Podcasts about prime minister tony blair

Jeannette talks to Julia Simpson, the president and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). Julia shares her unique journey to her current role, highlighting her extensive experience in both government and the corporate sector, including her time as an advisor to former Prime Minister Tony Blair. They also talk about the importance of understanding the interplay between government and business, especially in the volatile travel and tourism industry. Julia discusses the WTTC's significant impact on the global economy, representing one in ten jobs worldwide, and emphasises the need for a unified voice for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the sector. Together with Finn Partners, WTTC is launching in October a community for the global SME market called Together in Travel. As the voice of the global travel private sector WTTC wants to make sure the voice of the SME is heard loud and clear. This will be a dynamic and free-to-subscribe community with lots of useful content and will focus on empowering these businesses by facilitating meaningful connections, providing valuable insights, and offering tailored learning programs to help them thrive in a competitive market. Together in Travel Pre-registration form: https://form.typeform.com/to/eVF3u89X KEY TAKEAWAYS Resilience is crucial in both government and corporate sectors, as leaders often face numerous challenges and setbacks. Embracing failures and learning from them can lead to stronger leadership. Understanding the dynamics between government and the private sector is essential for effective advocacy in travel and tourism. Leaders must navigate the differing timeframes and priorities of both sectors to create meaningful partnerships. The travel and tourism industry must leverage data and AI to enhance operations and customer experiences. Leaders should take ownership of AI initiatives to drive innovation and efficiency within their organisations. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are vital to the travel and tourism sector, representing 80% of the industry. Initiatives like "Together in Travel" aim to amplify their voices and provide resources for growth and resilience. As the travel and tourism sector grows, it is essential to prioritise sustainability and responsible growth. Leaders should advocate for practices that protect the environment and support local communities, ensuring a positive impact on society. BEST MOMENTS "You have to make your luck, you have to push a lot of doors, but then suddenly one will flip open and it's not always the one you're expecting." "I think one of my expertise is, if you like, is dealing with crisis... you never quite know how you're going to deal with crisis until you're in it for the first time." "Travel and tourism represents one in 10 jobs that are created on this planet... we're also one of the biggest employers of women." "It's really important that the big boys and girls really support that, and it's also where a lot of the young innovations are coming from."   This is the perfect time to get focused on what YOU want to really achieve in your business, career, and life. It's never too late to be BRAVE and BOLD and unlock your inner BRILLIANT. Visit our new website https://brave-bold-brilliant.com/ - there you'll find a library of FREE resources and downloadable guides and e-books to help you along your journey. If you'd like to jump on a free mentoring session just DM Jeannette at info@brave-bold-brilliant.com. VALUABLE RESOURCES Brave Bold Brilliant - https://brave-bold-brilliant.com/ Brave, Bold, Brilliant podcast series - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/brave-bold-brilliant-podcast/id1524278970    ABOUT THE GUEST Julia Simpson is President and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council.  She spent 14 years in the aviation sector on the Board of British Airways and Iberia and as Chief of Staff at International Airlines Group. Before joining British Airways, Julia was senior adviser to the UK Prime Minister. She has held a number of key positions in the UK government and public sector, including Director at the Home Office and Department for Education and Employment; Assistant Chief Executive at the London Borough of Camden; and head of communications at the Communication Workers Union. Julia is currently on the Board of the London Chamber of Commerce. Julia believes in the power of travel to transform lives, grow economies, and protect the planet and its people. ABOUT THE HOST Jeannette Linfoot is a highly regarded senior executive, property investor, board advisor, and business mentor with over 30 years of global professional business experience across the travel, leisure, hospitality, and property sectors. Having bought, ran, and sold businesses all over the world, Jeannette now has a portfolio of her own businesses and also advises and mentors other business leaders to drive forward their strategies as well as their own personal development. Jeannette is a down-to-earth leader, a passionate champion for diversity & inclusion, and a huge advocate of nurturing talent so every person can unleash their full potential and live their dreams. CONTACT THE HOST Jeannette's linktree - https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot https://www.jeannettelinfootassociates.com/ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@braveboldbrilliant LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jeannette.linfoot/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jeannette.linfoot/ Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jeannette.linfoot Podcast Description Jeannette Linfoot talks to incredible people about their experiences of being Brave, Bold & Brilliant, which have allowed them to unleash their full potential in business, their careers, and life in general. From the boardroom tables of ‘big' international businesses to the dining room tables of entrepreneurial start-ups, how to overcome challenges, embrace opportunities and take risks, whilst staying ‘true' to yourself is the order of the day.Travel, Bold, Brilliant, business, growth, scale, marketing, investment, investing, entrepreneurship, coach, consultant, mindset, six figures, seven figures, travel, industry, ROI, B2B, inspirational: https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot

Super Tuesday wrapped up as predicted, with Trump sweeping the GOP win and Haley dropping out. Barring a meteorite, this means we are locked into a Trump-Biden rematch. But the newest Harvard-Harris CAPS poll reveals an America that is not as certain as primary voting behavior suggests – overwhelmingly, they profess a desire for a non-Biden non-Trump choice at the polls. For voters, immigration has become a national priority, even in states (Alaska) that are nowhere close to the southern border. Meanwhile, inflation, which affects everyone, has moved farther down in voters' anxieties. And then there's the large majority of voters who are comfortable marking on a poll that they believe Trump is a felon or that Biden is incompetent, but then vote for them anyway. This week, we try to get some clarity about these puzzling contradictions. Mark Penn is the chairman of the Harris Poll, as well as leading research companies including the National Research Group, Harris Insights & Analytics and HarrisX. He is the co-founder of the Harvard-Harris Poll, a monthly poll on key public opinion topics crucial to Americans like taxes and healthcare. He's also the president and managing partner of the Stagwell Group, a private equity fund. He previously held senior executive roles with Microsoft, WPP, and senior strategic roles on electoral campaigns for President Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton, and Prime Minister Tony Blair.Download the transcript here.Read the WTH substack here.Check out Mark Penn's poll here.

Two years into his premiership, Tony Blair continues to ride a wave of unprecedented popularity. This unnerves the Queen who worries that the Royal Family's own popularity does not match up. When she commissions a wide-ranging poll, the results are sobering, leading the Queen to reflect on what she - and the Palace - could be doing differently. After Blair's reputation is further cemented by his successful humanitarian intervention in Kosovo, the Queen asks him what he would do to modernise the monarchy. His ideas and suggestions force the Queen to confront just how much change she would be prepared to accept. Edith Bowman speaks with co-writer Daniel Marc Janes and director Erik Richter-Strand and The Crown's long standing Props Master Owen Harrison. Actor Bertie Carvel, speaks about the attraction of playing Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Crown: The Official Podcast is produced by Netflix and Sony Music Entertainment, in association with Left Bank Pictures.  Host: Edith Bowman  Guests: Daniel Marc Janes, Erik Richter-Strand, Owen Harrison, Bertie Carvel.

Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (12/13/23). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth is, or claiming they have the answer, is likely leading you astray, for one reason or another. Stay Vigilant. !function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src="https://rumble.com/embedJS/u2q643"+(arguments[1].video?'.'+arguments[1].video:'')+"/?url="+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+"&args="+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, "script", "Rumble");   Rumble("play", {"video":"v3yiqkb","div":"rumble_v3yiqkb"}); Video Source Links (In Chronological Order): Japan Approves World's First 'Self-Amplifying' mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Without Published Efficacy Or Safety Data | ZeroHedge Self-Spreading Vaccines, Self-Amplifying mRNA Vaccines & COVID Vaccine Menstrual Disruption (11) Igor Chudov

Grace Cassy, and Associate Fellow from Ten Eleven Ventures sits down to share her career path, getting her to where she is now. Grace spent 10 years in the UK Diplomatic Service, working on global security policy in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Earlier in her career she was an advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair, specializing in Asia and national security. She also co-founded Epsilon Advisory Partners, a strategy and growth firm working with world-leading global technology companies and investors. Now she is a Co-founder at CyLon and is an Early Stage Investor in cybersecurity companies. She says "I think we probably don't need too many more words, but we definitely need a bit more action." We thank Grace for sharing her story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grace Cassy, and Associate Fellow from Ten Eleven Ventures sits down to share her career path, getting her to where she is now. Grace spent 10 years in the UK Diplomatic Service, working on global security policy in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Earlier in her career she was an advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair, specializing in Asia and national security. She also co-founded Epsilon Advisory Partners, a strategy and growth firm working with world-leading global technology companies and investors. Now she is a Co-founder at CyLon and is an Early Stage Investor in cybersecurity companies. She says "I think we probably don't need too many more words, but we definitely need a bit more action." We thank Grace for sharing her story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Lib Dem peer and former Deputy First Minister shares thoughts from his career. Lord Wallace talks to Lucy Whyte and Kirsten Campbell about the early days of Scottish Parliament, his conversations with First Minister Donald Dewar and Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his role as acting First Minister. Wallace shares his thoughts Brexit and Independence, as well as the UK Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition of 2010, and why he thinks political parties have a problem with offering things that aren't possible. For a range of political interviews, subscribe to Podlitical on BBC Sounds.

In this episode of What I Wish I'd Known, former Prime Minister Tony Blair shares how the challenges he faced in his younger years shaped him into the man we know. From the devastating stroke his father suffered, to his mother's death when he was in his early 20's and how he managed anxiety whilst he was Prime Minister. WARNING: contains some strong language and discussion of sensitive topics.Series producer: Anya Pearce Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 904, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: royal female nicknames 1: Prime Minister Tony Blair dubbed her "The People's Princess". Princess Diana. 2: She was "The Untamed Heifer" and "The Virgin Queen". Elizabeth I. 3: Mark Antony called her "The Queen of Queens". Cleopatra. 4: The 19th century's "Widow of Windsor". Queen Victoria. 5: "The Catholic" of 15th century Spain. Queen Isabella. Round 2. Category: wine for dummies 1: Though its name means "black pinot", Pinot noir is a wine of this color. red. 2: Devotees call this wine Zin for short. Zinfandel. 3: This country's wine regions include the Barossa Valley and the Adelaide Hills. Australia. 4: In 1973, after a 50-year battle with the French government, this baron got his Mouton graded first growth. Rothschild. 5: "Quack" open a bottle of this sweet, sparkling wine meant for people who were raised on soda pop. Cold Duck. Round 3. Category: the jep-tones world tour 2006 1: More popular than Regis, the Jeps play their last stadium gig in San Francisco, like this band did on Aug. 29, 1966. The Beatles. 2: After a stint with the Maharishi, the group tries Kaballah with this singer whose hits include "Beautiful Stranger". Madonna. 3: The Jeps cover this group's 1988 Top 10 hit "Welcome To The Jungle", until the inevitable cease-and-desist order. Guns N' Roses. 4: No way! The Jeps' "Potpourri" video isn't the 2005 VMA Viewer's Choice; this band's "American Idiot" is. Green Day. 5: Oops... the 'Tones hire Mensa's Angels as security at this speedway in California, site of a 1969 free concert by the Stones. Altamont. Round 4. Category: where is every "body"? 1: A person who meddles or pries into the affairs of others. Busybody. 2: The process of developing human musculature especially for competitive exhibition. Bodybuilding. 3: To ride the waves to shore without a board. Bodysurfing. 4: One whose interests center on his dwelling place. Homebody. 5: A substance produced in the blood in response to a specific toxin. Antibody. Round 5. Category: macy's parade 1: In '86 parade, the Chipmunks rode a "floloon", a combination of these 2 parade standards. float and a balloon. 2: The 1st time this group of toe-tapping women lined up and high kicked in a Macy's Parade was in 1958. The Rockettes. 3: A train rolled off this 50-year-old game's board and into the parade in 1985. Monopoly. 4: Other than humans, most live animals in the parade nowadays are these. Horses. 5: All floats are built so they can fit through this on the trip from N.J. to N.Y.. Lincoln Tunnel. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

It's Sophy Ridge's final time presenting Sophy Ridge on Sunday, but she doesn't go quietly. On this week's episode she interviews former Prime Minister Tony Blair and business secretary Kemi Badenoch who is in New Zealand negotiating Britain's biggest trade deal since Brexit. Plus, in the studio is programme editor Scott Beasley, political correspondent Sam Coates, as well as Sophy's successor, Trevor Phillips.They discuss the political interviews this week, the highlights of Sophy's interviews during the past six years, the impact of the podcast, and what is to come in Trevor's new show in September.

