- 8 months ago
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00:00Live from his luxury penthouse apartment in London's glittering East End, Dean Lerner, club owner, entrepreneur and publisher of high-class gentlemen's magazines, invites you to join him for an exclusive man-to-man.
00:30Please welcome Mr. Dean Lerner.
01:00Thank you. Thank you. A thousand thank yous. Good evening and welcome to a very special musical edition of Man to Man.
01:13In fact, it's such a one-off soiree that Satu's been temporarily allowed to join me on the sofa to watch and has been given permission to remove her tail.
01:21Again, on a temporary basis. The tail on the costume, that is. She's not a lizard. That wouldn't work.
01:29But before we kick off proper, I've got a couple of bits of AOB to attend to.
01:33AOB Uno is that I'd just like to extend a huge hand of thank to all of you who've been so kind and supportive of me throughout my recent difficulties.
01:41Now, as many of you will know, I have been involved in the court case, but luckily, sanity prevailed and a verdict of accidental death was recorded.
01:50And AOB DIRTH, there's a new promotion at my restaurant, Shady No's. It's my restaurant.
01:55We're offering £3 off any white-baked meal when you order two or more bottles of champagne.
02:01So, get on down to Shady No's and have yourselves a salty treat.
02:06And the usual discounts still apply for female under-21 twins.
02:11Now, there's a saying, they're not so queer as folk, and I agree, it's bad music.
02:19Or so I thought, until I met this evening's guest.
02:23He opened my eyes, and more importantly, my ears, to this wonderful treasure trove of copyright-free melody.
02:30He's one of the most revered folk guitarists of his generation.
02:33The man, the legend, Mr Merriman Weir.
03:05You can edit some of this out, can't you?
03:10We'll probably need to keep it in for running time, to be honest.
03:20This is a welcome song.
03:57Sorry, I shouldn't have put the capo on. I usually sing this song without a capo. I could probably take it off, but probably bug up the tuning. I'll sing it that high. I'll sing it that high. This is a welcome song.
05:01Children, children, children.
05:05Thank you. Thank you.
05:50Take your pick. I judge not.
05:52There are two more verses to that song, incidentally, but they're far too depressing to play here. You have to be very careful when you play sad songs, because in the wrong hands, ballads can kill.
06:03And the biggest regrets of my life is I once played a song so sad I made a flock of geese die.
06:09I was singing a lament for them as they flew south for the winter overhead, and without thinking I went from A to E minor, then back to A, and then surprised myself with an E minor 9.
06:27And before I knew it, they'd nose dived into a frozen lake.
06:31And in perfect formation too, that was the shocking part.
06:35I wrote this next one for a friend of mine, who was struck down with a terminal illness in the late 1990s. It was a bit of a race to get this one finished.
06:45But, God willing, I got it ready to play to him on his deathbed.
06:55Sadly, at that point, he died.
07:10So, he never got to hear the full version, which is probably a good thing actually, as it was more of a critique than a celebration, really.
07:23Anyway, this next song's about lost love, literally a lost love. She went missing inside a garden maze when May Day passed.
07:32It was one I designed actually, during a particularly self-destructive period of my life.
07:40It had man traps.
07:44It's called Loving You, and I recorded the original completely drunk, and I'm afraid that's the only version I remember.
07:53Yeah.
07:54Wow!
07:55Way to smile.
07:56It shows me howorn.
08:01You're dead.
08:02Well done.
08:03Well done.
08:05Sure 11 Tuesday.
08:09guitar solo
08:39guitar solo
09:09Loving you
09:17Loving you
09:28Loving you
09:38Loving you
09:40Loving you
09:42Loving you
09:44Loving you
09:52Thank you very much.
10:06Actually, sorry, I shouldn't really be practising.
10:12No, that's your call.
10:16That's your call, Merriman.
10:18You're an artist.
10:20Set ended slightly sooner than I'd expected.
10:26Shall I come over for the talk now?
10:29It's barely worth it.
10:30I think we've only got about a minute before the break.
10:32So...
10:34This is awkward.
10:40I've got nothing for this.
10:44I've got nothing for this.
