[00:00:00] You've tuned in to Radio Northern Beaches. We live stream on rnb.org.au across the northern beaches of New South Wales, Australia and all over the world. You can also catch us local on 88.7 and 90.3 FM. Our podcasts are available at your convenience on rnbpodcast.com.au
[00:00:25] or directly from our website rnb.org.au. So you and your friends don't miss any episodes, don't forget to follow and share. Now here's our latest podcast. Listeners today we have Lionel Robinson and Matt Farmer with us in the studio. Hello fellas. Good morning. Good morning to you. How are you doing? Very, very well. Not too bad for this time of day. The long flight getting here, didn't it today?
[00:00:52] It did, yes. We had trouble getting out of Kuala Lumpur as I remember. What are they talking about? Ah, yeah, talking about the show. Go on, tell us all about it. Okay. Look, we've got a show called Come Fly With Me, which is a celebration of the songs of Frank Sinatra and it is as if that wasn't good enough. It's with a 20 piece big band and we get
[00:01:17] to dress up as pilots. It's fantastic and say really silly things between the songs. Matt and I both sing with the band and he's pretty good. We've got Hayley May as well, a female vocalist, but just so lucky to be playing with all these Northern Beaches players of all ages, the beach side big band. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's a cross section of incredibly experienced and well-trained. Well, they're all exceptionally well-trained, but we've got some young people in there as well who just love this music and it's a
[00:01:47] wonderful crossover, isn't it? Yep. How trained did you say? Most of them are. Yeah, yeah. It's really cool. Our double bass player is about 12. Oh, she looks about... No, she's just got a driving license, to put it that way. I think she's 18, but anyway, she's sensational. The double bass stands taller than her. It's just incredible. Yeah, but brilliant. And then we've got probably not the youngest member of the band on drums,
[00:02:14] Andy Evans, who's the sensation of local legend. But yeah, where did the show come from? That's what I was going to... I was going to ask you that. Tell us, where did the show come from? Okay. Well, we're going to go way, way back. Look, I come from a place called England and I was in London for about 20 years playing music. And I have to say in the 1980s, it took me till about then to really become aware of Frank Sinatra because I don't know about you, Matt, you're a little bit
[00:02:42] younger. But he was coming out with things like something stupid and strangers in the night and things like that in the 60s. And not exactly my cup of tea. I was into much more cool psychedelic and then, of course, underground music. But somewhere in the 80s, I'm sure it was, I got a hold of a Frank Sinatra vinyl album, Songs for Swinging Lovers, which blew my mind because
[00:03:07] unlike lucky people today, you know, we don't, we didn't get exposed to music that was from about two years before what was currently in the charts. So it was a revelation. Let's do that. Thinking, my God, you know, this is so cool. And I started to incorporate a couple of swing numbers into my repertoire because I was doing mainly almost entirely original material. And yeah,
[00:03:33] I found out this stuff called Jump Jive. And then there was a lady called Nina Simone singing a song called My Baby Just Cares For Me. And all this stuff was kind of resonating. And I think you're the same, Matt, but I've been pretty generally out of step with whatever's contemporary for my entire musical life. And suddenly I started getting into the swing and jump jive stuff. Yeah, a little bit of a similar story, really playing music in around Sydney. I am
[00:04:00] from Sydney and local bands, pop bands, rock bands, really loved David Bowie and all of those artists of the time. But I had this secret double life where I absolutely loved, loved Frank Sinatra and all of those songs and every opportunity. There wasn't too many opportunities, but if the opportunity presented itself to play or sing those, those wonderful songs, I took every opportunity to do so. And a couple of
[00:04:25] years, well, I guess it's about a year ago now, Lionel invited me to participate in the show. And I love it. I feel like this is where I belong. It's wonderful to play these incredible songs, sing these amazing songs. The stories in the lyrics are lovely to deliver and to interpret. And I also love playing music with Lionel. We've been fortunate enough to be playing together on and off for about 10 or 15 years now, I guess, in different bands.
