The Power Of Drive To Survive

22:20Because I think it's more relevant in lots of ways and more kind of of the now than many recent years of headliners have been, where you're going to get these kind of big beasts who, I'm not including Neil Young in this particularly, I should say. Have you heard of him? Do you know him? He's very good. I hear he's young. In lots of ways, it's much younger and more, and they're very, very successful artists. But also, forget the headliners. It's all about all the other, and there's some amazing acts playing, and as you say, actually, when you talk about social media, really it's Twitter, and Twitter is always, oh, the only good act there is Neil Young, and then people go, no, look, Supergrass are playing, Franz Ferdinand are playing, the Libertines are playing.

22:53You think, all of these bands are really, really old, and there's some amazing people on this line-up. I mean, Olivia Rodrigo, for a start, will be an incredible act on Sunday night. Again, if people don't know her, great pop tunes with rock guitars. I mean, she's just awesome and will absolutely fill that field like crazy. But, you know, you look on the rest of the bill, there's endless amazing bands there. Amal and the Sniffers. If you like, you know, the Supergrasses and stuff of this world, Amal and the Sniffers, you'll love. Australian punk band. Ezra Collective are playing. They won the Brit for Best Band a couple of weeks ago.

23:28and they're essentially like a South London jazz band. The first jazz band ever to win the Mercury Award. Well, they're jazz and they're Afrobeat and they're a bit hip-hop or something like that. That's a genuinely great band. If you want to say this is a mediocre line-up and there are no bands, there are so many good bands. Ezra Collective being very high up on that list. Kneecap, the Irish rap band, incredible. From start to bottom, it is amazing. And, you know, if you haven't heard of them, genuinely at this point, it's on you. It is not on them. I hate to begin a gambit with come my revolution, Richard, because as you know, I'll be very busy come my revolution.

24:00Oh, my God, it's going to be crazy. I'll be going, I'm trying to get through to Marina, and she is constantly on out of office. She's just putting people up against the wall. Okay, I'll tell you who's my lawful prey. Anyone who goes onto the internet in any context and types the word who? They are my lawful prey. So when the glass of rehab, so many people type in who, it's like, okay, sorry, there's two possibilities here. One, that you literally don't know who they are, in which case we're on the internet right now. So would you mind typing it into Google as opposed to recording any of us as your person?

24:33By asking the question, you are clearly interested. You go, oh, this sounds interesting. I wonder who that person is. I shall find out. And second of all, you only ever see this happen with musicians or actors or whatever. I'll tell you why you never see this happen is in sport. No one ever says, reads a football report and writes underneath it, Matt Cole Palmer, who? Because I'll tell you why. I think it's because they think that other men because I have to say that I have a view on who's typing who question mark quite often and I just think it is I think that's quite a gender divide they think that other men will think less of them for not knowing who Cole Palmer is even though they actually whether they do or don't know people say it about Kim Kardashian all the time sorry who?

25:13oh I'm so sorry she's a very significant cultural figure like it or not and if you don't know who she is then as you say that's on you Yes, if you want to ask who, either you're interested in which case, look it up, or you're trying to make yourself sound clever. You're trying to make it go, well, me, I actually am interested in different things to that, and I'm not interested in that person. And always, just in case you're someone, I suspect no one who listens to the podcast ever does it. But if you do do it, you are absolutely showing yourself up as the worst sort of dullard. I think you could potentially make it funny if it was someone in the cabinet.

25:42Yes. If it's the Chancellor or something, you're like, who? And also, whenever someone comes... Perhaps you're making a physical comment now. I don't know. I'm trying to work out whether that could be funny. I'm not saying it definitely could but it cannot be if it is about an actress or a musician or anything like that the only time it's funny is at a football match when the opposition brings on a player so the opposition the opposition brings on like Carlos Tevez and you'll go who? and that's funny that's funny but that's making a joke with other people who realise of course you know who it is but yeah so lots of people not knowing these bands but genuinely it is such an amazing line-up Rod Stewart is playing the Legends slot £378.50 it costs to go there £210 ,000 tickets they're selling.

