The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Legacy Life Reflections: A Life of Serendipity & Jazz with the Accidental Colossus of the Music Industry, John Altman - Legendary Film Composer, Saxophonist, Music Arranger (incl. all of Monty Python's Music!), Orchestrator & Conductor

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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Join me for a captivating conversation with the legendary John Altman, a true giant in the world of music. From crafting the unforgettable tunes of Monty Python to sharing stages with icons like Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley, John's career is a testament to the power of serendipity and talent. We explore his unexpected journey, filled with fascinating stories and memorable encounters, including his humorous connection with the soap opera star of the same name. Prepare to be enthralled by tales of collaborations with Fleetwood Mac, Van Morrison, and Amy Winehouse.

We even get to play out the episode with "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!" which John arranged with Eric Idle for Monthy Python's "Life of Brian"

Our musical voyage takes a nostalgic turn as we reminisce about extraordinary moments with legends like Danny Kaye and Frank Sinatra. John's anecdotes paint a vivid picture of the boisterous nights spent with these entertainment titans, and we touch on his work with Harold Nicholas during the filming of "Funny Bones." With a nod to the improvisational spirit of jazz, we delve into John's transition from saxophonist to arranger for acts like Monty Python and Hot Chocolate, capturing the whimsical and unpredictable nature of his career.

In our reflections, we uncover John's love for sponge cake, classical Greek quotes, and his experiences conducting the Royal Philharmonic. He shares invaluable lessons about the importance of seizing opportunities and saying "yes" to life's surprises. As we discuss his legacy and the lasting impact of chance encounters, we celebrate John's ability to weave music and memories into a rich tapestry of creativity, leaving us inspired by a life dedicated to the art of sound.

John Altman shares his extraordinary journey in the music industry, reflecting on his collaborations with iconic artists, including Monty Python and Frank Sinatra. The conversation delves into his creative process, inspirations, and the importance of storytelling through music, all underscoring Altman’s legendary status as a musician and arranger.

• Insights into John Altman's musical upbringing and inspirations  
• Behind-the-scenes stories of arranging Monty Python’s music  
• Discussion on the spontaneity and adaptability in jazz and composition  
• Personal anecdotes featuring notable figures in Altman’s career  
• Reflections on legacy, collaboration, and life lessons learned  
• Altman’s emphasis on creativity and its universal appeal

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening!

Speaker 2:

Welcome to another episode of the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, the storytelling show that features the Clearing, where all good questions come to get asked and all good stories come to be told, and where all my guests have two things in common they're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare and a cake. So it's all to play for. So, yes, welcome to the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me. Chris Grimes, are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin Boom. Ladies and gentlemen, min, min, min, min, min. Welcome to an extremely auspicious halcyon days day in good listening to show clearing.

Speaker 2:

It is my absolute delight, joy and privilege to welcome john altman, who is a music industry colossus. You were introduced to me by richard selwyn barnett, who is known of his own volition and, I agree, the emperor of connections. I got recently got introduced to you and you were a legend from the get-go because and I'm about to blow some really happy oxygenated smoke at you you've actually arranged all of the music historically that Monty Python did. So you go way back when to being the arranger of the Monty Python music, including and I must say a little bit of we came out when I realised this always look on the bright side of life which you arranged with Eric Idle. So you were already a legend. And then when I met you, and then you said yes to being in the show, I went away. And then when I went to Wikipedia, a little bit more, we came out because I was just astounded at what a colossus you are.

Speaker 2:

I will let you speak in a minute, but you were their hot chocolate musical director. You've worked with Fleetwood Mac, van Morrison, rod Stewart and on saxophone with Jimi Hendrix, bob Marley, the list goes on and on and on, and even on your LinkedIn profile that I will invite people to look at your QR code about further down the line. You're actually there in your banner picture playing the saxophone, and on saxophone is you. But you've got Amy Winehouse there, who I have since learned you helped break into the music industry. So, john Altman, that's the end of the rather frenetic happy smoke being blown at you, but I'm very, very happy to have you here.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. Thank you, I'm very pleased to be here, but I think you've said it all. I can't.

Speaker 2:

That's not the end. We do have time for more.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And, of course, your connection to Monty Python was really, really exciting, because they are my absolute favourites and Michael Palin is my all-time comic living hero. Stan Laurel back in the day. Had I ever had the privilege to meet him, I'd have loved to have done that too, but I love the fact that you're, if I may say, besties with Sir Michael Palin as well, so it's really exciting to have you here.

Speaker 3:

Well, it's, yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean I think I mentioned to you as well, I was very friendly with stan laurel's daughter, which is yes reasonably close. Lois laurel yes, yes, which was wonderful actually.

Speaker 2:

Uh, she was lovely yes, and just looking at your background as well, just before I get you on the open road and curate you through which is going to be my deep delight through the structure of the good listening to show, which I'll contextualize in a second. Just Just behind you, you've got many, many well, they look like they're silver, gold, platinum discs on the wall. Would you like to just talk us through where you're sat today?

Speaker 3:

I'm in my study, I mean I'm at my desk, which conveniently faces the wall of shame, which conveniently faces the wall of shame.

Speaker 2:

Well, the wall of glory, more like.

Speaker 3:

Well, yes, yes and yeah. I mean I'm very lucky that a lot of the record work I did, and some of the film work obviously, was so popular.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

So yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean honestly. I will show everyone the Wikipedia page at the end as well. But if you Google John Altman, that's where you go. But also you do have a namesake John Altman, who was Nick Cotton in EastEnders.

Speaker 3:

Well, I always thought it was John Altman, before he was.

Speaker 2:

You were, because he was called John Clarkson Stewart and I think he must have Wikipedia'd you and then changed his name probably.

Speaker 3:

Probably. I mean, we've been friends for over 35 years actually, um, but he told me that, uh, when he joined Equity there was, um, he had to change his name because there was a John Stewart in Equity. Yeah, he was a fan of Robert Altman, the director director, so he thought I'll call myself John Altman. And the funny thing was that, having done that, we found we were working on things together and I couldn't. When I appeared in Hear my Song, the movie, I couldn't be John Altman because he already was.

Speaker 2:

So so much for that be yourself, because everyone else is taken.

Speaker 3:

There's two of you and you're both taken, so I had to be my full name with my middle names. You know which is quite nice. So, in equity, not that I I can act or have ever tried to act ever again. Yeah, I, I have a four, four handled name. You know which is. I'd like to think, possibly why I never get recast because I can't get through the whole name.

Speaker 2:

And in fact on Wikipedia it doesn't say what your middle names are. I know you were born on the 5th of December 1949, but for a million points, no extra cash attached. But what are your middle names, please, john?

Speaker 3:

Well, they're quite interesting. I guess they are Neville Rufus. I'm not sure where Rufus came from. You know, I thought that was what you called a dog, but well, maybe.

