They could not have been nicer. No, it was just great, you know, because, you know, like I've been lucky in this, in my career, my personal life to, you know, I don't get star don't get, um, starstruck. Uh, I, you know, I, I like to think people that they're people and there's enough, there's enough times in the world where they get starstruck and they get treated, whatever.

And they just want to kind of not have that. So I tried to be really, I've only ever been starstruck once. Who? Uh, it was, uh, bono and the edge okay we were shooting uh the elvis costello show spectacle and i was doing comms for it and i was in the truck out and they had just shot a whole bunch of stuff and i'm sitting in the audio room just my feet up literally my feet are up on the desk just and then this door opens and bono and the edge walk into the audio room and they go, hi,

this is a, this is where we're supposed to watch what we want. And I'm like, uh, and I'm thinking in the back of my head, if my wife was with me, she would have thrown me out of the door and out of that room and lock the door so fast.

It would, it would not have been pretty. That's, that's her favorite band. And, uh, yeah, so it was

I was like well you can sit in here it's got the best speakers but there's bigger monitors in the room well at least you were able to string a nice comprehensive sentence together

so yeah good for you so it was good yeah so you know it was just they were really nice and

I just I you know it might not be everybody's taste in music but i think it's uh i think all their stuff is really good and they're really good live i mean they and they can sing right can you know yeah i like artists i love going to shows where people can sing i want to hear variations in the voices not everyone's going to be perfect i don't go to a rock show for people to be perfect right i want to hear to a rock show for people to be perfect. Right. I want to hear, can they play their instruments?

Can they sing their songs? Do what I hear on the album? And I don't want to hear a recreation of what I heard on the album live. That's... Okay, because that's an interesting bone of contention because sometimes people will be upset. I've had this experience at a Smashing Pumpkins show in 2000 when they changed the song to a point where it's barely recognizable.

So I agree, if you don't want to hear, they could just press play on a CD. You don't want to hear that. But at the same time, you don't want them veering too far off the structure. This is me talking. I don't want you to go too... Are you referring to a key change? Are you referring to a tempo change? Are you referring to a tempo change?

Are you referring to a melodic change? I can think of Eric Clapton and Layla. Look at the difference between... Oh, Derek and Domino's in his Unplugged. Yeah. Yeah, well, completely different. People didn't recognize that song until he was almost into the second verse.

Like, holy shit, this is Layla. Right. But that might be the uh the unicorn like that's sort of like the outlier i think because uh typically uh and i again there's exceptions of course but when when you and i always think like okay so i've seen a lot of hip shows right sure uh hundredth meridian okay we all heard the uh the cut from fully completely on the radio okay when they do that song live when they sorry When they do that song live, when they, sorry,

when they did that song live, you know, they, that part of, uh, uh, bury me someplace. I don't want to be in,

pick me up and transport me unceremoniously away from that whole part, uh, is like 10 times faster live. And it's always 10 times faster live. And when, when a hip fan or somebody who's seen them in concert, here's the studio version on the radio, I can't listen to that anymore.

It's way too slow. So there's exceptions, but just keep this song's spirit intact. Is that what I'm trying to say? Sure, yes. Yeah, keep what... Dylan, I have a buddy down the street who saw Dylan in some small...

Not too long ago. He does these small shows. Very interesting guy, this Dylan. I gotta get him on Charlie Blank. Have you heard him before? Yeah. Yeah, so, and Dylan sometimes does this. He's notorious for changing the songs

to a point where you have no clue what he's playing. One of my favorite movies of all time is the Blues Brothers. And I sent, when I was in Chicago at the beginning of the year, I got to finally drive along Lower Wacker Street, Lower Wacker Boulevard, which is the famous, you know, that whole thing. And there's, during the documentary on the 25th and 30th anniversary of the Blues Brothers, John Landis talks about

when they were going into, were they going to do the songs live on the floor or were they going to record them? And they realized when they were watching Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles and James Brown is that they never sang the songs live the exact same way. It was always iterations. So when they were doing it,

they realized that we can't do this because it would never edit together. We couldn't do it. So they had to get the artists into the studio and record one version. And he said even that was hard when they were filming it because they wanted to start freelancing and they couldn't. Sure.

It's like there's a lot of that jazz going on there. Absolutely. For sure. Interesting. Now lot of that jazz going on there. Absolutely. Absolutely. For sure. Interesting. Now, this next song is not a song. Yes. So tell me how you want me to play this one.