26:20The first ever one was£1 and you got free milk with that. It's£378.50 and you don't know who's playing. That's the interesting thing. But the reason is because it's Glastonbury. It sort of doesn't matter who's playing. They're not going to book idiots. And if you are interested in music at all, if you have a soul at all, which a lot of these people who say, oh, they're so bland, they're so mediocre. Like, you're saying to me, oh, I'm really interested in music. I'm an Eastleet who understands music, really really gets it understands what mediocrity means in music if you are going down that list and there is nothing there that even vaguely makes you interested or even vaguely makes you think oh i wonder what's what that's like then you do not know about music mistake you made a very significant mistake well by the way as always you're allowed to have that opinion but don't tell other people because it makes you look so dumb you know don't tell people that uh you think that 99 % of the line-up of Glastonbury on that poster are mediocrities because they're just not.

27:21They're relevant and they're big now. I actually slightly feel like they've made a... In terms of choosing those headliners, they've sort of left out a Gen X band, really, because they've thought... Or artists, particularly, because I think that they just want to suddenly... I feel like it's a real sort of push for youth, which I think is good. Well, and yeah, the deeper down you go, so Gracie Abrams and Lola Young are both playing and they've been monopolising the number one slot on the charts all this year until Kendrick Lamar took over. And they both have very interesting lineages, Gracie Abrams and Lowly Young.

27:51So Lowly Young's the one who did Messi. And again, if you think there's no good music in the charts, you are... You're not listening to the charts. I'm so sorry, you're incorrect. It's all right to be bored with music and to go back to what we liked. We all do that. But to say there is no good music, there's loads. But Gracie Abrams, of course, is the daughter of J.J. Abrams, the film director, very famously. But Lowly Young, less famously, is the great niece of the author of The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson. What do you think about that? No, I did not know that. Yeah, do you like? I really like that fact.

28:22Isn't that cool? Yeah, who? The Gruffalo, who? Never heard of The Gruffalo, sorry. Next, they don't write good kids books anymore. Enid Blyton is the only good author there's ever been for kids. But yeah, that's cool, isn't it? So they're both playing. There's a rumour that Chapel Rowan will be playing. We don't know that for sure. I see Neil Young got over his worry that it was all corporate. Yes, he pulled out. He revealed accidentally that he was playing by saying, I'm putting out because it's run and controlled by the BBC. By the state broadcast. And then two days later, he went, I'm afraid I've been misinformed and I shall be playing Glastonbury.

28:55Can we speak about the 1975? Yes. By the way, the 1975 are so successful. Stealth huge. They're stealth huge. And because they're massive in America, they've actually been on a touring hiatus for about a year and a half. But they toured a huge... Because they've got to spend their money. They toured a huge amount. Matty Healy, obviously, he had a relationship with Taylor Swift and is immortalised in various torture poets. Although more importantly, he is the son of Denise Welsh from Loose Women and Tim Healy from Alfie de Zaynpet. Yeah, I realised you're going to correct me. That's the answer to his who.

29:31It's funny because although they're very successful, and they're huge and the lyrics are really good and they do turn them on themselves and they're sort of sharp-tongued and whatever. There is also something faintly ridiculous about the 1975 at the same time. I don't know if that's a sort of British-ish sort of thing. You know what I mean? This is no sort of... As I say, that thing of being stealth huge is very, very interesting. It's like Scissor last year, where you either absolutely love these acts or you have not heard of them. They've kind of left you cold. And the 1975 is sort of that, but for rock music.

30:02Like art, pop. I mean, they're a bit of everything, aren't they? Yes, they are, actually. And I do actually think, by the way, they clearly love touring anyway, but they went on a sort of indefinite hiatus. I think they will put on a massive show, and people who don't really know about that, I think they'll do something quite visually. I think they'll go all out for it. And I think that it will be interesting, and lots more people will be like, oh, okay, I see. 100%. And also, the people who book Glastonbury, they are not idiots. they're not kind of going they're thinking who is absolutely going to make this go off and you know if you've seen 1975 live they are very good live they'll be great and there's a huge amount of people who absolutely love them there's lots of people who think they're the voice of a generation as they say there is also a slightly ridiculous element to them but I think it can all exist within the 1975 do you know where their name comes from by the way yes I do which I think is really cute it was Matty Healy had a textbook and no it was like a copy of some book I think on the road Jack Kerouac yeah and the person who had owned it before had written the date at the front and it was like 1st of July, the 1975.