Speaker 2:

I am Neville Rufus. I like that. So is that a family name within the Altman squad?

Speaker 3:

The initials are JNR, which is very handy because I'm junior, you know. But at school I sat next to a Jonathan Trevor Rufus, which was very interesting.

Speaker 2:

We're still friends as well. Jonathan Trevor Rufus, did you say?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yes, so there was a level Rufus and a Jonathan Trevor Rufus side by side.

Speaker 2:

And I've just heard something quirky Apparently, a really good, really good password. Old people technology we can never remember passwords. Apparently it's one of your middle names, and where you were first, uh, where you first lived is a really good sort of password if you can't think of anything oh, right so there's a bit of test there.

Speaker 2:

No, we won't. We're not here to give away passwords. What we are here to do, what I'm delighted to say, you've given me permission to curate you through what's called a legacy life reflections, as you rather comment. You said about 20 minutes ago, you were given a lifetime achievement award.

Speaker 3:

About 19 years ago I was in 2006, which is slightly worrying, because when you get a lifetime achievement award, you actually think right, that's, it's it, you know, out to pasture goodbye. So I'm pretty pleased that 19 years later, I'm still here.

Speaker 2:

And I'm very pleased too. So now it's my great delight and joy to curate you through the Good Listening To show. Seen the show before. This is the show in which I invite movers, makers, shakers, mavericks, influencers and also personal heroes into a clearing or serious happy place of my guests, choosing as they all share with us their stories of distinction and genius. And we're doing a legacy life reflections special series strand today, which is to curate my guests through a journey, uh, where we, we, you know record a story for posterity, because it's a rich story and a glorious career that you have had. So, um, any questions before we get you on the open road of the structure, john?

Speaker 3:

no, let's, uh, let's go for it. And um part of my life being a jazz musician, um I love to improvise, so wherever it goes, I happy to go there.

Speaker 2:

Let's jazz and riff on together, which is fantastic. So also thank you for saying that we're also going to texture in some music as we go, because why? Of course we should, because of your legacy of wonderful music curation. And we're going to end and I can't thank you enough. The last track we will texture in is Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.

Speaker 3:

With my whistle. Yes, it's very nice track. We will texture in is always look on the bright side of life.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so on the track. Yes, we'll get on to that, but you actually whistle in.

Speaker 3:

It's your whistle yes, I'm the one that I can hear.

Speaker 2:

Love that and and how's your whistling nowadays? Because our lips, as we get older, do thin out a bit, don't they?

Speaker 3:

I mean, it's sporadic, sometimes it sounds wonderful and sometimes, when it's on demand, it's terrible. People look at you and think you know well, how could you have whistled on that? But, believe it or not, at one time I whistled the ITV weather forecast music.

Speaker 3:

Go you music go you, yeah, for about a year. Um, they, they asked me to write something for uh, you know the logo and they wanted it sort of jolly and happy and the reference track was the thing I did in hear my song, which I also whistled and did john altman come back to you about trying to whistle the eastenders theme tune, or did that never happen?

Speaker 3:

No, that never happened. We have done gigs together in the past, okay, and they've always been billed as John Altman presents John Altman, but we never say which one is presenting which one.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I think you're not exactly twins if you put yourself next to each other. So I think we can differentiate.

Speaker 3:

You're not exactly twins if you put yourself next to each other, so I think we can differentiate. No, I mean, I put a wonderful band together for the 50th anniversary of my university and it was my throwback to my university days. I would have an all-star band at the festivals and these would include people like Peter Green and John Martin, and you know I mean high-end people. So I put together this band with Paul Jones and Manfred Mann and all kinds of wonderful musicians and it was John Altman's All-Stars. And I got the other, John Altman, to come down and walk on stage when they announced the All-Stars. I think it raised a laugh. I think half the people there had never seen television so they weren't aware of the joke. But he came on and then I came on. It was fun.

Speaker 2:

And just my last riff on Whistle While you Work. I know you're not quite old enough to have done Whistle While you Work, which is the Snow White Disney version.

Speaker 3:

No, no, I have played it with my jazz group, though.

Speaker 2:

Boom. This is going to keep on giving. So it's now my pleasure to curate you through the structure. There's going to be a clearing, a tree, a lovely juicy storytelling exercise called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. There's going to be some alchemy, some gold, a couple of random squirrels, a cheeky bit of shakespeare, a golden baton, the cake. So it's all to play for so energetically. First of all, it's all set within a clearing. So, john altman, composer, musician, arranger, saxophonist, colossus of the music industry, where is what is a clearing for you? Where, would you say, your serious happy place is?

Speaker 3:

Probably Brighton or Epping Forest, I guess, both of which are very close to me and mean a lot to me. I went to university in Brighton and I've kept my links there for over 50 years, and I'm surrounded by Epping Forest, so what could be better?

Speaker 2:

I'm about to arrive with a tree, either on Brighton seafront or in Epping Forest, and of the two it's up to you. I've got an instinct where a tree would most belong and fit the clue's in the title of the forest. But we don't have to do that. So where would you like me to arrive? A bit Waiting For Godot-esque existentially with a tree.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I mean Epping Forest, obviously, I think. Funnily enough, I met a friend in Brighton the other day who was complaining that there are no trees anywhere inside along the seafront, so it might have been a nice idea to stick one in there, I don't know rather than some of the strange things that they put on the Brighton seafront.

Speaker 2:

And I know that Sherwood Forest has a reputation of being fairly pants. Nowadays, there's not so much of foliage that you can hide Robin Hood and his squad in. How's Epping Forest doing?

Speaker 3:

It's much the same. It's much the same as it was when Queen Elizabeth galloped through here to a hunting lodge. So yeah, it's lovely.

Speaker 2:

Oh, now I've got wonderful horses, hooves, galloping through Epping Forest. As I arrive with a tree in Epping Forest Thank you for choosing that as your clearing and now I shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. How do you like these apples? And now you're going to interpret 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You've had five minutes, john Altman, to have thought about four things that have shaped you, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention. And that's where the film up inspires. Oh squirrels, what are your monsters of distraction? And then the one is a quirky or unusual fact about you. We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us. It's not a memory test, I'm just laying out the stall, so could you please now interpret the shaking of the canopy of your tree as you see fit well, I mean, so many things have shaped me.

Speaker 3:

Um, I my, obviously my family, who are all very, very well-known musicians. So I basically grew up in a house where family friends were people like judy garland and karma miranda and frank sinatra and jack Sinatra and Jack Benny and Bob Hope and Danny Kaye sorry, I'm just winding my mouth back up again yes, one of my, my youngest uncle, was the conductor at the London Palladium when I was born and for the first few years and as far as I knew, you know this is what people had.