Do you want me to just play it? Yeah, and we'll talk afterwards. How long is it? It doesn't matter. It's not... It's like two minutes. The nice thing about a podcast is I can just play it. There's no time restrictions here.

Okay. This is... This is for Stokely. Well, I know some people don't like you to talk about those things I know that Some people don't like you to mention certain things Some people don't want you to say this Some people don't want you to say that

Some people think if you mention some things They might happen Some people are really fucking stupid Amen Did you ever notice that How many really stupid people you run into During the day God damn there's a lot of stupid bastards Amen. is and then realize half of them are stupider than that. And it doesn't take you very long to spot one of them, does it? Take you about eight seconds. You'll be listening to some guy. You say, this guy is fucking stupid. Then there are some people, they're not stupid,

Then, then there are some people, they're not stupid, they're full of shit. That doesn't take very long to spot either, does it? Take you about the same amount of time. You'll be listening to some guy and say, well, he's fairly intelligent. Ah, he's full of shit then there are some people they're not stupid they're not full of shit they're fucking nuts

Dan Quayle is all three! That time's about it. All three! Stupid, full of shit, and fucking nuts! You can probably fade it out at this point. Wrong one. That time's... Yeah, I was going to say that dates it.

It holds up. Yeah. So that was from 1990, 1990? From the album Parental Advisory, Explicit Lyrics. He is my favorite comedian of all time. And I don't think that piece right there is as good in 2019 as it was in 1980 or 1990. He's part of the trifecta of comedians, if you will, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin.

I saw this tour when he toured this album at the Pantages Theater. So way back when, when Phantom of the Opera was dark on Monday nights, they would have comedians come in on the Monday nights. And my buddy Pete Thompson and I drove into the Kipling Station from Brampton, took the subway down, had dinner. I can't remember where we were, probably, I don't even, well, I actually don't even know, went to Pantages and laughed our asses off for two and a half hours and then went home.

The first album I ever heard of was called Playing With Your Head, which I heard up at my cottage. The story was, went to Rye High. So George was shooting this little TV show called Shining Time Station. Of course. Mr. Conductor. So seasons two through five, they shot down at the showline studios in toronto you know i didn't know that yeah i had no idea yeah so and then and then

ringo star took over um and then after that was alec baldwin did he i didn't know that so my son never watched thomas the tank anyway um one of the first year students uh a friend of mine jessica uh was working as a on the show and she knew i was a fan and invited me down and got me onto the set wow and i got to meet what's that like um it was he was so friendly uh oh good he was so friendly. Oh, good. He was so friendly and just, you know, we talked about his dog, Tippy, because he talks about his dog, Tippy. It was just like, it was only 20 minutes, 25 minutes. And this was before an era where you get your phone out.

And I'm not a big fan of that anyway. I don't like taking pictures of people. They get enough photos. I didn't ask for autograph. I didn't ask for anything just sat and talked i just said i was okay but let me be a devil advocate on that the only because i i am a big fan of this so don't you wish you had not that it was possible technically and it was a different era where this wasn't happening but happening now for example uh don't you want the picture of you with uh george Carlin like as a memento of meeting him? Not if I was taking it.

That's the only way. I don't want someone else to take it. I only, in fact, I have now, when I meet people like Chuck D for example, there's people in the room that would take the picture and I actually, I want to be the guy who takes it. Isn't that interesting? See, I don't want that expectation.

I want to like, it's amazing when you go to concerts and everyone's on their phone. See, I don't want that expectation. It's amazing when you go to concerts and everyone's on their phone. It's like, live in the moment. Live in the moment. I think that train has left the station. Yeah, and maybe I am, because I sit there and go, watch the show.

It's right there in front of you. Why are you watching it? Oh, it's true. And no one wants, it's going to sound like, nobody's going to want, you're right. I usually take like two five-second clips as like souvenirs if you will

but no one wants to watch this show on your yeah it's just it's and you know you got somebody standing up in front of you like this and you go put your damn phone down watch the watch the show it's right there live it's true um so i didn't want that if there had been like a set photographer who was taking pictures and said hey i'll i'll if you give me your address i'll mail you a photo they've been great but that wasn't uh i just right i just want to say how much but in that era you're the word yeah it's the autograph was the thing of that in that area you're talking about typically you would ask for his autograph yeah if i brought if i brought the cd he said would you mind but again i'm i've never been an autograph hound i'm not that's not i cherish my ed olchek autograph from 1988 sure like i remember the very first time i did an interview with hockey night in

canada where gretzky was coming in wow you know he was coming into the studio and the great one they kept saying remember no autographs and i looked at Kevin, who was a floor man. I said, why the hell would I, why would I bother somebody? Because people do that. Well, when we get our passes, right? It's an unwritten rule in our industry that you do not ask. That is number one. They should write that rule down. It is.

