SERIES 15: Episode 11 - Dakota Hotel, Bruce Springsteen, Mama's Universe, Wolf of Wall Street, Kevin Rowland, Wyse, Ideas Fest

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0:36Michael Douglas: hello ladies and gentlemen welcome to making the cook podcast final episode of this series i think

0:43Davina McCall: yes because we um are going to take like a couple of weeks a month maybe three or four weeks three

0:49Michael Douglas: or four weeks off we skipped last week so we're really sorry about that folks we had quite a few people messages saying where's this week's episode we were just uh we did actually record for about 15 minutes last week and then i pressed a button on garage band and it deleted the whole episode and then we had like a 15 minute window to re-record the whole episode in and we couldn't do it in 15 minutes and then we were just like oh god let's do it tomorrow and then tomorrow never

1:14Davina McCall: came and then boom it just didn't happen we had a big douglas family weekend this weekend yeah

1:20Michael Douglas: Yeah, my brother came down from Oakley, where he lives with his lovely girlfriend Shirley. He brought his daughter Lucy and their friend. And then my dad and my stepmom came. And then Andy came. My brothers, my half-brothers came. Like, it was about 25 of us came for the weekend. And it really just consumed our entire lives, really. So it was just so hard to do that. But it was a great weekend, wasn't it?

1:43Davina McCall: Oh, my God, it was so good. Karaoke was brilliant, wasn't it?

1:48Michael Douglas: As you probably know, in Apple Music, if you've got Apple Music, you can lose the voice.

1:54Davina McCall: That's a very good recommendation.

1:55Michael Douglas: We've done it before, but it's probably a good one just to repeat. If you click on to the song on Apple Music that you're listening to, you'll see this little speech bubble. If you press the speech bubble, you can often find on a lot of the songs you can remove the vocal or you can just dull the vocal down a bit so you can barely hear it.

2:12Davina McCall: That's absolutely perfect for some people because they might not know the song quite well enough,

2:16Michael Douglas: but just to dull it a little bit you've got a guide underneath that you can hear but then you

2:21Davina McCall: can then sing over the top of it yeah so you bluetooth this to a speaker and you've got a microphone perhaps with a um you know a pa system or an amp or something like that and you can just sing along so you can essentially do karaoke we often do this when people come over and visit and

2:36Michael Douglas: you know everybody sings a song or something you know and uh we did that this weekend and it was just so funny and it's such an entertaining thing to do i sang love rescue me which is a u2 song um which i've talked about on this podcast you were really good i'm very good at singing that um even if i do say so myself i'm not particularly good singer but i'm good at certain things you know um can i just say something yeah yeah okay you know you're not allowed to say that okay

3:08Davina McCall: Everybody's a good singer at their thing

3:09Michael Douglas: Yeah, yeah, okay

3:10Davina McCall: You know, you are, I mean I want you to just say the bit where you go

3:16Michael Douglas: I'm very good at that

3:18Davina McCall: I'm good at that, yeah

3:20Michael Douglas: You did

3:21Davina McCall: I mean, like, musicals are my thing

3:25Michael Douglas: Musicals are your thing You are very good at musical theatre stuff

3:29Davina McCall: I just And what's quite funny, I don't go to much musical theatre But my voice really suits it Yeah, it does suit

3:36Michael Douglas: But musical theatre singers are bloody good singers, you know. That's... I mean, it's musical theatre, you know. That's the main core of it, and you're good at that.

3:46Davina McCall: Well, I think I like acting with my voice. Do you know what I mean? I like the drama of it. And I sang probably my all-time favourite, slightly overtaken Part of Your World.

3:59Michael Douglas: Part of your world. Yeah, well done, Michael, my God.

4:02Davina McCall: Honestly, I'm so proud of you right now. Yeah, yeah.

4:05Michael Douglas: I don't know what film it's from, but yeah.

4:07Davina McCall: Yes, you do. You're such a liar.

4:09Michael Douglas: Pocahontas.

4:09Davina McCall: No. Frozen. No.

4:12Michael Douglas: Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

4:14Davina McCall: No.

4:16Michael Douglas: The Aristocats.

4:18Davina McCall: It's from The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid.

4:20Michael Douglas: I knew that. You knew that. The Little Nemo, yeah. And I sang Colours of the Wind, which is from Pocahontas.

4:30Davina McCall: And there's something, the lyrics are so nice in that song about these two cultures colliding and not understanding each other. And she's trying to teach, what's his name? John Smith about nature.

4:47Michael Douglas: John Smith is the real name in the film.

4:49Davina McCall: Yeah.

4:49Michael Douglas: It's quite uncreative really, isn't it? That's like calling him Joe Bloggs or something.

4:54Davina McCall: But that might have been the idea, something simple.

4:57Michael Douglas: Yeah, okay.

4:59Davina McCall: and he falls in love with Pocahontas.

5:02Michael Douglas: Oh, right.

5:02Davina McCall: Very not so simple name. But it's a brilliant film. If you haven't seen Pocahontas, watch it. I haven't seen it, no. I'm going to watch it with you. It is really... You know, all Disney movies make you feel something. Yes, they've got the mega metaphor in there. Mega metaphor.

5:17Michael Douglas: What I would like to watch again is that film Soul.

5:20Davina McCall: Mmm!

5:21Michael Douglas: A Disney film about getting trapped between...

5:23Davina McCall: Let's watch that in Manchester.