Speaker 3:

You know, they had Danny Kay k coming around and sitting in the front room, or jack benny coming around and, uh, he used to put black boot polish on his ball patch who did jack? Benny did yes and he would lean back against the anti-macassars that were a feature of 1940s Britain. My mother would go mad because the black boot polish wouldn't come off in the watch.

Speaker 2:

The what-y Macassars, the who-gy-ma-what, the anti-Macassars.

Speaker 3:

You know the white things that used to be on the back of sofas.

Speaker 2:

Ah, wow, gosh, I've not heard that. Yes, just say it one more time. I'm reincorporating deliberately there A what, antimacasta, antimacasta.

Speaker 3:

Yes, it seems to have gone out of fashion very much.

Speaker 2:

Not least because your mum was always moaning about Jack Benny.

Speaker 3:

Jack Benny and his ball patch. Yes.

Speaker 2:

So everyone the world loved Jack Benny, but except your mum who was always stressed about her Antimacasta. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Well, you know, one evening my uncle brought Danny Kaye around after the Palladium and they were playing records till four in the morning and making a racket. I don't know.

Speaker 2:

Do you know what my childhood is? Steeped in Tubby, the Tuba, yes, yes, and the Licky Fiddle was one of the ways that he would say the licking fiddle, which was totally unique to him.

Speaker 3:

Well they were. I mean they were making a racket, you know, till four in the morning, being a bit boisterous, I guess. Yes, the neighbor came up, knocked on the door. Very irascible, you have to stand down, sleep. How dare you? You know I need to work, et cetera, et cetera. My mother said oh, I'm really sorry, my brother bought Danny Kaye round last night, danny Kaye, and you didn't call us.

Speaker 2:

Can you imagine the likes of trying to tell Frank Sinatra to keep the noise down? Oi, frankie, shut it. Trying to get some sleep here, love that.

Speaker 3:

My Frank Sinatra story, which is quite amusing. He obviously was at the London Palladium with my uncle conducting and he said to my uncle, is your brother playing anywhere? And he said, well, yeah, he's at the Café de Paris or the Suivi or one of those nightclubs. He said can we go and see him? So they went and of course there was a big hoo-ha when Fred Sinatra walked in. Oh, look, look, everybody look. And Sinatra walked right up to the bandstand and said to my uncle well, have I got enough experience for you yet? Oh, wow.

Speaker 3:

Sid didn't have a clue what he was talking about, you know. Obviously he recognized him but had no idea. But Sid had gone to New York in 1937 to lead a band and he auditioned singers. And one of the singers he auditioned was Frank Sinatra. Good grief, he said come back when you've had a bit more experience.

Speaker 2:

Well, he certainly did it his way. That was a lot of comebacks.

Speaker 3:

I forgot that, you know that was the point of that evening, you know. But he stayed very friendly with the family. I never really met him, but I knew Frank Jr, yes, who told me some interesting stories.

Speaker 2:

And just go back a step. Sid's second name was what? Sorry, Because it wasn't Altman Sid Phillips.

Speaker 3:

My mother was Phillips, so Sid Fritz and Walt Phillips were her brothers.

Speaker 2:

That's a lovely sort of riff on a segue into a Frank Sinatra story. There we're going to be peppering and texturing in music as we go through. This sounds like a sort of good place to maybe texturing the first of the tracks.

Speaker 3:

So have you got any instinct yet about what track we'd like to text you in? I, I actually, yes, I would like to put in my band accompanying, uh, harold nicholas of nicholas brothers simply the greatest dancers of the last century. Everybody knows. If they don't know their names, they probably know the dance routine in Stormy Weather where they run up the stairs and jump over each other, or when they run up the wall in the Glenn Miller film.

Speaker 3:

And I did a film called Funny Bones, a wonderful movie which starred Jerry Lewis who bizarrely took a liking to me which I don't think he did to many people, and he would crack all his jokes at me and he would, you know, little aside, very funny, and we, actually we hung out quite a lot, which is bizarre. But there was a casting of a Las Vegas entertainer and I was very friendly with Harold Nicholas and I thought, well, that would be perfect for him because he was a Las Vegas entertainer. Actually, I got him the part. The problem, well, it wasn't a problem, but he was aging quite a bit, although he's probably I'm probably older than he was now. But he came in to sing Beyond the Sea, which again was my idea with my big band and he couldn't remember any of the words. And the director was looking at me, you know, thinking how on earth are we going to do this? I said, don't worry, we'll write them all out on the card and he'll sing them, which he did brilliantly. Yeah, and that's the recording I like to play to finish the story. When we filmed, he was playing the Master of Ceremonies at the nightclub, yeah, and he had to introduce the actor Oliver Platt, to come on and do a stand-up routine.

Speaker 3:

That bombed. So the only problem was that Harold was about a foot shorter than Oliver Platt and also Harold couldn't remember his lines. So Peter Chelsom, the director, very, very clever man, rigged up an earpiece and fed him all the lines. So he would say please welcome, please welcome, the, the one and only the one, and only tommy forks, tommy forks. And then harold had to move in to adjust the microphone because he was shorter. So peter went, move into the mic, harold, and harold went. Move into the mic, harold. And Harold went. Move into the mic, harold. Oh, that's me. It was wonderful it was a great moment.

Speaker 3:

But I mean the performance he does of Beyond the Sea is absolutely marvellous and I enjoy nothing more than sort of recreating that Frank Sinatra, Nelson Riddle type sound, you know. So that's an example of it, where we took the shape of the Bobby Darin version of Beyond the Sea but I spiced it up and rewrote the backing.

Speaker 2:

So just tee up the song again that we're going to text you in.

Speaker 3:

It's Beyond the Sea by Harold Nicholas with my big band.

Speaker 1:

Somewhere beyond the sea, somewhere waiting for me, my lover stands on golden sands and watches the ships that go sailing Somewhere beyond the sea. She's there watching for me. If I could fly like birds on high, then, straight to her arms, I'd go sailing. It's far beyond the stars. It's there beyond the moon. I know beyond a doubt my heart will lead me there soon. We'll meet beyond the shore. We kiss just as before, happy. We'll be beyond the sea and never again I'll go sailing. I know beyond a doubt my heart will meet me there soon. We'll meet, we'll meet. We'll meet beyond the shore. We'll kiss just as before Happy. We'll be beyond the sea and never again I'll go sail. Sail, go sailing.

Speaker 3:

Ha.

Speaker 2:

Boom, gorgeous texturing in. And what year was that recorded?

Speaker 3:

That would be 1994.

Speaker 2:

Perfect first segue of music. We're still in the canopy of your tree, shakering what shaped you.