Dr Wesley Payne McClendon is Executive Director, McClendon Research Group, Inc., Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Victoria Graduate School of Business and Chair, People & Culture Committee and Non-Executive Director (NED), Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) and Board Director, AIA Foundation. He is also Chairman and CEO, Grow Project Foundation, Chief Transformation Officer, Diversity Atlas, and NED Vortex Innovations and Vertical Farming Australia. Wesley was previously Managing Director and Professor, Edinburgh Institute (UK and Hong Kong); Partner and UK Practice Leader, Mercer HR Consulting (London); and Principle and Melbourne Practice Leader, Ernst & Young (Australia). He is author of more than 40 articles and 2 books including “Strategy, People and Performance.” Wesley has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Master of Science (MSc) in Human Resource Management and Industrial Labour Relations from The Pennsylvania State University. His Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) research at Napier Edinburgh Business School on “Leadership, People and Culture Due Diligence in Mergers & Acquisition, Integration and Restructure” will be published later this year. As a strategic advisor and management consultant, Wesley has worked with the CEOs and leadership teams of publicly listed companies GOOROO (ASX-GOO), mid-size health insurers GMHBA and start-ups Converged Technology and Peggy and Finn. He has also worked as an advisor to President Bill Clinton as a member of the President's Working Group, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Administration Cabinet Secretary Tessa Jowell as a fellow at the US Embassy in London, and Prince Turki as a member of the senior leadership team at DAR AL Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Wesley is a leadership coach and board mentor at Criticaleye (UK and Australia), and lectures, chairs student PhD dissertation committees and publishes articles on transformational leadership, strategy and strategic change, organisation behaviour and change management. What you'll discover: What's missing from the diversity and inclusion conversation Where's the onus on leadership development World class people and performance insights  Alchemy of the best leaders in the field  How your whole trajectory can change in a day How far you can push yourself and still achieve greatness Where putting minorities in positions of power falls over And so much more!  Resources: https://au.linkedin.com/in/wesleypaynemcclendon Show notes If you enjoyed this episode, and you've learnt something or it inspired you in some way, I'd love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, and post it to your Instagram Stories, and tag me, @elinormoshe_ or Elinor Moshe on LinkedIn.   Join the home of young guns here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/weareyoungguns   Get a copy of my book: https://amzn.to/31ILAdv

The following is a conversation with Lance Zaleski. Lance started his career in Law Enforcement in 1999 and retired in 2021. He has spent time in numerous positions throughout his career including a police educator and instructor for various police academies, a Senior Training Technician for the New York State Department of Homeland Security, K9 officer, A certified Special Weapons and Tactics operator, and Advanced Tactics and Hostage Rescue Operations.  He founded the Madison County Sheriff's Office, Special Operations Unit, where he led men and women during high-risk events to include barricaded gunman, hostage rescue events and warrant planning. The team assisted in personal protective details for the Dahlia Lama, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Country Stars Big and Rich and Cowboy Troy, Gretchen Wilson, Tracy Lawrence, Montgomery Gentry and many more.  Lance is the recipient of the Medal of Valor, Combat Cross, Gallantry Star for Bravery, Distinguished Service Medal, Veterans Service Award, and the American Legion Award.  In 2013 he was a participant in the reality-based TV Show, Elite Tactical Unit on the Outdoor Channel, where he placed 6th out of 14 SWAT Operators from around the country.  In 2021, Lance founded LZ Tactical Firearm Concepts where he trains civilians in the basic pistol permit course, beginning pistol, as well as three additional levels of advanced training, including defensive shotgun classes, advanced carbine, and pistol classes for Military and Law Enforcement personnel.  In his free time Lance is a volunteer coach for the Stockbridge Valley Sporting Clay and Trap Shooting Team as well as a coach for the Scholastic Clay Target Program sponsored by the Vernon National Shooting Preserve.  I was introduced to Lance years ago at our training facility and have followed all the great work he has been doing through the years. When he launched his company, LZ Tactical, I signed my father and I up for his pistol level one combat course, which was not only extremely educational, but a very rewarding experience.  Link: https://lztacticalfirearms.com/Sponsors:NativePath:Follow the link below to see all of NativePath's Pure Grass-Fed, Organic, Clean Supplements and use the CoMo15 code at checkout for 15% off!https://www.nativepath.com/Lombardi Chiropractic:https://www.lombardichiropractic.com/Mention the Co-Movement Gym Podcast when scheduling your initial appointment for 50% off Initial Consultation and X-Rays!Redmond:redmond.lifeOur team at Co-Movement Gym has used Redmond's Real Sea Salt, Seasonings, Re-Lyte Electrolyte drink and other products for years! This is a U.S. company whose products are simple, clean and taste great. Support them by using the link above or entering the code CoMo15 at checkout and you will receive 10% OFF your order!Reach out to us at info@co-movement.com or visit our website co-movement.com and learn more on how we can assist you in achieving your maximum health and fitness potential!Check out our Online Private Coaching at www.co-movement.com/onlinecoachingCheck out our main website www.co-movement.comCheck out our Video Podcast Clip on our YouTube Channel Co-Movement

In our latest episode of Every Step, Judith Beck and Krysytna Weston dive deep into the habits of leaders in crisis. Join us as we chat with Dr Wesley Payne McClendon, a renowned strategic advisor and management consultant, who shares his insights on the essential skills leaders need during challenging times. In this episode, we explore thought-provoking questions such as:

From hotshot lawyer to head of the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS), Keir Starmer is perhaps not the first person many would associate with the British Labour Party. But the party's shift in ideological stance under former Prime Minister Tony Blair opened the door for the highly polished Starmer to become the leader.Joining Lowkey on today's episode of “The Watchdog” is Oliver Eagleton, author and assistant editor of the journal, The New Left Review. Eagleton knows Starmer well; his 2022 biography, “The Starmer Project: a Journey to the Right,” forensically dissects both Starmer's background and his rapid ascension to the top of the party and details the Labour Party's ideological shift from social democracy to neoliberalism.Today, Eagleton highlights the 60-year-old politician's questionable relationship with Washington during his time as Director of Public Prosecutions, stating:Starmer developed a close relationship with the Obama administration…he went over to Washington and had a series of meetings with Eric Holder, head of the DOJ [Department of Justice] who, at the time, is the guy most famous for developing the legal infrastructure around the Obama administration's drone program.”Starmer has played a key role in the prosecution of Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange. As head of the CPS, he used every weapon in his arsenal to keep the Australian publisher in the country and under constant surveillance, even threatening Swedish prosecutors who wished to drop their charges against him – the entire pretense underwriting Assange's detention.“Swedish prosecutors had grown tired of the case, [it was]consuming a lot of resources, and they want to drop it. Again, the CPS intervenes and says ‘no, no, no, you must keep the case going,'” Eagleton told Lowkey; “The exact form of words that they used were: ‘don't you dare get cold feet.'”Eagleton was unimpressed by Starmer's political history or his ideological consistency. “He is just sort of a political chameleon or a blank canvas, and he can sort tack right or tack left, depending on who he is listening to at that moment,” he said. What we do know is that the leader of the Labour Party pushed for tougher sentences for a whole range of crimes and demanded more police presence in working-class communities.Before wrapping up, Oliver Eagleton makes a fundamental distinction between Keir Starmer and Tony Blair as leaders of the Labour Party.Many have compared Starmer, both in outlook and in tone, to Tony Blair. Yet Eagleton says that this is, if anything, unfair to Blair, noSupport the showThe MintPress podcast, “The Watchdog,” hosted by British-Iraqi hip hop artist Lowkey, closely examines organizations about which it is in the public interest to know – including intelligence, lobby and special interest groups influencing policies that infringe on free speech and target dissent. The Watchdog goes against the grain by casting a light on stories largely ignored by the mainstream, corporate media.Lowkey is a British-Iraqi hip-hop artist, academic and political campaigner. As a musician, he has collaborated with the Arctic Monkeys, Wretch 32, Immortal Technique and Akala. He is a patron of Stop The War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Racial Justice Network and The Peace and Justice Project, founded by Jeremy Corbyn. He has spoken and performed on platforms from the Oxford Union to the Royal Albert Hall and Glastonbury. His latest album, Soundtrack To The Struggle 2, featured Noam Chomsky and Frankie Boyle and has been streamed millions of times.

'Deliverologist' Sir Michael Barber knows how to get things done. He is most famous for setting up then Prime Minister Tony Blair's ‘delivery unit' and has advised seven of the past eight British Prime Ministers (Liz Truss is the exception). He is currently advising the Government on its skills reform plan. He has also worked at McKinsey, Pearson and has advised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Team Sky and England Football.In this episode, he discusses the best advice for leaders from his book "Accomplishment: How to Achieve Ambitious and Challenging Things". His points include why you should embrace monotony, learn to love trajectories, and why you should never delay an action twice.As he says: “It won't appear often, if at all, in the history books, but I like to think my fight to build monotony into the way the Prime Minister used his time was one of the most important contributions I made to British government.” Also on the show: How CEOs received the Spring Budget 2023.CreditsPresenters: Kate Magee and Éilis CroninProduction: Nav PalArt: David RobinsonRead the interview with Sir Michael Barber and enjoy his 12 tricks to achieving ambitious things on Management Today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Iraq War began 20 years ago today on March 20 2003. Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush ordered the invasion. TalkTV's Mike Graham is joined by Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens to reflect on the war, 20 years on.

Ibec is marking the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement with a new campaign, For Peace + Prosperity. The campaign illustrates the pivotal role that business has played in perpetuating peace and prosperity on the island.In this episode of Ibec Responds,  Ibec CEO Danny McCoy is joined by two important architects and advocates of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement , former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Alastair Campbell, former Director of Communications for Prime Minister Tony Blair. Following Ibec's For Peace + Prosperity event at the Mansion House, they discuss what was achieved from the Agreement, the lasting impact on the all-island economy and lessons for the future.Explore our For Peace + Prosperity campaign here. Thank you for listening. To explore all of Ibec's podcast offering, visit here. Make sure to follow Ibec Podcasts to stay up to date with new episodes.