It's on the back of our passes. They can take our media credentials away for asking for autographs. Right. It's like the, but they wouldn't, they shouldn't have to put it on our pass. Like that, those people come into our space and it's their, it's the time that they aren't going to get hounded.

Like when we go on the road and we stay in the hotel with the Jays, you know, people are lined up outside waiting for them to make any move to come through the front door. Right. And I remember sitting in the bar last year

with Luke Maley and a couple other guys who just said, that must just really suck. He goes, he goes well you know what i don't mind if i see a kid in the ballpark he says but the the leeches and lurches yeah i'm gonna sell them yeah yeah and they're not there right you know they're not there to to say okay can you make this to peter right or whatever right they just want you to sign the card and just sign this and sign the back because i'm gonna go run to the to the collectible store and he's going to give me 50 bucks for it

and sell it for $300. Yeah, those guys suck. Yes, those guys suck. So I've never been that, you know? And, you know, he's gone and, I mean, he's been so, he's in so many great movies. I mean, he's in Jay and Silent Bob, you know? Dogma.

Dogma. It's just, it's. Yeah, he's Buddy Christ. What was he? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The legacy of. Yeah, Bill and Ted.

Bill and Ted. I mean, and now. They're filming Bill and Ted 3. You know. Excellent Adventure 3. I hope they salute Rufus. You know. I encourage people to go back. Go onto your Spotify, go onto your iTunes, and listen to his back catalog.

It is so, so good. Excellent. But back to the music. Yeah, this one, I'll make this one quick. Uh-oh is this the wrong version is it yeah oh my god yeah yeah yeah okay well do you want to play it off your phone no it's all good we can bring it down this happened to me with maureen holloway where i got the wrong version of two princes because i didn't take the time to listen to it i thought for sure it's the right version it's in my collection yeah my apologies but if you did press play on it i have a channel

open for you and then i'll bring down these this wrong version there let's see if we can do this. Try this now. There. What an age we live in, Andrew. Yeah. Anyway, for those, this is Alphaville's Forever Young. Here, I'm going to bring it down. We can talk about it. Oh, you control now yeah um so this is

my wedding song uh and i didn't have it in my top 10 because it was kind of you know it's my wedding song uh now i'm i'm i'm about to celebrate my 21st anniversary. Wow. We've been together for 29 years. Good for you, man. You know, or 27 years, sorry. It's, you know, people talk about, you know, what I do and I'm on the road a lot and how my wife puts up with it.

And believe me, I could not have asked for a better partner in life. We have the same musical tastes and we share music. I mean, she would come on the road with me when I was DJing. She would help me lug crates of records around, you know, and just put up with my stupid lifestyle.

You know, it's tough when you're away for 150 days a year. And so this song is to honor her. It's a classic, great new wave slow dance. I mean, I would play this in every show I did. I mean, this was the end of the night, on top of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Right. So yeah, this song is just, this is for her.

There's no story, I've never met the band, but it's just, when I hear this song, there's no story. I've never met the band. Uh, but it's just this, this, this is, when I hear the song, I think of her, you know, that's beautiful. Will she hear this episode? Probably not. She's not exactly technically inclined. Maybe I'll send the link over and say, do you have a couple of hours to listen to your beloved husband. Yeah. No. So it's, you know, um, so this is why when people say, you know,

you're like, I said, believe me, I have married way above my weight class. Uh, I've married way above my, uh, stature.

She is, she keeps me sane. She looks after things and I mean, and she's busy and successful in her own right. Um, you know, and I just try to be when I'm home. The great thing about what I do is when I'm home, I'm home.

I'm not doing anything else. I'm home and I'm dad and I'm husband. Except for today when you're not home. Yeah, I know and I got to. Yeah. Well, hey. You control Forever Young. That was beautiful, man.