Speaker 3:

This is lovely in any case but anything else about shaping and things that have shaped you. John Altman, yes, I again going back to my early years, to the family. Um, I guess I must have been about three years old and my parents loved music, but they weren't particularly I don't like to say they weren't musically aware, because they were. I mean, my mother played stride piano and had been friendly with Fats, waller and people like that before the war and Coleman Hawkins, but we had a pile of 78, which I still have, a 78 RPM record. Yeah, and in those days again I'm going back to the early 50s you didn't hear much music. You know, television sort of was a couple of hours in the evening and then, that sort of potter's wheel and a test car.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the light program maybe would have a dance band once a week and that was it. And there was no access to, you know, hearing music particularly. So I discovered the 78s and I started playing them at three years old. I don't remember my parents playing them, but I certainly did. And once I worked out the gramophone how it worked, I never distinguished what I was listening to. So I could be listening to Kelton Basie or Duke Ellington, and then I'd be listening to how Much Is that Doggie in the Window? Or Bill Haley and the Comets or something like that, and then Borodin's Second Symphony. I never made any distinction. It's like I like this, I like this, I like that, I like that. So basically my musical eclecticism was formed at that young age, before I actually knew what I was listening to.

Speaker 2:

And by this time I know you first learned to piano, but when did you pick up a saxophone?

Speaker 3:

I got the first saxophone at the age of 12. Yeah, and I'd already given up piano lessons at 11. I never took music O-level. I've not had a formal arranging lesson, conducting lesson, saxophone lesson nothing, completely self-taught.

Speaker 2:

The true maverickness of that. I mean that's a total one of a kind Insane yes.

Speaker 3:

It's insane. I mean, if I met the 20-year-old me, I like to play the saxophone. I never was an arranger, I never thought about. Although I'd composed little piano pieces when I was seven, I never thought I'm going to compose. I certainly never conducted an orchestra or thought I would orchestra, or thought I would.

Speaker 2:

Yes, later on I know we're going to get on to how you suddenly stumbled upon being the music arranger for monty python, because that was again about being in the right place at the right time and a sort of all of it yeah, I mean what?

Speaker 3:

what would happen would be I would be playing saxophone with someone and they would say, um, yeah, can you write an arrangement? And I'd go well, yeah, I guess so, and I would put something together, and the odds were that they liked it more than what they had, which is what happened with hot chocolate. They weren't 100 sold on the arrangements that they had on their records. Yeah, because Mickey Most had a very, very good arranger, a jazz arranger. Yeah, and they the charts, were very jazzy and they wanted to be like the Ohio Players, or Call them the Gang, you know, they wanted to be a funk band. Yeah, so I rewrote the arrangements to be funkier. Yes, they loved them, you know.

Speaker 2:

So, boom, I'm an arranger, and that's how it continued you know, and the jazz through line, just saying yes to everything and just riffing and jazzing all your life is an incredible way to texture in the sort of hindsight of the career. Oh, 100%.

Speaker 3:

I mean I was doing things that didn't seem unusual to me but to me, looking back, I can't imagine how I did them because I started doing takedowns for the BBC. I should explain. A takedown is or was in the days when TV variety existed, american mainly American artists would come over and they wouldn't bring any music but they had to sing live on, say, the Two Ronnys or Seaside Special or Marty Cain Show or something like that. So the record company or the BBC would send me a cassette of the song no, no music, no top line, no cheap music, nothing. And I would listen to the cassette and I would write down what I heard on the cassette and then adapt it to say the two ronnie's or russell, hardy or parkinson or something like that, yeah and um.

Speaker 3:

I got to work with a lot of people in that bizarre way, like Don Williams, the stylistic, telly Sabellis, who I wound up as his musical director and conductor, and I didn't see anything unusual in this. But obviously it's something that not many people could do to actually listen to a cassette and say, oh, yeah, the bass is doing this. And this is without slowing it down, it's a computer program that tells you what's going on or being able to hear it back.

Speaker 2:

And was your reputation about just how quickly you could turn that around. Is that where it came from?

Speaker 3:

I'd get a day to do it, you know. Oh, they arrive on Thursday.

Speaker 1:

Could you have it?

Speaker 3:

ready and I've never said no, I can't. You know that's too quick yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's the gift of jazz, just saying yes and riffing and just improvising.

Speaker 3:

Really. Yes, I don't know how I discovered that I could do it. That's the hard thing, I mean. Obviously, the first time I got asked to do it, I did it and that generated more, but why the first time I was able to do it, rather than throw my hands up and go look, I haven't got a clue what's going on. I could hear what was going on and that was my trick.

Speaker 2:

And it's such an idiosyncratic path If you try to prescribe your career trajectory to someone in your wake or to say can I do what you do? You've just ended up in the right place at the right time with the right ears.

Speaker 3:

I've told people, when I do masterclasses and go to colleges and there are people who are studying and want to be film composers, for example, how do I do it? And I said, well, you've got to be like me, you've got to join the top pop group in the country and then take down stuff off records, then go and arrange, you know, have some hit records and go and go and work for another composer on a film and he can't cut the mustard and they ask you to do it and you say, okay, agree with the guy who hired me in the first place, and off I go. And that's been the story of how I did it.

Speaker 2:

Which, by the way, is why I just spontaneously described you as a colossus of the music industry when I looked at Wikipedia, because Monty Python was enough of a hook to gosh what a legend. And then the legends just kept on giving ever since then. So you know, this is amazing. Thank you so much. Right place at the right time.

Speaker 3:

You know, I can't claim, I mean there were people just as good as me who were doing stuff, absolutely, but I just happened to be there or thereabouts, you know, and I came off the road. I toured with Ben Morrison in 79. Yeah, and I was really starting to get a lot of commercials and TV work and TV drama and I just went, well, look, that's it, I'm not going to do that anymore. Tour around, yeah, I didn't, you know. I mean I, that was the end of my touring. I did small tours with like alison moye or bjork, or, yes, shh.

Speaker 1:

Shh, it's oh so quiet. Shh Shh, it's oh so still. Shh Shh, you're all alone, shhh, shhh, and so peaceful until you fall in love. Sinful, the sky up above sinful, it's caving in. You've never been so nuts about a guy. The bomb same thing is caving in. Wow, wow. You've never been so nuts about a guy. You wanna love, you wanna cry, you crush your heart and hope to die Till it's over. And then, shh Shh, it's nice and quiet.

Speaker 2:

Shh, shh. But. And also there's the Alec Jones walking in the air, which is again so eclectic and different.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, that came about in a funny way, because we were doing a commercial for Toys R Us. Gosh dates me.

Speaker 2:

We being what you and Alec, who's the we that were doing the oh?