31:05And he'd always, in his head, he'd always remembered that someone had written the 1975 instead of just 1975. And he thought, well, that's the perfect name for a band, which actually it is. They have actually been doing this for about 20 years now, maybe a bit more. They used to be called the 1955. This is kind of squarely in the Radio 1, 6 music in terms of headliners. I think it's great. And also Glastonbury is not about the headliners. Glastonbury is about the whole thing. I did, though, look back to see if I could find the best lineup of headliners and the worst lineup of headliners in Glastonbury history.

31:34It's interesting, 1995, so we go about 30 years to 1995. And this was really the first time. So in 1994, the headliners were the Levellers, Peter Gabriel and the Pretenders. So you're going to have a good time, but you sort of know what you're getting. 1995, it was the Cure, Pulp and Oasis. and that's when Glastonbury I think really got an absolute rocket under it you know from then on in in fact the next Glastonbury was the prodigy Ash and Radiohead so but I think maybe maybe Pulp Oasis and the Cure was one of the greatest ones but I think the biggest selling headliner acts ever was 2011 so 2011 the three headliner acts U2 Coldplay Beyonce that's a that's a lot of records isn't it Yeah.

32:19And I don't want to say what's the worst one ever, but I just want to go back to 1992 and just say this is what Glassman would be more like how Glassman used to be. Carter, the Unstoppable Sex Machine, who I love, Shakespeare's Sister, and The Shaman. And those were your three headliners. There you go. You know? Pass me a comment. I think the 1975 Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo can match that. I do love Carter, the Unstoppable Sex Machine, though. I think they might be back. What, this year? No, no, no, but just... Just in general? Just in general. There's a load of bands. It's like 1995 Supergrass played.

32:53They're playing again now. 1997 Prodigy played. They're playing again now. Listen, there's something for everybody. There's something for everyone. But loads of good acts. So the acts, honestly, you should check Ezra Collective, if you don't know them. You should check them out. Amal and the Sniffers, I think, are great. Kneecap are amazing. The Big Moon are amazing. Loads and loads of great bands, but loads of cool, young pop acts as well. Miles Smith is playing, who's amazing. Self-esteem is playing. It's like, it's an absolute festival. and if anyone quite literally if everyone tells you otherwise they don't like music enough about the 1975 who are going to put on a great show I think and to someone who has tried to put on a great show Megan with Love Megan is now out now we spoke about the show when we were just excitedly looking forward to it it is now dropped everyone who's going to watch it has watched it most of the people their opinions have not been completely positive I would say you've watched the whole thing I couldn't get through the whole thing and I just wanted we very rarely talk about the same thing twice I just I really wanted to hear your opinion on the whole of the episode and what on earth happens next for Megan for this project what happens with Netflix I couldn't make it through all of it I have to say I watched the first bit where they're looking after bees and she says how long do bees live and they say between four and six weeks and I thought well I mean that's how long a Netflix series lasts as well well yes I mean I suppose my overwhelming feeling with this about it was we said before what she was trying to do She's trying to develop a new persona because the previous persona was victim of the royal family and the British tabloids.

34:22Fine. It's quite hard to go from victim to guru unless you're becoming a sort of anti-royal family and British tabloid guru, which she's not. She's trying to become a lifestyle guru. You could probably pull off that sort of a turn in wrestling. Yes. If the WWE people were writing your plot lines for you. She hasn't pulled it off here. The show is sort of impossibly trite. The house it's in is not her house. No, I mean, this is right from the very beginning. Just keep saying it's not my house. Yeah, so-and-so's coming over. Obviously, he's coming over to the house, but I'm going to make the things for him here.

34:54And you think, then I've, genuinely, and this is just from a TV producer point of view, I have completely lost interest. There's no point you being in a house. You might as well just be in a lab somewhere. There's no point you being in a house if it is not your house. Well, her house is too big, unfortunately. And also security things, so I get it. So, you know, by and large, you don't film in people's houses. But if the whole show is my friends are coming over, I'm making for them. You know, I love entertaining somebody. It is fatally flawed. You should not get past a first meeting for a TV show if you're saying, oh, the whole thing is about hospitality.

35:27And the whole thing is about I love to cook for people. And I love to have guests over to my house. But it is not in my house. There's so much process talk. And then later I'm going to carry these over to the house where he'll be staying. and then he'll put them in the room, which you don't see because it can't be going. And tomorrow I'll bring him over here. And then I'll bring him back down to the fake house where, you know, I'm going to make some pasta with him. It's sort of ridiculous. I have to say that she and they, but she particularly knows that it was always on the point of seeming ridiculous because it's very kind of 1 % of the 1%.

