Interviews · 23 March 2018
Mike Read The full interview
Mike Read interviewed by Kevin Durham, 23 March 2018. 10m 14s on tape.
In this DJ Mike Read interview he talks about interviewing David Cassidy, Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone, trouble with Chevy Chase, Mike Read, a prominent British DJ, broadcaster, and music enthusiast, has made a significant impact on the British music scene over the past 30 years. With a diverse career spanning radio, television, and music production, Read has played a pivotal role in promoting and shaping British music culture. From his early days as a radio presenter to his contributions as a music producer and advocate, Read's influence can be seen in his championing of new talent, his dedication to preserving musical heritage, and his passion for bringing music to the masses.
What's on the tape
A transcript, made by machine from the audio and tidied up. It gets names and the odd word wrong, so treat it as a way to find the bit you want rather than as a quotation. Every timestamp jumps to that moment in the video.
0:01 someone who's actually a professional interviewer, so there's a little bit of pressure over here. A lot of pressure. A lot of pressure. I'm a really tough interviewee. Oh, right. Okay. We'll crack you. We'll track you. Tricky will get to you. Yeah. Um and and you interviewed someone pretty big, really early on. David Yeah. First day on radio. Yeah. David Cassie flew in. We became friends after that and uh did quite a bit of stuff with him. I thought that was how radio was. Uh the first day um on local radio uh our boss Neil French Blake who'd taken me on uh for three reasons. He said he said I want you on my station for three reasons. I said what? He said one you're very English. Two you're mildly eccentric. And three you're a bloody good opening bowler.
0:45 I said that's [laughter] what I do. He said I'm starting a cricket team and you're opening my bowling. Anyway on day one he tried to get all big names to go into the town center in Reading to do all the stuff with thousand. Nobody wanted to do it. Oh, no. Don't. So, you you new boy. So, I went down there and you're getting your clothes ripped off. David Cassidy flies in. The girls are screaming. I thought I love this. This is clearly what every day in radio is like. And of course, it wasn't. And how did the interview go? Was it good, didn't they? Oh, you like to think so at the time. I never like to hear them back just in case it wasn't. Uh, but of course, yeah, you always like to think they are. You get nervous when you interview certain people
1:24 or not. Have you ever Not really. No. No. Because it's not about you, it's about them. And you're the conduit. You're not the you you do hear interviewers talking a lot about themselves. And you'll try to make the other person feel comfortable. And people are different. Some people um on a salabic, so you're trying extra hard to make them feel comfortable to find something that they want to talk about. You know, you do get tricky people and you get other people that know exactly what you want and go, "Yeah, you prompt them with a story and they go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." And they come out with it. So, it's uh Yeah. Everyone's different, but you're there to to bring them out in a way or try to. Did we start bringing you up with our You've you've already brought me out. Yeah, I'm already
2:04 I'm already there. I'm up front now. I'm spilling the beans. You are the juice. The juice is running. So, given the juice is now running. Um, [clears throat] who's been the trickiest person to interview? I'll I'll give you mine if you give me yours. Okay. Uh, well, very recent. I mean, there's a promoter that brings people in from the States. So, I did Alpuccino, who was fine, but tricky. I mean, his manager said, "You'll find a real problem getting in there and uh because he just talks incessantly and okay, fine." So, I had to work a way of doing it. If Al's in the middle of a story, you [clears throat] know, and 2,000 people who pay good money, you don't want to bing, hey, we shut up. Al's telling a story. You still got to move him on, you know, otherwise it becomes one
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2:42 long story. Uh, so I thought, what can I do? So, I did the the movement. I did the movement. So, the audience didn't really notice, but he knew I wanted to get in. That worked. Um, Stallone, uh, uh, Sly Stallone was great because he knew what I wanted. And I started with a story about him, you know, everyone stood and cheered him and I said, "They're cheering you now." I said, "But we're a nation of dog lovers. You sold your dog for $50, didn't you?" He went, "What?" So, oh my god, I look at him in a different way now. Yeah. And then he um, cuz he hadn't got any money. And two weeks later, he got $400,000 for the first Rocky. Darn it. So, he went back to the guy, this it's this little guy he'd sold the uh the dog to. He said,
3:22 "Hey, I want to buy my dog back." He said, "Oh, my kids have got so attached to it." He got really attached to the dog now. And he said, "How much attached?" He said, " $2,000 attached." He paid $2,000 back for a $50 dog. And he had to give her a part in the film as well. But he was good. He knew what was wanted. Few weeks ago, I interviewed Chvy Chase. Different story. They all said They all said he was tricky. And I got hammered for it. I got really hammered on social media for it. And uh he thought it was great. He thought it was great. We couldn't hear each other. The sound at Hammersmith was appalling. It was appalling. We were just guessing what each other was saying on stage. It was on stage. Yeah. Three Three and a half thousand people.