Speaker 3:

we, my company, I was signed to Jeff Wayne and I would write commercials for him. Yeah, so I got approached to do Walking in the Air, which Howard Blake had written for the Snowman, but Howard's contract prescribed him from doing any other work with it, which is weird, you know, but that wasn't what it was. He wasn't allowed to do something else on tv. So it got offered to me and I put it together and I'd never met alan and they sent him along to the studio and he could. I guess he was really nervous. We decided to make a record at the same time, which was very sensitive, yeah, but he couldn't remember how it went. I think was the first time he'd been in the proper studio, you, you know. So I wound up standing next to him singing in Forfetto, line by line, and then he sang it and then I did the next line and I'm not telling tales out of school, because if you read his autobiography, that's in there.

Speaker 2:

So we're still in the shaking of your tree. May I ask, ask, did you get on well with Van Morrison as well, because he was famous for getting quite sort of brutal with musicians he would. He got on fantastically.

Speaker 3:

I mean, when I'd met him in 1974 and we sort of got very friendly and we jammed together occasionally. We didn't play together in public till 77 we did a TV. We sort of got very friendly and we jammed together occasionally. We didn't play together in public till 77. We did a TV show, yeah. And then in 78, late 78, he called me and said I'm going to go on the road, will you be the arranger? And you know, put the lawn section together. And what he said to me was do whatever you like, you know, just tell me when to come in. So I sort of spruced up what was going on. You know, he was also great, very encouraging. Errol Brown as well, yeah, yeah, we traveled in his Cadillac, in the green Cadillac, to all the gigs. So we talked a lot and he was very, very encouraging. And even after I left and I was successful in movies, he, he, his daughter, was music college and he said oh, I keep instancing you, you know, as the example of what you should become.

Speaker 2:

Oh, how lovely. Well, it's a marvellous night for a moon dance, all of that Lovely, Splendid. So we could be on to three things. Well, you may be doing the inspirations anyway now, but three things that inspire you. So so far we've had four things that have shaped you and then three things that inspire you now.

Speaker 3:

Things that inspire me uh, great music. Uh, great cricketer and um, like I guess the third one, let me think I mean great, I think great movies. Yes, I'm bizarrely. I I'm bizarrely, I mean, I always loved film before I even got involved in it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

But as film rather than as a musician. You know, yeah, when I came back to London to do a PhD, which I never finished, You're too busy working.

Speaker 3:

I got an honorary doctorate. So, yes, thank you. No worries, david, but I took a job. Well, it wasn't really a job, it was a part-time thing of putting together stuff for the BFI, and so I put together seasons of British musicals of the 30s and I was going to write a book about it all. But my biggest achievement I think claim to fame achievement was I was watching some hideously bad British musicals from the 30s all day in a little screening theater in Great Russell Street that the BFI had.

Speaker 3:

I don't know if they've still got it, but I packed up to go and the projectionist and his assistant were getting really busy, like you know, bring in sandwiches and I casually said what's going on here? Later he said we can't tell you, so that immediately you know. Hello, hello, yes. I said oh, really. He said no, because it can't get out, but stick around and you'll see. And I said look, I've had a day of it, you know I'm going home, I've had enough. And he said look, I promise you Stick around your while to stick around. So I stuck around. What it was was Charlie Chapman and his whole family watching Limelight that hadn't been screened for 30 years, plus Claire Bloom and Robert Vaughan and a couple of others, and I'm lurking at the back.

Speaker 2:

As a new sort of part-time projectionist. Part-time projectionist.

Speaker 3:

I mean Chaplin, for example, was doing a running commentary through the film. So when Buster Keaton comes on with him, all he was saying and there was a story at the time that I read in books that he cut Keaton's scene to ribbons and he hated it, big ego All he was saying was watch Buster, watch what Buster does, watch Buster Totally different, of course. You know, no cameras, no anything. My father's got his autograph. I shook his hand, but I didn't ask for an autograph, which I should have done, but I didn't have anything with me. You know it was like will you sign this receipt or something I don't know.

Speaker 2:

The sort of jazz riff of your life is really extraordinary. You've described so many spontaneous instances of just jazz riffing, but this is it.

Speaker 3:

This is what my life has been. You know, being in a certain place and suddenly found that I'm, I don't know, writing the James Bond music or winning a BAFTA or winning an Emmy. It's like, oh okay, thank you, Thanks very much. Thanks very much. That's how it's done, isn't it Wow?

Speaker 2:

And again, you can't prescribe it because you've just ended up there.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I mean, hear my Song was basically the first film that I scored and got credit for, and I won the Esquit Award. So I thought, well, you just do a film and you get an award.

Speaker 2:

You're just a name Gosh. Any more inspirations? Or are we now on to the two monsters of distraction? Your two squirrels Well. More inspirations. Or are we now on to the two monsters of distraction? Your two squirrels, well the inspirations.

Speaker 3:

I mean I think you've, you know, hit the nail on the head with personalities and meeting and interacting with them, you know, and they've all been inspirational for me, you know, whether it's been michael palin, as we said, or amy winehouse, or bob marley, or um, awesome wells, or, you know, mel tolme, people I've admired and then I've got to work with, yes, or I've got to work with and then discovered I, you know, wow, you know, I did that. Nick drake, you know, become a legend. I, or I've got to work with and then discovered I, you know, wow, you know, I did that. Nick drake, you know, become a legend. I mean, I've played with him in the front room, john martin's flat, many times. Who knew, you sort of know that, and it's continued to today. I mean, cynthia eriva was our backing vocalist for years.

Speaker 2:

And I picture you always walking around with a saxophone case. Is that the case or not? Pretty near the mark, yes, gosh, extraordinary. So a wandering minstrel who just keeps wandering into all the right places at the right time in the right place in history, yeah, I mean, do they call you a wandering minstrel? Even?

Speaker 3:

going back to late 60s, early 70s. I would roll up at gigs with my saxophone and I wasn't booked or anything. But I would say, oh, you know, can I play? I'm a friend of so-and-so or I know so-and-so, and they'd always say yes, and in those days there were no minders or managers or backstage dressing rooms. The band, whoever they might be, fleetwood Mac or whatever would be at the bar. So you'd go up to them and say, oh, you know, I'm a friend of so-and-so, can I play? Oh, yeah, yeah, great. And if you played one song and you were terrible, they'd say thank you very much, clear off. And if they liked you, they'd say, oh, stay for the whole evening and come next Sunday.

Speaker 2:

And I can't imagine many people have told you to clear off. Nobody actually ever has. I love that.

Speaker 3:

I mean, I mean, there must be some new tongue music to disappear.

Speaker 2:

I can't imagine that happening. Okay, now, then, I believe we could be on to. This is inspired by the film Up, where the dog goes, oh squirrels. So what never fails to be monsters of distraction, sometimes called shiny object syndrome, what never fails to distract you whatever else is going on in your very eclectic life first of all, hearing music anywhere, any music.

Speaker 3:

Having said it early on, you know, when I was a kid, I never heard music. I can't unhear music now, you know. And that means walking into a Lyft or a supermarket.

Speaker 2:

Oh, you're including Lyft music. I love that. That's still music. I hear it, I mean.