5:24Michael Douglas: Yeah, OK, yeah. We're off to Manchester this week. We're going tomorrow night, which is Wednesday night. And we're there for two nights back on Friday. But yeah, let's do that. It'd be quite nice to go to Manchester. Yes, I'd love to do that. We're staying in the Dakota Hotel, which I think we've stayed at before, but it's a pretty good hotel, that wasn't it? Yes, it's very nice. Yeah. On the subject of music, I think that might be my first recommendation.

5:47Davina McCall: We've already recommended the Dakota Hotel. We've recommended... What did you say earlier? I'm going to talk about it again. Oh, God. Oh, my God.

5:57Michael Douglas: This is how mashed up our brains are. So mashed up. Anyway, carry on.

6:02Davina McCall: It was the Apple music thing, I think. Yes, what I like is, we've also recommended karaoke and Disney films and Soul. Just in our chat.

6:10Michael Douglas: Just in this chat, yeah. These are all things we've slightly recommended before,

6:13Davina McCall: but I just quite like the fact that we've already recommended five things and you've just said, the first thing I'm going to recommend.

6:19Michael Douglas: We get new followers all the time. We've got 100 new followers today on Making the Call. so there's a lot of people hearing these recommendations for the first time and be a few people hearing them for the second time yeah might be people hearing them that's heard them

6:33Davina McCall: before but forgotten they've heard but forgot yeah so you know we can we can repeat ourselves

6:36Michael Douglas: it's no big deal but honestly apple music take the vocal out some of the songs and try a little sing-along the other thing that it's really great for is like confidence building with kids and one of the things we do especially when we've got kids around for a bit of a party is we'll do a little karaoke session, give him the opportunity to sing. We had a wonderful girl, 13 year old girl who was part of our group and she said I'd quite like to sing something. She was mega.

7:00Davina McCall: What would you like to sing?

7:01Michael Douglas: She wanted to sing the Sam Smith song but you couldn't get rid of his voice. I said you can't lose the voice on the Sam Smith song. She went right well let's try this and then I said you can't lose the voice on that either and she said what about.

7:12Davina McCall: And she didn't give up.

7:13Michael Douglas: She didn't get up. She kept asking for another and I thought bloody hell she's ballsy you know. Yes

7:17Davina McCall: That's really brave.

7:18Michael Douglas: And I was like, go on then. And she did, I think it's called Whatever by Shakira. Whatever, whatever. And it's that big song. Anyway, she started and you can see she was quite nervous. At the beginning. And then she was trying to find the key and find her feet. And then she found it and she exploded into life. And the whole room of about 24 other people burst with love.

7:41Davina McCall: Oh, my God, it was so good. And it landed on her and she felt it. She did. And I was like, this is exactly why you do this thing, to give kids the opportunity to find themselves. I'm covered in goosebumps. Oh, yeah, me too. It was so good.

7:56Michael Douglas: It was really special.

7:58Davina McCall: To see and feel and experience that with her. It was so nice.

8:01Michael Douglas: Her mum came up to us and she said, I knew that girl was in there somewhere. She said, I cannot thank you enough for giving her the opportunity to come out. Yeah, it was lovely. And, oh, God, we just showered her with love, really, Yeah, it was absolutely brilliant. It was so good. So if there's ever an opportunity to do something and you feel like you should do it, my first recommendation is do it. Like, if it goes wrong, it's still an experience that will be rewarding and you will learn something from it. And if it goes right, it's unbelievably rewarding. It'll give you an enormous confidence boost.

8:33It's a win-win in every direction.

8:35Davina McCall: I mean, the other night you and I both sang songs and we were appalling. I don't mind us both saying it to each other. but we didn't stop halfway through and say, oh no, no, no, can we stop? This is rubbish. We carried on, we finished, we both supported each other and cheerleaded each other on, didn't we? And I really liked that because not that long ago, I would have just stopped and just said, I can't do this because I would have been so embarrassed. It's good to put yourself through something slightly humiliating. I agree. I tried to sing this Kelly MacDonald song called This Pretty Face and I really like the song but she sings it in a key that I just can't reach with you I was like fucking hell Michael you're absolutely killing this song I don't know I'm not letting go but I loved watching you sing it and I kind of loved watching you struggle it made me love you even more you know what I mean there's something nice about seeing someone you really love struggle a bit and see them rise up and like fuck and fight through it yeah yeah it's so good so what are you doing first You're going to recommend first.

9:43After doing the karaoke thing on Saturday night, I've been thinking about more and more songs that I enjoy and that I love. And a lot of people know this about me anyway, but I'm a kind of big fan of early Bruce Springsteen and my stepmother introduced me to him a while ago. We were very fortunate to see Bruce Springsteen on Broadway, which is on Netflix if you've not seen it. And it's his one-man show on Broadway where he basically comes out and tells you roughly the story of his life through his songs and through stories. And I really enjoyed it at the time. And it's kind of planted a little seed in me and it's grown.