We can do your last jam here. Yeah. There we go. Some people call me the space cowboy. Yeah. Some call me the gangster of love. Some people call me Maurice. Because I speak of the pompatists of love

People talk about me, baby Say I'm doing you wrong, doing you wrong Well, don't you worry, baby, don't worry Because I'm right here, right here, right here, right here at home. Cause I'm a picker, I'm a grinner, I'm a lover, and I'm a sinner. I play my music in the sun. I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a joker I'm a smoker I'm a midnight toker I get my lovin' on the run

The Steve Miller Band. The Joker. The Stoker. That's what it is, right? The Stoker. Yeah. This is still the craziest concert I've ever been to. Kingswood Music Theater, they had just put new sod down and it poured rain and people

basically decimated the lawn by having a sod fight. But that isn't the story. So this song is the reason why I have become obsessed or why I fell in love with music in the first place. So my parents are divorced. My dad had a place up on Lake Rosso and then my mother and my stepfather

would rent a place in Bala on the Moon River called Moon River Cottages, and we'd go up there every summer. I was probably 10 or 11 at the time. This was a place where families would go back every year and so forth. And there was this really cute girl. Her name was Megan.

She was probably maybe 14 at the time. She had older brothers and sisters, and they would sometimes get together at night and we'd have bonfire however anyway one particular summer like i said probably 10 11 um they were playing music and i had never heard this song before i didn't know who this was i said oh this is really nice who this and they said oh this is a band called sam spam called Sam Spam and the Soap Sugs. Now, I'm 11. Right. I didn't know any better. Right. And so I was like, oh, these guys are great.

This is really good. And they played a whole bunch of stuff from them. And then they started playing other artists, like at the time, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, all this stuff. And they just made up fake names. And again, I didn't know any better. So when I got back home, I started to go to music stores and try to find these bands.

Right, right. And I remember going to ask somebody, he said, do you know Sam Spam and the Soap Suds? And the guy's like, huh? He said, there's this song Spam and the Soap Suds? And the guy's like, huh? He said, there's this song that's called Joker. He says, the Joker? I said, I think so. He goes, what the hell are you talking about?

I said, well, they told me. They said, oh, no, they were pulling one over on you. Right. And I was so upset and I was so angry that I just said, that's it. I'm going to learn everything I can. And, and then at that point on music became, uh, on, it became one-on-one with me. I don't, there isn't a day where I don't listen to music. There isn't a day where I don't listen to new music. There's a day i don't listen to old music there's music constantly going on in my house all the time you still got that sonos system going good good for you plays in the backyard it plays in the basement i have it all over the place it just goes constantly and your son uh likes your jams yeah good overlap

yeah and he's he's um he's into his own stuff his favorite band right now is the arkells He's into his own stuff. His favorite band right now is the Arkells. Oh, wow. Which is funny because all of his friends are into K-pop and all this stuff. And he's like, I don't know what they're listening to. That's your influence, I think. Yeah, it must be.

But he listens to, you know, he'll listen to 80s. He'll listen to Led Zeppelin. He'll listen to The Beatles. He'll listen to all that stuff. He just, yeah, he absorbs what we do. There's no country in my house. That's the only rule. Not even Johnny Cash?

Well, Johnny Cash is different. Instant exception? He's true country. Okay. True country, not what people would call country today, which is not, which is basically just pop music with a fiddle. Right. So yeah, that song is the reason why I got into djing why i wanted to work in music

or radio um and and i have megan to uh to thank of that andrew again i got the warm feeling when i saw you come down the stairs i said there's my i was like really happy to see you i mean we go back to back to episode 11. I want to, I don't think she'll hear this, but a special shout out to Rosie who brought us together. She didn't die or anything. No, I know. I haven't seen her for so long. And her voice hasn't been on this podcast since,

I want to say like episode 50 or something like that, maybe. Was she there that time you did episode 50? Maybe she was gone before then. No. So I mean, yeah. We did it up in the old studio with the monkey you were one of the lucky ones that monkey i was only in that studio i saw that picture i posted that picture yesterday but like there was not much time before jarvis arrived and that's his room he took over he booted me down here so

wow that goes back over five years too thank you for making the trek here man this was a thrill i loved it yeah it'll be another uh 250 episodes maybe i'll bring you back for episode 500 no no no no well do it remotely i got a bluetooth channel we could have a call oh there we go we can do it skype it right perfect and that brings us to the end of our 495th show you can follow me on twitter i'm at toronto mike andrew is at Stokely Audio. Stokely Audio. Follow him. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at

Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U and Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP. See you all next week.