Speaker 3:

I've heard my own music played in the Lyft and there was a wonderful routine. I think it might have been. Jackie Mason did a lovely routine about Lyft music. You know, you've got music, you've got lovely lighting. I put a table in there, I invited my girlfriend, we had a dinner. But it's true, what is the point of music in the lift? The bane of my life is music on hold, because most of it is either appalling. But my last doctor's surgery, music on hold, you know, because most of it is either appalling but my last doctor's surgery had some wonderful jazz piano but you only got like the first 32 bars over and over again. And I was thinking, for God's sake, you know, resolve this.

Speaker 2:

Resolve. Yes, that's your idea of purgatory.

Speaker 3:

I don't doubt, same 32 bars repeated. I know it's terrible, but I'm I, you know, I still love good books, I love good music. I'm, I'm always distracted by, you know, 1940s film noir, or yeah, it's straight away, you know. Wow, you know, got to watch that.

Speaker 2:

Love that. And now a quirky or unusual fact about you, John Altman, You've been giving these anyway, but a quirky or unusual fact about you? We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us, Gosh that's a tricky one.

Speaker 3:

What can I think of? There are a few. I'm trying to think of something bizarre. Give me a second.

Speaker 2:

You can come back to Jack Benny's Anti-Macassars if you like. No one's ever said that before. But anyway, sorry, I'm interrupting you.

Speaker 3:

No, no. Oh well, something not many people would know was that my first stage appearance was at the age of three. My mother always insisted it was with Judy Garland, but I don't think it was was with Judy Garland, but I don't think it was. The story is that I was backstage at the Palladium my uncle was conducting for Judy Garland. I ran out on stage and said it's okay, uncle, you have a rest, I'll conduct the orchestra To much hilarity and mirth. Love that. Unfortunately, looking at the photos, Judy Garland is on stage and my uncle's in the pit with a light on him. But looking at the pictures of Betty Hutton, she is on stage with the band and I think it was Betty Hutton and the date match. So my first stage appearance was with Betty Hutton at the London Palladium.

Speaker 2:

That's a cool, quirky fact right there. Okay, we have shaken your tree, john Altman Hurrah, in the structure, we've got the clearing in the tree so far. Now we're going to stay in the clearing which is in Epping Forest Epping Forest, just reminding ourselves before our technical glitch. And now we're staying in the clearing, moving away from the tree. We're going to talk about alchemy and gold. Now, when you're at purpose and in flow, what are you absolutely happiest doing and what you're here to reveal to the world?

Speaker 3:

I'm incredibly happy playing music with my big band. I'm incredibly happy writing music, particularly that eureka moment when I find the voice, for example, of a movie that I'm working on and then everyone agrees that that's correct. You know, that's something that you also have to go through with film students and say, look, you know, it's a collaborative thing. You have to be prepared for people to say, could you change that? So I mean I used to love, I mean I still do. You know the idea that I can go somewhere and pull out the saxophone and play it could be with people I've never met in my life in a country where I don't actually speak the same language as the people I'm playing with, and that still thrills me.

Speaker 2:

Yes Music transgressing all language barriers, absolutely, totally Reversing. Yes Music, just transgressing all language barriers, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

Totally.

Speaker 2:

Reversing. Yes, lovely answer. And now I'm going to award you with a cake, john Altman. So do you like cake? First of all? I do, yes, I do. And what cake would you like? I'll have a sponge cake. I think I like sponge cake.

Speaker 3:

There's a sponge cake.

Speaker 2:

There's joke when sponge rammed in an elevator. I don't know if you've seen that I like sponge cake. Anyway, I like sponge cake, I would say a chocolate cake, but that's probably too rich okay, well, you can have.

Speaker 2:

Well, have both if you like. Have a sponge cake. No, it's too much. Okay, sponge cake. Yeah, yeah, we're talking Victoria sponge, is that right, victorian sponge? Yeah, I've got a cunning plan to be able to send people the cake of choice is one of the developments of what we're doing, so it'll be my pleasure to furnish you not in your face splotch a lipstick, but a sponge cake. Now you get to put a cherry on the cake with stuff like what's a favorite inspirational quote that's always given you sucker and pulled you you towards your future John Altman, hey.

Speaker 3:

I would be highly amusing, or highly unamusing, and I would say I'm going to speak classical Greek and I'm going to say Dio cae, filisofo, cae fuda, by HC Storius Estyn, of course you are which you would probably agree with, I think.

Speaker 2:

Definitely. I thought four times that much actually. But anyway, what's the translation?

Speaker 3:

Well, the translation is poetry is something far deeper and more philosophic than history.

Speaker 2:

And just to reincorporate, give us the Greek again. That was lovely.

Speaker 3:

Dio cae philosophoteron cae buddhoteron paesis historien estin.

Speaker 2:

In all my circa 250 episodes, no one has ever given me a Greek quote.

Speaker 3:

No, I did classical Greek and Latin at school, and that's the only thing I remember of both.

Speaker 2:

Very good, it's a perfectly good thing to remember.

Speaker 3:

It's much friendlier than surrounding the camp by nightfall, which most of the stuff was, you know. Yes, nothing get you very far in Athens these days, no.

Speaker 2:

And now, what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given, John?

Speaker 3:

Hmm, Let me think. Well, I had some advice from. It's not quite advice, but I wrote a commercial for I think it was Kraft Cheese Slices. And the director said to me correct me if I'm wrong, but the music seems to start at the beginning, goes through the whole commercial very nicely until the end when it stops, and I stood there and said do you know, that's the way I try to write music.

Speaker 2:

Which resonates so beautifully with the Monty Python thing. Of all, brontosauruses are thin at one end, very much fatter in the middle and then very thin again at the other end. That's true, and was that very helpful, that advice, not mine about brontosauruses, but his advice about the nature of your music.

Speaker 3:

Well, it was because I always tried to write music that started at the beginning and went through very nicely till the end when it dropped.

Speaker 2:

And then my mantra really yes, Before the castanet solo at the end. How fantastic oh castanets.

Speaker 3:

Oh, oh, now that's a good one. I'm doing a commercial for Help the Aged and it's Dame Sora Heard and the music is Morning has Broken, with a flute and harp and strings, lovely. I get to the studio an hour early and the client is there looking very, very worried, very worried. And I'm looking at him, I say good morning, and he sort of shrugs and I said is something wrong? You know, thinking well, it can't be anything to do with the track because there's no one here. And he said no, no, no, no, you know what you're doing. I thought, okay, there's something wrong and I said what's're doing? I thought, okay, there's something wrong and I said what's troubling you? He said, well, no, everything's great, except how loud are you going to have the castanets? You know what we're doing. I said, yeah, morning is broken flute, harp, strings, door heard. And I said there are no castanets. They went, oh, okay, and at that moment the engineer said to the tape op, try microphone number three please. And he went and I went those castanets.