[00:04:54] Yeah, it just keeps pestering me all of a sudden. Well, you've been involved in quite a few bands, Lionel. So I've got a list of different ones here. Oh, this is scary. Would you like to tell us quickly about it? And then Matt, you can tell us which bands do you involve in. Sure. Oh, bands. Look, as I say, in England, I was doing all my own stuff. All right. I'll tell you where it started. Yes. Look, I, by complete coincidence, found myself, my first professional job was playing piano in Elton John's restaurant.
[00:05:24] I don't know if that's on the list. I've got that on the list. Yes, I have. She's tracked it down. Yeah. Look, yeah, London in the 80s. But actually, that was the 70s. The 70s, even crazier time. Yeah, Elton John opened up a restaurant in London. And it was quite a thing in the 70s. Yellow Brick Road all the way through it from one end to the other. And of course, everybody turned up. I had the job playing the piano with a girl singer. And it was difficult to
[00:05:52] concentrate that, you know, the likes of Freddie Mercury, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, Brian Ferry, who was with Jerry Hall at the time. If this means anything to anyone. Anyway, crazy time and a very wonderful start to a full-time career. I've never really done a proper job since. Well, I've got you down having been support for Judas Priest. Does anyone, do you remember that? I do. Oh my God.
[00:06:20] I do. And you had a first single, I Believe Her. Tell us a little bit about that. Goodness, yeah. Oh, crazy world. Yep, that was definitely the 80s. I think it was 1981. 79 actually. Oh my God. There was a fella called Mickey Most, who was a very successful producer
[00:06:43] throughout the 60s. It would be impossible to list all the acts that he discovered, produced, and he would find the amazing songs. Everyone from bands in the 60s, Donovan, Jeff Beck, Come On, Hot Chocolate in the 70s. Oh, and then the glam rock kind of bands. There was Racy and
[00:07:10] Mud and he had just this whole stable. And then later on in the 80s, Kim Wilde. Anyway, just endless, endless hits. And then he had me. You say that like he wasn't supposed to have you. Why? I think he retired after that. No, no. I did get lots of airplay with the single and it was a great launch. Apparently it was, yeah. But it wasn't a smash hit. Well, not everybody can have a smash hit. There's a lot of songs out there which we all love,
[00:07:40] but they're not smash hits. So that's not a bad thing. Sweet of you to say so. He's understating his achievements there. So I've listened to all of his recordings and they are absolutely phenomenal. And there is no doubt, there's a couple of songs that you'll hear that you'll recognise. And I think about that song from The Thunderbirds. Oh. I was going to tell that story. That's incredible. Yes, please do.
[00:08:03] Holy heck. Yeah, look, it's been an exciting adventure playing with meeting and all kinds of people and playing all kinds of music. But yeah, look, anyone remember Thunderbirds? Of course you do. Definitely. There's a few people of that age listening, I'm sure. But Jerry Anderson, he created all those fabulous puppet shows I used to love as a kid. But in the 80s, again, he came up with
[00:08:29] a new one called Terrorhawks. Completely unaware of this, I had written a song called SOS, Mr. Tracy, The Western World Is Falling, which is a real synth pop kind of song because it was that time of the year. Anyway, I thought a great publicity idea would be to get onto Jerry Anderson and see what he thought about it, the man himself. So I looked up the telephone directory,
[00:08:54] phoned up Jerry Anderson's company. And amazingly, within about two minutes, I was speaking to the man himself. Wow. It was crazy. And I told him about the song because I thought, look, if Jerry Anderson says, I love this music, it's great publicity. And if he says, I hate this song, I'm going to get a band, it's great publicity. So I couldn't lose. Anyway, he went, this sounds really interesting. I'm going
[00:09:18] to put you on to my business partner. And suddenly I was talking to him. And the short story is, it was a big song in the series, the Terrorhawks, not quite as famous as Thunderbirds, but in the 80s, his fabulous TV series, Terrorhawks. And I got a couple of songs in that, including what ended up as a theme song in America and got to meet the great man. Wow. That's amazing.