10:19And when I listened to early Bruce Springsteen songs, just slightly just in awe of how brilliant a storyteller he was in his songs. There's lots of stuff you haven't really heard of his that I would like to share with you. And show you some stuff. stuff so after the karaoke thing i was like i wonder if there's any other bruce springsteen songs i could look at so i was flicking through apple music and spotify and bruce has put out a huge back catalogue of live recordings that were done in the 70s which i have to say you know like a lot of people when they think of bruce springsteen they think of born in the usa the 80s

10:55Michael Douglas: the muscly tank top things the bandana on his head yes american flag out of his back pocket and stuff like that but if you go back to like 1973 75 78 79 around those times he's actually a kind of skinny little um kind of whimsily type fella a bit like bob dylan uh really is before he kind

11:17Davina McCall: of started bodybuilding or whatever he was beautiful such an attractive wonderful person but a peculiar artist a very um you know he didn't look anything like he should have looked like as a pop star. I didn't like Mick Jagger or one of the Beatles or anything. He looked slightly homeless, really. But there's this album in there, which was a No More Nukes album from a live concert in Madison Square Gardens in 1979. And he's probably at his absolute peak at this point. The band are at their peak as well. And I didn't realise that this album was available. But he sings The River for the very first time there because The River comes out in 1980, but he says, I'm going to sing you a new song.

12:07And he says, it's my brother-in-law and my sister. And he sings a song and it's about this guy, working guy and his wife and he gets her pregnant, but her dad won't let him marry her. What Bruce does, which I've never really found in anybody else's music, is these incredible little stories like a play for today type thing, where you go on the story of someone's life through the song, you know. And The River is just such a special, special song. And of course, it's the girl in it. It's called Mary.

12:35Michael Douglas: And it goes, When I got Mary pregnant, man, that was all she wrote. For my 19th birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat.

12:46Davina McCall: We went down to the courthouse. So there's this whole thing about him marrying this woman that he's got pregnant. But Mary also appears in Thunder Road. and he goes, the screen door slams, Mary's dress sways, like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays. You know, so these characters keep reappearing years later in other songs. Wendy is another girl that's in Born to Run, you know. Me and Wendy were tramps like us, baby, we were born to run. Wendy appears in three or four other songs later on. So he does these amazing things of merging these lives of these people in all these songs.

13:19I've never really heard it before or anything, but it's so, so beautiful. But I just would like to recommend that record, really, which is called No More Nukes. It's a live record, and there's a really special song in it called Rosalita, which I think is slightly autobiographical, but it's about this girl that he goes out with called Rosalita whose mum and dad doesn't like Bruce. And he says, I know your mama, she don't like me because I play in a rock and roll band. I know like your pop, don't dig me. He never did understand, you know. And then there's this great bit about the fact he gets a record deal and then he gets loads of money and Rosie's mum and dad are now keen, you know.

13:55And it's like, this is his last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance. The record company Rosie gave me a big advance. And then there's this great celebration of the song. And you just think, who writes songs like this? You know, they're just so rich, you know. Absolutely brilliant. But anyway, just to finish off this bit, Springsteen on Broadway you can listen to on Spotify. And although I'd listened to it a few times, I'd missed this little bit that was in it. but there's a song in it. It's a song called A Long Time Coming. And the chorus goes, it's a long time coming, my dear. It's a long time coming, but now it's here.

14:33And it's about this little moment that he has with his dad, where his dad is very, very hard on him as a young boy and really dislikes the fact that he wants to be a musician and he wants his son to be a doctor or a lawyer or something like that, you know. And his dad is quite cruel to him, I think. And only years later, once Bruce has made lots, lots of money, he gives his mum and dad a house in California and really helps them retire. Dad's a working man his whole life in factories and taxi driving and all that. And then Bruce is just about to have his first child and his dad comes to see him.

15:07What I love about this is on these, in these songs, there's a little introduction to each song about why the song is written and what it means to him in his life. But there's this great bit where his dad comes to see him and he says something like my dad is applying for an ancestral role in my life um not the role of a ghost from his my past you know yeah it's a really beautiful moment so i just want to play it's just like 35 seconds but um i think it's just a and And then he sings the song. My father on that day was petitioning me for an ancestral role in my life after being a ghost for a long, long time.

15:53Davina McCall: Wow. He wanted me to write a new end to our relationship. And he wanted me to be ready for the new beginning that I was about to experience.

16:10was the greatest moment in my life with my dad. Oh. And it was all that I needed.

16:16Davina McCall: Oh. Do you know what I love about that? As an outsider, listen, I don't know him as well as you. But that he didn't say fuck off.

16:26Michael Douglas: Yeah.

16:27Davina McCall: You know, like, if he'd been a ghost all his life, and his dad now wants to be part of his life because he's suddenly got this deal, you'd think he could have said, no, sod off, you know, like it's too late. Yeah, it's too late, yeah, yeah. But it was the greatest moment of his life. Yeah, yeah. That is so sweet, isn't it? That says a lot about him. Yeah, well, he's a very, he's an artist, basically, and he's a bit of a softie, probably. But once you get into the Bruce story, you realise that lots of these live concerts, he's got lots of stories about himself growing up, and you realise what he's done with his audience over these years, he's brought them into his life.

17:02Davina McCall: Yeah, brought them with him, yeah. And you've gone on this journey with him. Anyway, I'll stop prattling on about this. But the No More Nukes album and then Springsteen on Broadway, if you're interested. But any of that stuff from 75 all the way through to 1982 or something like that is really special. There's also a very good film, which we should watch, called Blinded by the Light, about an Indian kid, a Bangladeshi kid in Luton, being brought up in Luton, who were from a quite strict, I think it's either a Hindu or a Sikh family, but he falls in love with Bruce Springsteen and his family don't like it because he's, you know, it's an American white Western guy and he wants him being brought up in this kind of Indian culture.

17:40But he can't escape the power of Bruce's music, you know. So he's breaking away from his family as a result of listening to Darkness on the Edge of Town. I just think Bruce brings him out. Anyway, that's a recommendation for another time, really. But anyway, sorry, I've gone on a long time about that. But it's really moved me over the last few days and really enjoyed feeling emotional about the music

18:00Michael Douglas: and how it reflects in my own life.

18:03Davina McCall: I'll tell you what, I mean, I'm almost embarrassed with my recommendations now because that was so deep. Yeah, it was a bit, wasn't it? That was so nice, Michael, to listen to. I really enjoyed that, thank you. And I enjoy the journey that you personally go on with Bruce Springsteen, but I love how much you've taught me about his music because I really didn't know anything. I mean I knew the big songs you know the obvious ones but I never really appreciated what an artist he was so thank you no it's a pleasure

18:37Michael Douglas: thank you

18:37Davina McCall: very much thank you I'm going to do a very quick one yeah sure

18:41Michael Douglas: because we've got we've got one to do together

18:43Davina McCall: after this so this is mummasuniverse.com I'm bringing this to the to the audience because quite often I'll bring something that I really like but it's a bit spenny yeah yes and I'm really proud of myself here because this is something I really like and it's not spenny at all well i mean it's a little bit spenny um but anyway mummasuniverse.com they are two women laura and kate and it says here in the blurb about them in the kind of the about section on their website soul sisters manifesting mums and crystal lovers mummas universe was born during maternity leave with six little ones between us and one big vision to create magical meaningful jewellery for modern mums every bracelet is a labour of love design cleansed and charged with intention isn't that a nice isn't that a nice kind of intention yeah you know shop by intention so it says calm and emotional balance abundance and growth protection and grounding confidence and self-love fertility and motherhood so then i looked at the shop and they are so pretty so they are made with various stones and it explains so this one is the intention is self-love love success and protection and it's got moonstone tourmaline sunstone pink agate rose quartz howlite and clear quartz and it explains what each of those do and why they add up to that intention and it says handmade with love using natural crystals each piece is cleansed with selenite and charged under the moon i really i really like it like you know what's so funny i've always been a bit oh crystal yeah yeah me too but you know we were talking about kirstie gallagher's book the other day and the fact that she sent me those crystals and that company that sells them there is something comforting yeah yeah um and we've got that lovely amethyst in our in our room yeah um so i particularly loved the chakra glow um i think that's really pretty on the wrist it looks so nice as well and that's got lots of different ones in red garnet orange kind of yellow agate green i do you notice how i just okay i um yeah just brushed over that name i went orange yeah yeah i'm glad you did that i can't say i can't help blue lace agate like amethyst clear quartz so there are lots of different colors different types different um like intentions that you can get from these but you can also look i love this manifest her manifest him so you can like buy bracelets to manifest people yeah or somebody specific if you've got your eye on on someone um and then you can also get in contact with them i think you can um get in contact with them and make get them to make one for you and the prices for them are generally speaking around 22 quid which when you listen to the quality like they

22:00Michael Douglas: have got quartz and agate in them they're good quality yeah gems so it is a real crystals i mean

22:07Davina McCall: it's a really nice idea by two mums um who've got really good in their heart and um want to kind of manifest good and love yeah um and i love that they've called it mama's universe so nice so it's mama spelled m-a-m-a-s yeah oh yeah mamas and then universe all one word dot com

22:32Michael Douglas: well done girls i love that very good i'll make a recommendation actually for manifesting and not manifesting the setting and intention yes it's not a bad thing to big thing isn't it to do um you could do one on a weekly basis a daily basis is not a bad idea or is it a monthly basis and just say what you would kind of like what you want yourself and it might be to feel you know less tired or feel more energized feel more positive about work feel more kind of close to your partner or whatever it is but it actually works in a weird way um because you're planting an idea right and then you're working towards it yeah well that's what happens is you say well well, I quite like this, or I'm going to set an intention to be more loving this month.

23:19And things start to orientate themselves around you being able to do that. And then it actually happens. So I'm just throwing that in the mix.

23:28Michael Douglas: If you think about setting an intention tomorrow morning or something to have a really nice weekend.

23:34Davina McCall: And if you're listening, get in touch with us on the Instagram page. Yeah, tell us what your intention was. or what your intention was. You've got social dialed in. Search is doing its thing. So why do your marketing results look the same as six months ago? That's because you're fishing in the same pond as everyone else. Podcast listeners are a different audience entirely. More engaged, harder to reach through traditional channels, and ready to act when someone they trust makes a recommendation. We're Acast, and we put them right in front of you. Browse thousands of the world's leading podcasts, book host reads or run your own ads, and track every conversion in real time.

24:18Same skills you already have, brand new results. Acast. Acast.com slash advertise.

24:32Me and Davina watched The Wolf of Wall Street. Oh, God.

24:36Michael Douglas: Recently. We started watching it last week. We watched it in two parts because it's a three-hour film. But it got to the end of the film and both of us got out of bed and basically said, I think that's the best film ever made.

24:50Davina McCall: I think it's number one on my list.

24:52Michael Douglas: It is. It is. It's just an exceptional piece of work.

24:55Davina McCall: It's outrageous.

24:56Michael Douglas: Yeah. It's funny because I was round doing a bit of a name drop here. I was round doing Kate Bush's hair the other day.

25:03Davina McCall: God, it's just still... I can't quite get over it if you do that.

25:06Michael Douglas: Yeah, it's a great name drop, that, isn't it? It's so good. I was in her kitchen. We were eating curry. She always gets me a takeaway curry. I love her. And I call her her hair for her in the kitchen. And I said, oh, okay, I was watching Wolf of Wall Street. She said, I cannot watch it. And I said, you're kidding me. It's brilliant. She said, no, it's just too misogynistic. It's just so horrible. And I was like, yes, it is that. You know, there's no denying it. It is, the behaviour in it is utterly appalling.

25:34Davina McCall: I think you know it's appalling. It's obviously appalling.

25:37Michael Douglas: a true situation really. They did behave very badly. It is the 80s I think, the 90s. So the behaviour then was pretty bad. But DiCaprio is so bad. It's extraordinary isn't it? I mean everything about him. He's funny, he's kind and gentle, he's angry and aggressive, he's violent, he's appalling.

26:03Davina McCall: He's pathetic. He's pathetic.

26:06Michael Douglas: but he's the best arguer on camera i've ever seen i don't know you've seen revolutionary road

26:12Davina McCall: presumably with kate winslet we've talked about this really i've never seen it we could watch

26:17Michael Douglas: that tonight we're gonna watch a film tonight we're just working out what to watch that it's a pretty brutal film i want to watch it okay um but the argument he he's so good at shouting he's so good at being angry um that you don't think you're seeing somebody acting being angry you You see somebody utterly furious. Wow. And it is very, very special. He is superb, I think.

26:43Davina McCall: I mean, he is undoubtedly, for me, like... The greatest actor of our generation, I think. I love Tom Cruise as a superstar. Yeah, yeah. You know, and action man. But, God, Leonardo DiCaprio is everything.

26:56Michael Douglas: So if you've not seen The Wolf of Wall Street, it's on Netflix at the moment, then watch it. If you have seen it, but you saw it like 10 years ago... Watch it again. Then watch it again. and you can watch it in two parts or even three parts you can just watch an hour a night or something it's as good as any box set you'll ever sit through Margot Robbie in it is fantastic Jonah Hill is fantastic Matthew McConaughey is fantastic it is just relentlessly good and Scorsese's directing in it the script writing in it the other thing I found amazing was that Robbie Robertson did the musical score in it and he was in the Doobie Brothers he is just a brilliant musician and actually there's loads of lovely piano ballads in it but wow

27:34Davina McCall: it's extraordinary that

27:36Michael Douglas: the scene in the boat so good trying to get to Monaco it's just breathtaking anyway I won't go on about that any longer but Wolf of Wall Street you're welcome

27:45Davina McCall: I've got another quite quick one Kevin Rowland

27:50Michael Douglas: the autobiography yeah well can I just say something about this I was flicking through X and up I followed Danny Baker on X and he said anyone who likes reading books must read the Kevin Rowland

28:02Davina McCall: oh well I've ordered it.

28:03Michael Douglas: And then Andy rang me like 10 minutes after that. And he went, I started reading the Kevin Rowland thing. And I said, did you see Danny Baker's tweet? And he went, yeah. And I was like, God, that's so funny.

28:12Davina McCall: And I've had somebody else recommend it to me. So this is a book that if you were around clubbing in the 80s, or you like Dexys, you've got to read, or if you didn't.

28:26Michael Douglas: Yeah, yeah. I think it just sounds like an incredible book.

28:29Davina McCall: it's called Kevin Rowland, Biography and Autobiography. Bless Me, Father is what it's called. It's a searingly honest memoir from Dexy's iconic frontman, one of the great mavericks and creative geniuses of British music. And then it kind of gives a little synopsis of what to expect, but it says, vividly detailed, with a truly rare degree of self-insight. This is Kevin's own deeply personal account. of an extraordinary life, raw and unvarnished, a remarkable memoir, as compelling and as original as you would expect from one of the pioneering icons of music history. Wow.

29:11Michael Douglas: It does say, Danny Baker does say, it's a bit too honest, to be honest.

29:16Davina McCall: I don't think you can be too honest. He said it's just absolutely brutal in certain areas. I cannot believe it. I kind of knew him a bit back in the day. I mean, we weren't like best of friends to go out for dinner and stuff,

29:28Michael Douglas: but he was at all the clubs that I ran or that I was at

29:32Davina McCall: and, you know, we'd sort of nod at each other and say hi. He was and still is a legend. Like, that is quite an achievement.

29:42Michael Douglas: My son, Sonny, went to film school in North London with this kid called Roo. And Sonny came home one night and he said, have you ever heard of Kevin Rowland? I've got to say, I have some days to spend that time. He says, yeah, it's Roo's granddad. He said, I've been out for dinner with him tonight. I was like, are you kidding me? He said, no, he's quite eccentric. And I was like, oh yeah, he's very eccentric. That's a genius. So it was when he met him like 10 times, I was like, wow, how amazing. How cool is that? But yes, I loved the Jackie Wilson side, the Van Morrison cover that the Dexys did.

30:17And Colin Eileen's obviously a brilliant song. But they were on, the young ones.

30:22Davina McCall: We miss Mavericks now. I mean, it doesn't feel like there's any artists like that out there that we're aware of. No, and you know I sent you that clip of Bjork.

30:31Michael Douglas: Yeah, yes, Bjork was another amazing artist.

30:34Davina McCall: And they were amazing, you know. She was so, she was a maverick. There just aren't people like that anymore because I think people are so scared of being cancelled that no one wants to step out of line anymore. Anyway, read it. Bless Me Father, Kevin Rowland, an amazing biography and autobiography. Okay, I mean, sticking on the music theme, I watched a John Lennon documentary last night called Above Us Only Sky. Oh, yeah.

30:58Michael Douglas: It was on Amazon Prime. It's about 90 minutes long, and it's about the writing of the Imagine album in the house in Tittenhurst, I think it was called. They bought a huge house with 100 acres of land around it. It's a big white house.

31:12Davina McCall: So it's just about the one album?

31:14Michael Douglas: It's just about the one album that he wrote after he left the Beatles called Imagine, and it's got the song Imagine on it. It's just a lovely documentary, but what I've loved about those documentaries, certainly like Get Back as well, is it's the closest thing that you seem to get to go into a time machine. You really feel like you're in 1971. And the clothes and the shoes and all the furniture in the house and like the toaster and the kettle. Everything you're looking at, it's like, wow, yeah, this is what it was like. You know, the cars, the kids wearing these particular clothes, Yoko in these slightly mad outfits and everything.

31:47And then you see John basically writing these songs and piecing them together, but Imagine's in there as well. and you just forget what a special song that is and what an incredible idea it is that of course we all think of now you think of the war that's going on you know in the Middle East with Israel and the Palestinian people and all that and then you know what's going on in the Ukraine and everything you think Jesus Christ for fuck's sake can we not just get ourselves together and realise that we are all just one type of species living in one place and can not just get on but I think of all the bits of art that perpetuate the idea of peace that song is the greatest one

32:30Davina McCall: ever made really and you told me an amazing stat about that song that in 2015 it got awarded something got awarded the song of the century yeah yeah for the 1900s I would guess you know and I can see why it's such a beautiful song when he'd written it and he was playing it to everybody everybody knew full well that was a hell of a song you know and the band kept saying just play it on the piano I don't have anything else in it but he wanted bass and there's a bit of drums on there and stuff like that but you know just that and the world could be as one you know just that idea of oneness is just so brilliant and there it is in this incredible song it's just so simple you You know, you do wonder, don't you, if these artists have just got one amazing song in them and that's it.

33:20And the rest of them are good songs, but there's just this one bang.

33:23Davina McCall: Okay, I'm going to ask you two things. Yeah. What was Paul Weller's so far for you?

33:31Michael Douglas: God, that's a really tough question. I would probably say, when he was in the jam, it was probably A Town Called Malice. I don't think there's any better song that he wrote.

33:40Davina McCall: I like Going Underground.

33:41Michael Douglas: Yeah, Going Underground's good, but it feels a bit too commercial for me. Town Called Malice has just got this edge to it.

33:47Davina McCall: That's interesting.

33:48Michael Douglas: I think as a solo artist, probably for me would be You Do Something To Me. It's just, again, very simple and such a beautiful idea.

33:58Davina McCall: What's the one we listened to? Aspects. Yes, I love that one. That's good, isn't it? I wonder if Paul still thinks the greatest song he's ever going to write is still... To Come. Yeah, To Come, you know. Imagine if it was. Imagine.

34:16yeah very good very good okay bumping along from that but anyway um above us only sky is available while you're looking up oh no no i'm just checking the time now so um i want to recommend wise because wise london clothing shop sent me a jumper and it says um never too much on it and i love it

34:38Davina McCall: so much because you always say never too much to me when i put on an outfit and i go is this too much and you go nope never too much and you are the opposite of controlling yeah you are encouraging so you are like go for it do more yeah go bigger go madder more yourself yeah be more yourself which i love you for oh good so um wise is this shop and they make these jumpers and I'm just going to talk you through the kind of style the style is it's um a woman's clothing store it all started with a rainbow so I know Marielle who started wise yeah from back in day and um she had a career in television and then she took some time out to bring up her kids and she embarked on her own fashion label at 49 and I really like that because it gives lots of other women listening hope if they want to do something or try something like that just go do it because she's done it and it's absolutely amazing so i'm going to give you an idea of prices here um let's have a look dresses and jumpsuits generally speaking the dresses are around kind of 200 to 300 pounds but they are we're talking quite fancy you know pretty dresses that you could wear to an occasion.

36:01Davina McCall: We've got also things like the jumpers. Let me just show you the knitwear. The knitwear I love. So they've got a little kind of tank top, which I really like, which you can wear over a shirt.

36:18Michael Douglas: Oh, yeah, nice. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

36:20Davina McCall: And they've got little scallop top, scallop necks. I think their knitwear is probably my favourite thing. And that's around the£100 mark, but they're made with like really beautiful wool. Lots of them are cashmere, merino wool, like really pretty colours, really feminine look. So Wise London, great brand, wiselondon.com and wise is spelt W-Y-S-E, wiselondon.com. And just remember Mariella started a fashion brand at 49. Yeah, you can do it. It's doing really well. You can do it, you can do it, you can do it. it is interesting this idea that we all know we're going to die one day you know and um you know that it's difficult for some people to think about that i think about it quite a lot because i realize the time it's not that it's running out but i'm getting less and less time you know i feel like i have a terminal illness you have and i will die in about 35 years um so it's a case of saying well what do you want to do with the time you've got left yeah i think the one of the important things is to try and think about the idea of what the final few days are like for you when you know you're going to die and whether you wish you'd done something or not but that's that's this is what i've been talking about yeah yeah with you yeah about begin again yeah like the whole reason i started that podcast was to help people live a life where they could die and be on their deathbed and go, I've done everything I wanted to do.

37:56Michael Douglas: I had a proper go at that. Yeah. You don't have to have a success.

38:01Davina McCall: No, but a success is what do you want?

38:03Michael Douglas: Yes.

38:03Davina McCall: You know, it's not about being famous or...

38:06Michael Douglas: But what I mean is, like, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't really matter because you lose anyway in the end because you died. Yeah, but you tried. But this is the point.

38:15Davina McCall: The point is you lose more if you didn't try. If you didn't try, that's the disappointment that you'd feel in those last few days. You'd think, fuck, I wish I was led here knowing that I tried to do that or I had a go at that and it could have worked. And what would it have been like? You know, I would hate that idea really to fall on me. What I really want is for somebody to say, you're probably going to die in the next few days. And I go, OK, you know, wow, you know, that's no problem. I'm fine with that because I had a right, proper go at everything, you know. But that's how I felt when I was having my operation.

38:50Yes, well that's what made me think about all that stuff as your operation, the fact that I might not see you again. But I did think you have had a hell of a life.

38:59Davina McCall: And you know, I kept telling you, I've had a great life and I feel happy. I don't feel any regret or any wishing I'd done something and I've had a go at everything.

39:11Michael Douglas: But it's worth reminding yourself, not you, but the people listening, that you don't want to find yourself in a state of regret that you wish you'd done something that you didn't or you wish you hadn't stayed somewhere. You shouldn't, you know, that kind of thing. Okay, someone got in touch with me on Instagram recently to see if we wanted to do this thing. We're going out into the street at the moment, as you know, and just spreading the love of people. We're just telling people they look good and telling people to have a good day. I absolutely love that, Michael. Me and you went out into London recently and did that.

39:46And then we picked up these two girls called Beryl and Sharon.

39:49Davina McCall: We didn't literally pick them up, just to let you know.

39:51Michael Douglas: They both had hair that they didn't like. So I invited them back to my studio to say, why don't I do both your hair and give you a goodie bag and all that. And make some content so people can see how you can make your hair look better quite easily. So I had them both in today. They looked great. It looked brilliant, didn't they? So I made one of them really smooth and gave a really good blow dry and gave her loads of hints and tips on how to get her hair really smooth and shiny. And then Sharon had naturally curly hair that she wasn't really doing anything with. So I diffused it all. Mega curly.

40:23She was like, wow, it's amazing. So it was such a nice thing to do. Anyway, loads of companies have got in touch with us about doing things with them and one thing or another, which is good.

40:32Michael Douglas: But this one particular event got in touch with me. It's called Ideas Fest. and Ideas Fest is UK's ultimate festival for founders. It's described as the Glastonbury of business essentially, you know. It's the 10th and the 11th of September, it's in Tring, Hertfordshire, which is a field just outside London in Manor Meadows, Tring, Hertfordshire. A two-day business festival for founders, investors, operators and creatives who want to straight talk and real connections. So if you're an entrepreneur or you've got a small business or a big business um and you want to find yourself knocking around with like-minded people there's loads of talks on and seminars and stuff like that about i would have thought you know

41:15Davina McCall: things like um crm databasing um can i just ask what's that yeah um it's like um the customer

41:23Michael Douglas: journey of somebody interacting with your business okay um so when somebody interacts with your business it's um i can't remember what crm stands for all of a sudden google that i'll google it i've had a meeting about crm today and i'm like oh jesus i can't remember and then you know paid for advertising on meta and google i get a lot of questions about that customer relationship management that's right yes so when the customer interacts with your business and they buy a product off you you then have some data on them and it's how you kind of interact with that data with them and form a relationship with them and then you kind of manage that relationship so you know they bought a hairdryer and some shampoo but they might need some brushes so you could suggest brushes to them or from a discount code and stuff like that you know so you have this database if you like and that and that crm bit needs management and looking after and love yeah yeah but anyway there's loads of stuff going on here with regards to um workshops and podcasts and parties and stuff like that but if you were looking to go to a kind of business festival then this appears to be the one uh there's tickets still available um i'm not available to go this year but um that's your um mate stephen bartlett's there at some point yes and so there's lots of big this is daniel priestly's there he's really good he was on a stephen bartlett ceo thing a couple of times so there's some really good speakers there and there's loads of stuff going on so it's the 10th and the 11th of september and i would go but i'm just not available uh at that time but maybe going to try and do something with him next year or maybe put myself forward to be a speaker or something like that depends how successful my business is this time it's going to be hugely successful yeah we'll see about that um ideasfest.uk go and check it out shall we do some shout outs yeah let's do some shout outs um okay so samantha lane said

43:21Davina McCall: that she thought of you um because she saw a book called the condiment book by claire Dinhut. D-I-N-H-U-T.

43:31Michael Douglas: It looks absolutely bloody brilliant.

43:33Davina McCall: Yeah, it really does. It's a flavourful guide to food's unsung heroes.

43:38Michael Douglas: That's exactly what I think. Like, nobody gets the condiment thing, but it makes food so much better on every level.

43:46Davina McCall: She gets it.

43:48Michael Douglas: So I would like this book, Claire Dinhut.

43:52Davina McCall: And Samantha Lane, thank you very much for that and thank you for understanding.

43:56Michael Douglas: yeah michael great suzy smith says look how different you look md in your profile pic love to you both how do you get dm's fringe to lie without a cowlick you've got a cowlick um but she's got a lot of this brand new hair that's grown through from her scar from the brain operation which is actually adding a lot of volume in her hair and a nice little twist through it.

44:23Davina McCall: Yeah.

44:23Michael Douglas: You said here, Susie Smith, look how different you look, MD, in your profile pic. I don't think I look that different. Do you think she means that one there?

44:32Davina McCall: Have a look at the other one on your main page. Let's have a look at that one. OK.

44:37Michael Douglas: You mean on that one?

44:40Davina McCall: Yeah, you don't look that different on that one. Yeah, I don't suppose I do. Go back to making the cut. Let's have a look at that one.

44:46Michael Douglas: I don't know how you see it there.

44:48Davina McCall: Tap on it.

44:49Michael Douglas: I don't know if you can.

44:50Davina McCall: Oh, I used to be able to do that. Yeah, I used to be able to edit the profile or whatever.

44:56Michael Douglas: But, yeah, I do look a bit different because that picture is five years old now, do you believe? Yeah. We are going to perhaps rebrand slightly and have a new picture. Do you want to read out Jude's?

45:09Davina McCall: Jude, I couldn't see anything. Oh, yeah.

45:12Michael Douglas: It says, hi, lovely you too.

45:15Davina McCall: Oh, sorry, yes, it was just a heart. That's all right. It says, just came across this small account and have ordered some Earl Grey.

45:23Michael Douglas: If you listen to the story, it's gorgeous. They're sustainable. They have five children who are involved in the business. Names who are in the packaging know you love the story behind products. So this is called Tidy Tea. This is so nice. Food and drink, a family business based in Carmarthenshire. Wow. Producing a lush range of sustainably sourced tea and plastic-free packaging. Tidy.

45:46Davina McCall: they've got moroccan tea and they've got um welsh black tea and they've got all different types and flavors how nice the whole branding and everything looks really nice tidy looks brilliant yeah tidy tea is it bang tidy hey bang tidy hi uh thanks very much indeed for that jude helen hawkins helen hawkins is active now um so she sent us um something from um sehaya.uk um that's sehaya.uk on instagram and they are really nice bracelets and i love

46:27Michael Douglas: the ones that tie around here look tie around your wrist a couple of times with a heart that's so pretty yes please i would love that look it's funny how all the colors that i like are the

46:41Davina McCall: chakra bracelets yeah um but this is a really really really pretty um bracelet company 24 quid for this one it's half price at the moment the chakra bracelet i'm gonna follow you can choose your bracelet you can like you can have leather you can have rope or um you can have like a vegan You can have a women's size or a men's size. Great. And you can shop by stone. So you could get amethyst bracelets. Look.

47:13Michael Douglas: Yeah.

47:14Davina McCall: But these wraparound ones, the heart wraparound ones, are absolutely gorgeous. And look at that necklace. Yeah, it's very nice. I mean, this is very us. Ooh, look at that. Ooh, is that a big crystal stone necklace thing? Oof. That's half price as well. Oh, my God. Okay. This site has got like a half price sale on it. It's spelt S-E-H-A-Y-A dot com. And I just want to say.

47:43Michael Douglas: Can we go shopping on it tonight?

47:44Davina McCall: Yeah, let's go shopping on it tonight. I want to say a massive thank you to Helen Hawkins. In fact, you carry on talking. I'm going to go and send her a video message right now.

47:53Michael Douglas: OK. Now, this is from Pet Simpson. And she says, I've written a book which I would feel be a bestseller. tried to break through before funding um i'm 60 now a young 60 i might add lol um if i sent it to you would you read me give me feedback a working class girl who just wants to leave something behind i mean pep this sounds utterly brilliant so well done you first of all for writing a book and trying to get it out there i would say that i have tried to read just one book this year and i haven't managed to be successful in it i'm reading a book called falling upwards it's the smallest book you've ever read and i cannot get through it just for the sheer yes but from the the sheer shortage of time both of us have got so i would say pet simpson don't send us your book because we won't be able to read it because i can barely read the things i actually want to read let alone read things that other people would like me to read but what i would say to you is go go go pet um just keep pushing um and if there's anything i think about or there's anything i could always think about that would be helpful we'll let you know but um perhaps having an instagram page where you read excerpts from the book and get engaged people with with it it might be a good thing uh somehow that's a very good idea yeah you're like you could set them an instagram page and do lives perhaps in the evening where you just read for 10 minutes bits of the book to get people engaged in it might be a good way of getting it out there um and we could drive we could drive a couple of people to that uh page if you did that that might be a good way of just getting some some noise about it but well done first of all for sitting down writing a book couldn't be anything you know harder than writing a book myself yeah so good luck with all of that and thanks for messaging as well okay ladies and gents we will on holiday next week, which will be great.

49:51Michael Douglas: And then it'll be no sort of grindstone. We'll have lots of stories to tell. Let me tell you, we will. Enjoy the rest of your summer. I'm going to look forward to speaking to you in September.

50:00Davina McCall: Love you. Bye.

50:46We'll see you next time. Advertise.