Speaker 2:

And take the volume up. Whack up the volume on the castanets. Wonderful and take the volume up, whack up the volume on the castanets. Wonderful, that's brilliant. And how random. I said castanets and that fired that memory. You're, you're jazz riffing again, go you, that's my my castanet memory, I'm afraid with the gift of hindsight, what notes, help or advice might you proffer to a young version of John Altman?

Speaker 3:

I would actually say just do what you did, which is, say yes to everything. Don't be daunted, and you can do it. You know, if you want to wind up conducting the Royal Philharmonic or the London Symphony Orchestra, there's nothing to stop you. The fact that you've never done it in your life will stop you if you think about it. But if you're confident that you can pull an entire symphony orchestra along by waving your arm, go for it.

Speaker 2:

And indeed you've done that many times. You are a regular guest conductor for the Royal Philharmonic.

Speaker 3:

I was I did several films and albums with them.

Speaker 2:

We're ramping up to Shakespeare in a moment to talk about legacy and how you'd most like to be remembered, but just before we get there, this is the Pass the Golden Baton moment, please. So now you've experienced this from within. Who would you most like to pass the Golden Baton along to? Who might appreciate being given a damn good listening to in this way?

Speaker 3:

I would say my friend Richard Nile, who does what I do and has a wonderful sense of humor and comes from an incredible background as well, because his stepfather was Jesse Lasky Jr screenwriter, His father was Bing Crosby's guitarist and he is a great arranger and very witty guy who's now living in America. He arranged Slave to the Rhythm for Grace Jones. He arranged I Lost my Heart for a Star-Spangled Shed trooper. He discovered Sarah Brightman. He arranged all the Pet Shop Boys hits. He did oh like me, many, many records, and he's a funny guy, very funny guy.

Speaker 2:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to furnish me with a warm introduction to Richard Niles. Thank you, and now Shakespeare. This is a Legacy Life Reflections episode. How, when all is said and done, inspired by all the world's esteemed and all the bitter with it, merely players the seven ages of man's speech, john Altman. How, when all is said and done, would you most like to be a remembered?

Speaker 3:

Well, I had dinner a couple of weeks ago with an old friend, leo Sayer, who was in London, and he said I was with your old boss the other night talking about you and my old boss, of course, being our friend Sir Van Morrison, and I thought I hate to think what he said. So I said to him what did he say? And he said John Altman, terrific saxophone player.

Speaker 2:

I think that's nice. I love that. It's just the essence of you, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I mean and I got wonderful quotes from my book when I wrote my book from Quincy Jones and Hans Zimmer, jeff Goldblum, jeff Jostan, jean-baptiste, jim Carter and the Pythons, you know, all saying nice things. So, I think that you know I must have done something right along the way.

Speaker 2:

And we haven't really gone there with the Pythons yet. But just tell me a little bit about the story behind the story of the Pythons and how you ended up writing all the music for Monty Python.

Speaker 3:

Sorry, arranging for the the pythons and how you ended up writing all the music for Monty Python. Sorry, you arranged all the music. Yeah, I arranged a lot of the music, not all of it. There were a few of us who were working on it, but I went to a gig at the Marquee. My closest friend was a guitarist, a genius called Olly Housel, and he was playing with a band called Tempest, which was John Heisman the drummer, and I went to the marquee and they were quite loud, as a lot of the bands were in those days. So I made my way back to the bar at the back and there was Neil Innes and Neil and I started talking, and Mike McCartney, paul's brother, and John Gorman.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to be interviewing Mike McCartney at Alban Animation in a couple of weeks. Oh wonderful, yes.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, no, he's a lovely guy and I haven't seen him for years and years. I bumped into him at Superman's funeral, funnily enough. But I was at the bar, at the marquee and uh, neil and I started talking and we we vaguely known each other in the past and ollie came over and said oh, we're doing a session for monty python tomorrow. Do you want to come and play? And I idolized them and of course, in those days I'm talking 1973.

Speaker 3:

If you were lucky, you saw a repeat of the show. There were no VHSs, no videos, so they made records and the records sold. So I went down to the Workhouse Studios studios and they were making the album Matching Time Handkerchief, and I took my saxophone and they said well, actually we don't need saxophone, but why don't you do some hand claps and vocals? Which I did? You know stupid, I can still hear it on the record. But that introduced me into the circle. So then Neil called me and said would I arrange something for him? From that I just somehow became a regular part of their you know their circle of contact. Yes, so at one point I was doing simultaneously the In this Book of Records, three series Secret Policeman's Ball, both live shows the Rutles, obviously, the Beatles, spook and Life of Brian all at the same time.

Speaker 2:

And the Life of Brian segue is so beautiful because before we spoke, you said you'd let me play us out with Always Look on the Brighter Side of Life that you arranged with Eric Idle. Yeah, Also, as I know, you know, when I first first first got going with this podcast about sort of five years ago, at the top of the tree on that first day was, oh, the day I can speak to Michael Palin. We'll all know I've made it, so it's wonderful and perfect that we can play out and always look on the bright side of life. Where can we find out all about you? On the internet while I'm showing those that are watching your QR codes, John? So where can we?

Speaker 3:

find out all about John Altman on the old interweb. Well, the two best places I think are the Wikipedia is actually accurate. I didn't write it but it's pretty good and also there's a page about my autobiography. It's called Hidden man, which is published by Equinox books, yep, and there's a whole page about the book with all the quotes from Quincy Jones and Dan Zimmer and all those people and we've not spoken about Quincy Jones either, but I know in the picture that I'm now showing, the picture you sent me when I started to research you was open grief.

Speaker 2:

Look who that is. It's John Altman with Quincy Jones, who very sadly died very recently. I know.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, my hero. Yeah, and he was fantastic with me. Again, I couldn't believe that when we did the Michael Caine gala, I arranged Get a Bloomy Move On the song from the Italian job for him to sing and me to sing with the London Symphony Orchestra. How can you?

Speaker 2:

write that. You know Well, how can you write what you've described as being your life trajectory actually? Because it's just been sort of a jazz riff on steroids, yeah yeah, right place, right time.

Speaker 3:

Yes, quentin has always been very supportive of my work and everything you know, which is wonderful.

Speaker 2:

And, as I put here for those that can't see, because you're just listening, this is a QR code to John Altman's Wikipedia page and I've said prepare to be blown away, which indeed I was. I described it at the beginning as being a bit of a colossus. You're a legend within a legend who's also a legend, who's actually quite legendary, so that was really good. Um, as this has been your moment in the sunshine, in the good, listening to show at John Altman, is there anything else you'd like to say?