Episode 162 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Daydream Believer", and the later career of the Monkees, and how four Pinocchios became real boys. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud this time, as even after splitting it into multiple files, there are simply too many Monkees tracks excerpted. The best versions of the Monkees albums are the triple-CD super-deluxe versions that used to be available from monkees.com , and I've used Andrew Sandoval's liner notes for them extensively in this episode. Sadly, though, none of those are in print. However, at the time of writing there is a new four-CD super-deluxe box set of Headquarters (with a remixed version of the album rather than the original mixes I've excerpted here) available from that site, and I used the liner notes for that here. Monkees.com also currently has the intermittently-available BluRay box set of the entire Monkees TV series, which also has Head and 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. For those just getting into the group, my advice is to start with this five-CD set, which contains their first five albums along with bonus tracks. The single biggest source of information I used in this episode is the first edition of Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees; The Day-By-Day Story. Sadly that is now out of print and goes for hundreds of pounds. Sandoval released a second edition of the book in 2021, which I was unfortunately unable to obtain, but that too is now out of print. If you can find a copy of either, do get one. Other sources used were Monkee Business by Eric Lefcowitz, and the autobiographies of three of the band members and one of the songwriters — Infinite Tuesday by Michael Nesmith, They Made a Monkee Out of Me by Davy Jones, I'm a Believer by Micky Dolenz, and Psychedelic Bubble-Gum by Bobby Hart. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript When we left the Monkees, they were in a state of flux. To recap what we covered in that episode, the Monkees were originally cast as actors in a TV show, and consisted of two actors with some singing ability -- the former child stars Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz -- and two musicians who were also competent comic actors, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork.  The show was about a fictional band whose characters shared names with their actors, and there had quickly been two big hit singles, and two hit albums, taken from the music recorded for the TV show's soundtrack. But this had caused problems for the actors. The records were being promoted as being by the fictional group in the TV series, blurring the line between the TV show and reality, though in fact for the most part they were being made by session musicians with only Dolenz or Jones adding lead vocals to pre-recorded backing tracks. Dolenz and Jones were fine with this, but Nesmith, who had been allowed to write and produce a few album tracks himself, wanted more creative input, and more importantly felt that he was being asked to be complicit in fraud because the records credited the four Monkees as the musicians when (other than a tiny bit of inaudible rhythm guitar by Tork on a couple of Nesmith's tracks) none of them played on them. Tork, meanwhile, believed he had been promised that the group would be an actual group -- that they would all be playing on the records together -- and felt hurt and annoyed that this wasn't the case. They were by now playing live together to promote the series and the records, with Dolenz turning out to be a perfectly competent drummer, so surely they could do the same in the studio? So in January 1967, things came to a head. It's actually quite difficult to sort out exactly what happened, because of conflicting recollections and opinions. What follows is my best attempt to harmonise the different versions of the story into one coherent narrative, but be aware that I could be wrong in some of the details. Nesmith and Tork, who disliked each other in most respects, were both agreed that this couldn't continue and that if there were going to be Monkees records released at all, they were going to have the Monkees playing on them. Dolenz, who seems to have been the one member of the group that everyone could get along with, didn't really care but went along with them for the sake of group harmony. And Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, the production team behind the series, also took Nesmith and Tork's side, through a general love of mischief. But on the other side was Don Kirshner, the music publisher who was in charge of supervising the music for the TV show. Kirshner was adamantly, angrily, opposed to the very idea of the group members having any input at all into how the records were made. He considered that they should be grateful for the huge pay cheques they were getting from records his staff writers and producers were making for them, and stop whinging. And Davy Jones was somewhere in the middle. He wanted to support his co-stars, who he genuinely liked, but also, he was a working actor, he'd had other roles before, he'd have other roles afterwards, and as a working actor you do what you're told if you don't want to lose the job you've got. Jones had grown up in very severe poverty, and had been his family's breadwinner from his early teens, and artistic integrity is all very nice, but not as nice as a cheque for a quarter of a million dollars. Although that might be slightly unfair -- it might be fairer to say that artistic integrity has a different meaning to someone like Jones, coming from musical theatre and a tradition of "the show must go on", than it does to people like Nesmith and Tork who had come up through the folk clubs. Jones' attitude may also have been affected by the fact that his character in the TV show didn't play an instrument other than the occasional tambourine or maracas. The other three were having to mime instrumental parts they hadn't played, and to reproduce them on stage, but Jones didn't have that particular disadvantage. Bert Schneider, one of the TV show's producers, encouraged the group to go into the recording studio themselves, with a producer of their choice, and cut a couple of tracks to prove what they could do. Michael Nesmith, who at this point was the one who was most adamant about taking control of the music, chose Chip Douglas to produce. Douglas was someone that Nesmith had known a little while, as they'd both played the folk circuit -- in Douglas' case as a member of the Modern Folk Quartet -- but Douglas had recently joined the Turtles as their new bass player. At this point, Douglas had never officially produced a record, but he was a gifted arranger, and had just arranged the Turtles' latest single, which had just been released and was starting to climb the charts: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Happy Together"] Douglas quit the Turtles to work with the Monkees, and took the group into the studio to cut two demo backing tracks for a potential single as a proof of concept. These initial sessions didn't have any vocals, but featured Nesmith on guitar, Tork on piano, Dolenz on drums, Jones on tambourine, and an unknown bass player -- possibly Douglas himself, possibly Nesmith's friend John London, who he'd played with in Mike and John and Bill. They cut rough tracks of two songs, "All of Your Toys", by another friend of Nesmith's, Bill Martin, and Nesmith's "The Girl I Knew Somewhere": [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (Gold Star Demo)"] Those tracks were very rough and ready -- they were garage-band tracks rather than the professional studio recordings that the Candy Store Prophets or Jeff Barry's New York session players had provided for the previous singles -- but they were competent in the studio, thanks largely to Chip Douglas' steadying influence. As Douglas later said "They could hardly play. Mike could play adequate rhythm guitar. Pete could play piano but he'd make mistakes, and Micky's time on drums was erratic. He'd speed up or slow down." But the takes they managed to get down showed that they *could* do it. Rafelson and Schneider agreed with them that the Monkees could make a single together, and start recording at least some of their own tracks. So the group went back into the studio, with Douglas producing -- and with Lester Sill from the music publishers there to supervise -- and cut finished versions of the two songs. This time the lineup was Nesmith on guitar, Tork on electric harpsichord -- Tork had always been a fan of Bach, and would in later years perform Bach pieces as his solo spot in Monkees shows -- Dolenz on drums, London on bass, and Jones on tambourine: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (first recorded version)"] But while this was happening, Kirshner had been trying to get new Monkees material recorded without them -- he'd not yet agreed to having the group play on their own records. Three days after the sessions for "All of Your Toys" and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", sessions started in New York for an entire album's worth of new material, produced by Jeff Barry and Denny Randell, and largely made by the same Red Bird Records team who had made "I'm a Believer" -- the same musicians who in various combinations had played on everything from "Sherry" by the Four Seasons to "Like a Rolling Stone" by Dylan to "Leader of the Pack", and with songs by Neil Diamond, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Leiber and Stoller, and the rest of the team of songwriters around Red Bird. But at this point came the meeting we talked about towards the end of the "Last Train to Clarksville" episode, in which Nesmith punched a hole in a hotel wall in frustration at what he saw as Kirshner's obstinacy. Kirshner didn't want to listen to the recordings the group had made. He'd promised Jeff Barry and Neil Diamond that if "I'm a Believer" went to number one, Barry would get to produce, and Diamond write, the group's next single. Chip Douglas wasn't a recognised producer, and he'd made this commitment. But the group needed a new single out. A compromise was offered, of sorts, by Kirshner -- how about if Barry flew over from New York to LA to produce the group, they'd scrap the tracks both the group and Barry had recorded, and Barry would produce new tracks for the songs he'd recorded, with the group playing on them? But that wouldn't work either. The group members were all due to go on holiday -- three of them were going to make staggered trips to the UK, partly to promote the TV series, which was just starting over here, and partly just to have a break. They'd been working sixty-plus hour weeks for months between the TV series, live performances, and the recording studio, and they were basically falling-down tired, which was one of the reasons for Nesmith's outburst in the meeting. They weren't accomplished enough musicians to cut tracks quickly, and they *needed* the break. On top of that, Nesmith and Barry had had a major falling-out at the "I'm a Believer" session, and Nesmith considered it a matter of personal integrity that he couldn't work with a man who in his eyes had insulted his professionalism. So that was out, but there was also no way Kirshner was going to let the group release a single consisting of two songs he hadn't heard, produced by a producer with no track record. At first, the group were insistent that "All of Your Toys" should be the A-side for their next single: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "All Of Your Toys"] But there was an actual problem with that which they hadn't foreseen. Bill Martin, who wrote the song, was under contract to another music publisher, and the Monkees' contracts said they needed to only record songs published by Screen Gems. Eventually, it was Micky Dolenz who managed to cut the Gordian knot -- or so everyone thought. Dolenz was the one who had the least at stake of any of them -- he was already secure as the voice of the hits, he had no particular desire to be an instrumentalist, but he wanted to support his colleagues. Dolenz suggested that it would be a reasonable compromise to put out a single with one of the pre-recorded backing tracks on one side, with him or Jones singing, and with the version of "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" that the band had recorded together on the other. That way, Kirshner and the record label would get their new single without too much delay, the group would still be able to say they'd started recording their own tracks, everyone would get some of what they wanted. So it was agreed -- though there was a further stipulation. "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" had Nesmith singing lead vocals, and up to that point every Monkees single had featured Dolenz on lead on both sides. As far as Kirshner and the other people involved in making the release decisions were concerned, that was the way things were going to continue. Everyone was fine with this -- Nesmith, the one who was most likely to object in principle, in practice realised that having Dolenz sing his song would make it more likely to be played on the radio and used in the TV show, and so increase his royalties. A vocal session was arranged in New York for Dolenz and Jones to come and cut some vocal tracks right before Dolenz and Nesmith flew over to the UK. But in the meantime, it had become even more urgent for the group to be seen to be doing their own recording. An in-depth article on the group in the Saturday Evening Post had come out, quoting Nesmith as saying "It was what Kirshner wanted to do. Our records are not our forte. I don't care if we never sell another record. Maybe we were manufactured and put on the air strictly with a lot of hoopla. Tell the world we're synthetic because, damn it, we are. Tell them the Monkees are wholly man-made overnight, that millions of dollars have been poured into this thing. Tell the world we don't record our own music. But that's us they see on television. The show is really a part of us. They're not seeing something invalid." The press immediately jumped on the band, and started trying to portray them as con artists exploiting their teenage fans, though as Nesmith later said "The press decided they were going to unload on us as being somehow illegitimate, somehow false. That we were making an attempt to dupe the public, when in fact it was me that was making the attempt to maintain the integrity. So the press went into a full-scale war against us." Tork, on the other hand, while he and Nesmith were on the same side about the band making their own records, blamed Nesmith for much of the press reaction, later saying "Michael blew the whistle on us. If he had gone in there with pride and said 'We are what we are and we have no reason to hang our heads in shame' it never would have happened." So as far as the group were concerned, they *needed* to at least go with Dolenz's suggested compromise. Their personal reputations were on the line. When Dolenz arrived at the session in New York, he was expecting to be asked to cut one vocal track, for the A-side of the next single (and presumably a new lead vocal for "The Girl I Knew Somewhere"). When he got there, though, he found that Kirshner expected him to record several vocals so that Kirshner could choose the best. That wasn't what had been agreed, and so Dolenz flat-out refused to record anything at all. Luckily for Kirshner, Jones -- who was the most co-operative member of the band -- was willing to sing a handful of songs intended for Dolenz as well as the ones he was meant to sing. So the tape of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", the song intended for the next single, was slowed down so it would be in a suitable key for Jones instead, and he recorded the vocal for that: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You"] Incidentally, while Jones recorded vocals for several more tracks at the session -- and some would later be reused as album tracks a few years down the line -- not all of the recorded tracks were used for vocals, and this later gave rise to a rumour that has been repeated as fact by almost everyone involved, though it was a misunderstanding. Kirshner's next major success after the Monkees was another made-for-TV fictional band, the Archies, and their biggest hit was "Sugar Sugar", co-written and produced by Jeff Barry: [Excerpt: The Archies, "Sugar Sugar"] Both Kirshner and the Monkees have always claimed that the Monkees were offered "Sugar, Sugar" and turned it down. To Kirshner the moral of the story was that since "Sugar, Sugar" was a massive hit, it proved his instincts right and proved that the Monkees didn't know what would make a hit. To the Monkees, on the other hand, it showed that Kirshner wanted them to do bubblegum music that they considered ridiculous. This became such an established factoid that Dolenz regularly tells the story in his live performances, and includes a version of "Sugar, Sugar" in them, rearranged as almost a torch song: [Excerpt: Micky Dolenz, "Sugar, Sugar (live)"] But in fact, "Sugar, Sugar" wasn't written until long after Kirshner and the Monkees had parted ways. But one of the songs for which a backing track was recorded but no vocals were ever completed was "Sugar Man", a song by Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer, which they would later release themselves as an unsuccessful single: [Excerpt: Linzer and Randell, "Sugar Man"] Over the years, the Monkees not recording "Sugar Man" became the Monkees not recording "Sugar, Sugar". Meanwhile, Dolenz and Nesmith had flown over to the UK to do some promotional work and relax, and Jones soon also flew over, though didn't hang out with his bandmates, preferring to spend more time with his family. Both Dolenz and Nesmith spent a lot of time hanging out with British pop stars, and were pleased to find that despite the manufactured controversy about them being a manufactured group, none of the British musicians they admired seemed to care. Eric Burdon, for example, was quoted in the Melody Maker as saying "They make very good records, I can't understand how people get upset about them. You've got to make up your minds whether a group is a record production group or one that makes live appearances. For example, I like to hear a Phil Spector record and I don't worry if it's the Ronettes or Ike and Tina Turner... I like the Monkees record as a grand record, no matter how people scream. So somebody made a record and they don't play, so what? Just enjoy the record." Similarly, the Beatles were admirers of the Monkees, especially the TV show, despite being expected to have a negative opinion of them, as you can hear in this contemporary recording of Paul McCartney answering a fan's questions: Excerpt: Paul McCartney talks about the Monkees] Both Dolenz and Nesmith hung out with the Beatles quite a bit -- they both visited Sgt. Pepper recording sessions, and if you watch the film footage of the orchestral overdubs for "A Day in the Life", Nesmith is there with all the other stars of the period. Nesmith and his wife Phyllis even stayed with the Lennons for a couple of days, though Cynthia Lennon seems to have thought of the Nesmiths as annoying intruders who had been invited out of politeness and not realised they weren't wanted. That seems plausible, but at the same time, John Lennon doesn't seem the kind of person to not make his feelings known, and Michael Nesmith's reports of the few days they stayed there seem to describe a very memorable experience, where after some initial awkwardness he developed a bond with Lennon, particularly once he saw that Lennon was a fan of Captain Beefheart, who was a friend of Nesmith, and whose Safe as Milk album Lennon was examining when Nesmith turned up, and whose music at this point bore a lot of resemblance to the kind of thing Nesmith was doing: [Excerpt: Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, "Yellow Brick Road"] Or at least, that's how Nesmith always told the story later -- though Safe as Milk didn't come out until nearly six months later. It's possible he's conflating memories from a later trip to the UK in June that year -- where he also talked about how Lennon was the only person he'd really got on with on the previous trip, because "he's a compassionate person. I know he has a reputation for being caustic, but it is only a cover for the depth of his feeling." Nesmith and Lennon apparently made some experimental music together during the brief stay, with Nesmith being impressed by Lennon's Mellotron and later getting one himself. Dolenz, meanwhile, was spending more time with Paul McCartney, and with Spencer Davis of his current favourite band The Spencer Davis Group. But even more than that he was spending a lot of time with Samantha Juste, a model and TV presenter whose job it was to play the records on Top of the Pops, the most important British TV pop show, and who had released a record herself a couple of months earlier, though it hadn't been a success: [Excerpt: Samantha Juste, "No-one Needs My Love Today"] The two quickly fell deeply in love, and Juste would become Dolenz's first wife the next year. When Nesmith and Dolenz arrived back in the US after their time off, they thought the plan was still to release "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" with "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" on the B-side. So Nesmith was horrified to hear on the radio what the announcer said were the two sides of the new Monkees single -- "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", and "She Hangs Out", another song from the Jeff Barry sessions with a Davy vocal. Don Kirshner had gone ahead and picked two songs from the Jeff Barry sessions and delivered them to RCA Records, who had put a single out in