tvam92Nov


Neil was then joined by soapstar Michelle Collins who was trying to start a recording career. She spoke for a little while. They were then joined by journalist Paul Gambaccini. Paul had a regular spot reviewing the latest films. Before he started to speak about the film Grand Canyon, he just had to say that coincidentally he had written a rave review in Rolling Stone in 1971 about Neil's I Am I Said. This was about Neil going to LA like the film he was about to review. After the film reviews, they spoke about L.A. and about the different neighborhoods. Neil said that it was true that the areas were quite distinct but he had lived in L.A. for twenty years and went wherever he wanted without feeling any fear. But there is an underlying concern that it could be dangerous. Paul asked Neil "Is that not because it is so different from the city in which we both grew up, New York? The neighborhoods are so segregated that you can spend your life without visiting whole parts of the city." Neil agreed "Yes that is true. I probably didn't go up to New York City from Brooklyn until I was fourteen or fifteen years old. You don't really move from one neighborhood to another. But Los Angeles is where I live now and it is kind of unfortunate. But I think we are moving in a good direction. We have a Democratic president. Well he will be in in January and I think there will be some changes made." Neil was asked if he thought the riots in Los Angeles had led to the impetus for change in America. Did he think it was one of the reasons for a change in politics - to go over to Bill Clinton. He replied that it was one of the reasons. He felt many things had come up in the previous twelve years during the Reagan/Bush administrations that had troubled people and had not really been dealt with. He thought this administration would deal with things full on. It had the full support of many, many active people including himself and they would do what they could do to improve these situations.

The conversation then moved from politics back to music. Neil was asked to speak about an incident at the Royal Albert Hall in the seventies that had been reported in the paper that day… Neil - I played the Albert Hall in 1970 or 1971 and we did the show and it went very well. I left through the back entrance. There is a kind of alleyway back there and I didn't realize it but there were three or four hundred kids out there waiting for autographs. I closed the door and said I will sign some autographs. They charged at me and pinned me up against the wall and we had to have the police come and extricate me. It was quite dangerous - I was scared that they would be hurt and I was scared that I would be hurt also. Interviewer - Phrasing this very delicately - they were nearly removing very important bits of your anatomy at one time weren't they? Neil - Well they didn't remove any parts! (laugh) It was very intimate - if you can be intimate with three hundred people. A little too intimate for my liking.

They then went on to speak about how the seventies an exciting time that was for Neil. He was there with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The interviewer said that the Beatles etc had buried a lot of solo artists. He asked Paul Gambaccini why he thought Neil had survived it. Paul - Neil emerged late 66 so the burying had been done. A new generation of voices with a new concentration on lyrical content came to the fore and Neil was one of the very first. (Turning to Neil) and you mixed autobiography so beautifully. Not just with I Am I Said, Brooklyn Roads, Two Bit Manchild, Shilo - great songs. And what was very impressive about your earlier achievements was that it was on a minor label -Bang Records. Neil - Tiny label. Paul - Tiny label but constant hits and then moving to a big label and then of course going international when you were on UNI records. Neil was one of the first of the singer/songwriter wave which became very popular in the early seventies. Neil - I was lucky. I had not had any success before the Beatles or before Bob Dylan so I didn't have to overcome that success. The Beatles had come in and they had brought the entire English wave over to the States. I was lucky - somehow I was able to survive.

Michelle started to speak about how she was on a small label and was a bit of a songwriter but Paul cut in and said Pail - Let's ask Neil the joy the writer gets from unexpected cover versions like when UB40 did Red Red Wine. Neil - That was a surprise from outer space somewhere. This was a country song that I had written when I was….. I may have been a teenager when I wrote this song. It was just a crying-in-you-beer kind of song. Fifteen years later I hear it on the radio with a very strong reggae beat. I just loved it. I fell in love with it immediately. So there are surprises left and that was very pleasant. Interviewer - And you have done it all without a coffee table book on erotica or sex. Neil - We're working on one! That's about the last desperate act. You know the records are not selling when you start to take your clothes off!
	The show then finished with all the plugs and thanks to all.