On Saturday 23 March 2002 Pete Atkin and Clive James played The Bacon Theatre, Cheltenham as part of their Together At Last -- Again! tour of England and Wales. Pete took time out from his schedule to record a one-hour interview for "Dr Z and the Family Z", for broadcast on Stevenage community radio station Lyon FM. The interview covers the first two albums and the Lakeside Sessions, and includes talk about Pete's work as a producer.
Dr Z has granted Smash Flops permission to carry this interview, for the benefit of visitors to the site and members of Pete's on-line "fan club" Midnight Voices.
The interview was originally broadcast over several days of the Dr Z programme, and interspersed with tracks from the albums. We present it here in 15 sections for your convenience, and preserving the original gaps for the songs. Listeners might like to have to hand the CDs Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger / Driving Through Mythical America and The Lakeside Sessions, Volumes 1 and 2 to complete their listening experience.
Each section of the recording is available both as an MP3 and as an RA RealAudio (Real Media) file. You should use whichever works best for you. The MP3 files will give superior audio quality, but those with slow Internet connections may need to download the clips and play them off line. The RA files are designed for on-line streaming and should play directly, as long as your computer has the appropriate codec (the "Real Player") installed.
If you enjoy this most intelligent and fascinating interview, you might wish to send a message of thanks to Dr Z, via his Website, or to the venue, The Bacon Theatre, Cheltenham, <admin@bacontheatre.demon.co.uk>. If you have a message for Pete you may send it to me, the Smash Flops Webmaster at <info@peteatkin.com> and I'll be sure to forward it.
Here's the interview:
1
9'37"
On tour; BBC Radio career; Just A Minute; Jonathan Hewat
2
5'07"
Internet rebirth, Website; Buxton, The Tour
3
3'21"
First album; Master Of The Revels; Kenny Everett; power tuba
play MASTER OF THE REVELS
4
3'05"
Categorisation; Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger song form
play BEWARE OF THE BEAUTIFUL STRANGER
5
0'48"
Girl On The Train
play GIRL ON THE TRAIN
6
5'07"
Biro anecdote, Honky Tonk Train
play THE ORIGINAL ORIGINAL HONKY-TONK NIGHT TRAIN BLUES
7
4'59"
Second album, rock band sound, sessionmen
play NO DICE
8
2'01"
No Dice, 'live' recording setup, vocal slip
play THE FLOWERS AND THE WINE
9
1'42"
Cover version opportunities
SWAP CDs
10
5'49"
Lakeside Sessions; Dreamboat: song not poem
play DREAMBOAT
11
5'37"
Dreamboat; Commercial Traveller; Homer; modulation
play THE COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER
12
6'11"
Composition; Wiseacre; expectations
play WISEACRE
13
2'42"
Canoe (Clive enters)
play CANOE
14
1'19"
Canoe; Urban Guerrilla
play URBAN GUERRILLA
15
2'00"
Sad songs
