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Saturday February 6 2021

7-DAY TTV & RADIO GUIDE page 23

ArloA Parks WillW Hodgkinson talkst to the hot vvoice of 2021

Lockdown listening ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY and Jim Moir’s new podcast . ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY the 25 best audiobooks ever . ORIGINAL COPY Plus . ORIGINAL COPY COPYRIGHT AND PROTECTED BY APPLICABLE LAW PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED BY PRESSREADER PressReader.com +1 604 278 4604 art books theatre film music what’s on puzzles 4 saturday review 1GR Saturday February 6 2021 | the times the times | Saturday February 6 2021 1GR saturday review 5

CHRIS MCANDREW FOR THE TIMES lockdown listening

Jools and Jim: hitch a It takes two — the best podcast double acts by James Marriott For geeky adventures ForFor repartee with a serious edge PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman in Reply All MichaelMich Hobbes and Sarah Marshall The internet culture show Reply All is in You’reYo Wrong About frequently cited as one of the best TheThe chemistry between super-smart podcasts around and its episode The journalistsjou Sarah Marshall and Case of the Missing Hit has been MichaelM Hobbes is undoubtedly lift with two old friends called the best podcast episode ever frothy.fr Some British listeners may made. The show is distinguished by findfi it relentlessly American, but if its sense of adventure (flying to you’rey prepared to ride the wave India to confront a persistent cold ofo compulsive jokes and backchat caller, constructing a forgotten pop you’llyo be enlightened by unexpected Jools Holland and Jim Moir, aka , have been pals for 35 years — song entirely from memory). But takesta on all kinds of topics, from what makes it fly is the raucous geeky syphilissyp to Marie Antoinette to the now they’ve made a larky travel podcast together, they tell Dominic Maxwell energy of its hosts, PJ Vogt and Alex dangerousdan lives of old people on Goldman, who are capable of reducingg Facebook.Face t is, depending on your perspec- of steps — but which turns out to be a each other to helpless laughter. ForFor clever arguments tive, either a much-needed — chuckles at the For edgy takes release valve or tantamount to memory of taking an aeroplane flight with Anna Khachiyan and RossRoss Douthat and Michelle Goldberg Dasha Nekrasova in Red Scare Above: Anna Khachiyan and inin TheTh Argument emotional torture. Because now an injured friend who was offered a calm- Drawling, Valley girl-voiced leftists Dasha Nekrasova; below: A liberal and a conservative debate that none of us is going any- ing cigarette by a flight attendant. Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman the biggest news story of the where, old friends Jools Holland “Those were the days,” Holland says. delight in outraging mainstream day. A clever and simple idea and Jim Moir — the “That’s all completely gone. Even people “normie” liberal opinion with their a work of art in itself. that it’s hard to believe hasn’t best known as his alter ego Vic Reeves — just going off on holiday is gone. So it opinions on everyone from Osama bin Januszczak is the bouncy been more widely replicated. Iare making a podcast inspired by transport seems a long time ago, but it will be back.” Laden (“style icon”) to disgraced film enthusiast, Grosvenor Douthat and Goldberg are two and travel. Jools and Jim’s Joyride has them Holland lost much of his work last year directors (“leave Roman Polanski is the demure of the most original thinkers on joined by a different celebrity guest each when he had to cut back on episodes of his alone”). Khachiyan and Nekrasova are connoisseur who The New York Times’s opinion week — the actress Jane Horrocks, the BBC Two music show, Later . . . with Jools the mean girls of the modern internet. may not like any pages. Whichever side of the former Formula One world champion Holland, and wasn’t able to tour with his big made political spectrum you’re Damon Hill, the singer Jessie Ware, to band. He devoted some of his time to For arty banter Waldemar after the 19th on you’ll appreciate their name a few — to talk about trips they’ve working on layouts for the 100ft model Januszczak and Bendor Grosvenor in century. Their careful thought. And now taken, adventures they’ve had. Not just railway set he keeps in his attic. And he has Waldy and Bendy’s Adventures in Art impassioned but that Trump (whom they walks in the park. Not just drives to Sains- been recording an album at his studio in This is the best art podcast out there always good-natured both hated) is out of bury’s and back. But journeys worth