Episodes
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If you are a purple patron of TCD (sorry Lucy) then you will have heard some of this before, because we had a chat about the Brave movie (and working with Richard Stanley) in a recent Q&A.
Well today we build on that conversation, as we have arrived at that point in our loose 'promo-video-reminiscences' timeline.
And because of that slight crossover, now would be a good time to remind you that becoming a supporting patron of the podcast brings with it many benefits. Apart from being part of the 'purple collective', and getting early access to the pod, you will never have a TCD-free week, because in-between producing fortnightly chapters, we deliver extra content to our wonderful supporters.
You can learn more by clicking here.
Love'n'visual-curiosities
h
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This week’s episode of TCD (sorry Lucy) is one of those where we really benefit from having a clever and creative voice in the room.
You may recall that we have been talking about the Marillion promo vids on a kind of ad-hoc basis, and that the last time we touched on that topic we talked about the singles from Holidays. That took us to the legendary Howard Greenhalgh, a bit of a creative trailblazer and all round top bloke.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and following a couple of speculative messages we managed to reconnect with Howard and twist his arm into coming onto TCD, to share his take on those projects and what actually went down.
And even though we are talking about a gap of thirty plus years, he still managed to deliver in terms of helping us understand how that part of the industry operated back then, as well as some stories from the production floor …and how he very nearly cut my life short in Iceland.
Love’n’skipping-along-the-glaciers
h x
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Missing episodes?
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Greetings from NYC….
I have to say that this week has gone by in a a bit of a blur. Indeed, it seems a long time since I was strapped to the chair, recording this week’s TCD (sorry, Lucy) pondering what I still had left to do, before I could set-off to board a plane and cross the Atlantic.
Certainly, I wasn’t expecting Ant to take me back to shooting the promo videos for Holidays in Eden, or to be reminiscing about working with the legendary director Howard Greenhalgh.
He was quite a character, with a penchant for straightforward (and profane-embellished) instruction whilst delivering Hollywood production on a Cricklewood budget.
Anyway I am off to groove about a bit in New Jersey, if you bump into me at Progstock do come and say hello.
Love’n’”for f***s sake look heroic. I’ll be back in 10 with a helicopter”
h
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Here we go then, the second half of my Seasons End musings, based on having listened to the album again for the first time in ages.
Of course since we last spoke it has tipped past its 35th Anniversary, which is a statement that has the power to stop you dead in your tracks, particularly if it feels like last year.
Anyway we got as far as Holloway Girl on TCD #219 (sorry Lucy) so today we start with Berlin, and work our way through the latter stages of the album. And tbh there isn't much else to say that you need to know before you start listening.
Which is your cue to start listening...
Love'n'driving through the night
h
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Who says you can’t teach on old dog new tricks, well to be fair lots of people - including me as it goes - but you know what I mean.
So for this episode of TCD (sorry Lucy) we are having a crack at something a bit different, based around an idea that Ant had. I happened to mention a few weeks ago that I rarely listen back to the Marillion albums and haven’t done for quite a while. Consequently my experience of our back catalogue tends to be in rehearsal and on stage.
Anyway he suggested that I sit down and work my way through our back catalogue, taking note of what struck me whilst I was listening back to them now. And do you know what, it sounded like quite an intriguing little musical experiment, so here we are.
Anyway we start, where all good stories start, at the beginning. So sit back and prepare yourselves for Seasons End.
Love’n’full fibre
h
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The first TCD of September (sorry Lucy) and we are starting with what could be loosely called ‘a plan’.
Following some imaginative intervention from the Purples, we have a rich vein of chat suggestions to mine over the coming weeks, starting with a belter from Roger Harvey.
But I ain’t going to spoil the surprise, so you will just have to listen for the details - and of course we will also be requiring you all to help provide the clarifications when the timeline gets a little hazy.
Love’n’linen
h
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It’s literally two years since we had an episode quite like this one. And in an unusual foray into accuracy I can give you the exact details, because it was Chapter 122
The reason I know this is because that week Ant was on holiday in Catalonia, and as such he recorded his half of the conversation in a lively cafe in Platja d’Aro.
And, literally just for the hell of it, he is back in the same spot - only this time it was a hotel reception. The good news is that the Wi-Fi was considerably better, so actually getting something in the can was a lot easier. The downside is the background hubbub that you get in that particular environment. Meanwhile, I was in Denmark with toddlers.
Tweaks have been made using expensive Spanish digital software, but it is a little nosier than usual so please bear with.
Anyway onto business, because those of you who appreciate a well-run council waste facility, or indeed are unsure about the nutritional make-up of your breakfast bowl, are in for an absolute treat.
Love’n’tow-balls
h
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Big shout out to Roger Harvey, who in a round-about way has filled the middle of the TCD doughnut this week. Confused? Well let me explain..
