Brian May Kerry Ellis interview Michael Ball Show 09042017
– https://youtu.be/ZpSVLC87B4k
MICHAEL BALL: Look who’s in the Musician Circle.
BRIAN MAY: Hello Michael.
MICHAEL: We’ve got Brian May and Kerry Ellis. How are you both? Look blossoming.
KERRY ELLIS: Hey I’m very good
MICHAEL: You’ve got a brand new album out, This is actually your first album together.
BRIAN: It is.
KERRY: It really is.
MICHAEL: Cos the others it was just you and some guitar, some random guy. What made you want to do a proper album together?
KERRY: We think because we’ve tone out and actually toured together. We did a live, just the two of us and hen we took Jeff Leach as well, obviously on keys, and we just became this kind of act, I suppose, Was the next thing to do.
MICHAEL: The Captain & Tennille of our time. What was the other one – the British version of Captain & Tennille? Peters & Lee, Peters & Lee. Do you remember Peters & Lee? Don’t. I loved Peters & Lee. (laughing) Okay you’ll hear from them. You’re gonna play a song for us and we’re gonna have a proper chat in the second half of the show. What you’re gonna do?
BRIAN: This is just the two of us. It’s ‘I Who Have Nothing’., which originally was an Italian song – Uno dei Tanti – but was translated by Leiber & Stoller of all people.
MICHAEL: No, I didn’t know really. High stuff,
BRIAN: Take it away, love it but very dramatic. Shall we do it?
KERRY: Mm-hmm. BRIAN: Go on then..
<Play & sing ‘I Who Have Nothing>
MICHAEL: That’s fabulous. Really really haunting sound.
KERRY: Thank you.
MICHAEL: You’re in great voice.
KERRY: Ah thanks.
MICHAEL: And you really getting the hang of that Brian.
BRIAN: It’s coming on, it’s coming on.
KERRY: It’s all right.
MICHAEL: Thank you so much. You’re gonna play another song for us in the next…
BRIAN: We will, with our boys.
KERRY: Thank you.
MICHAEL: You probably heard he sad news we lost Brian Matthew yesterday.. He has gone.
BRIAN: There was a false alarm.
MICHAEL: Yeah, and…
BRIAN: Bless him.
MICHAEL: Bless his soul. He was such an important part of Radio 2. An important part of radio journalism and music broadcasting, so I thought
BRIAN: (Welcome) to the club.
MICHAEL: Yes, exactly. I thought we’d play this just as a tribute to him. He played The Beatles a lot. I love it.
BRIAN: They were on his show…
MICHAEL: Absolutely.
BRIAN: Live.
MICHAEL: So in memory of the lovely Brian Matthew this is… ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’.
<Plays record> “Can’t Buy Me Love”.
MICHAEL: And look whose back. Brian May and Kerry Ellis.
BRIAN: We’re having a good old gossip. A couple of friends.
MICHAEL: With some friends – introduce us to your friends.
BRIAN: Jeff Leach on keys here.
MICHAEL: I know Jeff.
BRIAN: Been with us – got us out of all sorts of trouble, and Dave Colquhoun.
MICHAEL: Nice to see ya. You’re here to talk about “Golden Days”, which is your first joint album together. Normally you’ve been producing and (stuff), but this is you together playing, and you’ve written songs together.
BRIAN: Yeah, we have.
MICHAEL: What was that experience like? How did you go about it? What was your method?
KERRY: I think each of them were different. I’d obviously never written a song before, ever, and I had a bit of a block with it. I thought it’s never gonna happen, and then we – it was just kind of organically. It kind of happened differently. Brian would come in with a riff or a bit of lyric, and we’d kind of develop them together, and I would just try small things. I mean that’s how it started.
BRIAN: Yes I always Kerry to get into it really, cos in the beginning you’re sort of creating tracks for someone and the singer walks in and does it, but Kerry has that, you know, she has a lot inside of her I think needs to come out and I was encouraging her to be not only right, but produced together, which we did, you know. We co-produced.
MICHAEL: A real team.
KERRY: Yeah.
BRIAN: We had a good team effort.
MICHAEL: Thirteen yeas now you’ve been working together, and you met on “We Will Rock You”?
BRIAN: That’s right. Kerry was first “Meat” – created that role.
MICHAEL: What was that… (funny voice) Kerry was our first meat… (LAUGHTER)
KERRY: Sounds kind of rotten doesn’t it.
MICHAEL: Yes, so many levels just getting the gig.
KERRY: No, it wasn’t. You know – midnight…..
MICHAEL: How many recalls did you have.
KERRY: Seven!
MICHAEL: Seven?
KERRY: Not that I remember.
MICHAEL: Where did you first get to meet Brian and the rest of it?
KERRY: Was in the first audition.
MICHAEL: The first one and they still call you back seven times.
KERRY: I obviously had to sing his song for him, which was not daunting at all. (laughs)
Continued…