PipemanRadio Interviews Stiff Little Fingers at Punk Rock Bowling XXIV

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Hey, you have done to censure? Wow? Crazy young Why become America?

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It's time for the Adventures of Pipe
Man on W four c HY dot

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com. West Palm Beach is number
one Internet radio station. Here's your host,

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the White Man. What m that? Since the pipe Man here on

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the Adventures pipe Man W four c
Y Radio? And who heard that?

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St Who am I here with?
And you're here with Ali mc morty from

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Stiff Little Fingers. Yes, we
will hit the stage very shortly, and

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of course just as we start the
interview, the first bond like kicks off

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on the street party stage right across
the way. That'll beat the background music

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for your interview. It's kind of
a different background music to what I would

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generally pick. But you know,
beggars comt be choosers. And I said,

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but you know, bottom line of
this music, it's in It's inclusive,

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it's not divisive. And that's the
main thing. I love that because

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this is the one thing, you
know what you're saying. Like when we

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were in the lockdown, I was
like, I don't care if some kid

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is playing a recorder live on stage. I'm going because we need live music.

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It doesn't matter what the music is
we do. Indeed, all they'll

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have to say, if it had
been me playing the recorder, you might

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have beat a histy retreat. I
was not a chumpion recorder player. I

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could say that I look at where
I got, you look at where it

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got. You got your here the
punk rock Bowling it did. And you

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know, whenever the original band started
out in Belfast in nineteen hundred and seventy

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seven, we never thought we would
last, you know, more than a

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couple of years at most. And
here we are. Although, as we

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said, whenever new romanticism came along, it's that punk rock never happened.

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But that was a mere hiccup in
the history of the band. And I

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can't believe we're in Las Vegas of
all places, and been back at punk

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Rock Pooling. It's been thirteen years
since they bat's been here. Wow,

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it seems like somebody asked me the
other day. I said, oh,

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I think it's five or six years. But and thanks to COVID and calling

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those what other consolations and so on, it's been difficult, But here we

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finally are. Yeah, absolutely,
and man, it's you know, they

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said at one time in your career
that punk was dead. I don't think

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if we look around here this weekend, that statement is true at all.

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In fact, with everything going on
in the world right now, I think

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we need punk more than ever exactly. I mean they say old punk rockers

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never die, they just stand at
the back. Although I haven't said that,

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we've we've had quite a few marsh
circles going on there you go,

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maybe a little bit wheezing at the
side, but nonetheless it's good to see

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that still happens. I sprained my
finger last night in the sub Humans pit.

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Oh last yeah, Michael, last
night was insane. That Santa Anna,

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which was the last tip sort of
proper on the tour, and we

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couldn't asked for a better send off. You know, if to go from

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that to a PRB is just mind
blowing. And you brought this super hot

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weather here too, right, well, you know, the whole tour has

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been unseasonably frigid, and here we
are in baking ninety something plus fahrenheit degree,

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So be careful what you wish for, no doubt, I don't even

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know how bands play in this weather, except I do know that, like

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again, the zone with the adrenaline
and then it die afterwards, I think

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we see what keeps us going through
through tonight's performance, you know, but

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because go from one extreme to the
other. The worst is playing when it's

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cold, you know, and the
strings on the guitar and the bass are

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so cold and they conduct all the
heat, the little remaining heat I have

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in my in my fingers and skinny
fingers, in your heat. I'm not

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going to complain about the heat on
from Ireland now with anybody complain about the

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hot weather and sun. Yeah,
your your weather's bipolar. It's it's cold,

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it's stump, it's gray, and
people say, oh, Ireland's so

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green that I don't it's gray.
That's all I think of, I know

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what I mean, you know,
and we're getting so with climate change,

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which we're just we got it so
much more wet weather. It really seems

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to me hitting us badly, lots
of flooding, and I just hope it's

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not inevitable. Will kind of go, We kind of digress there under the

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weather. But you know, it's
always a feel safe subject of conversation.

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Yeah, what's a Here's a good
question I want now is as an old

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score, how do you look at
punk rock to compared the way back when

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punk rock today. So I didn't
catch the last of what you said.

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How do you look at punk rock
today compare the way back in the beginning?

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Oh? Got you what you Well? The gigs are a lot safer.

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I can say that because whenever,
whenever the band started out or remember

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the show, sometimes you were taking
your life in your hands, especially if

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you're along here like me, I
couldn't go to punk shows because I think,

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you know, the audience that we've
had, like just speaking personally in

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the last year, it was very
it was very diverse, and I love

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to see that, not just you
know, in terms of gender, rice

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or anything like that, but age. You know, I see lots of

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you know, kids who would barely
have been born whenever their first album was

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on, and then their kids are
coming along. So it's like third generation's

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crazy sye, these little nineteen year
olds jumping up and doing and they know

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the words better than I do.
You know, it's just hard, you

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know, it's mild about that.
What I think of is like when we

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were younger going to gigs, it
was all kids, and I'm thinking myself,

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Wow, and you wouldn't you wouldn't
go to a band that was a

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bunch of old dudes. Okay,
the bands were kids too. Yeah,

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and now these kids like they worship
the ogs. I know. It's amazing

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to see. But because it was
a it was a young rebellion, if

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you like, against the increasingly stodgy
music of the of the seventies. You

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know, older people weren't trusted.
There were very few older people that were

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trusted. I remember that. So
I'm glad that we are now trusted.

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I'll say, you should always trust
older people. Maybe we did it right

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that they actually trust us or more
relevant, you know, that's what it

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took. That's what it took.
And it's good to see. And what's

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your craziest, wildness, best,
worst, whichever story in this whole musical

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journey. Well, memory being the
way it is the woman, especially short

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term memory, it's hard to tell. I mean, on this reason tour,

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probably the worst thing that happened was
our bus breaking down on a freeway

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at two in the morning, just
a few miles outside of Denver. You

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know, was stuck on the side
of the freeway on one you know,

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with heavy traffic on one side and
the slip road on the other and nowhere

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to go, and that was an
interesting forty eight hours. We lost one

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of the shows in Salt Lake City. There's a real bumber, you know,

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and unfortunately the reality of touring,
you know, the cost of things

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that hurt. You know, you
don't play man, you don't get paid.

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It's true. And I remember there
was I don't know if you recall,

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there was a dreadful tragic incident in
the battle Plan in Paris and the

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Eagles of Death Metal were playing and
they were attacked and there were one hundred

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fatalities and unbelievably, Brutal and Solf
were touring Europe at the time and Paris

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was the next show, and everybody
who was canceling, we went ahea and

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played it. We got a standing
ovation from people in the streets who saw

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the tour bus. They didn't know
the band, they just saw the buzz

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and they knew. It was such
an eerie atmosphere, you know, the

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whole of Paris was was almost like
a lockdown. Yeah, you know,

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and everyone was scared, you know, a terrible paranoia. And they were

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saying, oh, your heroes.
I said, no, we're not,

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We're just people are coming to the
gig. We had a gig boot and

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we're going to play it. Yeah. You know, we've been through words

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coming out of Belfaz, you know, whenever you take sort of death threats

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and you're in your and you in
your stride. But I think the h

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and the death threats just weren't from
heavy metal fans. Gotta have a little

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bit more serious than not. But
you know when it's all reletive, yeah,

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and you know, you just you
just keep on playing, you know,

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you play like your life depends on
it absolute might, you never know,

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and you know sometimes like that's what
makes you a true artist, is

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just the show must go on,
you know, I know, and uh,

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whenever you're on stage, you don't
think of anything like that. Yeah,

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just think of when's the metally it
coming? When does the song start?

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When does it stop? You know? Yeah, yeah, and just

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dig in, dig in and having
fun, right like, cause you can't

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last as long as you guys have
without having fun up there in this industry,

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I know, you know, a
couple of breakups, a couple of

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lineup changes. The current lineup,
you know, I think it is the

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best of bands of the bands had
and you know, the original members are

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still friends. You know, I
still see them in Belfast or whatever.

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N see. I love hearing that
that. I love hearing that you're still

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friends. Yeah. I mean I
don't live in Belfast, but it's still

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it's still sort of considered home.
Yeah, and changes the city has changed

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massively obviously, you know, ever
since the Peace Accord of ninety six,

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right, something I never thought I
would see in my own lifetime. You

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know, it just seems too far
fetched, out of our wildest imaginations because

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there it was still in the politics
and religion and begotry was so entrenched,

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you know, because it's something that
goes back hundreds of years. Yeah,

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you know, eight hundred years pretty
much of English occupation from Dan And I'm

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not taking size. I'm just saying
this will has been no people say occupation

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or settlers or whatever, but it's
all We're all part of the same family.

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When it comes on to it.
Music's the one thing that brings it

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all together. It's it always cliched, but it's street. It's it always

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so like listen, everybody here at
Punk Rock Bowling probably has different opinions on

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things, different beliefs on things,
but we're all here united for music therapy,

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because it is therapy. If the
kids are united, will never be

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divided. I love that quote.
I'm sixty nine, so I think you

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should run. It's a great song. I think you should run for the

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United States presence. Oh my god, don't we need it? Don't we

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need it? Brother? Oh my
god? Ali? I have my passport

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on me on all times in case
I need to make an escape. How

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sad is that? I know?
I know? So get what else do

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you want to talk about that's coming
up that people want to look out for?

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And maybe also give people out your
socials website all that stuff so they

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can buy your merge, check out
your tour aids music and all that good

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stuff. Well, after this we
have a little bit of time off.

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Then I don't know if let's see
what's happening. I have to think quickly

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here, folks, Yeah, we
were The next big thing that will be

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happening will be Rebellion Festival in Blackpool
in England, and then of course after

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that we are going back to Belfast
for a big John Marie Customs House Squares

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festival with the Domed and the Skids
and local band as well. Unfortunately,

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can't remember the name, and they'll
kill me for this. We've got some

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other local shows happening around them,
but really hoping we can get back to

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the States sooner rather than later.
It's you know, five years, this

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tour was five years in the making, after I've mentioned before cancelations and COVID

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and all that nonsense. And hopefully
and amongst all this, we'll get time

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to do another album, which is
being a little slow. But quality not

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quantity, you know. That's so
true nowadays, right, you want to

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put out like after all this time, you're you are experienced in your craft,

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so you don't want to just put
out anything. You want to put

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out something that you know is good, whereas when you're younger, it's like,

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just put it out there. I
love the way you said that.

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In our craft, you know.
And is this the same band you're talking

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about, We just you know,
bluff our way through it, I know,

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right, fake it till you make
it right. Yeah, I have

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to remember that one. There you
go. Well, you guys, rock

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a man. I'm very excited about
your set here at Punk Rock Bowling and

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thanks for being on the Adventures Pipe
Man. Not at all, not at

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all, absolute pleasure of pipeline and
our passble Cross when the very in your

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future. Once again, thank you
very much. They certainly will thank you

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for listening to the Adventures of Tatemen
on w for c u I Radio.