Canada. The single was very, *very* quickly withdrawn once the Monkees and the TV producers found out, and only promo copies seem to circulate -- rather than being credited to "the Monkees", both sides are credited to '"My Favourite Monkee" Davy Jones Sings'. The record had been withdrawn, but "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" was clearly going to have to be the single. Three days after the record was released and pulled, Nesmith, Dolenz and Tork were back in the studio with Chip Douglas, recording a new B-side -- a new version of "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", this time with Dolenz on vocals. As Jones was still in the UK, John London added the tambourine part as well as the bass: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (single version)"] As Nesmith told the story a couple of months later, "Bert said 'You've got to get this thing in Micky's key for Micky to sing it.' I said 'Has Donnie made a commitment? I don't want to go there and break my neck in order to get this thing if Donnie hasn't made a commitment. And Bert refused to say anything. He said 'I can't tell you anything except just go and record.'" What had happened was that the people at Columbia had had enough of Kirshner. As far as Rafelson and Schneider were concerned, the real problem in all this was that Kirshner had been making public statements taking all the credit for the Monkees' success and casting himself as the puppetmaster. They thought this was disrespectful to the performers -- and unstated but probably part of it, that it was disrespectful to Rafelson and Schneider for their work putting the TV show together -- and that Kirshner had allowed his ego to take over. Things like the liner notes for More of the Monkees which made Kirshner and his stable of writers more important than the performers had, in the view of the people at Raybert Productions, put the Monkees in an impossible position and forced them to push back. Schneider later said "Kirshner had an ego that transcended everything else. As a matter of fact, the press issue was probably magnified a hundred times over because of Kirshner. He wanted everybody thinking 'Hey, he's doing all this, not them.' In the end it was very self-destructive because it heightened the whole press issue and it made them feel lousy." Kirshner was out of a job, first as the supervisor for the Monkees and then as the head of Columbia/Screen Gems Music. In his place came Lester Sill, the man who had got Leiber and Stoller together as songwriters, who had been Lee Hazelwood's production partner on his early records with Duane Eddy, and who had been the "Les" in Philles Records until Phil Spector pushed him out. Sill, unlike Kirshner, was someone who was willing to take a back seat and just be a steadying hand where needed. The reissued version of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" went to number two on the charts, behind "Somethin' Stupid" by Frank and Nancy Sinatra, produced by Sill's old colleague Hazelwood, and the B-side, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", also charted separately, making number thirty-nine on the charts. The Monkees finally had a hit that they'd written and recorded by themselves. Pinocchio had become a real boy: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere (single version)"] At the same session at which they'd recorded that track, the Monkees had recorded another Nesmith song, "Sunny Girlfriend", and that became the first song to be included on a new album, which would eventually be named Headquarters, and on which all the guitar, keyboard, drums, percussion, banjo, pedal steel, and backing vocal parts would for the first time be performed by the Monkees themselves. They brought in horn and string players on a couple of tracks, and the bass was variously played by John London, Chip Douglas, and Jerry Yester as Tork was more comfortable on keyboards and guitar than bass, but it was in essence a full band album. Jones got back the next day, and sessions began in earnest. The first song they recorded after his return was "Mr. Webster", a Boyce and Hart song that had been recorded with the Candy Store Prophets in 1966 but hadn't been released. This was one of three tracks on the album that were rerecordings of earlier outtakes, and it's fascinating to compare them, to see the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches. In the case of "Mr. Webster", the instrumental backing on the earlier version is definitely slicker: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Mr. Webster (1st Recorded Version)"] But at the same time, there's a sense of dynamics in the group recording that's lacking from the original, like the backing dropping out totally on the word "Stop" -- a nice touch that isn't in the original. I am only speculating, but this may have been inspired by the similar emphasis on the word "stop" in "For What It's Worth" by Tork's old friend Stephen Stills: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Mr. Webster (album version)"] Headquarters was a group album in another way though -- for the first time, Tork and Dolenz were bringing in songs they'd written -- Nesmith of course had supplied songs already for the two previous albums. Jones didn't write any songs himself yet, though he'd start on the next album, but he was credited with the rest of the group on two joke tracks, "Band 6", a jam on the Merrie Melodies theme “Merrily We Roll Along”, and "Zilch", a track made up of the four band members repeating nonsense phrases: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Zilch"] Oddly, that track had a rather wider cultural resonance than a piece of novelty joke album filler normally would. It's sometimes covered live by They Might Be Giants: [Excerpt: They Might Be Giants, "Zilch"] While the rapper Del Tha Funkee Homosapien had a worldwide hit in 1991 with "Mistadobalina", built around a sample of Peter Tork from the track: [Excerpt: Del Tha Funkee Homosapien,"Mistadobalina"] Nesmith contributed three songs, all of them combining Beatles-style pop music and country influences, none more blatantly than the opening track, "You Told Me", which starts off parodying the opening of "Taxman", before going into some furious banjo-picking from Tork: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "You Told Me"] Tork, meanwhile, wrote "For Pete's Sake" with his flatmate of the time, and that became the end credits music for season two of the TV series: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "For Pete's Sake"] But while the other band members made important contributions, the track on the album that became most popular was the first song of Dolenz's to be recorded by the group. The lyrics recounted, in a semi-psychedelic manner, Dolenz's time in the UK, including meeting with the Beatles, who the song refers to as "the four kings of EMI", but the first verse is all about his new girlfriend Samantha Juste: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Randy Scouse Git"] The song was released as a single in the UK, but there was a snag. Dolenz had given the song a title he'd heard on an episode of the BBC sitcom Til Death Us Do Part, which he'd found an amusing bit of British slang. Til Death Us Do Part was written by Johnny Speight, a writer with Associated London Scripts, and was a family sitcom based around the character of Alf Garnett, an ignorant, foul-mouthed reactionary bigot who hated young people, socialists, and every form of minority, especially Black people (who he would address by various slurs I'm definitely not going to repeat here), and was permanently angry at the world and abusive to his wife. As with another great sitcom from ALS, Steptoe and Son, which Norman Lear adapted for the US as Sanford and Son, Til Death Us Do Part was also adapted by Lear, and became All in the Family. But while Archie Bunker, the character based on Garnett in the US version, has some redeeming qualities because of the nature of US network sitcom, Alf Garnett has absolutely none, and is as purely unpleasant and unsympathetic a character as has ever been created -- which sadly didn't stop a section of the audience from taking him as a character to be emulated. A big part of the show's dynamic was the relationship between Garnett and his socialist son-in-law from Liverpool, played by Anthony Booth, himself a Liverpudlian socialist who would later have a similarly contentious relationship with his own decidedly non-socialist son-in-law, the future Prime Minister Tony Blair. Garnett was as close to foul-mouthed as was possible on British TV at the time, with Speight regularly negotiating with the BBC bosses to be allowed to use terms that were not otherwise heard on TV, and used various offensive terms about his family, including referring to his son-in-law as a "randy Scouse git". Dolenz had heard the phrase on TV, had no idea what it meant but loved the sound of it, and gave the song that title. But when the record came out in the UK, he was baffled to be told that the phrase -- which he'd picked up from a BBC TV show, after all -- couldn't be said normally on BBC broadcasts, so they would need to retitle the track. The translation into American English that Dolenz uses in his live shows to explain this to Americans is to say that "randy Scouse git" means "horny Liverpudlian putz", and that's more or less right. Dolenz took the need for an alternative title literally, and so the track that went to number two in the UK charts was titled "Alternate Title": [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Randy Scouse Git"] The album itself went to number one in both the US and the UK, though it was pushed off the top spot almost straight away by the release of Sgt Pepper. As sessions for Headquarters were finishing up, the group were already starting to think about their next album -- season two of the TV show was now in production, and they'd need to keep generating yet more musical material for it. One person they turned to was a friend of Chip Douglas'. Before the Turtles, Douglas had been in the Modern Folk Quartet, and they'd recorded "This Could Be the Night", which had been written for them by Harry Nilsson: [Excerpt: The MFQ, "This Could Be The Night"] Nilsson had just started recording his first solo album proper, at RCA Studios, the same studios that the Monkees were using. At this point, Nilsson still had a full-time job in a bank, working a night shift there while working on his album during the day, but Douglas knew that Nilsson was a major talent, and that assessment was soon shared by the group when Nilsson came in to demo nine of his songs for them: [Excerpt: Harry Nilsson, "1941 (demo)"] According to Nilsson, Nesmith said after that demo session "You just sat down there and blew our minds. We've been looking for songs, and you just sat down and played an *album* for us!" While the Monkees would attempt a few of Nilsson's songs over the next year or so, the first one they chose to complete was the first track recorded for their next album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones, Ltd., a song which from the talkback at the beginning of the demo was always intended for Davy Jones to sing: [Excerpt: Harry Nilsson, "Cuddly Toy (demo)"] Oddly, given his romantic idol persona, a lot of the songs given to Jones to sing were anti-romantic, and often had a cynical and misogynistic edge. This had started with the first album's "I Want to Be Free", but by Pisces, it had gone to ridiculous extremes. Of the four songs Jones sings on the album, "Hard to Believe", the first song proper that he ever co-wrote, is a straightforward love  song, but the other three have a nasty edge to them. A remade version of Jeff Barry's "She Hangs Out" is about an underaged girl, starts with the lines "How old d'you say your sister was? You know you'd better keep an eye on her" and contains lines like "she could teach you a thing or two" and "you'd better get down here on the double/before she gets her pretty little self in trouble/She's so fine". Goffin and King's "Star Collector" is worse, a song about a groupie with lines like "How can I love her, if I just don't respect her?" and "It won't take much time, before I get her off my mind" But as is so often the way, these rather nasty messages were wrapped up in some incredibly catchy music, and that was even more the case with "Cuddly Toy", a song which at least is more overtly unpleasant -- it's very obvious that Nilsson doesn't intend the protagonist of the song to be at all sympathetic, which is possibly not the case in "She Hangs Out" or "Star Collector". But the character Jones is singing is *viciously* cruel here, mocking and taunting a girl who he's coaxed to have sex with him, only to scorn her as soon as he's got what he wanted: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Cuddly Toy"] It's a great song if you like the cruelest of humour combined with the cheeriest of music, and the royalties from the song allowed Nilsson to quit the job at the bank. "Cuddly Toy", and Chip Douglas and Bill Martin's song "The Door Into Summer", were recorded the same way as Headquarters, with the group playing *as a group*, but as recordings for the album progressed the group fell into a new way of working, which Peter Tork later dubbed "mixed-mode". They didn't go back to having tracks cut for them by session musicians, apart from Jones' song "Hard to Believe", for which the entire backing track was created by one of his co-writers overdubbing himself, but Dolenz, who Tork always said was "incapable of repeating a triumph", was not interested in continuing to play drums in the studio. Instead, a new hybrid Monkees would perform most of the album. Nesmith would still play the lead guitar, Tork would provide the keyboards, Chip Douglas would play all the bass and add some additional guitar, and "Fast" Eddie Hoh, the session drummer who had been a touring drummer with the Modern Folk Quartet and the Mamas and the Papas, among others, would play drums on the records, with Dolenz occasionally adding a bit of acoustic guitar. And this was the lineup that would perform on the hit single from Pisces. "Pleasant Valley Sunday" was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who had written several songs for the group's first two albums (and who would continue to provide them with more songs). As with their earlier songs for the group, King had recorded a demo: [Excerpt: Carole King, "Pleasant Valley Sunday (demo)"] Previously -- and subsequently -- when presented with a Carole King demo, the group and their producers would just try to duplicate it as closely as possible, right down to King's phrasing. Bob Rafelson has said that he would sometimes hear those demos and wonder why King didn't just make records herself -- and without wanting to be too much of a spoiler for a few years' time, he wasn't the only one wondering that. But this time, the group had other plans. In particular, they wanted to make a record with a strong guitar riff to it -- Nesmith has later referenced their own "Last Train to Clarksville" and the Beatles' "Day Tripper" as two obvious reference points for the track. Douglas came up with a riff and taught it to Nesmith, who played it on the track: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"] The track also ended with the strongest psychedelic -- or "psycho jello" as the group would refer to it -- freak out that they'd done to this point, a wash of saturated noise: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"] King was unhappy with the results, and apparently glared at Douglas the next time they met. This may be because of the rearrangement from her intentions, but it may also be for a reason that Douglas later suspected. When recording the track, he hadn't been able to remember all the details of her demo, and in particular he couldn't remember exactly how the middle eight went. This is the version on King's demo: [Excerpt: Carole King, "Pleasant Valley Sunday (demo)"] While here's how the Monkees rendered it, with slightly different lyrics: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Pleasant Valley Sunday"] I also think there's a couple of chord changes in the second verse that differ between King and the Monkees, but I can't be sure that's not my ears deceiving me. Either way, though, the track was a huge success, and became one of the group's most well-known and well-loved tracks, making number three on the charts behind "All You Need is Love" and "Light My Fire". And while it isn't Dolenz drumming on the track, the fact that it's Nesmith playing guitar and Tork on the piano -- and the piano part is one of the catchiest things on the record -- meant that they finally had a proper major hit on which they'd played (and it seems likely that Dolenz contributed some of the acoustic rhythm guitar on the track, along with Bill Chadwick, and if that's true all three Monkee instrumentalists did play on the track). Pisces is by far and away the best album the group ever made, and stands up well against anything else that came out around that time. But cracks were beginning to show in the group. In particular, the constant battle to get some sort of creative input had soured Nesmith on the whole project. Chip Douglas later said "When we were doing Pisces Michael would come in with three songs; he knew he had three songs coming on the album. He knew that he was making a lot of money if he got his original songs on there. So he'd be real enthusiastic and cooperative and real friendly and get his three songs done. Then I'd say 'Mike, can you come in and help on this one we're going to do with Micky here?' He said 'No, Chip, I can't. I'm busy.' I'd say, 'Mike, you gotta come in the studio.' He'd say 'No Chip, I'm afraid I'm just gonna have to be ornery about it. I'm not comin' in.' That's when I started not liking Mike so much any more." Now, as is so often the case with the stories from this period, this appears to be inaccurate in the details -- Nesmith is present on every track on the album except Jones' solo "Hard to Believe" and Tork's spoken-word track "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky", and indeed this is by far the album with *most* Nesmith input, as he takes five lead vocals, most of them on songs he didn't write. But Douglas may well be summing up Nesmith's *attitude* to the band at this point -- listening to Nesmith's commentaries on episodes of the TV show, by this point he felt disengaged from everything that was going on, like his opinions weren't welcome. That said, Nesmith did still contribute what is possibly the single most innovative song the group ever did, though the innovations weren't primarily down to Nesmith: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daily Nightly"] Nesmith always described the lyrics to "Daily Nightly" as being about the riots on Sunset Strip, but while they're oblique, they seem rather to be about streetwalking sex workers -- though it's perhaps understandable that Nesmith would never admit as much. What made the track innovative was the use of the Moog synthesiser. We talked about Robert Moog in the episode on "Good Vibrations" -- he had started out as a Theremin manufacturer, and had built the ribbon synthesiser that Mike Love played live on "Good Vibrations", and now he was building the first commercially available easily usable synthesisers. Previously, electronic instruments had either been things like the clavioline -- a simple monophonic keyboard instrument that didn't have much tonal variation -- or the RCA Mark II, a programmable synth that could make a wide variety of sounds, but took up an entire room and was programmed with punch cards. Moog's machines were bulky but still transportable, and they could be played in real time with a keyboard, but were still able to be modified to make a wide variety of different sounds. While, as we've seen, there had been electronic keyboard instruments as far back as the 1930s, Moog's instruments were for all intents and purposes the first synthesisers as we now understand the term. The Moog was introduced in late spring 1967, and immediately started to be used for making experimental and novelty records, like Hal Blaine's track "Love In", which came out at the beginning of June: [Excerpt: Hal Blaine, "Love In"] And the Electric Flag's soundtrack album for The Trip, the drug exploitation film starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper and written by Jack Nicholson we talked about last time, when Arthur Lee moved into a house used in the film: [Excerpt: The Electric Flag, "Peter's Trip"] In 1967 there were a total of six albums released with a Moog on them (as well as one non-album experimental single). Four of the albums were experimental or novelty instrumental albums of this type. Only two of them were rock albums -- Strange Days by the Doors, and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones Ltd by the Monkees. The Doors album was released first, but I believe the Monkees tracks were recorded before the Doors overdubbed the Moog on the tracks on their album, though some session dates are hard to pin down exactly. If that's the case it would make the Monkees the very first band to use the Moog on an actual rock record (depending on exactly how you count the Trip soundtrack -- this gets back again to my old claim that there's no first anything). But that's not the only way in which "Daily Nightly" was innovative. All the first seven albums to feature the Moog featured one man playing the instrument -- Paul Beaver, the Moog company's West Coast representative, who played on all the novelty records by members of the Wrecking Crew, and on the albums by the Electric Flag and the Doors, and on The Notorious Byrd Brothers by the Byrds, which came out in early 1968. And Beaver did play the Moog on one track