telling , southeast , where he and the playful, teasing, argumentative (I think) arguments office there will be more stories about. The insensitive swine. and Moir also recorded the first 12 epi- relationship between “Waldy” bring art history disagreement than ever In their first episode, for instance, their sodes of their podcast. Januszczak and “Bendy” Grosvenor is to life. before. Bring it on. guest is Moir’s double-act partner Bob Moir would drive up each Tuesday from Mortimer. They talk about taking motor- the home he shares with his wife, Nancy, biking trips to France and California in the and their 14-year-old twins, Lizzie and Nell. stage shows there until they moved out of minute you’re up, then you’re down, then return to what it was? “Well, nobody really early 1990s. They talk about Mortimer and Always an as well as a comedian — he London in the mid-1990s. “You’d hear maybe you’re up again. It all evened out in knows is the trouble. I vacillate between now keeps the “Vic Reeves” name for his them next door writing their scripts, and the end.” thinking it’s never going to go back to how comedy work — he has been concentrat- they would be literally falling on the floor They carried on having sporadic fun it was and then thinking, ‘Oh, well now ing on his art since last March. He is deep they were laughing so much,” Holland with their motorcycle club — more about people are getting vaccinated . . .’ For music into a series of 100 paintings of birds for says. “You’d go in and be treated to little posing than riding, really, Moir admits — it’s very bleak. Jim is a great painter and wwhat would have been an exhibition bits of it.” until their blossoming careers meant that he’s been painting for a long time; I can bbefore . . . well, before exhibitions went Holland, 63, is only a year older than they no longer had the time for it. “We’ve make my solo piano record with guests ththe way of motorbike trips to France. Moir. Nonetheless, he had been famous got time for everything now,” Moir says joining by Zoom, or whatever. But a lot of They have been friends for 35 years. since the 1970s, while Moir didn’t find glumly. working musicians, their main income — YYet the spur to do the podcast came success until Vic Reeves Big Night Out Holland has had to cancel a European and really it’s my main income — is live began on in 1990. Did he offer tour that was due to start next month; now shows. When that goes it’s very hard.” ‘Motorcycle‘ clubs? the marginally younger man any career he won’t be playing live before the sum- So the podcast is kind of a silver lining. advice? “No, I think it was probably the mer. “For my big band it’s a disaster,” he They are making more soon, will do them TTravel? It all seems other way round,” Holland says, “because says. “Some of them are baking bread, one in person again if they are allowed to. they romped to success just as I was bot- of them is working as a delivery driver, Jim “You just connect with people better,” aas remote as the toming out.” and I have got to do a podcast, this is how Holland says. “And we give them really EElizabethan Age’ The Tube ended in 1987; Holland left wrong things have gone.” He laughs. nice sandwiches.” Squeeze for the second and final time in Is he optimistic that live music will As if to reinforce the idea that it’s easier earlye in lockdown, when they appeared 1990; Later . . . with Jools Holland didn’t to connect in person than it is through togethert on Celebrity Gogglebox on Chan- begin on BBC Two until 1992. Meanwhile, ‘Jim and I have got to screens, a sign pops up telling us that our nel 4. They had never sat watching televi- Moir was a pop-cultural sensation: televi- Zoom link is about to expire. “Do you MoMoir’sir’s peripheralperiphe l involvementi l in Jarvis sion together before, although they’ve sion series; tours; an album; a No 1 single, do a podcast, this is need to put more money in the slot?” Cocker’s arrest at the Brits in 1996. (The long compared notes on the obscure Brit- Dizzy, with in 1991. “If Moir asks. He can’t see how the podcast transport theme is not always strictly kept ish films they love. And as they bantered Holland says. “It tends to open right out. It odd act, though. Later that year he enabled later . . . Jools Holland you went to Helicon around then you how wrong things will make them any money, he adds — to.) The three of them talk about the biker their way through that night’s viewing for worked out that some people’s transport the first television appearance for Vic and Jim Moir. Right: could really see it,” Holland says. “One have gone’ notwithstanding the odd advert on it — gang they once formed, the Gentlemen’s the cameras, they started telling longer, was just walking about, or cycling . . . but it’s Reeves, who rejigged the game show on Celebrity Gogglebox which prompts Holland, ever the details Motorcycle Club of Blackheath, motto: stranger stories. part of everyone’s lives. Or was. It’s a bit Celebrity Squares, flying up and down on a mman, to go and get the report he has “Care, courtesy, concentration”. And even “We were telling yarns that were then like saying, “What’s the first music you harness to ask peculiar questions of guests jjust been emailed about how the first if said motorcycle club only made a hand- erased from the recording because they ever loved?’ It’s a fun thing to hang it on.” such as Jimmy Nail and Professor Stanley sshow went. ful of journeys . . . well, that’s a handful don’t fit in with the scheme of Gogglebox,” Holland is the gabbier, more user- Unwin. “It was,” Holland says fondly, “a “It was ‘fantastic stuff’, apparently,” he more than most of us can do right now. Moir says. “But the producer said, ‘Why friendly of the pair. Moir hangs back, then genuinely surreal moment.” ssays before going on to quote phrases such ORIGINAL COPY ORIGINAL COPY . “Yes, it all seems as remote as the Eliza- don’t you do a podcast?’ ” sometimes jumps in to tell an expansive They took a step closer to friendship aas “minimum download”, “international . on the flight home from Newcastle to sspider and bots lists”, “IP address filtering ORIGINAL COPY ORIGINAL COPY . bethan age,” Holland says, looking dapper Moir admits that he never listens to pod- story or throw in an unexpected one-liner. . in a beige jacket over a dark top on Zoom casts. But he and Holland each went on They appear uncompetitive, comfortable London, when they found out at the air- ccaches” and “nonmoving tracking 24-hour ORIGINAL COPY ORIGINAL COPY . from the manor house in Cooling, , he Three Little Words, the podcast hosted by with each other. Or as comfortable as any- . port that they both have the same birth- wwindow”. He looks up from his list. “Abso- day, January 24. They were travelling with llutely unintelligible,” he says. No, he ORIGINAL COPY ORIGINAL COPY . shares with his wife, Christabel. One of the comedian John Bishop and the actor one can be on a three-way Zoom call with . their guests, Holland’s former Squeeze Tony Pitts, and enjoyed themselves. “It a slight time delay. the comedian Adrian Edmondson when aagrees, it’s not quite finding out where you ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY bandmate , told them about looked quite fun, and quite easy, which are They first met in 1986, when Holland . they found out that he has the same birth- are in the charts on the Sunday night on day too. Moir still has the photobooth pic- Radio 1. Still, like the rest of us, they are ORIGINAL COPY COPYRIGHT AND PROTECTED BY APPLICABLE LAW PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED BY PRESSREADER PressReader.com +1 604 278 4604 ORIGINAL COPY COPYRIGHT AND PROTECTED BY APPLICABLE LAW PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED BY PRESSREADER pretending to be afraid of flying so he could the watchwords for Jools and my way of went to see one of Moir’s early absurdist PressReader.com +1 604 278 4604 be upgraded to first class. Another, the working. It’s just talking to people, really,” variety shows as Vic Reeves at a tiny bar, ture they took together on his wall. He working out how this new world works as comedian Sally Phillips, told them about Moir says. Winston’s, in Deptford, southeast London. sends a copy to the others each year. “Just they go along, Moir says. “We’re going to as a nice memory.” try to keep this rolling on.” flying around the world as a child while Holland has a collection of vintage cars Did they meet backstage afterwards? Jools and Jim’s Joyride her father worked for British Airways. A big nights out From top: Jim Moir, and they share a love of vintage motor- “There was no backstage,” Moir says. Within a couple of years he and Mortim- is available on white-bearded Moir, on Zoom from his John Lydon and Jools Holland; bikes. However, they didn’t want to make a “There was barely a stage.” Holland, at that er were renting a room at Holland’s Heli- all podcast services; details of Jim home elsewhere in Kent, in front of what Moir and Holland on The Tube; show just for petrolheads. The transport time hosting the Channel 4 music show con Mountain Studios in Greenwich. They Moir’s art from vicreeves.tv; looks like a window on to an imposing set with Adrian Edmondson angle is there as a cue for a conversation, The Tube, was wowed by Moir’s defiantly would go on to write all their television and joolsholland.com