35:55Yeah. She lives in the most rarefied sort of billionaires communities in the whole of America. And it looks beautiful. And the fake house looks beautiful. She must be near her real house. I assume quite near. Although, you know, I think everybody's got a long driveway. Let's put it that way. She's sort of going off and buying hundreds of dollars of flowers and then saying, oh, it's the little things that count. That's all sort of absurd, really. Anyone who sort of criticises Gwyneth Paltrow for her kind of rarefied, kind of mega rich lifestyle stuff should surely offer the same thing to this. Because to me, it felt particularly like it felt like the past.

36:27It felt like a cultural relic. That's interesting. I really feel that this sort of, first of all, it did seem to fulfil that brief initially that Netflix say they want TV that's just on. It honestly felt like just something that was wallpaper in the background because there's nothing, you don't get it. It's not like Martha Stewart where she shows you in the right quantities how you're making this thing. You can find it later and then it's not one of those descriptive lifestyles. There's just an occasional voice off camera saying, and then what would you do? Yeah. Oh, and have you got a lot of those?

36:57And that seems to be it. She's quite a good presence, by the way. Oh, I thought she was not a good... No, I think she was very restricted because I think she fears what people will say. And so she's very, very... Absolutely. But if I were a producer, I'd be thinking this person could work on TV. If I give this person a format or a show, absolutely would be great. But as you say, she's trying to be herself whilst also not being allowed to be herself. And not revealing herself. Being a version of herself. So it's impossible for her. But there's a great show in her. I'm sure of that. But I suspect this is not it.

37:27Oh, you see, I don't think there is at all. I think we've seen her great show, I'm sure. And that was the documentary. That was the documentary about their leaving the royal family, all of that. That was good because even though this show has, as I say, I've written a column about it. So many people have written about it. People wrote about it in advance and it was kind of hugely covered. But the controversy is not within the show and therefore doesn't translate into ratings. and I would love to talk to you about the ratings because we don't know the ratings until Netflix do their data dump in six months' time.

37:58But I can tell you that it so briefly got it to number six in the UK Netflix chart. Just that morning when every single person was writing about it and people wanted to have a look at it, clearly nobody stayed with it and it immediately dropped out. It was dropped out by the afternoon, by the way. Delighted to see, by the way, that Toxic Town is very much number one in the UK. Toxic Toxic Town is so number one. It's like number two in America, by the way. Yeah, that's incredible. And then on the US Netflix chart, it's got nowhere near, it's not in the top 10. So it is not in any way a rating success.

38:28I mean, we talked last week about very, very little in that top 100 streaming shows are anything outside of dramas or scripted or a few sort of like proper documentaries. There aren't lifestyle-y type shows there. There's reality type shows. But this sort of show would be unusual if it was in the top 100. But if you spend that sort of money on it and have someone with that sort of profile, then that's the gamble you're taking. You're trying to parachute something into that top 100 and trying to parachute the new genre of television into that top 100. It doesn't feel like it's going to parachute either the genre or the presenter anywhere into the top of the ratings.

39:01I tell you what, it just feels like Instagram. As I said before, it looks like Instagram when I'd only seen the trailer. Now I've seen the show. This is honestly like watching somebody's reels or someone doing a little, you know, display of how to make this or that. I hate the way they talk always. It's that kind of holy language or everything. You're honouring something. Everything's a ritual. We're always blessed. You know, it's incredibly explicit religious language. But really what they're trying to do is make you get involved in retail. They say, you know, Netflix are doing these pop-up stores.

39:34There's this whole kind of real, I mean, farm to table nonsense. And she's saying, I'm going to have my products in the shops or whatever. It's like, where are the shops? They're in Dallas. Right. So, yeah, that's travelling quite a way. and a town called King of Prussia in Pennsylvania. Oh, I drove past it on my American book tour and I said to my driver, why is that called the King of Prussia? And he said it was named after an inn that was called the King of Prussia. Well, there's going to be the first two Netflix stores that are sort of going to be permanent rather than pop-ups. They've done a pop-up in Vegas and I can't remember where else are going to be in Dallas and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

40:05It's got the biggest mall in America pretty much. Well, that's where you're going to be able to get jam and bath salts made by Megan. Love and the honey. She's making bath salts in the first episode and it's really an industrial process. Yeah. We just take some magnesium flakes. You go, oh, yeah, I'll just hold on a minute. Where are my magnesium flakes? Where do I put the magnesium flakes? Oh, in the top cupboard. Let me get those down. And then sort of mixes. It's really rare. Well, it's an interesting lesson. I suppose to sort of summarise, I would say, it's an interesting lesson into how controversy doesn't always translate into rating success unless it's part of the programme itself.