on Pisces, "Star Collector". But on "Daily Nightly" it's Micky Dolenz playing the Moog, making him definitely the second person ever to play a Moog on a record of any kind: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daily Nightly"] Dolenz indeed had bought his own Moog -- widely cited as being the second one ever in private ownership, a fact I can't check but which sounds plausible given that by 1970 less than thirty musicians owned one -- after seeing Beaver demonstrate the instrument at the Monterey Pop Festival. The Monkees hadn't played Monterey, but both Dolenz and Tork had attended the festival -- if you watch the famous film of it you see Dolenz and his girlfriend Samantha in the crowd a *lot*, while Tork introduced his friends in the Buffalo Springfield. As well as discovering the Moog there, Dolenz had been astonished by something else: [Excerpt: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Hey Joe (Live at Monterey)"] As Peter Tork later put it "I didn't get it. At Monterey Jimi followed the Who and the Who busted up their things and Jimi bashed up his guitar. I said 'I just saw explosions and destruction. Who needs it?' But Micky got it. He saw the genius and went for it." Dolenz was astonished by Hendrix, and insisted that he should be the support act on the group's summer tour. This pairing might sound odd on paper, but it made more sense at the time than it might sound. The Monkees were by all accounts a truly astonishing live act at this point -- Frank Zappa gave them a backhanded compliment by saying they were the best-sounding band in LA, before pointing out that this was because they could afford the best equipment. That *was* true, but it was also the case that their TV experience gave them a different attitude to live performance than anyone else performing at the time. A handful of groups had started playing stadiums, most notably of course the Beatles, but all of these acts had come up through playing clubs and theatres and essentially just kept doing their old act with no thought as to how the larger space worked, except to put their amps through a louder PA. The Monkees, though, had *started* in stadiums, and had started out as mass entertainers, and so their live show was designed from the ground up to play to those larger spaces. They had costume changes, elaborate stage sets -- like oversized fake Vox amps they burst out of at the start of the show -- a light show and a screen on which film footage was projected. In effect they invented stadium performances as we now know them. Nesmith later said "In terms of putting on a show there was never any question in my mind, as far as the rock 'n' roll era is concerned, that we put on probably the finest rock and roll stage show ever. It was beautifully lit, beautifully costumed, beautifully produced. I mean, for Christ sakes, it was practically a revue." The Monkees were confident enough in their stage performance that at a recent show at the Hollywood Bowl they'd had Ike and Tina Turner as their opening act -- not an act you'd want to go on after if you were going to be less than great, and an act from very similar chitlin' circuit roots to Jimi Hendrix. So from their perspective, it made sense. If you're going to be spectacular yourselves, you have no need to fear a spectacular opening act. Hendrix was less keen -- he was about the only musician in Britain who *had* made disparaging remarks about the Monkees -- but opening for the biggest touring band in the world isn't an opportunity you pass up, and again it isn't such a departure as one might imagine from the bills he was already playing. Remember that Monterey is really the moment when "pop" and "rock" started to split -- the split we've been talking about for a few months now -- and so the Jimi Hendrix Experience were still considered a pop band, and as such had played the normal British pop band package tours. In March and April that year, they'd toured on a bill with the Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens, and Englebert Humperdinck -- and Hendrix had even filled in for Humperdinck's sick guitarist on one occasion. Nesmith, Dolenz, and Tork all loved having Hendrix on tour with them, just because it gave them a chance to watch him live every night (Jones, whose musical tastes were more towards Anthony Newley, wasn't especially impressed), and they got on well on a personal level -- there are reports of Hendrix jamming with Dolenz and Steve Stills in hotel rooms. But there was one problem, as Dolenz often recreates in his live act: [Excerpt: Micky Dolenz, "Purple Haze"] The audience response to Hendrix from the Monkees' fans was so poor that by mutual agreement he left the tour after only a handful of shows. After the summer tour, the group went back to work on the TV show and their next album. Or, rather, four individuals went back to work. By this point, the group had drifted apart from each other, and from Douglas -- Tork, the one who was still keenest on the idea of the group as a group, thought that Pisces, good as it was, felt like a Chip Douglas album rather than a Monkees album. The four band members had all by now built up their own retinues of hangers-on and collaborators, and on set for the TV show they were now largely staying with their own friends rather than working as a group. And that was now reflected in their studio work. From now on, rather than have a single producer working with them as a band, the four men would work as individuals, producing their own tracks, occasionally with outside help, and bringing in session musicians to work on them. Some tracks from this point on would be genuine Monkees -- plural -- tracks, and all tracks would be credited as "produced by the Monkees", but basically the four men would from now on be making solo tracks which would be combined into albums, though Dolenz and Jones would occasionally guest on tracks by the others, especially when Nesmith came up with a song he thought would be more suited to their voices. Indeed the first new recording that happened after the tour was an entire Nesmith solo album -- a collection of instrumental versions of his songs, called The Wichita Train Whistle Sings, played by members of the Wrecking Crew and a few big band instrumentalists, arranged by Shorty Rogers. [Excerpt: Michael Nesmith, "You Told Me"] Hal Blaine in his autobiography claimed that the album was created as a tax write-off for Nesmith, though Nesmith always vehemently denied it, and claimed it was an artistic experiment, though not one that came off well. Released alongside Pisces, though, came one last group-recorded single. The B-side, "Goin' Down", is a song that was credited to the group and songwriter Diane Hildebrand, though in fact it developed from a jam on someone else's song. Nesmith, Tork, Douglas and Hoh attempted to record a backing track for a version of Mose Allison's jazz-blues standard "Parchman Farm": [Excerpt: Mose Allison, "Parchman Farm"] But after recording it, they'd realised that it didn't sound that much like the original, and that all it had in common with it was a chord sequence. Nesmith suggested that rather than put it out as a cover version, they put a new melody and lyrics to it, and they commissioned Hildebrand, who'd co-written songs for the group before, to write them, and got Shorty Rogers to write a horn arrangement to go over their backing track. The eventual songwriting credit was split five ways, between Hildebrand and the four Monkees -- including Davy Jones who had no involvement with the recording, but not including Douglas or Hoh. The lyrics Hildebrand came up with were a funny patter song about a failed suicide, taken at an extremely fast pace, which Dolenz pulls off magnificently: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Goin' Down"] The A-side, another track with a rhythm track by Nesmith, Tork, Douglas, and Hoh, was a song that had been written by John Stewart of the Kingston Trio, who you may remember from the episode on "San Francisco" as being a former songwriting partner of John Phillips. Stewart had written the song as part of a "suburbia trilogy", and was not happy with the finished product. He said later "I remember going to bed thinking 'All I did today was write 'Daydream Believer'." Stewart used to include the song in his solo sets, to no great approval, and had shopped the song around to bands like We Five and Spanky And Our Gang, who had both turned it down. He was unhappy with it himself, because of the chorus: [Excerpt: John Stewart, "Daydream Believer"] Stewart was ADHD, and the words "to a", coming as they did slightly out of the expected scansion for the line, irritated him so greatly that he thought the song could never be recorded by anyone, but when Chip Douglas asked if he had any songs, he suggested that one. As it turned out, there was a line of lyric that almost got the track rejected, but it wasn't the "to a". Stewart's original second verse went like this: [Excerpt: John Stewart, "Daydream Believer"] RCA records objected to the line "now you know how funky I can be" because funky, among other meanings, meant smelly, and they didn't like the idea of Davy Jones singing about being smelly. Chip Douglas phoned Stewart to tell him that they were insisting on changing the line, and suggesting "happy" instead. Stewart objected vehemently -- that change would reverse the entire meaning of the line, and it made no sense, and what about artistic integrity? But then, as he later said "He said 'Let me put it to you this way, John. If he can't sing 'happy' they won't do it'. And I said 'Happy's working real good for me now.' That's exactly what I said to him." He never regretted the decision -- Stewart would essentially live off the royalties from "Daydream Believer" for the rest of his life -- though he seemed always to be slightly ambivalent and gently mocking about the song in his own performances, often changing the lyrics slightly: [Excerpt: John Stewart, "Daydream Believer"] The Monkees had gone into the studio and cut the track, again with Tork on piano, Nesmith on guitar, Douglas on bass, and Hoh on drums. Other than changing "funky" to "happy", there were two major changes made in the studio. One seems to have been Douglas' idea -- they took the bass riff from the pre-chorus to the Beach Boys' "Help Me Rhonda": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Help Me Rhonda"] and Douglas played that on the bass as the pre-chorus for "Daydream Believer", with Shorty Rogers later doubling it in the horn arrangement: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daydream Believer"] And the other is the piano intro, which also becomes an instrumental bridge, which was apparently the invention of Tork, who played it: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daydream Believer"] The track went to number one, becoming the group's third and final number one hit, and their fifth of six million-sellers. It was included on the next album, The Birds, The Bees, and the Monkees, but that piano part would be Tork's only contribution to the album. As the group members were all now writing songs and cutting their own tracks, and were also still rerecording the odd old unused song from the initial 1966 sessions, The Birds, The Bees, and the Monkees was pulled together from a truly astonishing amount of material. The expanded triple-CD version of the album, now sadly out of print, has multiple versions of forty-four different songs, ranging from simple acoustic demos to completed tracks, of which twelve were included on the final album. Tork did record several tracks during the sessions, but he spent much of the time recording and rerecording a single song, "Lady's Baby", which eventually stretched to five different recorded versions over multiple sessions in a five-month period. He racked up huge studio bills on the track, bringing in Steve Stills and Dewey Martin of the Buffalo Springfield, and Buddy Miles, to try to help him capture the sound in his head, but the various takes are almost indistinguishable from one another, and so it's difficult to see what the problem was: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Lady's Baby"] Either way, the track wasn't finished by the time the album came out, and the album that came out was a curiously disjointed and unsatisfying effort, a mixture of recycled old Boyce and Hart songs, some songs by Jones, who at this point was convinced that "Broadway-rock" was going to be the next big thing and writing songs that sounded like mediocre showtunes, and a handful of experimental songs written by Nesmith. You could pull together a truly great ten- or twelve-track album from the masses of material they'd recorded, but the one that came out was mediocre at best, and became the first Monkees album not to make number one -- though it still made number three and sold in huge numbers. It also had the group's last million-selling single on it, "Valleri", an old Boyce and Hart reject from 1966 that had been remade with Boyce and Hart producing and their old session players, though the production credit was still now given to the Monkees: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Valleri"] Nesmith said at the time he considered it the worst song ever written. The second season of the TV show was well underway, and despite -- or possibly because of -- the group being clearly stoned for much of the filming, it contains a lot of the episodes that fans of the group think of most fondly, including several episodes that break out of the formula the show had previously established in interesting ways. Tork and Dolenz were both also given the opportunity to direct episodes, and Dolenz also co-wrote his episode, which ended up being the last of the series. In another sign of how the group were being given more creative control over the show, the last three episodes of the series had guest appearances by favourite musicians of the group members who they wanted to give a little exposure to, and those guest appearances sum up the character of the band members remarkably well. Tork, for whatever reason, didn't take up this option, but the other three did. Jones brought on his friend Charlie Smalls, who would later go on to write the music for the Broadway musical The Wiz, to demonstrate to Jones the difference between Smalls' Black soul and Jones' white soul: [Excerpt: Davy Jones and Charlie Smalls] Nesmith, on the other hand, brought on Frank Zappa. Zappa put on Nesmith's Monkee shirt and wool hat and pretended to be Nesmith, and interviewed Nesmith with a false nose and moustache pretending to be Zappa, as they both mercilessly mocked the previous week's segment with Jones and Smalls: [Excerpt: Michael Nesmith and Frank Zappa] Nesmith then "conducted" Zappa as Zappa used a sledgehammer to "play" a car, parodying his own appearance on the Steve Allen Show playing a bicycle, to the presumed bemusement of the Monkees' fanbase who would not be likely to remember a one-off performance on a late-night TV show from five years earlier. And the final thing ever to be shown on an episode of the Monkees didn't feature any of the Monkees at all. Micky Dolenz, who directed and co-wrote that episode, about an evil wizard who was using the power of a space plant (named after the group's slang for dope) to hypnotise people through the TV, chose not to interact with his guest as the others had, but simply had Tim Buckley perform a solo acoustic version of his then-unreleased song "Song to the Siren": [Excerpt: Tim Buckley, "Song to the Siren"] By the end of the second season, everyone knew they didn't want to make another season of the TV show. Instead, they were going to do what Rafelson and Schneider had always wanted, and move into film. The planning stages for the film, which was initially titled Changes but later titled Head -- so that Rafelson and Schneider could bill their next film as "From the guys who gave you Head" -- had started the previous summer, before the sessions that produced The Birds, The Bees, and the Monkees. To write the film, the group went off with Rafelson and Schneider for a short holiday, and took with them their mutual friend Jack Nicholson. Nicholson was at this time not the major film star he later became. Rather he was a bit-part actor who was mostly associated with American International Pictures, the ultra-low-budget film company that has come up on several occasions in this podcast. Nicholson had appeared mostly in small roles, in films like The Little Shop of Horrors: [Excerpt: The Little Shop of Horrors] He'd appeared in multiple films made by Roger Corman, often appearing with Boris Karloff, and by Monte Hellman, but despite having been a working actor for a decade, his acting career was going nowhere, and by this point he had basically given up on the idea of being an actor, and had decided to start working behind the camera. He'd written the scripts for a few of the low-budget films he'd appeared in, and he'd recently scripted The Trip, the film we mentioned earlier: [Excerpt: The Trip trailer] So the group, Rafelson, Schneider, and Nicholson all went away for a weekend, and they all got extremely stoned, took acid, and talked into a tape recorder for hours on end. Nicholson then transcribed those recordings, cleaned them up, and structured the worthwhile ideas into something quite remarkable: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Ditty Diego"] If the Monkees TV show had been inspired by the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges, and by Richard Lester's directorial style, the only precursor I can find for Head is in the TV work of Lester's colleague Spike Milligan, but I don't think there's any reasonable way in which Nicholson or anyone else involved could have taken inspiration from Milligan's series Q.  But what they ended up with is something that resembles, more than anything else, Monty Python's Flying Circus, a TV series that wouldn't start until a year after Head came out. It's a series of ostensibly unconnected sketches, linked by a kind of dream logic, with characters wandering from one loose narrative into a totally different one, actors coming out of character on a regular basis, and no attempt at a coherent narrative. It contains regular examples of channel-zapping, with excerpts from old films being spliced in, and bits of news footage juxtaposed with comedy sketches and musical performances in ways that are sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes distasteful, and occasionally both -- as when a famous piece of footage of a Vietnamese prisoner of war being shot in the head hard-cuts to screaming girls in the audience at a Monkees concert, a performance which ends with the girls tearing apart the group and revealing that they're really just cheap-looking plastic mannequins. The film starts, and ends, with the Monkees themselves attempting suicide, jumping off a bridge into the ocean -- but the end reveals that in fact the ocean they're in is just water in a glass box, and they're trapped in it. And knowing this means that when you watch the film a second time, you find that it does have a story. The Monkees are trapped in a box which in some ways represents life, the universe, and one's own mind, and in other ways represents the TV and their TV careers. Each of them is trying in his own way to escape, and each ends up trapped by his own limitations, condemned to start the cycle over and over again. The film features parodies of popular film genres like the boxing film (Davy is supposed to throw a fight with Sonny Liston at the instruction of gangsters), the Western, and the war film, but huge chunks of the film take place on a film studio backlot, and characters from one segment reappear in another, often commenting negatively on the film or the band, as when Frank Zappa as a critic calls Davy Jones' soft-shoe routine to a Harry Nilsson song "very white", or when a canteen worker in the studio calls the group "God's gift to the eight-year-olds". The film is constantly deconstructing and commenting on itself and the filmmaking process -- Tork hits that canteen worker, whose wig falls off revealing the actor playing her to be a man, and then it's revealed that the "behind the scenes" footage is itself scripted, as director Bob Rafelson and scriptwriter Jack Nicholson come into frame and reassure Tork, who's concerned that hitting a woman would be bad for his image. They tell him they can always cut it from the finished film if it doesn't work. While "Ditty Diego", the almost rap rewriting of the Monkees theme we heard earlier, sets out a lot of how the film asks to be interpreted and how it works narratively, the *spiritual* and thematic core of the film is in another song, Tork's "Long Title (Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?)", which in later solo performances Tork would give the subtitle "The Karma Blues": [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Long Title (Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?)"] Head is an extraordinary film, and one it's impossible to sum up in anything less than an hour-long episode of its own. It's certainly not a film that's to everyone's taste, and not every aspect of it works -- it is a film that is absolutely of its time, in ways that are both good and bad. But it's one of the most inventive things ever put out by a major film studio, and it's one that rightly secured the Monkees a certain amount of cult credibility over the decades. The soundtrack album is a return to form after the disappointing Birds, Bees, too. Nicholson put the album together, linking the eight songs in the film with collages of dialogue and incidental music, repurposing and recontextualising the dialogue to create a new experience, one that people have compared with Frank Zappa's contemporaneous We're Only In It For The Money, though while t