[00:09:46] Yeah. It's wonderful to meet your people you idolised in your childhood. What a gentleman. But anyway, yeah. We actually got to let that song fly again only recently, didn't we? We do another show called Voyage to Venus, which is pop songs. That sounds interesting. Space, the final. When do you do that? That's a pub and club show. And we've got some amazing musicians and it's songs like Starman and
[00:10:15] Space Oddity and Rocketman, all of those iconic hits that have got a reference to space and time. It's a great show. Lots and lots of fun. And where do you see this show? Well, we launched it at Avalon Bowling Club because that's always a great little venue for those sorts of shows. So Matt, do you have a website where we can find all these things? Well, some of these projects are so new. The Voyage to Venus is quite new. So we're in the
[00:10:41] process of setting that up. So we'll share that with you as soon as we've got it. But the big band, of course, has been around for some time and the Come Fly With Me show, there's, well, Lionel has been running that for quite a few years now. Oh, look, yes. I should talk about that because, of course, we've got a local upcoming gig. It was, yes. As I said, I started loving Frank Sinatra songs in the 80s and dabbled with it.
[00:11:06] It wasn't until I got here I thought of this concept idea for the Come Fly With Me show. And the first show that we did was as a three-piece. So it was me on piano and vocals and a bass player and drummer all dressed up in pilot's uniforms telling people to fasten their seatbelts and put their drinks away. And it was a scream. It was really good fun. And then we added a proper musician,
[00:11:32] a wonderful musician who is no longer with us called Andrew O. I don't know if you've come across him, but a wonderful jazz saxophonist. I love sax. I absolutely adore sax. Do you say sax? Good. Just qualifying that. Yeah, good. But yeah, Andrew, a lot of people all know him, a beautiful player. So he added a bit of credibility to that. So there we are as a four-piece. And then just a couple of years ago,
[00:11:57] I was lucky enough to get the job singing with the Beachside Big Band, fronting this 20-piece band, which is a terrifying thing, isn't it, Matt? It is. It's very intimidating. The first time I went down for rehearsal on it and I was so nervous, I was perspiring, playing with these incredible musicians. But it is just such a joy. I can't tell you how much fun it is. We are so lucky. Yes.
[00:12:20] But it's mad because there's 20 people all blowing one note at incredible volume. There's nobody playing a nice chord so you can just pitch that note, which is what I'm used to. And it's a whole new experience. But when you get that force and might and power of a 20-piece big band behind you, it sounds great. It's huge. It's huge. Now, getting back to your list of bands. Yes.
[00:12:48] Hollywood Killers and Lost Patrol. Apparently Lost Patrol was about what? Camouflage on stage, military fatigues, rock opera. For goodness sake, all right, my past is catching up with me. But yeah, this is showing where a show like Come Fly With Me really came from. I've always enjoyed the idea of putting on a show that's not just singing songs. There's a bit more to it. There's dressing up. I'm getting Matt into this as
[00:13:15] well. Theme shows. Yeah. Okay. Look, the Hollywood Killers was just a really fun, cool band, which, what can I say? That was early 80s. Yeah. In London. Had a great following, mainly because of the lead singer, which wasn't me. A great female following, which is always stimulating as a musician. Fantastic fun it was. Very 60s influenced. That was great. But yeah, there was a bit of dressing up
[00:13:42] there. But The Lost Patrol. Yes, look, I came up with this whole saga, a storyline so that there was, yeah, I'd always loved things like Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. War of the Worlds. Yeah, I loved that. Absolutely loved it. Fantastic. Watched it over and over. Yeah. It's funny because I've never been really into musicals per se. But anyway, it was really
[00:14:06] good fun. So we had tenuous links between all these songs and then I started writing songs to go with the story. And yeah, it should have been a film really. But it was, that was... I would have loved to have seen the stage. Incredibly good fun. Yeah. Military fatigue. Military. Camouflage on stage. Yeah, we had all the amps were under camouflage. And it was extraordinary in London again. We got a very
[00:14:31] interesting kind of fan base there and people were turning up in jeeps and dressed up in the military fatigues and there were these battle reenactment guys. So you had a cult following. Yeah, it actually got a bit scary. So I thought, time for Frank Sinatra, it's probably a bit safer. And then you went on to, in the 1960s, the innocent few with spy music. Tell me about spy music.