10:45I've got nothing.
10:46I could catch up on some admin, but it doesn't really seem...
10:50It doesn't really seem the appropriate time.
10:52Erm...
10:54I tell you what, could we just break now and have a longer second half?
10:59Could...
11:00Because this is dead time, that's clear.
11:02Okay.
11:03Alright.
11:04Not yet.
11:09Please join us after the break when Merriman will be joining me for a conflab on the couch.
11:14Now...
11:21Good evening.
11:22And bien coming back to part two of Man to Man.
11:24Satu's safely behind the bar.
11:26And I'm joined on the sofa by legendary folk guitarist Merriman Weir.
11:30Well, thank you.
11:31And can I say, I loved the set.
11:32I absolutely loved it.
11:33Thank you very much.
11:34I love folk music.
11:35I don't mind saying.
11:36I love it.
11:37I love it, love it, love it.
11:38Who do...
11:39Who else do you like?
11:40Well, erm...
11:41Who I like, other than yourself of course, I'd have to say...
11:44David Gray.
11:46Have you heard of him?
11:47No.
11:48Oh, you should check him out.
11:49It's really good.
11:50Really mellow stuff.
11:51I wouldn't put him on in the car though, because I find myself drifting off and it's unsafe.
11:55And I daren't overtake because I'm liable to just give up halfway through.
11:58Now, erm, you are one of the most...
12:01Actually, Merriman, sorry to interrupt you, but do you mind canning the twang?
12:06Sorry, what, not playing?
12:07Yeah, I just feel it's becoming a bit of a barrier.
12:09OK, I'll put it in there.
12:10I'll just put it on my stand over there.
12:11LAUGHTER
12:12You're watching Man to Man with my special guest, Merriman Weir.
12:26Sorry, I can't, er, can't actually rush because, erm, I've got, er, a pacemaker which is quite temperamental.
12:35I came back from an open air festival last year and I was stuck on samba.
12:40LAUGHTER
12:41Now, erm, after watching.
12:43Sure.
12:44Now, now Merriman, Merriman, Merriman Weir, Merriman Weir.
12:47It's, it's an interesting name, isn't it?
12:49It's not your first name though, is it?
12:50No, no, I started off as, er, Heather Buck Hairbredder.
12:54Erm, and I did, I did one album as Tristan Woman, which was an album of medieval ploughing ballads.
13:01LAUGHTER
13:02And, er, actually when I tour some parts of the country I'm still just known as...
13:07LAUGHTER
13:09Now, you were huge in the 70s.
13:11I mean folk huge, you weren't popular.
13:13LAUGHTER
13:14You were respected.
13:16But since then it's been a rather sorry tale of hitching, dossing, busking on the underground and guitar tuition.
13:23What went wrong?
13:24Well, er, nothing really went wrong actually.
13:27I've just never been very interested in sort of making it, you know.
13:30Yeah, yeah, clearly.
13:32LAUGHTER
13:33I just, you know, I just play music, I'm not, you know, I don't really care about money.
13:37Yeah, well, I mean, that's why I'm so pleased to become your manager.
13:40And, because, erm, because under the terms of the Dean Lerner 30 year management agreement,
13:46Merriman is guaranteed a weekly wage, minus expenses and postage,
13:50which means that he doesn't have to worry about royalties and publishing and rights and all of that boring stuff.
13:57I hold all of those things on trust for him via Dino Disc Records and their shareholders.
14:03And, erm, you've even got enough left over in brass each week for the odd flagon of mead, haven't you?
14:08Now, I'm intolerably excited at the moment because we stand on the crest of the re-release of your seminal album, Gallows Man.
14:14Yeah.
14:15Um, actually, sorry to interrupt me, I'm interrupting myself now.
14:18Um, what, what is a seminal album?
14:21Does, does that mean, is that a, s, s, spur me?
14:25Is that a, a spur me album?
14:27Because, because, because, because that, that would obviously fit in the whole theme of Gallows Man,
14:33because apparently when you hand you get a reminder of the good life.
14:37I mean, I mean, I know this because I've seen a lot of corpses online.
14:41It's, erm, it is sick, it is sick, the internet.