Today's second guest editor this Christmas is Jamie Oliver, the chef, entrepreneur and campaigner. Hear highlights from his programme in our Best of Today podcast, including interviews with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne about expanding free lunches in schools and providing a healthy array of options for students. Jamie Oliver has been open about his struggles in school with dyslexia. He says he was told he was taught alongside those with special needs. Jamie wanted to speak to the rapper Loyle Carner, who has ADHD about his struggles at school and what food means to him.

Today's second guest editor this Christmas is Jamie Oliver, the chef, entrepreneur and campaigner. Hear highlights from his programme in our Best of Today podcast, including interviews with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne about expanding free lunches in schools and providing a healthy array of options for students. Jamie Oliver has been open about his struggles in school with dyslexia. He says he was told he was taught alongside those with special needs. Jamie wanted to speak to the rapper Loyle Carner, who has ADHD about his struggles at school and what food means to him.

In this episode, our guest is Ashish Prashar, the Global Chief Marketing Officer for R/GA, a campaigner, a writer, and his true life's work has been as a vocal justice reform advocate. Ashish started his career in journalism but quickly moved into an impressive career in politics in the UK, where he handled communications for the Conservative Party and former Prime Minister Tony Blair and served as Press Secretary to the former Prime Minister and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Since moving to the United States, Ashish has worked on Barack Obama's 2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign, midterm campaigns for the Democratic Party in 2018, and President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. Ashish is known for his justice reform advocacy, a cause he has been devoted to since being incarcerated as a teenager. Over the years, he has created programs for the formerly incarcerated, actively serves as a mentor and a vocal advocate, and campaigned for legislation to restore rights to formerly incarcerated people that will protect people in prison. He sits on the Boards of Exodus Transitional Community, Getting Out and Staying Out, Just Leadership USA, Leap Confronting Conflict, and the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice, and Ashish is a regular commentator in the media, contributing editorials and appearing in support of justice reform for outlets including ABC, CNN, NBC, and the Washington Post. Follow Ashish: https://twitter.com/ash_prashar _____ E-mail Us: asiansinadvertising@gmail.com Shop: asiansinadvertising.com/shop Learn More: asiansinadvertising.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/asiansinadvertising/support --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/asiansinadvertising/support

Please welcome Bristol Broadcasting legend, new talent champion and curator of the "Upload Festival" Adam Crowther to The Good Listening To Podcast: The Story Behind Your Story Show! Adam Crowther presents BBC Upload 7-10pm every weekday on BBC Radio Bristol - which he's presented since October 2018.He has worked as a broadcaster and presenter across live events and radio as well as live streams and videos for BBC iPlayer.  Adam has spent most of his presenting career championing, encouraging and celebrating new talent - from musicians to writers, comedians and bloggers, Adam loves celebrating talent.Adam is also an award winning social media expert. He's managed social media brand accounts for the BBC (BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Breakfast and BBC Introducing in Shropshire) as well as a children's charity in Birmingham. Adam has also created content for BBC Two and BBC masterbrand instagram accounts, covering premiers of Peaky Blinders and Blue Planet II.“ Today you are youThat is truer than trueThere is no one alive Who is you-er than you.”  The one and only Adam Crowther is inspired by these simple words from Dr Seuss. The choice reveals a lot about the broadcaster and his 24 carat authenticity. He appreciates honesty, expressed in accessible language. He is not 'hoity-toity' and has never wanted to be either. OK, he was cheeky in school. Yes, he sang in a band. And yes at 16, he was chosen to show the Prime Minister - Tony Blair! - around his school. On request, he even made the PM a cup of tea, under strict security supervision. After university in Aberystwyth, where he studied Drama, Adam became a Youth Worker and grew into becoming a pioneer broadcaster with BBC Bristol via BRMB In Birmingham. And this, despite underselling himself relentlessly at his first interview. Adam learned his lesson quickly and by way of reference, quotes Ray Charles's mother in the biopic: “ I tell you once. I help you if you get it wrong. After that, you're on your own.“ Adam was allowed that second chance and made the most of it. He pioneered a new take on Social Media strategy and execution for the BBC. He co-created Upload. Over time he has become less shy about banging his own drum - without becoming a secret narcissist. He readily acknowledges the benign influences of his parents, teachers and professional role models. Adam replaced his self-doubt/can't-do stance with a more positive 'can-do' model. He is still only 30 something, now confident enough to be who he is - never happier than when helping others to thrive and shine. To discover their own voices! Adam confesses he is a perfectionist. He appreciates originality and has no time for the ‘near enough is good enough' approach. He knows he has been very lucky and now wants to help create similar luck for others. Adam recently identified himself as bisexual. It is a simple matter of fact. He knows he is a consummate professional, not a drama queen. This lively conversation will convince you of that, right from the start. 

Rachel Johnson, Sonia Thompson and Tracey Swinburne discuss Accomplishment by Sir Michael Barber.  Listen to these school leaders explore their various fears and how they have countered those fears. They discuss the practical things you can do to get yourself unstuck and move forward, and suggest ways to effectively communicate your school's vision and values. Sir Michael Barber is a global leader in system delivery and change, former policy director under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and a renowned educationist. In Accomplishment, he distils complex processes to manageable steps, encouraging us to “Speak plainly, speak clearly and listen with care” with the promise that if you can do that, you can accomplish anything. PiXL is a partnership organisation of thousands of schools, colleges and alternative education providers spanning KS1-5. Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership PiXL Leadership Bookclub is a We Are In Beta production. Subscribe now to download every episode directly to your phone automatically.

Our guest today has a truly inspirational, transformational weight loss story. About 5 years ago Tom Watson lost eight stone (that's 112 pounds or 51 kg) and reversed his Type 2 diabetes by committing to a whole new way of life and we are very excited that decluttering played a part in his journey. Tom is a Declutter Hub Podcast super fan and this is one you're not going to want to miss. Tom served as MP for West Bromwich East from 2001 until 2019 and was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2019. He was a minister for Prime Minister Tony Blair and worked at the very heart of 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Gordon Brown. During his time in the Houses of Parliament, Tom built a reputation as a passionate campaigner. He challenged corrupt tabloid newspapers during the phone-hacking scandal and campaigned for reforms to the betting Industry. After changing his diet and getting fit, Tom has the global sugar industry in his sights and is committed to raising awareness about the dangers of excess and hidden sugars and improving public understanding of conditions like type 2 diabetes. For more show notes go to our Podcast Page.  If you haven't already, make sure you check out our website The Declutter Hub. We are delighted you're here and can't wait to share all our top tips about decluttering and organising with you. Please feel free to join our Facebook group The Declutter Hub Community and you can find out more about The Declutter Hub membership here.

Leadership matters. And while it's easy to take a cynical view of government and politics in today's world, it's important to remember that public service can and should still be an honorable endeavor - and responsible leadership, working together, and putting people first are still fundamental to effective government.  In the season finale of Why Am I Telling You This, former Prime Minister Tony Blair joins President Clinton for a wide-ranging discussion on the conflict in Ukraine, the future of Northern Ireland, how to create a vital center in politics, and the work of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"There is a gaping hole in the governing of Britain” is the sobering assessment of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who joins Christiane to discuss his country's future amid the Boris Johnson scandals, and whether diplomacy can diffuse the standoff over Ukraine ... A conversation with Ian Shaw, co-writer and star of The Shark Is Broken, the play based on the 1975 thriller Jaws ... Walter Isaacson interviews former US Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst, joins us to discuss this week's important news stories. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a press conference today discussing the results of last week's negotiations. Also, we discuss the Iranian foreign minister's visit to China and President Ortega's inauguration.Gerald Horne, professor of history at the University of Houston, TX, author, historian, and researcher, joins us to discuss this week's important news stories. A memo showing that President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair plotted a public relations plan to sell the Iraq invasion has been unearthed. Also, the EU says that it will fall in line with sanctions against Mali and we discuss the outcome of this week's negotiations between the US and NATO.Dr. Linwood Tauheed, Associate professor of Economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City joins us to discuss this week's domestic news stories. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is arguing that working-class support for the Democrats has collapsed. Also, President Biden's poll numbers are cratering and the Federal Reserve contemplates methods to address inflation.Ajamu Baraka, former VP Candidate, Green Party, and Netfa Freeman, host of Voices With Vision on WPFW 89.3 FM, Pan-Africanist and internationalist organizer, join us to discuss Africa and the Global South. President Biden's former special envoy to Haiti has blasted the US policy towards the island nation. Also, President Ortega is moving Nicaragua into China's economic orbit and President Biden is supporting French colonialism in Africa.Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and Daniel Lazare, investigative journalist and author, join us to discuss the recent negotiations between the US and Russia. Many are anticipating possible announcements when the Russian and Chinese leaders meet on February 4th. Also, we discuss the outcome of the US Russia negotiations and the coup attempt in Kazakhstan.

Gerald Horne, professor of history at the University of Houston, author, historian, and researcher, joins us to discuss this week's important news stories. A memo showing that President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair plotted a public relations plan to sell the Iraq invasion has been unearthed. Also, the EU says that it will fall in line with sanctions against Mali and we discuss the outcome of this week's negotiations between the US and NATO.

We explore why so many of us want to put our lives on the page. Can writing stand in for therapy? What are the ethical and moral considerations of such sharing. Julia Samuel is a psychotherapist and the author of Grief Works. Dr Lin Berwick MBE has cerebral palsy quadriplegia and became totally blind at the age of 15. She also has partial hearing loss and is a permanent wheelchair user. Now in her seventies, she has been a fierce advocate and ambassador for people with disabilities and their carers, and has written a new book On A Count of Three all about what it's like having a carer - and what she thinks carers should know. Military mums rally in protest at the decision to award former Prime Minister Tony Blair a knighthood. Hazel Hunt, whose son Richard died in Afghanistan, is considering sending back the Elizabeth Cross that her family had received as a mark of protest. Many of us will be thinking about making a change for the better now that we're in a new year. Poorna Bell, author and journalist, gives us some inspiration and talks about getting stronger, both emotionally and physically. Poorna took it literally and started weight lifting after illness and bereavement. 'Collector culture' - the swapping, collating and posting of nude images of women without their consent - is on the rise. To understand why Anita is joined by Professor of Law at Durham University, Clare McGlynn and Zara Ward, senior practitioner at the Revenge Porn Helpline. Southall Black Sisters was founded in 1979 to address the needs of Asian, African-Caribbean and minority women and to empower them to escape violence. Pragna Patel was one of the founders of Southall Black Sisters and Wednesday was her last day as Director. We talk to Pragna about her 30 years in activism.

Join Jennifer Juan as she breaks down another crazy week in British Politics, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss buying fancy lunches with our money, the Education Secretary starting beef with the entirety of Teacher Twitter and Wales standing up to Michael Fabricant (and his wig). Jennifer also discusses a nightmare she had about the Liberal Democrats and the outrage over former Prime Minister Tony Blair getting a Knighthood. - Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wtafpolitics/message Get in touch with the show by emailing us on wtafpolitics@outlook.com - Follow the show on Instagram at http://instagram.com/wtafpolitics - Visit our website at http://wtaf.politics.blog - Follow Jennifer On Twitch: https://twitch.tv/missjsquared - Follow Jennifer Juan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missjsquared/ - Follow Jennifer Juan on Rizzle: rizzle.tv/u/missjsquared - Visit Jennifer Juan's Website: https://jenniferjuan.com

Join Jennifer Juan as she breaks down another crazy week in British Politics, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss buying fancy lunches with our money, the Education Secretary starting beef with the entirety of Teacher Twitter and Wales standing up to Michael Fabricant (and his wig). Jennifer also discusses a nightmare she had about the Liberal Democrats and the outrage over former Prime Minister Tony Blair getting a Knighthood. - Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wtafpolitics/message Get in touch with the show by emailing us on wtafpolitics@outlook.com - Follow the show on Instagram at http://instagram.com/wtafpolitics - Visit our website at http://wtaf.politics.blog - Follow Jennifer On Twitch: https://twitch.tv/missjsquared - Follow Jennifer Juan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missjsquared/ - Follow Jennifer Juan on Rizzle: rizzle.tv/u/missjsquared - Visit Jennifer Juan's Website: https://jenniferjuan.com

How widely is the Scottish Government consulting on its plans to allow people to legally change sex without a medical diagnosis? Emma Barnett speaks to Lisa Mackenzie from MurrayBlackburnMackenzie, an Edinburgh-based policy analysis collective who say the SNP is breaking a manifesto promise, by only meeting with groups representing trans rights since last May's Holyrood election. Military mums rally in protest at the decision to award former Prime Minister Tony Blair a knighthood. Hazel Hunt, whose son Richard died in Afghanistan, is considering sending back the Elizabeth Cross that her family had received as a mark of protest. Southall Black Sisters was founded in 1979 to address the needs of Asian, African-Caribbean and minority women and to empower them to escape violence. Pragna Patel was one of the founders of Southall Black Sisters and today is her last day as Director. We talk to her about the chages she's witnessed and the role she's held for over 30 years. It's ten years since the popular fiction writer Maeve Binchy died and forty years since her first best seller Light a Penny Candle was published. What has been her legacy for the generation of Irish women writers that followed and what is the role of editors in creating best-sellers? We talk to Rosie de Courcy Senior Editor at Head of Zeus publishers and Maeve's long-time editor, and Irish author and journalist Megan Nolan. Taking photos or video recordings of breastfeeding mothers in public without their consent is to be made a crime in England and Wales, punishable by up to two years in prison. We catch up with the woman who started the campaign Julia Cooper. Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Manager: Donald McDonald

Recorded live: 3 February 2021 A recording of our Dialogue & Debate webinar, live-streamed on Wednesday 3 February 2021 at 11am, exploring the implications of Brexit, particularly in terms of our sense of identity, and the UK's future relationships both across its own four nations and with the wider world. This hour-long discussion features an audience poll and questions submitted live by our audience online. It is hosted by our Chief Executive, Dr Ed Newell, with four guest panellists: Professor Catherine Barnard FBA FLSW - Deputy Director at academic think-tank The UK in a Changing Europe Anne-May Janssen - Head of European Engagement, Universities UK International Emily Mansfield - Principal Economist for Europe at The Economist Intelligence Unit Sir Stephen Wall - Formerly the UK's Permanent Representative to the EU and Prime Minister Tony Blair's senior advisor on EU matters.

If you find yourself saying, perhaps of a political speech, “Well, that's just rhetoric”, you are getting things exactly wrong. That's according to my guest today, Philip Collins, former chief speechwriter to Tony Blair and author of “When They Go Low, We Go High: Speeches That Shape the World - and Why We Need Them”. Phil is an old friend of mine and irritatingly good at very many things: he's a philosopher, lecturer, policy wonk, journalist (now for both the New Statesman and the Evening Standard), and much else besides. I think of him now as “Mr. Rhetoric”. Phil believes that rhetoric is essential to the functioning of democracy and, now, to its saving. We talk about Donald Trump, Tony Blair, Boris Johson, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Pericles, sophistry, the role of emotion in political persuasion, the need for enchantment - and the importance of paying our respects. Philip Collins Philip Collins is a British journalist, author and academic. He served as the chief speechwriter for Prime Minister Tony Blair from 2004-2007, after serving as the director of The Social Market Foundation, an independent think tank in the UK. Collins is the founder and writer-in-chief at The Draft, a writing and rhetoric agency, and he also teaches a course on rhetoric at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. He is a contributing editor at The New Statesman, and a columnist for the Evening Standard.  More Collins We discussed Collins' vastly interesting book, “When They Go Low, We Go High: Speeches That Shape the World - and Why We Need Them” He also authored “Start Again: How We Can Fix Our Broken Politics” and “The Art of Speeches and Presentations,” among other books.   You can follow more of his work on Twitter: @PhilipJCollins1 Also Mentioned  I mentioned the book, “The Liberal Mind,” written by Kenneth Minogue Collins mentioned JP Stern's book “Hitler: The Führer and the People”  Collins also referred to the book “How Democracies Die” written by Levitsky and Ziblatt  The Dialogues Team  Creator: Richard Reeves Research: Ashleigh Maciolek Artwork: George Vaughan Thomas Tech Support: Cameron Hauver-Reeves Music: "Remember" by Bencoolen (thanks for the permission, guys!)

Jonathan Powell is CEO of the conflict resolution charity Inter Mediate and has made a career talking to some of the world's most dangerous people. He was U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief of staff, chief negotiator in the Northern Ireland peace process, and the author of “Talking to Terrorists: How to End Armed Conflicts.” In a frank, thoughtful and occasionally tense conversation with New Lines' Faisal Al Yafai, they discuss why he advocated talking to the Taliban 10 years ago; the missed opportunities of the war on terror; what it was like negotiating with the IRA; how history will remember Tony Blair — and whether he has sleepless nights over the invasion of Iraq.

In this episode, Anthony is joined by Dr. Fiona Hill, former Deputy Assistant Director to President Trump, and Senior Director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council. They discuss her new book ‘There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century,' and she takes us back to her brave testimony during President Trump's first impeachment hearing. Next, Max Chafkin, author and features editor at Bloomberg Businessweek joins Anthony to discuss his book, ‘The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power,' which argues that Thiel may be the most powerful person in Silicon Valley—and perhaps the world.Finally, Lord Parry Mitchell, tech entrepreneur, member of Britain's House of Lords and former advisor on digital policy for Prime Minister Tony Blair, gives Anthony his take on the current UK Labour party — and what it would take to oppose Prime Minister Johnson in the 2024 general election. Follow our guests on Twitter:https://twitter.com/chafkin https://twitter.com/lordparry Follow us:https://twitter.com/moochfm  https://twitter.com/scaramucci  Sign up for our newsletter at:www.mooch.fm Created & produced by Podcast Partners:www.podcastpartners.com 

20 years after 9/11, Fareed gives his take on the state of radical Islam today. Then, Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair reflects on the days after 9/11 and the roots of Islamic extremism. Finally, an exclusive interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Is he confident the U.S. will defend his nation from Russia, after the world witnessed what happened in Afghanistan last month? Pres. Zelensky and Fareed discuss that plus the scandal that centered on Ukraine and led to Trump's first impeachment.     GUESTS: Tony Blair, President Volodymyr Zelensky       To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

He was a key global leader and stood by America's side in one of its darkest hours. Former British prime minister Tony Blair joins Washington Post Live to discuss the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, how extremism has evolved and where the world stands today in its war against terrorism. Blair also explains his concern that the West may have lost its will to exert its traditional leadership role and why he calls the withdrawal from Afghanistan “tragic, dangerous and unnecessary.”

The fallout from the dramatic events in Afghanistan continues. One president, Ashraf Ghani, has lost his job; another, Joe Biden, has his jacket hanging on a shaky nail. A former president, Hamid Karzai, is back on the scene, as is would-be president Abdullah Abdullah. And if that wasn't enough to unravel, former Prime Minister Tony Blair called the actions of the current American president “imbecilic.” So, in an episode devoted to the current situation in Afghanistan, we first invited on Major Stephen Harley, who served three tours there and now advises on military and security matters from Africa, in order to get a military perspective. There's lots of talk about the wars we are in now, but very little about how we got into them and what alternatives were available at the time. One man who spent a career studying and teaching an alternative to war, namely peace, is Paul Rogers, emeritus professor of peace studies at the University of Bradford. His seminal book, ‘Losing Control: Global Security in the Twenty-First Century' is now in its fourth edition and is a remarkably prescient tome, not least of all about what is happening in Afghanistan at the moment. He joined Sputnik to discuss the global reverberations of the situation in the region.