[00:14:57] Look, it wasn't in the 1960s. No, it was the 1960s sound. But yeah, absolutely. I'll clarify that for you. I know what you're saying. Yeah. Look, I don't know where you got this stuff from, but yeah, that was really fun because look, I've always loved James Bond music. You know, the music of John Barry from the films, not just the, oh, look, the theme songs. Always had a weakness
[00:15:21] for that kind of music. You know, music in a minor key with dramatic and suspenseful kind of intonations. Love that stuff. So yes, we put a band together called the innocent few. Bit of dressing up, nice 60s black polo necks and stuff like that. But yeah, very, how can I say
[00:15:44] spy influenced music? Yeah, very much James Bond. We did do From Russia With Love was an epic couple of guitars and bass and keyboards and drums, but I wrote a whole load of music. See, I've got to get into Spotify. I've got to get this stuff up there. You definitely do. Got all this stuff that no one's ever heard unless they were there. Okay. What about your bands, Matt? Oh, well, gosh, it's really interesting. These days,
[00:16:12] I just follow Lionel around. You know, to quote Dean Martin, it's your life. I'm just living in it. We have a lot of fun together and we play a lot of great music. But look, similar story in the 80s, doing a lot of support bands. I'm the youngest of six kids who were all musicians and they used to drag me around to all their shows. Bands like, you know, we used to do a lot of support gigs for things like Air Supply. Oh, I love Air Supply. One of my favourite bands. Yes, yeah. This band was called
[00:16:40] Waxworth, which was my brother's. And they had a little bit of an underground cult following, playing all around Sydney and different places for a long time. And I used to follow my brothers. They'd throw me in the car and I was underaged, but I'd come and do these shows with them. We could get away with it those days. We could get away with it those days. They said, you're not allowed to drink, but you can come and play and play some music with us. And I'd watch my brother walk along the bar at Matervale Pub back in the day when you could do and get away with stuff like that.
[00:17:09] It was incredible. Blew my mind. So it was so much fun. And then we... You were the Michael Jackson of the family, weren't you? Yeah, the youngest pretty well. That's right. That's right. And then we continued doing that. We had a couple of bands called Innocent Bystander and a whole bunch of others. Groove Farm was another one that is still around every now and then. We get together and play. And that's with musicians such as the Harris Brothers,
[00:17:36] Nigel and Yearn Harris and John Kirk, who plays incredible trumpet, but he plays bass with me and tours within excess when he's not... when Gary Beard is not doing the gig. And so lots of incredible musicians. And it's been an absolute labour of love. For me, it's kind of been interspersed with other work. And I've spent quite a bit of time in television working there, which is wonderful.
[00:18:02] But over the last few years, my focus really is developing shows with Lionel. And we're having fun. We're having a lot of fun. How did you two actually meet? That's a good question. Well, I reckon we've probably got different stories, but there was an Avalon Market Day. Correct. And Matt's band, Groove Farm, was playing in a marquee in the street and I'd also been booked.
[00:18:28] And I was following them and I thought, wow, this is a cool outfit. Very funky. And I was following them sitting there playing the piano on my own. And Nigel Harrison, you just mentioned your trumpet player, came and joined me, which is very kind of him. Hard act to follow, they were. And I heard this fella singing and I thought, he's good. That's when I thought we met. Yes, I think you're right, actually. We got together.