As you know I read a bit of something in the middle of each week's pod. Since I got through all of The Invisible Man diaries, I have been rooting around the bottom of the digital drawer looking for interesting (and previously unread) stuff to include. And, as most of you are aware I tend to do this a bit 'on the hoof' each week.
Anyway this week I had to message Ant in a panic to see if he had any inspiration, because I had lost all track of what I had (and hadn't) read already. After a few minutes contemplation he recalled that Roger Harvey had been in touch to share pictures of a handwritten excerpt I wrote for the Web Magazine in the way back when, about my 100th show.
So that is what you have got, and it is thanks to another Mr.H that you have that at all.
Cheers Roger...
Love’n’mosi-bashing
h x
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It struck me as I was listening to chapter 215 that one of the quirks of recording TCD (sorry Lucy) is that the process is often interrupted by what has gone before. It isn't exactly a 'ghost in the machine' because it is all very explainable, and indeed predictable.
Let me try and enlighten you. The way I record my half of the conversation involves overdubbing onto a file that contains snippets of previous recordings; you know the kind of thing, old diary readings, the musical idents we use to transition between sections and odd bits of crooncast. Because I am not great at muting these before we start, every so often they spring into life becoming audible to both Ant & myself mid-conversation.
This week it was the jingle for spreadsheet corner that made an appearance, momentarily throwing us both a curve-ball, and resulting in a slight break in the flow as we re-centre.
Of course you, dear listener, are privy to the reaction rather than the cause so I thought it only fair to explain how and why this semi-regular phenomena comes about.
Of course it's entirely possible that you have never ever noticed, in which case 'as you were'.
Love'n'seam sniffing
h
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I was minded on listening back that we spend years fine-tuning our quirks, in fact I am not convinced it's a process we ever actually get to the end of.
But these are the things that define who we are. So to know me is to know both my caffeine routine and how I close an overhead locker when I am on a plane.
So I say 'embrace all quirks without fear or self consciousness' and respect and cherish those of the people that you encounter along the way
Because life for me often involves an imaginary pogo-stick.
Love’n’specialist-dusting,
h
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This week's TCD (sorry Lucy) reminds me of when you take a drive to somewhere you travel to often. Not a quick-round-the-corner to the shop kind of trip, more a journey that you know well but maybe takes an hour to two.
Sometimes you arrive at such a destination, not really remembering exactly how you got there. You know you have been in the car for a couple of hours, and that you have covered 103 miles but as to the specifics of the journey, well that kind of went by in a blur.
So when I came to edit #213 I couldn't really recall what Ant and I had talked about. I knew we had met at the pre-arranged time and that we had talked for an hour or so, but as to the details, hmm...
So, in short, I may well have had the same experience you are just about to have yourself.
Love'n'Tolstoy
h
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It’s the end of an era, sort of.
Back on the 27th April, 2020 the first episode proper of TCD (sorry, Lucy) was published and we have been chucking them out every week for well over four years.
But with 212 that streak comes to an end, because as of next week we are changing our cadence.
I don’t think either of us expected to still be doing this after 50 episodes, let alone 200, and of course life has moved on bringing more pressure on diaries and the time available to keep the content coming. And because we want to ensure we continue to provide extra stuff for the Purple community we have decided to make TCD a fortnightly release, and produce patron-only bits in the weeks in-inbetween.
So if you have been contemplating Purpleness then maybe now is the time, and if not we now recommend listening to each episode twice, a week apart, because if you are anything like me you will have forgotten it all anyway.
Love'n'Gillian
h
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Apologies for missing last week (though very soon you will know why) This one was a little tough in prospect but alright once we got going.
It sounds a bit different owing to Ant not being able to get his tech to work (post Spanish-holibobs) and having to use the USB mic instead of the flash one he normally uses.
Having said all that, in many ways it is an archetypal episode of TCD - bawdy seaside postcards, eccentric village-folk and me with one leg in a fantasy-world, and the other one standing on a box. She was used to that…
Love'n'oranges
h
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Well it's been a bit of a palaver this week, trying to get TCD (sorry, Lucy) ready for the outside world.
The recording seemed to go well, but when I was putting it together it became apparent that Ant had forgotten his trademark 'and we're back' after the diary reading, so I had to crowbar one in from a previous episode. Actually on that point, the first person who can correctly identify which of the previous 209 episodes it came from can have a bag of Starmix.
So I got around that little faux-pas, only for Ant to message me and break the news that the diary section which I recorded on Tuesday, has actually been used in a previous episode. So not only does that mean I have read and recorded it twice, it also means you will be getting a definite sense of deja vu.
After a high-level executive discussion, we have decided to leave it as is, because it's a good bit of diary and you’ve all had several sleeps since you heard it last. Hopefully you will enjoy the refresher.
Oh, and did I mention that Tim Sidwell was in attendance? No, well he was and as usual he was an absolute poppet and not a bit “Hollywood” except for occasionally calling us “darlings”. How wonderful!
Love'n'rama
h
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I am properly losing track of what I am reading every week in the diary section.