Tony Blair, the British prime minister who deployed troops to Afghanistan 20 years ago after the 9/11 attacks, says the U.S. decision to withdraw from the country has “every Jihadist group round the world cheering.”In a lengthy essay posted on his website late Saturday, the former Labour Party leader said the sudden and chaotic pullout that allowed the Taliban to reclaim power risked undermining everything that had been achieved in Afghanistan over the past two decades, including advances in living standards and the education of girls."The abandonment of Afghanistan and its people is tragic, dangerous, unnecessary, not in their interests and not in ours,” said Blair who served as prime minister during 1997-2007, a period that also saw him back the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003.“The world is now uncertain of where the West stands because it is so obvious that the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in this way was driven not by grand strategy but by politics," he added.Blair also accused U.S. President Joe Biden of being “in obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending ‘the forever wars', as if our engagement in 2021 was remotely comparable to our commitment 20 or even 10 years ago."The former prime minister, whose reputation in the U.K. took a dive from the failure to find the alleged weapons of mass destruction that were cited as justification for U.S. coalition's invasion of Iraq, said Britain has a “moral obligation” to stay in Afghanistan until everyone who needs to be evacuated is taken out.“We must evacuate and give sanctuary to those to whom we have responsibility — those Afghans who helped us and stood by us and have a right to demand we stand by them," he said.Like other nations, Britain is trying to evacuate Afghan allies as well as its own citizens from Afghanistan, but with a U.S.-imposed Aug. 31 deadline hovering into view, it's a race against time.In addition to the 4,000 or so U.K. citizens, the country is thought to have around 5,000 Afghan allies, such as translators and drivers, earmarked for a seat on a plane. The Ministry of Defense said Sunday that nearly 4,000 people had been evacuated so far.Blair conceded that mistakes were made over the past two decades but added that military interventions can be noble in intent, especially when challenging an extreme Islamist threat.“Today we are in a mood which seems to regard the bringing of democracy as a utopian delusion and intervention virtually of any sort as a fool's errand." he said.Blair also warned that the decision by the U.S. to keep Britain largely in the dark about the withdrawal risks relegating the country to “the second division of global powers.”However, he said the U.K., in its role as the current president of the Group of Seven nations, was in a position to help coordinate an international response to “hold the new regime to account”.Britain's Conservative government has been working diplomatically to ensure there is no unilateral recognition of a Taliban government in Afghanistan.“We need to draw up a list of incentives, sanctions, actions we can take including to protect the civilian population so the Taliban understand their actions will have consequences," Blair said.Text by PAN PYLAS, Associated Press

In this episode, Anthony is joined by Kate Fagan, Emmy award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author to talk about her latest book, 'All the Colors Came Out: A Father, a Daughter, and a Lifetime of Lessons' which details Kate's changing relationship with her dad as he battled ALS  - and shares her coming out journey. Anthony talks with Skye Wallin, director of 'American Gadfly' - a documentary on the life and legacy of former US Senator Mike Gravel, to discuss how a group of teenagers convinced Mike to run for President aged 89 - and why he has been “underappreciated” in American history.  Finally, Philip Collins, British political journalist, bestselling author, and former chief speechwriter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, gives Anthony the latest from across the pond - and how we can all master the art of argument and persuasion.Follow our guests on Twitter:https://twitter.com/katefagan3 https://twitter.com/SkyeWallin https://twitter.com/PhilipJCollins1 Follow us:https://twitter.com/moochfm  https://twitter.com/scaramucci  Sign up for our newsletter at:www.mooch.fm Created & produced by Podcast Partners:www.podcastpartners.com 

On this week's episode of the Humourology Podcast, Paul Boross is joined by author and strategist Alastair Campbell. As the former press secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Alastair knows how levity can affect leadership. Campbell discusses how the right kind of humour can help your message get through.“Wit, I think, is an incredibly powerful thing in politics. It's not the same as comedy, it's wit.”Want to improve your business culture and learn how to win with wit? Join us this week on the Humourology Podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's podcast, former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell, joined Louise Duffy to talk about how to negotiate with impact.  As well as acting as the first-ever Chief of Staff to a UK Prime Minister, Jonathan was the chief British negotiator on Northern Ireland from 1997 - 2007 - playing a key part in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement.  Listen to learn how to turn a weakness into a strength, how to set a negotiation objective, and how to reach a compromise.     Get in touch with us by email - info@communicationsclinic.ie   We're also on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/the-comm…ns-clinic-dublin

Hi Ruth Davidson fans LBC have a new podcast we think you'll enjoy - Hosted by Lionel Barber, the former Editor of the Financial Times, What Next? focuses on life after COVID-19 and sees the multi-award-winning journalist and author discover how the world is adapting to the pandemic, what needs to change and, most importantly, what lessons we have learnt that will shape our lives for the future. Each week, Lionel will be speaking to some of the biggest leading influential figures in the health, politics, business, technology, arts and environment world, such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair; Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation; ITV's Chief Executive Dame Carolyn McCall and many more. Follow Lionel on Twitter: @lionelbarber. Listen and subscribe now on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts

Lionel Barber, the former Editor of the Financial Times, is hosting a brand-new podcast series - What Next? with Lionel Barber. In his first broadcast venture since the FT, What Next? with Lionel Barber focuses on life after COVID-19 and sees the multi-award-winning journalist and author discover how the world is adapting to the pandemic, what needs to change and, most importantly, what lessons we have learnt that will shape our lives for the future. Each week, Lionel will be speaking to some of the biggest leading influential figures in the health, politics, business, technology, arts and environment world, such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair; Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation; ITV's Chief Executive Dame Carolyn McCall and many more. Follow Lionel on Twitter: @lionelbarber

Ruth speaks to former Prime Minister Tony Blair

Princess Diana: A Life After Death is different from many of the recent programs commemorating the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's death. It is not just an anniversary program. It is a powerful summary of Princess Diana's historical, political and social legacy. Princess Diana's death set the British nation thinking deeply about its monarchy and its royal family. In the unstable summer of 1997 a strange atmosphere existed throughout Britain. The country's young Prime Minister Tony Blair had just won an election with a big majority and the tabloid press were pursuing Princess Diana after her separation from Prince Charles. Events were already leading to a full-scale crisis for the British monarchy. The terrible sudden and completely unexpected death of Diana changed Britain. This powerful and original new program looks at the history of Princess Diana's life after her death. The question of the condition of Britain is portrayed in the program - on the one hand through the life of her sons and family after her death and on the other through the collective memory we have through the images and controversies of Diana's life. The British monarchy is now trusted more than ever before. It is politicians who have lost trust. The selfless aspects of Princess Diana's wide interests continue to act as a form of both emotional ballast and inspiration to the British nation and the world at large. The distinguished contributors include Sir Anthony Seldon, Alastair Campbell, Jeffrey Archer, Emily Nash, Katie Nicholl, Catherine Mayer, Richard Kay and Sarah, Viscountess Bangor. Backed by a full orchestral soundtrack, Princess Diana: A Life After Death takes a lasting approach to describing the life of one of the most important women who has ever lived. The programme is intended to have a long life. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thehistoryexpress/support

The Stevens Group is pleased to present a new podcast series that salutes the masters of public relations and revels in their observations, insights and advice to PR professionals.  This new series is part of the ongoing partnership between The Stevens Group and CommPRO to bring to PR, digital/interactive and marketing communications agencies the wisdom of those who have reached the top of the PR profession.       About Our Guest Mark Penn, Chairman & CEO, MDC Partners, Managing Partner & President, The Stagwell Group Mark Penn is the President and Managing Partner of The Stagwell Group, a private equity fund focused on the marketing services industry. In this role, Penn directs the acquisition process and oversees the Group's portfolio companies. Penn has been in research, advertising, public relations, polling and consulting for nearly 40 years. Before founding The Stagwell Group, he served in senior executive positions at Microsoft where as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, he was responsible for working on core strategic issues across Microsoft's products, value propositions and investments and leading the company's competitive research and analysis. Penn's experience in growing, building and managing agencies is well-documented. As the co-founder and CEO of Penn Schoen Berland, a global market research firm that he built and sold to WPP, he demonstrated value creation in a crowded industry serving clients with innovative techniques from being first with overnight polling to pioneering unique ad testing methods used by Presidents and Fortune 100 corporations. At WPP, he also became CEO of Burson-Marsteller, and managed the two companies to record profit growth during that period. He is also known as the strategist for and creator of well-known campaigns and ads, helping reelect President Bill Clinton and his move to the political center, devising then Senator Hillary Clinton's successful “Upstate strategy,” creating Tony Blair's "Forward not Back" campaign in 2005 and the “3AM” ad in the 2008 Presidential primaries, and led the team on Microsoft's hugely successful 2014 Super Bowl ad when he headed advertising there. Penn has been a senior adviser to global corporate and political leaders including Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Bill Ford, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Bill Clinton. He has helped elect over 25 heads of state around the world. Penn is also a globally recognized thought leader. He authored the Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling book “Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes”; and was a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Time.com, POLITICO, and The Huffington Post. In a cover story, Time Magazine called him “Master of the Message.” Penn earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College and attended Columbia Law School. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Holocaust Museum's Committee on Conscience, and serves on the board of Meridian International Center. Penn is also a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard College and a Professorial Lecturer at George Washington University.

The inquiry into the UK's involvement in the Iraq war started 6 years ago - and there's still no sign of a report. Political columnist Peter Oborne can't understand why: "Come on Sir John! It's not that difficult. I reckon I could get something together in 3 weeks." To prove his point, Peter Oborne attempts to put together a definitive 30 minute audio report into Britain's involvement in the Iraq war... within budget and on time. Using evidence provided to the Iraq Inquiry and that already publicly available Oborne delivers his verdict on the key questions relating to the British Government's decision to go to war with Iraq. The programme hears from those in key positions in the lead up to the conflict, including: Dr Hans Blix, Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), 2000 - 2003 Sir Christopher Meyer, British Ambassador to the United States, 1997 - 2003 Sir Stephen Wall - European Adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair and head of the Cabinet Office's European Secretariat, 2000 - 2004 Carne Ross - First Secretary, United Kingdom Mission to New York, 1998 - 2002 Producer: Hannah Barnes Researcher: Phoebe Keane.

Guest: Fmr Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney"In the fight against bigotry, we stand together, and we must. In the fight against injustice, we stand together, and we must. In the fight against intimidation, we stand together, and we must. After all, a government that launches wars to steal another person's birthright will do anything to all of us." Cynthia McKinney has made a career of speaking her mind and challenging authority. She began on day one of her political life and hasn't looked back. With her opinions, actions, and even her sense of style, McKinney has inspired both admiration and controversy.During her second term, her district was re-drawn and re-numbered the 4th district. McKinney protested the new boundaries, but was still reelected to the seat. She was a supporter of a Palestinian State in Israel-occupied territory, and sparked controversy by criticizing American policy in the Middle East. After 9/11, McKinney suggested the President had received warnings. The criticism she received as a result, combined with being targeted by the pro-Israel lobby, contributed to her defeat in the 2002 election; however, she ran for the seat again and was re-elected in 2004. McKinney was a vocal critic of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. When Nancy Pelosi encouraged a boycott of a Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate Hurricane Katrina, Cynthia chose instead to participate and submitted her own report to the Congressional Record. She continued her criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the matter and its failure to secure a way back home for Katrina survivors. Cynthia pressed for government transparency and accountability and introduced legislation to release the documents related to the murders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tupac Shakur. She was the first Member of Congress to file articles of impeachment against George Bush and she voted against every war funding bill put before her. Cynthia was forced out of Congress once more in 2007 when she was targeted for defeat, again, by donations from pro-Israel contributors that flooded into her opponent's campaign coffers. Cynthia McKinney has never been afraid to speak her mind, and stand up for what she believes in. Late in 2007, she left the Democratic Party to take her energy and ideas to the whole country by becoming a Green Party Presidential Candidate. Cynthia won the Green Party nomination for U.S. President and in 2008 ran for President. In December 2008, Cynthia made international headlines when the Free Gaza boat she was aboard was rammed by the Israeli military as she was attempting to deliver medical supplies to the people of Gaza during Israel's Operation Cast Lead. Cynthia and her fellow humanitarian activists, rescued by Lebanon, never made it to Gaza. In 2009, Cynthia attempted to reach Gaza again, this time armed with crayons, coloring books, and school supplies for the children. She and her fellow human rights workers became the Free Gaza 21 after their boat was overtaken in international waters by the Israeli military and they were kidnapped to Israel. Cynthia spent seven days in an Israeli prison. And again, Cynthia did not make it into Gaza. Finally, Cynthia entered Gaza by land in July 2009 with George Galloway's 250-volunteer-strong Viva Palestina, USA. And as a rider and a member of the support team, Cynthia recently completed a cross-country bicycle ride with five other Bike4Peace 2010 cyclists who started in California and ended in Washington, D.C., speaking to the American people about the possibility of more peaceful U.S. policies if enough of us are willing to participate in our own positive, personal transformations. Cynthia had not been on a bicycle in twenty years and faced many personal obstacles along the way. However, she met this challenge with her usual good humor and determination and by the last day of the ride was able to complete over 60 miles on her bicycle. In August 2011, Cynthia completed a very successful 21-city peace tour in the United States, educating urban communities in order to promote a more peaceful U.S. foreign policy. In 2009, Cynthia conceived of DIGNITY as an international activist peace organization to assert respect for human rights by taking direct action for peace. It was under this banner that Cynthia took three DIGNITY delegations to Libya, including one delegation of journalists during the U.S./NATO/Israel aggression against the Arab Jamahiriya state. Since 2005, Cynthia became a supporter and follower of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's efforts to “criminalize war.” She has appeared in Kuala Lumpur several times, declaring that city the Peace Capital of the World. She recently reported on her experience in Libya in the “Arab Uprising” Conference organized by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation and served as an official observer at the historic Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal that, on 22 November 2011, found former President George W. Bush and former Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of the crime of aggression and other crimes against the state and people of Iraq.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/1198501/advertisement