[00:18:55] Yeah. And that's got to be 15, maybe even 20 years ago. And then I think that we had a couple of gigs that I couldn't do and I asked Lionel to stand in and that worked really, really, really well. And people said, you sound just like Matt. There were similar vocal things going on there. Which is an amazing compliment, except I can't play these like this monster can, but nevertheless. Well, you started about five years old, didn't you, playing? I must have if I was playing in the 70s.
[00:19:26] Look, I did get, I got piano lessons when I was five. And I remember playing the same song for about a year. The Happy Wanderer. I was working on for a year and I didn't really take to it. It was when I was about 14 and 60s music. Was I 14 in the 60s? I think so. Don't tell anybody.
[00:19:47] 60s music just grabbed me and there were these, I just, I remember distinctly songs like, there was a song called Go Now by the Moody Blues. Oh, I love the Moody Blues too. I'm a big fan. With that piano intro, which was Denny Lane. Awesome. And what was the other, oh, okay, more obscure probably, I Can't Quit Her by Blood, Sweat and Tears. There's this great piano intro in it where people are just thumping chords and I thought, what a sound. And that's what really got me into it.
[00:20:17] And I discovered if you played piano, it was quite a good way to get introduced to girls as well. So very, yeah, we had, it was ticking all the boxes really. Yeah, music. That's when I really took to it and I never stopped. And I thought, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And I've been lucky enough to be that man. I think it's really funny. It's, we do a lot of duo gigs together and we lean on a lot of this 60s music.
[00:20:45] And it's incredible how appealing it remains today. Yeah. And we do our own interpretation of those songs, of course, but we have people from all ages, don't we, come up? We had a table of young people from Ireland and London listening to us yesterday. And one from York. Yes. And playing all these songs from the 60s and 70s, British rock predominantly, Beatles and other stuff. And it was wonderful. And they were singing along with us. Yeah. It was incredible. So they knew the words. They did. That's great.
[00:21:15] Yes. That's great. I do think it's wonderful the way youngsters have access to all kinds of music. I was mentioning that I, you know, didn't know anything about Frank Sinatra back when I was growing up. But these days, honestly, the kids are all over it. They just, they can pick what music they're like no matter what the era. And it's amazing how many people are into 60s music, particularly I find with youngsters. Because, let's face it, it hasn't been surpassed yet. No.
[00:21:44] It was an era that I don't think is ever going to be. Yeah. Okay. So, Yao City Expedition. Oh, for goodness sake. 1950s music. Okay. Yeah. And you released an album in 1986. Oh, goodness me. Yes. She's a really good investigative reporter. Me too. The Yao City Expedition was fantastic. That was stepping towards, first step towards the Come Fly With Me show because we had a three-piece brass section.
[00:22:11] I started, I was listening to this Frank Sinatra and Jump Jive and I wrote, well, an album's worth of material. It's all original songs. And they're absolutely wonderful. They really are. Not particularly the songs, but I just mean the recording. It's great. There was a fantastic horn section called The Kick Horns in London that played with everybody. And I mean everybody. They're on, you know, Paul McCartney, The Who. A phenomenal section.
[00:22:39] And I was lucky enough to bump into one of them in a lean period, you know, where they weren't doing much. And he went, I like these songs. Can you just record them? I put them on a cassette for him, of course. We did in those days. And he wrote arrangements for these songs and they just came alive. So the Yao City Expedition was my first step into singing out front, leaving the keyboard. And I just had a great bunch of musicians. And the album is called The Yao City Expedition, YOW.
[00:23:08] And I'm thrilled to say, to see as well, that on eBay you can buy an album for about $200 or something, which is great because that's what they're worth. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So listeners, get on there and have a look at this one. The Yao City, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so we're heading towards the end of our interview. But I want to catch up. You got married to Meredith and then you moved to Australia in 1994. 1994.
