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The Chris Morris Music Show

Started by kitsofan34, October 26, 2013, 01:34:24 PM

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kitsofan34

I thought it would be well good if we had a discussion about those there Chris Morris radio 1 shows.

It's been a while since I listened to them[nb]I planned on re-listening but the links on cookd and bombd's page seem broken[/nb] but yeah, they're good aren't they?

My favourite bit is when he cancels the half 9 news bulletin and phones into a newsagents, which is rife with some fantastic improvisation by Morris.

Thomas

I've only just downloaded a few episodes that I hadn't heard previously, so I've been listening again recently.

I was surprised to hear the 'in utero gymnasium' idea crop up, he must been happy enough with that to reuse it for Brass Eye. Bits that I can always rely on for laughter are the Chris-Peter conversations, about what they saw on telly the night before, or on the tube.

kitsofan34

Were the Morris-Baynham conversations completely improvised?

Neil

Quote from: Thomas on October 26, 2013, 01:41:08 PM
I've only just downloaded a few episodes that I hadn't heard previously, so I've been listening again recently.

I was surprised to hear the 'in utero gymnasium' idea crop up, he must been happy enough with that to reuse it for Brass Eye.

Appears first in a GLR show, as I recall.  That's true of some of the Brass Eye and even TDT material.

Quote from: kitsofan34 on October 26, 2013, 01:44:45 PM
Were the Morris-Baynham conversations completely improvised?

No.

Thomas

I shouldn't think so, because one often interrupts the other with whatever they were about to say. Makes it seem as if whatever they're talking about did actually happen. And they always build to a discernible 'punchline.' But their acting's great, very naturalistic. Like the incredible Johnnie Walker sequence.

Neil

Quote from: kitsofan34 on October 26, 2013, 01:34:24 PM
I planned on re-listening but the links on cookd and bombd's page seem broken[/nb]

I'm recompiling the whole collection so it's as complete as possible.  Louis kindly did some new recordings for shows that were a bit patchy, so those have been getting added.  I think the first folder is the one to go for.  Everything should be there, but as I say, I'm finishing recompiling the whole set with the new remasters.

http://www.mediafire.com/?7nwws075tk5vj#t0rbpb9u16raz http://www.mediafire.com/?7nwws075tk5vj#eam9z7jhfzxjd

QuoteMy favourite bit is when he cancels the half 9 news bulletin and phones into a newsagents, which is rife with some fantastic improvisation by Morris.

Brilliant bit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCL5yz3ttyI

Also this all-time classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq-IcaqH1Jg

Porridge

Were these the shows with the Paul Garner shop bothering sections? I used to be particularly fond of those, but as someone else mentioned in another thread, it's slightly annoying how Garner would often alter what Morris had told him to say to something considerably less funny.

Hymenoptera

Quote from: Porridge on October 26, 2013, 03:39:57 PM
Were these the shows with the Paul Garner shop bothering sections? I used to be particularly fond of those, but as someone else mentioned in another thread, it's slightly annoying how Garner would often alter what Morris had told him to say to something considerably less funny.

I assumed that was down to communications error - Garner hearing instructions via mobile phone, while trying to speak to someone else simultaneously - more so than intentionally saying something different to what he'd been told. I never found it particularly irritating myself. Maybe I have a high irritancy-threshold.

Not sure why it's sprung to mind, but I do like the unveiling of the stuffed duck (can't remember which show it's in), when Baynham seems genuinely uneasy about what Morris is about to show him. Also nice to hear Morris cracking up during the segments with Paul Garner, usually while the latter is legging it from a shop or hotel.

Thomas

I listened to show 21 this morning. I think it might be my favourite, featuring as it does a brilliant Paul Garner hotel incursion. The pen quiz is better than the sock quiz, too. I love how Chris' babble degrades whilst talking to a phone-in fella about science. It's like the whole show is high on his comedy award from a few days before.

And Peter Baynham's
Spoiler alert
'dried-up crackly knicker bacon'
[close]
imagery is deeply affecting. 'Wow.'

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

While mostly scripted, it sounds like there at least a couple of moments during the Morris/Baynham conversations where one - usually the former - springs something unexpected on the other, although they both sound so naturalistic it's impossible to know for sure.

Regarding Paul Garner altering Morris's commanded lines; isn't it more a case of Garner toning stuff down in the heat of the moment, into something he feels slightly more comfortable or more likely to get away with saying? He's contriving to make the phrases sound as natural as possible, without losing their barmy essence. Summit like that, anyway.

Bad Ambassador

"Ask him if he's ever been to hell!"


Pancake

Mrs Pancake was recently about to bore me about some clothes she wants then went on to say she's looking for a cross between a shirt and a shoe, to which I replied by proposing to her.

(actual sequence shortened)

Pancake

There's a nun in there? What's she made of?

The Giggling Bean

I've been revisiting these recently and they still crack me up as much as when I first heard them. I'm amazed at how much he actually got away with. A couple of questions though if anyone knowledgable can help?

1 : Who was Sgt Murphy?

2 : During big spoon baby balloon Peter sounds genuinely upset when Chris says he helped the food go down with his tongue. Was that scripted or was Baynham genuinely shocked when he makes Chris apologise.

3 : Was Paul Garner a friend of Morris before he called up. Or was he a member of the public with a mobile who just randomly went along with his suggestions and impressed Chris by doing so. I seem to remember he called in originally yo have a go at the cow quiz.

I'm sure more will occur to me as I go through them again. Personally I think this is my favourite Morris project because it's very playful and off the wall.