4:02 Uh and it was really tricky. He There were several questions that he wanted was set in stone. I I want to be asked these questions. Okay, fine. You must ask these questions. Okay. And each question, each of those questions that was asked, he blanked. He totally blanked them. Okay. So, he's hanging you out to dry. So, you're trying to find a way, you're trying to talk of him about uh writing for Mad Magazine, which he did in the early days. Not much. Talking about the films, not much. Okay. We're talking about the vacation films, big films, a little bit, not much. Beforehand, he was writing down the names of his leading ladies. I must remember them. Oh, no. [laughter] No. So, there was something wrong somewhere. Um, and then we're talking about his his Fletch films. Didn't get much from and I talking about some
4:46 of his ancestors cuz two of his ancestors went over on the Mayflower and two of his ancestors were New York Mayers. One used to own 30,000 acres in New Jersey. Now, if I said that to somebody like Stallone, they'd go, "Oh, if only I had that now, 30,000 acres." But he didn't. He sort of blanked it. And the questions he wanted, he then blanked. So, he he enjoys hanging the interview out to dry of it. It's a bit like a politician in a way. Although they do obey, [clears throat] they do. It was tricky, but he seemed to enjoy it. Um, and at the end I thought, well, I'll let him take the applause. Ed, you know, um, Charlie Chase walked off to applaud them back. He chucked the mic on here, bounced on the floor. That in it was me storming off and him
5:25 throwing the mic on the floor. So, that was that was the weirdest interview that I've ever done. And everyone said, "Oh, you're terrible car crash interview." But the two TVs he done here were a car crash as well. They were both I mean a lot of a lot of people in the states won't work with him for that reason. But I thought well all I can do is ask him the questions but of course it's your fault because everyone knows oh you know you're rubbish you know but you know if he says I want those questions you think he's going to answer them and he doesn't if the talent is off with you with your questions you've got no yeah nowhere to go. Yeah nowhere to go. So it's uh it is tricky. So you're doing a lot of talking because he's not. And if
6:03 he was saying oh you're talking about yourself a lot. No, I'm trying to find a route to market here, you know. Really? Absolutely. Yeah. And you got a new radio station launching quite soon, right? We have United DJs in the wake of United Artists 100 years ago with Charlie Chaplain, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pigford. Uh they didn't want the restrictions and and and conrict of studios saying this is what we want. We want format stuff. Radios have become a bit like that. So we thought we'd start United DJs, get away from the format, play some really good music and open it up and uh create a mini revolution like in film. So we are United DJs who are eight former radio one DJs, eight former Capital DJs and 12 former Radio Luxemb Wow. Any other names people would have heard of? Any other names people would
6:47 have heard Uh yeah, from radio and we've got people Adrian John that did the early breakfast show before me while I was doing the breakfast show. Um a couple other people we can only name when we start. Um, Emperor Rosco was on there as well. So, yeah, quite a few. Uh, David Hamilton was on radio one, radio 2, David Simon's on radio one, radio. So, yeah, lots of uh collaborative lots of people. So, yeah. Good. Great. And when people go to find out about it? Uh, we'll be online start with. Uh, so apps, you just get an app now. I mean, that's how I listen to radio. Uh, I just just switch on the app. So, you can just do it walking around in the car on your laptop. You don't need to just be in the kitchen anymore to turn it. I'm going out
7:26 now. I'll turn it off, you know. Well, Capital Radio was doing um a cash giveaway over Christmas and I I had the app on the whole time cuz I really thought I was going to be able to call in and win, but of course I kept missing it, you know, sitting. No, stupid app throwing the phone. You know, I don't like Capital Radio anymore. I used to like I used to listen to it all the time. You know, when Chris would do the uh the ticky um there was like a ticky competition. I was so scared like the boom. I freaked anymore. Well, you just miss it because of that. Well, I miss it because of that. The terz is all like I hate I hate modern pop. That's Yeah, I understand because obviously music I mean modern music I don't know if you'd agree,
8:06 Mike. It's just not Well, there are some great songs. Uh not as many as there were, but there are some very very good songs around. Um it's just knowing them, finding them, having the ears to find them. A lot of people that run radio haven't sat this side of the desk. No, they're not musicians. They're not singers. I mean I mean for me I've always been a songwriter. I played live. So you get an idea of what's good and you go that song. I mean the um I emailed a friend of mine who's the head of radio 2 playlist the other day and I just heard this song. What's this song? I just heard it. And he came out said it's great. He said yeah you're right. You you know you you've heard it and I said yeah what a great song. So there are
8:43 good songs around. It's rare you suddenly because I did that the other day. It was like Justin Timberlake. Um the say something song that's just come and I was like this is and I felt like such an old woman because I I was at work thinking this is what real music is. This is like going back you know. Well it's a variation as well. I mean you you in the 80s you know on the breakfast show I might play you know something that was quite heavy rock something that was reggae something that was new romantic you know the jam bit of punk. So the production values varied now they tend to go on oh it's that big name they got a new single out we'll play it. That's it. Yeah, that that gives us a great lead into your lip sync track. Easy for you
9:20 to say. It is. It [laughter] is. Um, what are you going to do? Uh, well, my favorite alltime singer is Scott Walker. Um, so I could either have a go at Joanna, which is a great ballad, but people might nod off to sleep, or uh, the sun shiny more, which is which is a number one, and more up tempo. So, um, yeah, either of those. I'm not sure. It's a coin toss time really. I don't know. Please do check out Mike's lips sync. You'll find a link for that on the left of the screen. On the right hand side of the screen, you'll see another link, which is a lip sync that I did that Mike helped me with. If you did enjoy [music] what you just saw, then please do subscribe to our channel. Our big goal for the year is to hit 10,000
9:59 subscribers. [music] As soon as we do, we can turn what we do into more of a chat show format by using the YouTube space [music] in London. So, your support really is appreciated. Thanks again to Lucky Voice for allowing us to use their venue for this shoot.