[00:23:37] It's true, which is suddenly 30 years ago. And now you're a Northern Beaches person, which as we've been saying all through, Avalon is your home. Yes. I tell you what, that was the best thing that ever happened really. Moving here 30 years ago, we came straight to Avalon. I'm moving here because she's Australian and that's what happens. You meet an Australian, you end up in Australia and you go, what have I been missing all my life? It's a wonderful country.
[00:24:03] It's been a great 30 years and this fellow lives just around the corner, Mr Farmer. How long have you been here in Sydney? Pretty much, well, in Sydney all my life, but in the Northern Beaches, I've been in Avalon for about 35 years now. Yeah. It's a great place to be. It's a wonderful place. Beautiful culture, incredibly artistic culture. There's something for everybody if you lean into any of the arts, it's wonderful. Yeah. And the Beatside Big Band, I mean, they're all locals and they're all sensational.
[00:24:31] We've got some amazing musical artists on the Northern Beaches, we really do. We do. We do indeed. Well, I was just thinking off the top, we've got an Instagram site called Vegas to Venus. That's our kind of little thing that we do together, which is a piano-based duo that we do. And we call it Vegas to Venus because we lean into the Frank Sinatra style of music and then the next minute we're in space. Space. Space. Seeing Rocketman and all of those songs. So how do you find your Instagram?
[00:24:59] Vegas to Venus is the handle on Insta, so if you go there, you can also find Lionel himself under the Duke of Lounge. Fantastic name. The Duke of Lounge? The Duke of Lounge on Insta. How did that come up? Uh, it was... Look, yeah, I've been lucky enough to play at quite a lot of jazz festivals and my total favourite ever was the Threadbow Jazz Festival. I don't know if you ever got there, but the best place to go for jazz.
[00:25:28] Anyway, I did that several years and I used to take different kind of lineups for the band and we always were thinking of names. And one year I came up with the Dukes of Lounge. I thought that's... It's a cool name. Yeah. My kind of music was pretty lounge-y and a bit of a pun on the Dukes of Hazzard, obviously. And that stuck.
[00:25:49] And I think it was Rod Bennett from the Manly Daily that christened me the Duke of Lounge, as well as the Latin Lounge Lizard, which probably... LAUGHTER I think I prefer the Duke. Yeah, I think so. I think that goes our way. The Duke's stuck, but I can be a lizard. And you're writing a book, I hear. Oh, for goodness sake! This is great. That's news to me. No, I... That's really fun. Thank you for asking about that. It has nothing to do with the Come Fly With Me show.
[00:26:19] But yeah, look, I've always liked fantasy literature, hence The Lost Patrol and The Innocent View and stuff like that. But yeah, I'm writing what they call young adult fiction these days, just because that's what I love to read. And, you know, sci-fi, fantasy kind of stuff. And I'm about halfway through it and it's a great pleasure to do. It must be very relaxing. I'm a writer and I love that time to sit and just let it all out.
[00:26:49] It is amazing. And don't you feel good afterwards? You do. You feel absolutely wonderful. Having a swim or something. Yeah, it is. Yeah. You think, oh, I don't want to do that. But when you do it... Oh, you sit down and it just flows. It's just a wonderful feeling. All right. Well, just before we close off our show, we've had so much fun with you guys. Thank you for coming in. And so just give us another yell out for you or call out, should I say, for your show. Yes. So the Come Fly With Me show. Come and see us.
[00:27:18] How many in the band? 20 piece big band. That's outrageous. It really is quite amazing. Come and experience it. We'd love to see you there. Thank you so much, guys. We'll talk to you again soon. Thank you, Chrissy. Thank you, Chrissy. Been a treat. Lionel Robinson and Matt Farmer will be presenting Come Fly With Me at Manly Leaves Club on Friday, the 6th of November at 7pm. So make sure you get along and enjoy the show.
[00:27:44] You can book your tickets at Humanitex or northernbeachesentertainment.com.au. Australia, the lucky country. We've got meat pies. We've got the world's best beer. But most importantly, top of the list, we've got Radio Northern Beaches 88.7, 90.3, now hitting the entire world on www.rmb.org.au.