Speaker 3:

well, it's a pleasure being and talking about this. You know, I sort of when I wrote the book, it hit me how many things I've done, because most of my life has just been doing it, you know. So you don't really think about, oh, I did that. Oh, I did that as well. Oh, yeah, I was there, I did that. I mean the thing about writing all the commercials I wrote, not that I dismiss them, but a couple of weeks ago somebody said to me you know, oh so which't really a jingle composer? I tended to write cinematic music to people like Ridley Scott when they did commercials.

Speaker 3:

But I did do a couple of things that people might know. And I instanced B&Q that ran for years. They immediately sang it to me. And then I mentioned Sheila's Wheel that I wrote, and they immediately sang that to me. And then I mentioned Sheila's Wheel that I wrote, and they immediately sang that to me. Wow, and then I was at the BAFTAs a couple of years ago, a few years ago, and I bumped into Julie Walters and I said to her you won't remember, but I wrote a little song for you for Cuffin's Imperial Leather Shoe, and she immediately sang the whole thing, words and music, and it must have been 30 years after I did it. And I said how on earth do you remember that you know?

Speaker 2:

how can you remember it?

Speaker 3:

So you are an earworm, John Ottman she said to me that's the only song anybody ever wrote to me in my life. I'm sorry. It's such an awful song, lovely, I guess. It did what it was supposed to do. You know, it sold Cousins, imperial Leather. Where are they?

Speaker 2:

now? Yes, in fact, to do you know? It sold Cousins Imperial Leather. Where are they now? Yes, in fact I have done some work for Cousins where I think of Imperial Leather being posh soap, because it was posh soap when I was, when I grew up in Uganda. Absolutely, and very bizarrely, when I grew up in Uganda, I was best friends with Adrian Edmondson's two younger brothers because his family were expats in Uganda as well.

Speaker 2:

I hadn't seen him for years, but I saw him at the Neil Innes memorial concert that we did and I'm interviewing uh Mac McCartney uh at Ardman as part of the slapstick festival which, of course, where Neilianis was given great honor and praise by getting the sort of legend award as well fantastic brilliant, john.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for taking the well the time to be here. My real pleasure. Thank you very much. And thank you very much indeed for listening and watching too. Thank you also just to position why I've called it a legacy life reflections one. This is a I've recently bought the domain also legacy life reflection, which is in order to um, you know, wrap an episode with me offering to be the presenter for somebody near, dear or close to you to record their story for posterity, and that's my main purpose for this year. So that was me telling the audience this as well. But, john Altman, thank you so much, and we're now going to play out with Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and just tell us. That's what you arranged, isn't it?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean briefly. The story was that I was at script meetings for Life of Brian God knows why, but I was and they had no ending for the film. They just didn't know what to do. You know, whether he's going to escape, they're going to rescue him, they're going to do this, they're going to do that. So eric and terry jones went away and wrote songs and, being a group of you know, they were thrown together as a group of writers. They weren't a team, really, they were. I don't. Oh, I don't like that, oh, I'm not sure about that.

Speaker 3:

Oh, I don't know. So Eric wrote the song and he played it to them. It was just guitar and voice and it was lukewarm, I'd say. So he called me and said find out how much they need. So I rang Terry Jones and said how much do you need? He said about 20 seconds. I rang Eric back and said he said 20 seconds, eric. Unprintable response. He said let's do the whole thing. So we did the whole thing and they loved it and they could see that it was going to work. And then Eric did the voice in Tunisia. He decided Mr Chiki was the right voice because originally it was going to be all of them singing it and he overdubbed that and all the crew was singing it. So he knew he was onto something.

Speaker 2:

Another earworm, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

And there we went and it became what it became, which I wish I'd known. I whistled on the original and conducted it with Fred Tomlinson's singers, but I did another session that afternoon and I've no idea what. In my diary it just says onto studios, but I don't know what. Why did I? Why did my luxuriate in the knowledge that this was going to be, 50 years later, the highlight of everyone's life?

Speaker 2:

It's so, so iconic. Life of Brian was just so formative for me as a comedy film.

Speaker 3:

It still stands up, doesn't it?

Speaker 2:

I watched it again quite recently, yeah, and that always look on the bright side of life is just perfect and a perfect, perfect ending to this episode. Yeah, thank you so much for is just perfect and a perfect, perfect ending to this episode. Yeah, thank you so much for watching and listening. And thank you so much, john Altman, for being my very, very special guest my pleasure. Thank you for listening. I've been Chris Grimes. If you want to be in the show too, get in touch and the website for the show is thegoodlisteningtoshowcom. Thank you very much indeed, john Altman. Favourite motion deed. Good night.

Speaker 1:

But, brian, you know what they say. Some things in life are bad. They can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse. When you're chewing on life's gristle, don't grumble. Give a whistle and this'll help things turn out for the best. And always look on the bright side of life. Always look on the light side of life. If life seems jolly rotten's something you forgot, and that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing when you're feeling in the dumps. Don't be silly chumps, just purse your lips and whistle. That's the thing. Always look on the bright side of life. Come on, always look on the bright side of life, for life is quite absurd and death's the final word. You must always face the curtain with a bang. Forget about your sin. Give the audience a grin.

Speaker 3:

Enjoy it. It's your last chance, anyhow.

Speaker 1:

So always look on the bright side of death Just before you draw your terminal breath. Life's a piece of shit. When you look at it, life's a laugh and death's a joke. It's true, you'll see, it's all a show. Keep on laughing as you go. Just remember that the last laugh is on you and always look on the bright side of life. Always look on the bright side of life. Come on, don't give up. Always look on the bright side of life. Always look on the right side of life. Always look on the right side of life. Nice things happen at sea, you know. Always look on the right side of life. What have you got to lose? You know you've come from nothing. You're going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing. Always look on the right side of life. Nothing will come from nothing. You know what I say? Cheer up, you old bugger. Come on, give us a grin. There you are. See the end of the film. Incidentally, this record's available in the foyer. Always look on the right side of life.

Speaker 3:

Some of us gotta live as well, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Who do you think pays for all this rubbish? Always look on the right side of life. I told you I, who do you think pays for all this rubbish? I'll never make that money back, you know, I told you.

Speaker 2:

I said to Bernie, I said I'll never make that money back you've been listening to the Good Listening To Show with me, chris Grimes.

Speaker 2:

If you'd like to be in the show too, or indeed gift an episode to capture the story of someone else with me as your host, then you can find out how care of the series strands at the goodlistening2showcom website, and one of these series strands is called legacy life reflections. If you've been thinking about how to go about recording your life story or the life story of somebody close to you for posterity, but in a really interesting, effortless and creative way, then maybe the Good Listening To Show can help. Using the unique structure of the show, I'll be your host as together we take a trip down memory lane to record the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of either your or their life story, and then you can decide whether you go public or private with your episode. Get in touch if you'd like to find out more. Tune in next week for more stories from the clearing, and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts.