Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy)

0:12Welcome to the Off Menu Podcast, taking the ravioli of conversation and boiling it in the water of humour, then grating over the parmesan of friendship and black pepper. but that's interesting.

0:27James Acaster: That was an interesting one. Hmm. I thought, oh, it's going for a very short one. And then you, you're obviously for it in your head. No, that's too short. So you added the Parmesan. Well, I know I didn't think it was too short because I do like to do a short one now and again, because it makes me laugh. But then I thought I wouldn't just have plain ravioli and I've got to be honest to my audience. And that's where all the best comedy comes from, isn't it? From honesty. That is Ed Gamble. He's an honest man. My name is James Acaster. A liar. This is the off menu podcast. Together we own a dream restaurant.

0:54James Acaster: and every single week we invite the guests and ask them their favourite ever starter, main course dessert, cider shan, drink, not in that order. And this week our guest is... Neil Hannon. Neil Hannon, a musical legend, James, the Divine Comedy. An absolute musical legend. Very, very excited having Neil Hannon on, especially because the Divine Comedy have a new album out. Rainy Sunday afternoon, out on the 19th of September. Very excited to meet Neil. I've seen the Divine Comedy live. he's a very productive inventive musician also the Divine Comedy are going on tour October 2025 that's this year that's this year of course they're going all over the place they're playing some cool venues doing a couple of shows at the Barbican they're doing the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham go to thedivinecomedy.com and you can get all the info for that tour but listen we love Neil Hannan we love the Divine Comedy however if Neil does pick the secret ingredient which we have deemed to be unacceptable.

1:51James Acaster: We will have to kick him out at the dream restaurant. And this week, the secret ingredient is... Crisps and tea. That's from a lyric in National Express. Yes, where the hostess sells crisps and tea. Yes. And her art is the size of a small country. I remember that. Yeah, it's a good song. Yeah, yeah, it's a great song. Quite a broad secret ingredient, I would say. It's two secret ingredients, and it's things that people really like. yes now do we make it that if Neil asks for them together crisps and tea we kick him out or is it if he says crisps do we have to wait for tea to come up because it definitely has to be and I know what you'll do if he says crisps you'll be like do you want a drink with that because I know what you're like yeah you do know what I like yeah you're cheeky and listen it's me being honest I will do that yeah comedically so like yeah but like I think if Neil says crisps or tea that's fine on its own if later on in the podcast he then chooses crisps and tea the other one yeah oh okay so if he says crisps and then later on he says tea well that's crisps and tea you're out out so it'll be quite a tense episode what if he chooses tea and then crisps yeah that's still out crisps and tea though is the tea and crisps I just don't want to kick him out I think we'll cross that bridge when we come to it because I'll be honest my wife's a massive fan and if we kick Neil Hannon at the dream restaurant she might leave me you'll be in the doghouse I'll be in the doghouse mate I think we've got to cross that before we come to it if it's tea and crisps I think we make the case for I know I'm going to try and kick him out I get the sense you're not Benito might be the deciding vote he's shaking his head he's not going to do it Benito will be in the doghouse as well Toast loves him Toast loves to find comedy yeah in fact no if you annoy Toast you don't go in the doghouse do you that's a privilege yeah it's welcoming you in yeah I'm in the doghouse with Toys.

3:49James Acaster: He loves me at the moment. He loves me. Can't get enough of me. Keeps inviting me over. Well, let's see what happens. Yeah, let's just see what happens. This is the off-menu menu of Neil Hannan.

4:08Welcome, Neil, to the Dream Restaurant. Oh, thank you so much for having me. Welcome, Neil Hannan, to the Dream Restaurant.

4:14James Acaster: I bet it's been to you for some time. Oh, fantastic. This is a joy. Nice to see you, Neil. Nice to see you too, James. And thank you very much, Ed. And thank you very much for having me. And wow. Is that a wow at the shock and awe of seeing a genie for the first time? Well, that is it. Yeah. And the genie thing, I mean, that's cool. That takes a lot of pressure off because I can ask for really stupid stuff. Yes. But I just love the idea. I am envisaging you as a genie. Thank you. I hope that's okay. You have very baggy pants. Yeah, yeah, very baggy. Like crisscross. Like crisscross. But not backwards.

4:59Yes. Or like, you can't touch this person. Yes, you can't touch this person. Yeah, he had baggy pants.

5:05James Acaster: And you couldn't touch them. No, you would never be able to touch them. I imagine if, even if you were a musician on the same bill as him, it'd be very hard to resist not trying to touch him. Because he's kind of... Oh, I can touch this. That's his fault. Yeah. Oh, what you think, because he's saying you can't touch this, then that invites touching. Yeah, because you can then say forever, I touched him. Yeah. I did touch him, yeah. I did touch him. Is there something that people, because of one of your songs, will always do or bring up to you that is the thing you've heard the most? Well, they'll usually say, I was on that National Express the other day.

5:40James Acaster: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, really? Oh, good. How was it? It's like, just because you're a nice, polite man, do you always follow up with the conversation? Yes, I am fantastically polite. I was just brought up well. And, you know, no matter how dumb your question to be, I'm going to be nice to you. Well, good. That promises a lot then for this. It's a few dumb questions on this, actually. It is nice to know that sometimes when people go on the National Express, I said, do just have your song in their head the whole time? I went on a 12-hour National Express trip once, and it was the whole time in my head.

6:17James Acaster: Really? Just ba-ba-ba-da? First time I ever went to the Edinburgh Festival. It was last-minute decision. It was a 12-hour National Express, and it was all that was going on in my head the whole time. That's fantastic. Well, I am very chuffed that you should have my song, no matter how annoyed you were by the end of the trip. That's horrible. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't know why people don't do that more often, you know, in their careers. you know, just choose a random kind of venerable national institution and write a song about it. I mean, I didn't mean for it to happen, but it was great. Woo-hoo!

6:52James Acaster: Would you deliberately do one if there's a national institution that you could get onto now? I'm not going to do it again. I would be greedy. No, I've done my national institution. Are you not tempted to maybe go even more upmarket, maybe go like write a song called First Class Emirates or something? First Class Emirates, yeah. just in case they give me a freebie yeah I can't see how it would sort of really scan in a line I don't think it matters I think they'd be happy regardless I think you just do the same song re-release it like Candle in the Wind and change it to First Class Emirates I'm trying to think of anything that rhymes with Emirates though yeah that's hard I'm usually pretty good at this but you know conglomerates is the nearest I can get there you go First Class Emirates but gas conglomerates do you love food sorry now i'm just trying to find rice food and i have a difficult relationship not because i i want to eat it all uh or anything it's because it's the it's it's root into me past my awful teeth uh-huh and you know if you'll notice the last 20 years of photographs of me i i smile like I always just thought you were very saucy yeah saucy man I can see where the confusion has arisen but I have liked food more in the past when I found it easier to eat now sort of angel delight would be perfect so your teeth by the way I never thought that you have awful teeth and you came in and I did not see any awful teeth I mean, it's all my own fault.

8:36I was terrible to them as a kid, you know, ate lots of absolute rubbish and was very, very remiss in my brushing. And as time went on, it didn't get much better and they started sort of collapsing, like imploding, like a black hole, and I just find myself swallowing bits of tooth. This is lovely.

8:59James Acaster: Is this why you turned down the ice cream donuts this morning? it was partly that I must admit I thought oh I can I can see pain on the horizon if I if you eat the ice cream donut yeah we should say it's quite I mean fairly early in the morning in terms of currently quarter past ten in the morning yeah and Megan who works at Place have turned up at the door with a huge freezer bag full of ice cream donuts and ice cream and things from from Crosstown yeah I'm assuming they were sent to us Ben rather than Megan's gone mad she didn't stick up Ben, you almost talked. You almost talked there. But we offered, that was the first thing we offered Neil.

9:37James Acaster: Neil arrived. We said, would you like an ice cream donut? And he said, it's a little bit early. Yeah. Which is polite. Yeah, very polite. Let's talk about the new album, mainly Sunday afternoon. Very exciting. Also, we've got to talk about this bonus disc. There was a bit of a mix-up, apparently, and you got sent the super extra bonus album from The Best Of. Yes. which is not what I am trying to promote at all although it's quite good oh it's great I didn't listen to it this morning it's quite mental we can double promote that is also available to listen to but the new album is Rainy Sunday Afternoon out on September 19th I've made another album now how do you feel about that?

10:24I feel good that I have made a bloody good album at this great age and like the 13th one I've made. So that makes me happy. But, you know, when am I going to stop? When's this going to end? It's ridiculous. That is incredible though, 13 albums. Is the process easier now it's that many or is it back to square one every single time? I think it's a little easier because I'm better at it. I know what I want more and I know how to get it. And also because I care less about what people think of what I do. Obviously, in the 90s, I really wanted to be a pop star. And somehow I managed to. It was crazy.

11:06Not a very big one, but, you know, medium pop star. And I tried to keep a hold of that for a while until finally you realize the kids don't care, you know, and why should they? I wouldn't have cared about me as I got older. So you just kind of concentrate on quality, you know, and doing the things you want to do and doing them really quite well.

11:28James Acaster: Is there a lot of the fans on tour, are they like from that original 90s wave of fans or are they bringing younger people with them as well? There's a nice mix. I mean, the kids in the audience are usually the offspring of the original fans. So, yes, it's like a monarchy now. They have a divine right. oh nice didn't even see that coming um yeah but i noticed you know we our our audience uh our audiences kind of thinned out a little in the 2000s and i didn't quite know what i was doing wrong and then suddenly everybody came for like 2010 you know through to 2015 they were all back and they said we couldn't get babysitters for 10 years well when you're writing songs now is like Do you feel like you're a different person when you started writing and we started doing music?

12:29James Acaster: Are you thinking about them completely differently, lyrically? No, I'm trying to just be myself and be honest. And it's always served me well in the past. I was very much myself in the early days. And to my astonishment, people kind of enjoyed the obscure things that I did. maybe just because they had good tunes. I don't know. Now, you know, I'm in my 50s, and I've got to face that fact and just, you know, write songs about my crumbling teeth, etc. Yeah, so the huge, I mean, at the minute, you're probably aware of this, but like this ongoing debate in rap music about, because Andre 3000 has said, he's not going to rap because, you know, he's 50 or whatever.

13:21I thought you were going to say it's about teeth.

13:23James Acaster: There's an ongoing debate in rap music about T. What kind of grills that they should wear. But like, yeah, he's just like, no one wants to hear some of my age rap. But then also all the biggest rap albums of this year have been from people his age. Really? I'm not really an aficionado of the rap. But I liked a lot of Outkast stuff. Yeah. Just because it sort of skirted boundaries, you know. Yeah. I wasn't too keen on his, what would you call it? The flute album? This weird flute, psychedelic album. Yeah. I worked my way through it. I have not listened to it since. Yeah. You know, I think a lot of people, that was the case.

14:07James Acaster: Some people were pleasantly surprised by it. But I think what he's got to realize is he is such a good rapper that people will sit for a flute album out of respect. because it's something from him. So it's like, well, at least we got this. You don't want to put people through that, really. I would like to hear, I'd actually be much more interested in sort of an older person rapping, you know, simply because they might be talking about things that meant something to me. Yeah. What sort of things would you like to hear someone rapping about? The decision-making around where their kids are going to go to college.

14:43Yeah.

14:47James Acaster: Well, we always start with still a spark than water, Neil. Do you have a preference? Whatever you guys want, really. I mean, you see, this is... We don't do that here, Neil. You'll take what you can get? That's excellent. Wrong album, but excellent. Bonus album. That's the bonus album. We've done all the research on the bonus album here, Neil. Oh, that's brilliant. well I guess still you know I'm not a sparkling personality and I run deep inside there so still is what I've got in front of me and that's what I want I just don't have strong feelings about food this is great why am I here we've had people come on who I suspect don't eat at all we've had actors come on and try and you know and you can tell they've researched what do people eat before coming on here.

15:43James Acaster: Well, I'll tell you, we had an actor called Phil Dunster on, who's in Ted Lasso, and he got given his dream meal recently by his friends on his stag do. And there's a photo of him eating the meal that he talked about on off menu, and he looks absolutely miserable. And I was like, I don't think Phil really said what he would like to eat. Yeah, okay. I think Phil said a menu which is maybe nostalgic for him and makes it more relatable to the listener. But actually, he doesn't want to eat all these carbs. Well, you know, like with the songs, I'm going to be brutally honest. Yes. Great. Good. So still water.

16:24James Acaster: Yeah. And you don't want anything in that water. That is still... I mean, is it good tap water where you grew up? Oh, yeah. In Northern Ireland, we had nice tap water. Yeah. Not like your London stuff. Yeah. Arse's got chunks in it. Bits, it's bits, like orange juice with bits in it. Yeah, yeah. Some places do. Nor, huh? You do get that sometimes. You actually get problems. But I wonder whether that's just from like dirty taps or whatever. Little white bits floating around. One of my neighbours drank a boba tea for the first time the other day in the courtyard of where we live. We just went out in the courtyard to drink it.

17:01James Acaster: No, it was there anyway. It was a sunny day. We're all out there. And a kid came up to him and said, try this, Dad. He thought, what is this? Bite the tea. He had a big old glug of it. He hated it and spat all the balls into a planter. All those little tapioca balls. I don't understand what that stuff is about. My daughter gave me one of those and it would have been the same reaction had I not been in the shop at the time. Yeah, you couldn't spit them back down the straw. It is weird. It's weird what suddenly kids get into. and I never would have thought tea with like tadpoles in it was going to be what they were into see this is the sort of thing I'd like to hear on the next Andre 3000 album he doesn't understand Boba all of our daughters keep giving us Boba that's a good topic and everyone would be like oh wow I didn't know that wasn't just me that's everyone and that's what art is for pop it on us on bread pop it on us on bread Neil Haddon pop it on us on bread it's a bit like that scene in man bites dog where he scares the old woman to death i've got to say it's the first shout out we've had to man bites dog a lovely film oh i never watched it i couldn't possibly get through that i'd be dead yeah but i saw all the trailers and thought oh that's not very nice is it no i don't think i've seen it either i mean i watched some horrible films but i don't think i've seen yeah i've not seen it No, no.

18:30James Acaster: I know what it's about. Okay, well, we've all agreed on that. But he's not seen it? No, he's not seen it. He spoke. We got him. Yeah. My wife would scary films. She can't watch scary films. So what she does is she finds a stream of it online, puts it in the corner to a tiny screen, and then reads the Wikipedia plot. Great. Yeah. But, yes, my wife loves scary films, except she hates them. Right. And she has terrible nightmares for days after one. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like, oh, that was really good. Scared me shitless. And it's like, why do you put yourself through it? I don't understand. If you're having nightmares, you shouldn't be watching the film.

19:10James Acaster: Two weeks couldn't sleep after Scream 2. Oh, God. That is true. Obviously, I was much younger. I'll be able to watch it now. You'll be able to watch it now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll be able to watch it now. All right. It's a challenge. That was my challenge. Challenge accepted. I'm going to go away and watch Scream 2. I'm not challenging you to do that. Challenge accepted. Don't do it. Don't do it. Neil, I won't let you down. Papadoms or bread, Neil? Bread. Papadoms. I only worked out what they were when I was about 20, you know. Northern Ireland was not a cosmopolitan place, you know, growing up.

19:45Especially I was out in the sticks. So it was only when I started in the music industry that I went to an Indian restaurant, you know. It was extraordinary. Bread. There was a bakery called the Melanda Bakery just around the corner from us as I was growing up in Derry slash Londonderry. So good they named it twice. And I feel like that smell was just there that my whole, like all of the 70s, and it went along quite well with the 70s. I don't know what it was about the 70s. The smell of baking white bread, you know, that stodgy stuff. and I have, you know, I'm sentimental about, I think my mum, when we said we're hungry, she'd just throw slices of white bread at us to get us to go away.

20:36Yeah, yeah. And we'd kind of play with them, we'd kind of take the crust off and then we'd sort of squidge up the white middle bit and like sort of braid them and stuff. Ooh, it was tough growing up when I was alive. I was going to say, stereotypes of growing up in 70s at Northern Ireland. All we had to play with was bread. Yeah, pretty much. You know, my dad was a rector and just like, it was quite a small amount of money. We always lived in lovely houses because it was like, the house was, oh, I just poured coffee on myself. I'm getting excited thinking about the old days. Yeah, lovely houses, beautiful Victorian.

21:21sort of red brick terraced house that I grew up in. But yeah, the furniture was moth-eaten.

21:29James Acaster: So do you want, for your bread course, slices of white bread thrown at you by your mother that you can braid and play with? That would be nice, yeah. If my brothers were here as well. Yes, your brothers could be there. And, you know, but current ages, that would be funny, fighting over bread in your 50s. Where are you in the order? I'm the youngest. You're the youngest. It's like my parents ran out of steam because Des is the eldest and the tallest, and then Brendan, and then I'm a short arse. So you, Des and Brendan, playing with white bread together. Oh, tears. Was it the sort of white bread where if you do squeeze it down, it sort of almost becomes like a paste?

22:11It becomes a putty. Yeah. You could, you know, fill the cracks in the windows. Fix the furniture.

22:18James Acaster: yeah he thinks that god damn furniture what's the obviously if it's a vicar it's called a vicarage if you're a rector what's it called a rectorage I don't know sorry rectory oh my god not a rectum which was obviously my first thought that's what I was pushing it towards rectum trying to see if I can get you to say you lived in a rectum he's a very good interviewer James He knows where he's going with these things. It was a trap. We've only got you here, Neil, because we wanted you to say you did a rectum in the 70s. We got him to shut it down. And all the fake walls of the studio just go down.

22:59James Acaster: There's a whole studio audience. We got him. Michael McIntyre's out there. Michael McIntyre's there. Whoa, we got you. Well, anyway, I was ejected from the rectum eventually.

23:09Are you having butter with the bread, by the way? Not if you're playing with your breakfast. Are you slipping out of your hands? Well, no, I'll have the flora plant-based salted butter. Thank you. Welcome. You got it. We always have to ask our guests who are from the island of Ireland. Oh, yes, of course. About butter. Because you've got to check. Yeah, I heard David O'Doherty going on and on and on.

23:36James Acaster: He does do that. Yes. Kerrygold usually gets a shout out. Yeah, well, I've managed to come off the old dairy butter in the last couple of years, finally, when they made a good substitute, finally. Because I do try. I'm not very good. I still drink milk in my tea because tea tastes rancid without real milk. But I gather that Dairy Gold and Kerry Gold are still going strong. Yeah, big time. They're going strong. Dairy Gold do have a plant-based substitute, which is good. but oh I won't go into it my wife is a very strict vegan very strict how does that manifest itself I can see I'm going to get into trouble yeah she's very strict she's also a massive fan of this podcast yeah thank you very much thank you very much thank you for listening and she was kind of like quizzing me and you know trying to whip me into shape for this but I said leave me alone I'll do it myself it'll be fine where'd we got to?

24:43bless you

24:43James Acaster: I sneezed yeah but I did that thing where I pinched my nose I love it I put one hand in the air I put one hand in the air aren't your eyes going to pop out I love it I love the feeling my ears feel crazy right now I do worry about that though if you don't let the sneeze out then your eyes might pop out I think you've got to keep your eyes very firmly shut yeah in that situation the way James did it then he held his nose and put one hand in the air like he was doing the dance from Pulp Fiction that's what I was doing yeah I have a lot of a sneezing experience being a hay fever sufferer from my early teens.

25:14So I've been sneezing with great gusto all my life. Even in the off season, because for some reason it's made my nose just hypersensitive. But I like to let them out. I mean, obviously, catching substances. But I do like the feeling of just that, well, the plosive feeling. you know just going do you have a hanky or are you a disposable tissues man disposable tissues because for god's sake that yeah I mean my dad was very much a hanky man yeah it just didn't seem right especially when he'd get us to sneeze in his hanky

25:52James Acaster: oh yeah oh yeah you can't be using your dad's hanky no Jesus Christ I've got a hanky down and I had a hanky grandad and I I just can't be doing with it it's disgusting yeah it's pretty vile absolutely rank Although I do, I like the reusing, the sustainable ethic. Sure. But I don't think that's why they're doing it. It's absolutely the furthest thing from my granddad's mind when he was using that hanky was that it was sustainable. He just wants to choose the grossest option possible. My God. I don't even want to talk about food now we've talked about hankies. I think they can be quite refined, the hanky.

26:32James Acaster: What the hell are you talking about? You can have one like a fun spotty one and, you know. Yeah, if you never use it. Well, funny you should say that, but I think we're going to make for the first time sort of Divine Comedy monogrammed handkerchiefs for our merchandise desk in the gigs. So buy some, please, after us having, you know, made them all. Wow. To promote the bonus CD? No. No. No, because, you know, rainy Sunday afternoon, you might get a cold. Of course. Perfect. I think they'll sell quite well. We would do Brawley's as well, but they're a bit pricey. Oh, yeah. Also, they'll all be opening them indoors at the gig.

27:13James Acaster: That'd be quite cool. I don't care for that sort of superstition. No, I'm not a superstitious person. So you'd be happy for them to all open? Yeah, yeah. And if there's a set of stairs, you know, like a... What do you call those things? Ladder. Ladder. Oh, wow. Well done, Ed. He's a professional. I'm a professional. I know the words. He knew set of stairs was ladder.

27:42James Acaster: Your dream starter. What I really yearn for is a good orange. It's so hard to get the perfect orange. And you're a food genie, so you can get me the perfect orange. I'll get you the perfect one. You're in the supermarket and you're sort of looking around the corner at all of the oranges, because they always slide a few ones that are going off in at the bottom. And also, you know, there might be one in the entire punnet that is acceptable. Yeah. But it's so rare that you get one that sort of ticks all the boxes. Let's go through these boxes. Well, peelability. Yeah. I don't like it when you have to sort of work too hard at the peeling.

28:28Maybe it's because I'm lazy. I don't know. So I don't want to have it where it's coming off in just little bits. You're just working and working and working. And the orange isn't worth it. It's not worth all of that trouble and time. And also you get your hand sort of that film, weird citrus film on your hand. Then there's the very, well, tough orange segments. And that's so disappointing. Stringy. Yeah. And dry. Yeah. It needs to be firm but juicy and have a lovely, you know, not too sweet, but it has to be pleasurably sweet. Yes. I'm bored of all this. And I want a glass of sherry with it. Is that all right?

29:13Stick a drink in right now. You can have a sherry with your perfect orange. Yeah. You're going to give me the perfect orange. This is going to be brilliant. The perfect, I mean, I've probably, I'd say I've not eaten a regular orange for 15 years. I'm satsumas all day long I'm tangerines do they even make navel oranges anymore? yeah this is it where do you stand on piff? I don't mind it as long as it comes away easily but those wonderful experiences when you're peeling and you're thinking I'm going to get all the way around in one go well that's going to happen with this orange oh my god I don't want it pre-peeled or anything I won't pre-peel it it's going to be the satisfaction of me peeling it perfectly and then maybe when I get the last bit out the whole of the inner pith comes out with the peel what a feeling that would be what a feeling if you filmed that and put it online that would go viral that would go viral but it never happens

30:10James Acaster: exactly that's why it would go viral yeah exactly people wouldn't believe it they'd be sharing it Neil Hanrains got the perfect orange I'll have to believe you I don't do the socials yeah well I don't know what people want believers alright alright believers that would happen The pith is very much like the negligee of the orange. Is that fair to say? No, because I don't find it alluring at all. You sicko. If you peeled an orange and showed it to me, it's covered in pith, I'm going to be like, oh, that's sexy. It makes me wonder what's underneath. Negligee doesn't have to be sexy. It can be practical.

30:42Oh, I don't think... I mean, do people still wear negligees?

30:45James Acaster: I just wanted to use the word, I'll be honest with you. I think it's a negligee meant to... It's just underwear, isn't it? Yeah. I think negligee is meant to be a bit sexy. Yeah, that's true, maybe. He took his French word. Yeah. Another difficult word to rhyme, just to get the cogs whirring again, Neil. He's got his eyes closed. Eyes instantly closed. Half smile on his face. Trying to think what rhymes with negligee. He's in his element. What rhymes with negligee and emberates? Ugly way is all I've got. Ugly way, yeah. We'll have to keep working on that. No, I like it. It's kind of like the flip, the opposite of negligee.

31:17James Acaster: Yeah. You know. Yes, I would say it's not that, Although I'd hate it if I peeled an orange and the piff was in the shape of some negligence. Like the orange was wearing some sexy knickers. Yeah, and a little bra. I don't know how this is sexy. I wouldn't be into that. Nor me. Good to know. What kind of sherry do you want? Do you have a particular type of sherry that you'd always go for at Christmas? Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm a Harvey's or Croft or Winter's Tale. How is it called a winter's tale? A bottle of, you know, fortified wine. How did it get that name? But it's obviously hooked you in.

31:59It's called a winter's tale and you like to drink it. Yeah. And I usually get it at Christmas because it seems appropriate. I like a nice, reasonably sweet, nutty sherry. Yeah. I'm not into your kind of fino, very dry kind of stuff. I do. I like a sweet. I like a sweet sherry.

32:20James Acaster: Yeah, yeah. Me too, I like it. I don't really have sherry that much, but whenever I do have a little sip, I do think, why don't I have this? It's basically how I get to drink at half past five. It's like, oh, just have a little sherry and an orange. And you wonder why the kids aren't... Yeah, can I drink this baby? Should I have something else? Because I have a sherry and oranges all the time. It's 5.30. it's very almost sort of medieval start start to the meal you can imagine if you were a lord maybe in a manor somewhere someone bringing you just a single orange on a silver plate I have the hounds for it yeah yeah you've got four dogs four dogs yeah you guys could never live together I've got four cats it would be ne 'er the twain shall meet the house would be divided by down the middle that's the start of an animated feature yeah we have to move for some reason a comedian a musician should have to move them together.

33:17No, but, you know, I admire your animal care. Thank you. I admire your animal care. Oh, thank you. What type of dogs are they? Hard to say. Two sort of lurchery greyhound things and two sort of smaller collie things, sheepy dogs.

33:34James Acaster: I think we'd actually live together very well. My partner's absolutely obsessed with lurchery greyhound things. Lurchers and greyhounds specifically. She's not there. she's gone by that point in the film it's not that good in the film we've both been dumped by our girlfriends wives and Neil's case oh the odd couple yes so it's just the two of us yeah and we've both somehow got the pets and the divorce yeah yeah and now we have to live together okay fine and you've got to find the perfect orange but I think that would be so what would happen then in the film is my girlfriend would meet Neil yeah see the lurchers and the greyhounds fall in love with him yeah and then you would be like I've met someone I'm in love they're going to move into the house if that's okay I'll be like sure I don't like the way this is going and I'll be like I support you Neil and then I'll be like what the hell that is my ex-girlfriend I was in love with her and before you ask yes you can write the soundtrack oh cool well that's the best bit I'll write the jolly songs yeah about chocolate yeah oh Wonka songs about chocolates yeah well no Wonka come on all of the oh that'll fit Neil write all the songs for Wonka of course yes and it was popular.

34:46I've been involved in something popular. Wonderful. Our friend Phil Wang was in Wonka. He did a dance. Yeah, he did a dance. I met him on set. He'd broken his arm. Yes, he broke his arm doing a dance and fell off a table.

34:59James Acaster: My nephews are really obsessed with Phil Wang because I won him in Taskmaster, so they're always asking me if Phil Wang's still at my house. And when they watched Wonka, they were so excited, but they know they're not meant to talk and shout in the cinema. So they just looked over each other and made a W sign with their hand. When I was on TV. The international sign for why. Yeah, even though they're watching Wonka. By the time they got into the W. Yeah!

35:32James Acaster: I don't know how we got onto any of that, but what is your dream main course? Christmas dinner. You are so Christmassy, man. You've got an orange in your stock in a sherry. And Christmas doesn't happen with the same gusto as perhaps I would like, you know. As you get older, it's like, can I be bothered putting all these decorations up when it's just us and maybe a parent or two, you know. But yeah, the food. I was just trying to think, be honest about the time when I'm eating when I'm at my happiest. And that's during Christmas dinner because I like everything and I eat lots of it. I'd like a really really big plate please how big are we talking you know those sort of oval serving dishes that kind of vibe I can see why you've just had an orange as a starter now perfect orange and then the biggest dinner ever what are we talking at the Hanan Christmas dinner the best thing about Christmas dinner as a vegetarian is that it's really all about the vegetables in a way you know and Kathy does absolutely amazing roasties amazing gravy and you know amazing veg and then I plunk a little corn roast in the middle of it you know or something but you know how you're like you can make me anything yes and you know how they're trying to develop lab-grown meat I want a massive lab-grown steak yes in the middle yeah oh that would be so cool hurry up out there yes it would taste better than any it would be better than any even meat steak well it won't be happy because it was never alive yeah yeah if anything that's even more unhappy isn't it what never being alive just becoming a steak straight away no no no no instantly dead instantly dead no never immediately dead never conscious never conscious shut up you're ruining it all this ever been is dead that's a sad tale yeah always dead yeah anyway Brussels sprouts Yep Parsnips Yeah Carrots Yeah Yeah but they're sort of all Done lengthways And sort of glazed Are they roasted right Roasted Yeah yeah yeah I mean I don't know what she does She's a magician Kind of like You've got your very own I see her like with this Boiled spuds Kind of shaking them in the pan Yeah Yeah To make them all kind of Yeah Yeah How's that spell N-Y-I-S-T C-K-G-Y-I.

38:10There's got to be a G in there. Yeah, yeah. I don't like that. Yeah, yeah. When do people start shaking the Tate? Yeah. And what were you doing before? Don't ask me.

38:20James Acaster: Andre 3000 shakes his Tate. That's the name of his new single. Shake the Tate is like a By-Laurant picture. He's like, I can't put this in a song, no one will care. That is one of my favourite lyrics of this century. Yeah. what's the bit before oh god I've forgotten but it ends up with like lend me some sugar I am your neighbour yeah I want to see you all in your baddest behaviour that's it lend me some sugar I am your neighbour I know and that's perfect you actually shouldn't shake pylori pictures though no and if you're going to lend me some sugar I want you in your best behaviour yeah or else you might drop it yeah sugar everywhere in my new apartment yeah but that's why it's such a genius song it makes us forget the actual actual way the world works and what we're like from life and we just completely buy into his way of thinking yeah I bet it'd be nuts though having him as a neighbour yeah yeah especially during that flute music all the time but he's old you know he's made that clear I'm sure he's not that old he's probably my age yeah yeah he said he's too old to rap now but you know he probably goes to bed earlier yeah Yeah.

39:32James Acaster: He said that no one wants to hear him rap about colonoscopies. But I wonder if he still raps at home, you know, just in his own time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He needs to get the raps out. What, just in the morning, just, I'm going to have a coffee. Oh, God. Tell you what, I think you're right, you shouldn't release music anymore. If that's what his rap is, I'm going to have a coffee. It won't taste like toffee. Yeah. Imagine if All these rap fans All around the world Have gone like Andre We just want you to do Another rap album Please And then he releases it And it's I'm going to have a coffee It won't taste like taffy And I was like Oh He was right He's completely lost it now As an older guy And this is the worst We've ever heard I'm sorry for doubting you And pushing you in a direction You don't want to go in You're the artist You do know what's best here's your flute back oh no I burnt my toast he can't rap he's the host yeah that does work that works too well that works too well that's too good I really enjoy doing raps where it's just the first line and then just stopping that was a whole album if it was a bunch of first lines if it was just like I'm going to have a coffee I'm going to House of Jokes oh god damn it so easy to rhyme with as well yeah really easy rhymes I sort of did rap a tiny bit on a song called Office Politics on the last proper album but it came out as that sort of Neil Tennant rap you know Sir Hillary smiles that's great and yeah that's the best I can do but I think that's appropriate you're going like this works for me this will suit one of our songs it's the worst when suddenly out of nowhere someone who's not a rapper tries to rap proper on one of their songs and they've never done it before yes there was one time when my daughter was quite young and I'd done something silly with the peas and I said oh my bag because I thought that's what it was you thought you thought they said my bag I thought they said my bag I thought that was the phrase my bag that doesn't even make sense you said something with the peas so hang on what have you done wrong with the peas you had a bag of peas I can't remember the bag and to apologise you said my bag I said my bag I don't know whether I thought it referred to like I can't imagine what I thought I guess people would say that's not my bag Yeah, that's not my bag.

42:25James Acaster: So you're kind of confused the two phrases a little bit. Are you going, hey, my bag? So desperately unhip. Imagine if you did something wrong at like baggage claim or something. My bag. That is not your bag. That is not your bag. That's not making mistakes. This is the whole root of the problem. It's that you keep on picking up the wrong bag. Now you've got all these things on your Christmas dinner. I didn't do the condiments. Oh yeah, we've got to talk about the condiments. Condiments are the best bit. Sorry, condiments are the best bit. I'm going to do the condiments right now. Cranberry sauce, horseradish, mint sauce, bread sauce, English mustard, Dijon mustard.

43:02Yeah. Have I forgotten anything? Anything else that's around. Ballymaloo relish, whatever. What's that relish? Oh, Ballymaloo. Do you not have it over here? No, no, no. Oh, it's lovely. Yeah, it's from this range of products called Ballymaloo. but it's like Branston a bit but it's sweeter and it's kind of sort of ready brown it's really lovely lots of sort of sultanas crop up in it and stuff like this yeah it's very good in sandwiches nice yeah I have a bread sauce story

43:36James Acaster: is it about the time your mum threw you some bread and you played with it too much no no but it did occur in my my parents house like maybe 10 years ago So I was, you know, my brother's families were there as well. Everybody was there. It was Christmas. I thought, I am going to make the bread sauce. I'm going to cut to the chase. It said, you know, I'd flavored it with like cinnamon things and like apple, whatever. And then it said sieve. I put the sieve there and I put the pot, just threw it all down the sink. Yeah. Yeah. You saved the sauce. I saved the sauce the wrong way around. You said, my bag.

44:19James Acaster: My bag. Yeah. I hope it catches on. Yeah, my bag. I think it will. And sink bread sauce as well. I hope that catches on. Yeah. People only have it out of the sink. Have you successfully made bread sauce since? I never tried to cook again. I learned my lesson. I'm so bad. Yeah. I can do a boiled egg. Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah. How long are you boiling the egg for? Put it straight in the cold water before it starts to heat, and then four minutes from when it boils. Nice. Perfect every time. Peels perfectly? I'm a genius. Peels perfectly? Well, I mean, I take the top off with a spoon. Okay, and then you're?

45:03Yeah, I don't leave it to cool and then peel it. I had egg in a cup this morning. Oh, like sort of with toast in it or just smashed? I just mashed it up. Put a little bit of butter in there, salt and pepper, a little bit of chili oil. I used to do that as kids, but we'd obviously fire some bread in there. Yeah, of course, yeah. Run over to the other side of the room, get your mum to lob it. Dream side. Dream side dish. I hadn't thought about this. I don't have it on my notes.

45:30James Acaster: I mean, if you just want all your Christmas, all the trimmings, you have sides. It's a plate of sides. You've got plenty of sides there. Sides galore. I mean, I should probably say the wilted spinach. Oh, yeah. I like that. Yeah, with, you know, butter and maybe garlic, is it? Oh, yeah, I want some garlic in there. Yeah. For sure. Cool, there you go. Happy with that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's funny, I already mentioned Neil Tennant. You were going to ask me about drinks, maybe? Oh, yeah, at some point. Would you like me to do that now? Would you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got very excited about Neil Tennant.

46:13I just remembered, I want the finest wine known to be humanity. Yeah. You got so excited about this when you remembered it was coming up. Well, I just thought, I don't know much about wine, but I know the good stuff from the bad stuff when I'm giving it. And the best wine I ever got given was by Neil Tennant. He took us out to dinner when I was going to do, I've been to a marvelous party for the Terence Higgins Trust album that he did in the late 90s. And he didn't need to take us out to dinner, but he did. And it was great. And he said, what sort of wine do you like? And I went, I don't know.

46:51He went, I will get this one. And it was the greatest thing I've ever tasted in my life. Oh, wow. Money counts, I think, when it comes to wine. I really do. Yeah, yeah. You know, you get some great wines for, you know, 20 quid or whatever. But if you go up to like, you know, I don't even want to say it's too awful. Yeah. Because I looked at the menu as to what he'd pointed to later. And I mean, it was, oh my God. Come on, tell us how much it was. Tell us how much Tennant was dropping. I mean, I think it was about 800 quid or something like that. Wow. Tennant. I just didn't know it was possible to spend that much money on a drink.

47:34Yeah. But it was the greatest thing you've ever tasted. It was the greatest thing I'd ever tasted, yeah.

47:38James Acaster: I mean, I have no idea about wine at all. I'm like you. I don't really know the difference. When I'm giving good stuff, I do immediately recognize that that's delicious and other stuff isn't. And any time we've been invited to a fancy thing because of this podcast and it is specifically wine-based, then that's what they're trying to showcase. And they go, here's this super expensive, crazy wine that's like this old. And you hear all that description and you do drink it and go, yeah, this is nice. In a way that almost makes me angry that as someone who doesn't, I don't love wine. So therefore I don't really like, I won't order it most of the time.

48:17James Acaster: But this ridiculously expensive, super incredibly made stuff is one of the nicest drinks in the world. I do get a little bit annoyed that that's just not the wine that everyone has. And it's not accessible to you every day. It's like, oh, great. It's a secret little drink just for the elite. Should I be actually charging 800 quid for my new album? Yeah, because it's obviously better than everybody else's. I think so. Yeah, you should do that. Go the whole Wu-Tang and just release one copy. Yeah. It crossed my mind on occasion. But you just can't imagine putting all that effort into something and then one person gets to listen to it.

48:58But we don't know how much effort they put into it. We've not heard it. Knocked it off on a wet Wednesday afternoon. Yeah, because only Martin Shkreli's heard it. Yeah. He says, I'm going to make a coffee. Yeah. I'm going to eat some toast. Wu-Tang.

49:12James Acaster: Yeah, could just be that. Yeah. I'm trying to think of like combining the breakfast thing with a pre-existing Wu-Tang song. So, but I can't really. It's too early in the morning for me to be able to do that. Yeah. I'm trying to bring the ruckus. bring the breakfast bring the breakfast bring the motherfucking breakfast yeah bring the motherfucking breakfast I'll listen to that I would definitely listen to that yeah switch it off the only one imagine if that album is just 36 Chambers again yeah but about breakfast and every single song is about breakfast and you'll listen to it go if you just re-recorded 36 Chambers but you're singing about breakfast yeah and no one's going to believe you then that's what we did enjoy listening to them and you've just paid a million quid for that yeah yeah so there you go you can never tell anybody so you want the Neil Tennant 800 pound wine yes do you want Neil Tennant to be there yes you'd like him to join you for the drink well I can't say no can I he's paying for it yeah exactly he's got to be involved do you remember anything about the wine what it was specifically or just that it was 800 pounds the best thing you've ever tasted red it was red yes and I liked it.

50:28No, I mean, I was so completely like, oh my God, I'm a silly little Northern Irish dweeb and here I am in a fancy London restaurant, you know, being wined and dined by one of my musical heroes. It was astonishing.

50:43James Acaster: Yeah, I still feel like that all the time. The amount of times I literally do think to myself, I'm from Ketan. I literally go, I'm from Ketan. I've somehow got in here. and they'd say they have no idea. They don't even know where Kettering is. Yeah. The amount of times I think, I'm from London, I deserve this. Yeah, yeah. Different life. Unless you're in a place like Kettering, what the fuck am I doing here? I'm from London. I'm from London. I'm from London. This wine's very cheap.

51:16James Acaster: You arrive at your dream dessert in that case. Yeah, well, I have an actual dessert that I really like and it doesn't mess with my teeth too much. That's good. So it's poached pears in sort of, you know, wine and brown sugar and cinnamon and, you know, nice little... Oh, God, the ice cream. That's going to set my teeth on. But, you know, for this meal, this is the dream restaurant. Can I have Jeannie built dentures? Yeah. Just for this meal. You could have Jeannie turkey teeth for this whole meal. Turkeys don't have teeth. we have two turkeys yeah do you? yeah and you put Christmas dinner as your dream meal yeah but I'm not eating them that's the whole story yeah yeah you got the always dead steak yeah never alive have you named the turkeys?

52:08well they're out in the rescue sort of section of our lives which is Cathy's domain I've seen them and they're they're quite unattractive I'm sorry she loves them and I don't want to say anything about them but I bet they're really nice people when you get to know them. You're going to be in so much trouble when this comes out. You know, there's so many other animals, like endless piggies that are absolutely gorgeous and so fun to be around. How many animals would you say are on? About 170-odd.

52:40James Acaster: In the rescue? Yeah, around us, around the house. Around the house? Yeah, in our fields. Yeah, we have some fields. Filled with loads of animals. Loads of animals, yeah. It's quite noisy. At dinner time, yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, to the uninitiated, it would sound like the sixth circle of hell, you know, at about 4.30 in the afternoon. But you get used to it. I love this. It's great. We've got sheep and donkeys and honies and all sorts. Yeah, you know, only kept going by the wonderful donations of the Irish public. do you want to shout out the My Lovely Horse Rescue is it called My Lovely Horse Rescue yeah great so that's where people could donate and support all these animals absolutely that would be amazing if you could thank you so these poached pears feels very Christmassy again it does doesn't it I think that's all I'm really ever looking for is oh god ladder You can cut stuff out of these things, can't you?

53:54Yeah, but Ed guessed ladder again.

53:56James Acaster: That was funny. So he'd probably keep that in. Yeah, I just have Christmassy nostalgia, really. Yeah. Do you think that's because of growing up in the rectum? In the rectum? No. I think it's because I liked everything to do with, you know, the darkness, but with the little lights. And then it was sort of mysterious in a weird way. it was definitely changed from you know the various riots outside yeah no i must stress that i didn't have a dickensian childhood it was very nice and my parents were wonderful bringer uppers i mean that sounded very much like you're being forced to say that but we believe you and i love my wife

54:47James Acaster: Vanilla ice cream with these pears then Yes that I can eat with no pain Yeah That'd be amazing You know I've really got to get my teeth fixed Yeah this is amazing you're coming out of this episode Exactly Yeah I mean people can donate to your teeth as well To my teeth restoration fund Yeah I mean really if he's listening Well basically how you do that is buy the album or come to the shows or buy the merch If you want to fund Neil's teeth Yeah Buy a hanky yeah I mean the main thing is I'm just terrified of dentists so I end up going every four years you know and so no wonder I see yeah so that's the I mean what if David Tennant was your dentist you'd like him Neil Tennant Neil Tennant but what if David Tennant was your dentist I've been thinking David Tennant the whole time have you so in that story I was thinking of David Tennant but when I said musical hero yeah Neil said musical hero well I thought well he did that cover of Sunshine on Leaf for comic relief and weirdly when I hear the name Neil Tennant I think of my history teacher Neil Tetley who had the flat cap one on the laptop he took me to see Static X when we were on a school trip wow to who that's crazy Static X another one of your musical heroes no yeah a new metal band where the singer had very tall hair spiked up really really high Was he very short?

56:15James Acaster: Was it like a troll? No he was quite tall and even taller hair and they always ask him how do you get your hair so tall and spiky and he just would say come, put cum in it Delightful! He actually then revealed how he did it which was to make sugar solution he'd literally make caramel and put it in his hair That's how they used to do it in the goth days Yeah. He's since passed away. And get this, they've replaced him with a man wearing a mask and big fake hair. Really? Yeah. Well, it's all the rage, the whole mask thing. Yeah. Should I get one? Yeah, you could get one. Hide my teeth. Yeah, yeah.

56:51James Acaster: But the mask would have like massive teeth on it. I think I'd get a mask that looked exactly like me. It would just be like a Neil mask. Or maybe Neil Tennant's face. Yeah. Or David Tennant. I feel like poor Neil Tennant, he said some nice things about us when we sort of first started when Something for the Weekend came out. Like, I feel like I could pass the baton on to this band. And it was like, that is incredible. I feel like I might have let him down. No, no, no. You've taken that baton. You've been running with it. No, I keep making, you know, not very poppy music. So, you know, and I liked Radiohead.

57:32and he really didn't I've got a question for you do you like pizza? I bloody love pizza okay well I've got an apology to make do you remember in 2006 when you played it was in Durham University it was you were a surprise band at something called Cuth's Day at Durham University do you remember it was a long time ago that wasn't the one that was complete debacle probably it was outside where nothing worked outside the college bar almost certainly that one Durham University and I was in a sketch group and we were on before you. No way. Yeah. And I got, well, we all got very drunk and I think we ended up stealing your pizza.

58:13Ha! I woke up the next morning and some pizza had been bought for you and left backstage and then I woke up the next morning and had slices of pizza in my pockets. I feel like it's more likely that, you know, Jerry and Warren from my crew would remember this and have a real hatred of the support band. Yeah. But because, Because, I mean, basically you'd got cowboys to get your PA together. You know, they'd left you completely in the lurch. Nothing worked. And, you know, our crew were like off trying to source like cables and PA and stuff. And in the end, it was like going back to 1987 and our first gig, like with somebody's loaned amp that kind of worked, you know, and playing National Express.

59:00It sounded like a banjo. That's all I can remember. And because it was such a shit show, we all got legless. Yeah. So pizza would have come in really bad. It was a difficult day at work. All you want is just a lovely slice of pizza. That's so delightful that you supported us. Yeah, it's mad. Thank you. Like doing bad comedy sketches as well. That's what you want, isn't it? Getting the crowd revved up. Yeah, brilliant. Oh, and they were really revved up by the time.

59:30James Acaster: They didn't care what the hell we sounded like. I'll read you your menu back now, see how you feel about it. You would like Stillwater from Northern Ireland, not from London, not London bitty stuff. Derry Taps. Derry Taps. You would like white bread from Melanda Bakery with flora plant-based salted butter thrown at you by your mother. Starter, you would like the perfect orange and a glass of sherry. Main course A really big serving plate Full of Christmas dinner Side dish Wilted spinach With butter and garlic Drink Neil Tennant's wine Dessert Not David Tennant Not David Tennant No He's not allowed in the restaurant Although he's good too Yeah I bet he could still afford that wine Yeah Yeah yeah yeah Dessert Poached pears In wine Sugar and cinnamon With vanilla ice cream And your special turkey tea Brilliant I want it Right now yeah it's so Christmasy I mean just for the listener it's boiling today it's a boiling hot day you've got a long while to wait until you get something like that I'm going to see if my wife will make it for me when I go home yeah because then I'm going on tour for most of the autumn so of course yeah difficult to find the perfect orange though well we wish you luck on the quest for the perfect orange if anyone can Cathy can what a lovely way to end thanks so much for coming to the dream restaurant, Neil.

1:00:53It was my pleasure, guys. Thanks for having me. Thank you, Neil.

1:01:01There we are, James, the wonderful Neil Hannan. A lovely Christmassy meal. Really Christmassy. So festive. Love the perfect orange. It's rare we talk about the platonic ideals of simple things.

1:01:14James Acaster: Yeah, and I would say that he's got it right about the orange there. Yeah. All those qualities I would also want. although I'm more I've got more of a hard line about the piff just get rid of it yeah you want it to be in the shape of a bra and knickers yeah yeah I do that's what you said yeah that's what I said um rainy Sunday afternoon is out on September the 19th when you say rainy Sunday afternoon which is of course the new Divine Comedy album it sounds like you said rainy Sunday afternoon which would be good after that I've had a few I've had a few of those I'll tell you I've had a few rainy Sunday afternoons I'll tell you I'll tell you mate I love I tell you I'll tell you that for nothing I'll be on the train and hear someone say that it's always after something just completely boring yeah I'll tell you I had a bad banana the other day I'd tell you I like I'd tell you that for nothing as well tell you that for nothing because you can't we can't say that ever really on stage we can't say tell you this for nothing yeah they've paid they've paid we'd have to do a free entry gig yeah or maybe we could do it like we'll just be clear like that's the end of the paid content yeah of the gig and now I'll tell you this for nothing I'll tell you this for nothing and it's all shit we keep in mind that this is for nothing yeah this is for nothing by the way it's for nothing you can leave whatever you want it's really bad The Divine Comedy are going on tour October 2025 all over the place Glasgow Wolverhampton Bath there you go thedivinecomedy.com for tickets thanks so much to Neil thanks so much to you for listening we'll see you next time oh thank you Neil for not saying crisps and tea oh yes thank you or tea and crisps actually tea was mentioned but only about how he had to have milk in it yes but it didn't make the menu no nice wine did nice wine and a little sherry with the perfect orange yes but no tea no crisps so Neil stays in but that shouldn't stop you all from debating online whether we should have kicked Neil out if he said tea and crisps yes so make sure you tweet the great bonito about that Tweet the group, Benito.

1:03:18James Acaster: Yes. I'm touring Europe in November. Fantastic. So go to edgamble.co.uk for details on that. I'm going to some places I've never been before. Oh, wow. And let me tell you, tickets are going great guns in some places and some places we need to get the word out. Interesting. You want to name drop one of those places so people know to go to those ones especially? It's mad I've not sold more in Lisbon. Come on, Lisbonites. you gotta go yes I'm touring Europe edgamble.co.uk I'm touring America next year don't know what dates we've announced and what we haven't yet definitely LA and New York are out there and there's maybe a couple of tickets available for LA but yeah I should be doing some more as well so keep an eye open for that and don't forget to get online and download the bonus disc the Divine Comedy bonus disc yes absolutely that's the main thing that we want to put out there into the world yes get the bonus album We'll see you next time Bye bye Goodbye