14:44You just type in corpses plus boners into Google, you'll get an absolute eyeful.
14:51I'm, I was so depressed that day, I just took the rest of it off, I was so down.
14:55I really, I really, it really got me down, actually.
14:58Oh, sorry, what was my question? Oh yes, your album, the re-release thereof.
15:02To be honest, it's probably a bit misleading to call it a re-release, given that the original was more of a sort of non-release, really.
15:08Um, sold eight copies.
15:10Right, but the cover is quite, uh, striking as I recall, isn't it?
15:13Yeah.
15:14It's a, it's you on a hilltop.
15:15Yeah, that's a, uh, Hampstead Heath.
15:17Yeah, and, erm, you're hanging...
15:18From a, er, rope, from a tree, yeah.
15:20Right, and on the inside cover, there's you...
15:22In a gibbet.
15:23In a gibbet, trussed up like a yuletide goose, with a group of children standing round.
15:29Do you think that might have affected album sales at all?
15:34It's possible, although, to be honest, I blame the production.
15:38Right, so often the case, who produced it?
15:40I did.
15:41That's my own fault, because I wanted a rural feel to the album, so I insisted on recording it in my back garden,
15:47which, unfortunately, at the time, backed onto the A12.
15:50So, er, most of the album's interrupted by traffic.
15:53In fact, halfway through side two, you can hear a major accident, I think.
15:57One track's just honking.
16:00And has that been removed by the remastering process at all?
16:04No, if anything, it's louder.
16:06Well, we're very fortunate, because, erm, we've managed to track down an archive clip of Merriman
16:12performing the title track from that wonderful record.
16:14So, erm, let's take a look at that now.
16:17At eight o'clock, me true love said, a cock will crow in my barn hay,
16:23to her with pack from Battleback, I journeyed home for many a day.
16:28At nine o'clock, she me forsook, and docked my cousin in her brook, I swiped me pistols from me pack, and told him I sought satisfaction.
16:57At ten o'clock, we took our stand, and ruffled, did I strike the band.
17:10At battle's drum, me cousin call, I'll have your bits on pistol ball.
17:15Eleven devils rang the bell, the day I shot that whore to hell.
17:28A leering prince I flew in two, then baddest dogs come form a cue.
17:32At twelve o'clock, the judge, he said, ye hang you bastard till you're dead.
17:45So, traveller, hear me warning blind, don't shoot for people in the brine.
17:50You just hear a tiny bit of traffic coming up the end there.
18:09No, I couldn't hear a thing, Merriman, I couldn't hear a thing, but then again, I can barely hear.
18:17I've got terrible tinnitus in this ear, like a constant buzzing, like a eeeeee, I mean it sounds less sarcastic than that.
18:24It is nevertheless there, which I got, ironically enough, at a Def Leppard concert.
18:29And I went backstage and I said to the boys, I said, you'll like this, I actually went deaf at your Def Leppard concert.
18:34And they said, it's spelt D-E-F. I said, come on, give me something.
18:39And where do these soft rock bellends get off?
18:43How the hell do they even come up with that name? I mean, what were they thinking?
18:46You know, we're a soft rock outfit, we want a name that denotes sleekness and power.
18:49Perhaps we should name ourselves after a wildcat.
18:52But, you know, we've also got a sensitive side, we're vulnerable.
18:55Perhaps we should give this wildcat a disability.
18:59What's about rheumatic panther? I'm not so sure.
19:03How about a hearing impediment? What about Def Leppard? Good idea.
19:06But I tell you what, you'd better remove one of the vowels, otherwise it'll be a stupid name.
19:11And do you know how they spell Leppard? L-E-P-P-A-R-D.
19:15That's how they spell Leppard. L-E-P-P-A-R-D.
19:19Benders.
19:27That said, let's get back to your album, which I understand has a very interesting recording history behind it.
19:34Yeah. Well, it's basically referred to as my post-accident album.
19:38And it comes from an event that happened just as I was travelling home, actually, one night from the Cambridge Folk Festival that year.
19:46And it was very late at night, I remember, I was driving home on the motorway.