Even since we finished Volume II of The Invisible Man (1998-2014) I have been scrabbling around on my hands and knees (figuratively speaking of course) under the lid of my MacBook trying to locate odd bits of stuff to read out.
And because I keep stumbling on stuff, we have lost all sense of chronology in terms of what we have included and what can still be used. Which is why I sent Ant an email on Wednesday and asked him to look at a couple of pages to try and ascertain if we had used them already. I couldn't be sure, and as it turned out neither could he, but we both plumped for the 'travelling to Lille' extract as being the safer option - so that is what you are getting.
And as far as the rest of the episode is concerned, well it's just the other Mr.H being brilliant.
Nuff said.
Love'n'railcards
h
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We don't very often about the technical side of producing The Corona Diaries (see what I did there Lucy) mainly because we don't want to be seen to be blowing our collective trumpet, and partly because it isn't that interesting. But it is slightly relevant this week so here we go.
Most weeks, usually on a Tuesday, Ant sets up a Zoom call and we congregate - rarely on time, and never before ten - to ease ourselves into the process. In short order we hit the record button, and away we go, but because the audio quality on Zoom is a little sketchy we choose to capture our individual tracks on separate software at either end. Then either Ant or myself will take those tracks, along with the intro/outro beds and the piano noodles and build what will ultimately be the finished episode.
With me so far? Cracking!
Now one of the little tricks of the trade is that we both have to wear headphones or earphones, because if you monitor via headphones the sound of the zoom call would be rerecorded through the microphone and create a kind of echo. Seems obvious right, but the reason I am telling you is that we have a perfect example of that this week when our guest joined us and did that very thing...
So while you listen to #208 see if you can spot that little moment, because it is a little peek behind the “tech curtain”.
Mind you, it’s probably because his volume goes up to eleven.
Love'n'Leonard
h
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It doesn’t really matter which of the many metaphors you choose, win or lose, the ups and the downs, the peaks or the troughs.
The fact is that when we started this run of AHBID themed episodes we kinda hoped by roping in members of the band we would be able to provide a broader collective on the making of that particular record.
Alas it hasn’t really worked out that way, so although we have managed to tease out a few nuggets so far, this particular aspiration is heading for the bucket. (N.B we do still have Rothers to go, but on current form it ain’t that promising…)
But with every near miss comes a full-on hit, and the one thing we didn’t expect was how each of these chapters have been imbued with the quirkiness of the particular invited guest.
And so it is with the arrival of The Count, as we delve into clicks, debate marmalade and grill Ant over some frankly bizarre behaviour around eggs.
h
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There is something about being in a room (or indeed on a Zoom call) with Trousers that is one of life's great pleasures.
Let me clarify that, because it is all about the capitalisation. Being in a room with trousers is a fairly mundane occurrence for many of us, but being in a room with Trousers is a joy.
The fact is, he is really funny. Mike Hunter thinks so, Ant thinks so, and I am sure after listening to #206 of TCD (sorry Lucy) you will think so as well. So as much as there are so really insights into the creation of Reprogram The Gene in todays pod, and believe me there are, if you are anything like me they will now be forever intertwined with tales of practical food containers and the purveyors thereof.
Life is better when you take the Pete way.
Love'n'knitwear
h
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Well we have only gone and ruddy well done it...
It might have evolved slowly as an idea, but you can't say that we haven't upped our game a little and actually delivered. Assuming that you are up-to-date with your TCD listening (sorry Lucy) you will know that instead of recoding a load of episodes about FEAR (which as it turns out we have already done...) we are moving onto some chat about AHBID.
And this idea, which in itself is perfectly solid, became turbo-charged when we decided to talk about each of the tracks in turn, and invite a different member of the beat combo to join us and pad out the discussion.
So this week we begin at the beginning, with recollections of the process of writing and recording Be Hard on Yourself in the company of Mad Jack himself, Mark Kelly.
Strap in, get ready, push the button...
Hugs,
h
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It runs out the best way to throw your fellow podcast host off his axis, is to turn up to his house and proclaim “I’m here” with outstretched hands.
After a couple of hundred of these over Zoom, there are consequences in jumping in the car and heading up to Heckmondwike for a face-to-face. Firstly there is no obvious improvement in the depth or quality of the content, and all that happened is that, basically, we buggered off out for lunch.
Secondly in a strange, body-switch-kind-of-moment, I became the sane one as Ant had a bit of a wobble and not only got his albums in the wrong order, but pretty much forgot a whole load of TCD episodes (sorry Lucy) that we had recorded about FEAR.
But being the old pros that we are, we powered on through and managed to start a bit of a chat about An Hour Before It’s Dark. Ant then usefully came up with a plan for the next few weeks which I pondered whilst helpfully locating not 3, but 4 pieces in Ant's unfeasibly difficult jigsaw.
After that I stuck some yellow stars on my face and went home.
Love and Mott the Hoople,
h x
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