40:41It was absolutely intrinsic to the Harry and Meghan documentary because they were talking about all the things that had gone wrong. And so it was folded into the format itself. If you were Harry and Meghan, how would you make money? Now, I think, well, that's what my next question is. Because I can tell you, OK, first of all, there's not going to be a severing with Netflix. They're not going to renew, but they might say we're continuing to develop projects with them. I can't remember which book they bought. Maybe it was successful. She's going to maybe produce it to make it a film or something.

41:10I have to say, and this is the reality, is that a lot of people are hanging around in case there's a divorce because then they will definitely, and that might be Netflix or whoever it might be who's got to deal with them might keep a vague hand in. That might be the bleakest thing I've ever heard. I'm sorry to say, but it is. I've heard some bleak things on this podcast. I know. We were talking about Lenny Riefenstahl only minutes ago. I know. And now look at us in the abyss. Yeah, well, that's the abyss. And the abyss is staring back. It's difficult to know now. I mean, they got a big chunk. Don't forget, they got£20 million from Spotify for that Archetypes podcast, which nobody listened to and was just like, I don't know how many, there was something like 12 or maximum 20 episodes, say.

41:52Say I was Ryan Murphy, who we talked about on our last bonus episodes. If I was Ryan Murphy, right, Megan is an actress. I know. Cast her in something. This is what I always think. And if I was Megan, take a job in something. Like a really, like, you could pretty much name your price and project for the first thing you go back into acting for if you're Megan. It's what she does. It's what she was known for. She's good at it. Do that. I would have married him, got the two kids. You would have married him. Got divorced. Yes. Then ran back, told he were to be Julia Roberts for my 40s. But she's not followed that plan.

42:23Wow. Even though you told her. Yeah. Even though I shouted it through our letterbox. Wrong house, though. Wrong house. I know. Wrong house. Just a little house. I think there will be a third act, but I'm not sure. Don't say they're going to get divorced again because I can't handle the death of love. I'm sorry. I haven't said that, Richard. I think there will be a third act, but I don't think it will be... It won't be with one of these... It won't be with one of these ventures which they control, which they think, you know, I am now a lifestyle guru. I am now... I sit on the board of various companies.

42:53I'm a thought leader. It won't be that. You can be useful to other people, but yeah, you don't always have to be the boss. Any recommendations? Well, you've given us a wonderful recommendation already. The Norma Percy, the road to the 7th of October but is absolutely brilliant. That's on iPlayer. And I want to recommend, I thought I already had, but I haven't, Amanda Land, which is just an absolute classic modern British sitcom spinoff from Motherland. Very, very funny. Lucy Punch and Joanna Lumley as her mum. And as with Motherland, just great supporting cast as well. But just great jokes, great plot, great jokes.

43:27And one of those things, you know, every couple of years we get a classic new British sitcom and Amanda Land is definitely that. And we are going to do two more episodes this week. we will do our questions and answers episode and also a bonus episode where you are going to talk to us about something very exciting. Well, you say something very exciting. No, I'm going to recommend the three greatest short books of all time. I love a short book. I'm going to talk about some of the classic short books in history, but then I'm going to give you my recommendations, the top three short books of all time.

43:56You can read all three of them in the time it would take you to read one normal book. One normal book. You know, normal books. That is on Friday. And if you want to join our club and get early access, access to the Discord and ad-free listening, of course, you can sign up at therestisentertainment.com. Other than that, we will see you all on Thursday. See you on Thursday, everyone.

44:30This episode was presented by Sky, proud partners of The Rest Is Entertainment. Sky has a huge 2025 planned and they're excited to share their unrivaled range of entertainment, which has never been easier to discover. And there is no better way to enjoy their selection of new shows and films than by using Sky TV. Sky OS powers the Sky TV experience and it lets you control your Sky TV with your voice so you can find your favourite shows and movies from Sky and the other apps without lifting a finger. My favourite way. Oh, I love not lifting a finger. I love not lifting a finger. Just say Hello Sky followed by what you want to watch, who you want to see and it will be on your screen before you know it.

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