19:50And I was with Sally, my girlfriend at the time. She also sang with me. She sang bass.
19:54And we were driving along. It was very, very late at night.
19:58And I was growing tireder and tireder at the wheel.
20:01I was just falling asleep at the wheel.
20:03And so I pulled over into the lay-by to make a baby.
20:06And we wound down the window.
20:09Let her legs out.
20:10Yeah.
20:11And we were both dragged from the car and lynched.
20:14Lynched?
20:15Yeah.
20:16Lynched? Who by?
20:17Folk fans.
20:19Well, with fans like that, who needs enemies?
20:22You don't. They're, they're the bloody enemies.
20:31The fans, I don't know.
20:35It was actually, er, it was actually quite serious.
20:38I'm, I'm, I am sorry.
20:41They took us out the car and they hung us from a tree by my guitar strings.
20:44And then the strain of that incident, unfortunately, led to my breakup with Sally.
20:48Because she didn't think I'd handled the situation very well.
20:51Right, right. How come?
20:52Well, they were hanging her up and the, the strings kept snapping.
20:55So I recommended they use a heavier gauge.
20:58And, yeah, I didn't, you know.
21:00You're just trying to be helpful.
21:01Now, under the Dean Lerner 30 year management agreement,
21:04you're going to have to do 800 gigs a year.
21:07Um, so this eventuality, we have created a man-to-man overnight bag.
21:12Um, you've got everything you need right here.
21:14A twin pack of gobblers, jumbo rubbers, toothpicks, mouthwash, individual cereal packet, lube, talc, toilet paper,
21:20dental dam, spare pair of cufflinks, baby lotion, small packet of Fitzgerald's friends,
21:24shoe polish, rope, gaffer tape, disinfectant, wet wipes and a mini champagne bottle and ice bucket.
21:30And, er, we've even chucked in a packet of guitar strings for you there.
21:34Right.
21:35Let's hope they're, er, not heavy gauge.
21:37No, I think they're just normal.
21:39No, I meant, you know.
21:41What?
21:42I was just making a sort of light joke.
21:43Right.
21:44You know, I, I usually play light gauge, but I'm just saying they're not heavy gauge in case I get hung by them.
21:49Right.
21:50Yeah.
21:51No, sorry.
21:52No, that is funny.
21:53I should have laughed.
21:54Um, no.
21:55Yeah, okay.
21:56Um, I, I tell you what, I tell you what I'll do.
21:59I'll, I'll laugh now and we'll just cut it in later.
22:02Okay.
22:03Look, it's, it's the least I can do.
22:05I'll, oh, okay.
22:07He, he, he, he, he.
22:08He, he, he, he.
22:09He, he, he, he.
22:10He, he, he, he.
22:11Heavy gauge.
22:12What are you like?
22:13Stop it.
22:14And I do recommend that you pick up the Gallows Man album.
22:22It really is one of the best releases of the year.
22:24It's an absolute joy.
22:25And believe you me, I know a thing or two about a pleasurable release.
22:29It's got a rather nice new cover.
22:31And I think we can see that.
22:33Well, that just about wraps up the show.
22:37And all that remains for me to do is to thank once again my super guest Merriman Weir for talking to me man to man.
22:43Thank you very much.
22:44And to thank you very much for watching.
22:46Thank you very much.
22:48And we'll play out now with the final track from Gallows Man.
22:51Where are you going?
22:59Please welcome, once again, Mr Merriman Weir.
23:03The concept of Gallows Man was quite a simple one.
23:09I wanted the record to be played continuously until the listener's eventual death by suicide.
23:14But unfortunately, the record company wouldn't let me put that on their sleeve, no.
23:18For space reasons, more than anything else.
23:20Anyway, this is from the second side of the album.
23:23It's a song called Die Die.
23:25It's a song called Die Die.
23:26It's a song called Die Die.
23:27It's a song called Die Die.
23:28It's a song called Die Die.
23:29It's a song called Die Die.
23:30It's a song called Die Die.
23:31Yes, It's a song called Die Die.
23:32Heartime Hour
23:33It's a song called Die Die.
24:07Kill yourself.
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