Old Thrashbarg

Quote from: The Giggling Bean on December 09, 2013, 07:10:11 AM
3 : Was Paul Garner a friend of Morris before he called up. Or was he a member of the public with a mobile who just randomly went along with his suggestions and impressed Chris by doing so. I seem to remember he called in originally yo have a go at the cow quiz.

Just checked and it doesn't seem like he does know Morris beforehand; he calls up to take part in the cow quiz whilst he's in line to be served in a shop. And Morris then gets him to complain about the shape of the coin he receives as change and then thank the assistant seven times.

Neil

Quote from: Old Thrashbarg on December 09, 2013, 11:55:32 AM
Just checked and it doesn't seem like he does know Morris beforehand; he calls up to take part in the cow quiz whilst he's in line to be served in a shop. And Morris then gets him to complain about the shape of the coin he receives as change and then thank the assistant seven times.

All set up, Garner had been doing stuff on the 1993 GLR run with CM, including the tannoy announcements. Check the CaB YouTube for "Calls To Franco", I'm just getting off the bus or I'd link you.

Sgt Murphy was a trolley attendant (called...Ken?) who first popped up in early Feedback Reports on Radio Bristol, was recognised as a fucking gem, and made more of. Bit more info in Lucian Randall's book.

Old Thrashbarg

Quote from: Neil on December 09, 2013, 01:02:53 PM
All set up, Garner had been doing stuff on the 1993 GLR run with CM, including the tannoy announcements. Check the CaB YouTube for "Calls To Franco", I'm just getting off the bus or I'd link you.

Thanks, I must've come across some of the 'calls to Franco' whilst listening to GLR shows and not realised who the voice belonged to, but it's been too long since I heard any of them. Surprised I don't remember the tannoy announcements though, but plenty of the GLR shows I haven't listened to at all yet.

TJ

Garner met Morris when he was a studio assistant at Radio Cambridgeshire (I think possibly while still at school and doing a work experience-y thing); Morris recognised him as a co-conspirator with a similar sense of humour, and has remarked that he was prepared to go out on a limb for the laughs even back then.

I've always found it sad he never really did much more after the Morris radio stuff and a couple of Channel 4 pilots (though he was also in some of Simon Munnery's shows and had a regular slot on Mark Tonderai and Kevin Greening's Radio 1 shows); in the handful of shows I've heard where he's actually in the studio with Morris, they have a great rapport and unusually he's someone who seems to be treated in character as an 'equal' rather than like Baynham or whoever were.

TJ

And the Sgt Murphy stuff still makes me howl laughing even after all this time. Genuinely can't figure out how he came up with all this stuff off the top of his head. It's the comment about Barbara Streisand ("I can't stand that man, he's... *not married*, you know") that always does it for me.

TJ

Don't know for certain about that line but some bits of Big Spoon Baby Balloon were genuinely unscripted, according to Baynham, including the phone call to his father. Also he really did go out onto the street for the recording, and had to do some quick explaining when someone he'd worked with on Lee & Herring's shows overheard the conversation.

Tweedy

"No, Peter, hang on. Enough's enough. Enough's enough. Tell you what - why don't you skull-fuck him?"
"What?!"

The single greatest moment in Radio 1's history.

The Giggling Bean

Thanks very much for clearing that up. I was listening to the exam line ep yesterday and was wondering if they where genuine calls? Actually the same would apply to the sock and pen quiz too. Also when it was broadcast, did anyone here ever try to get on the show to try the cow quiz or add to the discussions!

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Quote from: The Giggling Bean on December 14, 2013, 10:45:26 AM
Thanks very much for clearing that up. I was listening to the exam line ep yesterday and was wondering if they where genuine calls? Actually the same would apply to the sock and pen quiz too. Also when it was broadcast, did anyone here ever try to get on the show to try the cow quiz or add to the discussions!

I believe during one of the shows, Morris explains how they poached incoming calls for other BBC radio shows. Could be more obfuscation on his part, but it rings true.

I'm interested to know how the Sgt. Murphy interviews were constructed. How often did Morris meet him and what questions were asked to get the replies he gave?

Neil

Quote from: The Giggling Bean on December 14, 2013, 10:45:26 AM
Thanks very much for clearing that up. I was listening to the exam line ep yesterday and was wondering if they where genuine calls? Actually the same would apply to the sock and pen quiz too. Also when it was broadcast, did anyone here ever try to get on the show to try the cow quiz or add to the discussions!

Yes, genuine.  There's a couple of guys I ended up pulling clips for, one was a guy on Twitter who used to tweet as @producerneil - he was on the Cow Quiz, and ended up getting involved with radio.  He is (or was, I dunno) Scott Mills' producer.

One of the particularly interesting things about the Sock Quiz is you can hear the evolution of the idea during the 1993 GLRshows.   If you'd only heard the R1 incarnation, you'd be forgiven for thinking he seized upon the idea of having kids swear (which he has, at other times, of course.)  However, that's not the case at all - what he very quickly found during the 1993 run was that adults would just be wacky, and really over-play the whole thing.  You can hear him really start to lose his temper during one of the shows, and he ends up completely ditching the bit mid-way through at one point, by asking the caller to repeat the phrase "I am a tosser."  He has another couple of unsuccessful bashes at it, and then ends up getting kids to do it as they won't fuck around, and will just deliver it straight.

Neil

Quote from: Sexton Brackets Drugbust on December 14, 2013, 12:53:43 PM
I'm interested to know how the Sgt. Murphy interviews were constructed. How often did Morris meet him and what questions were asked to get the replies he gave?

I'd imagine the conversations went much as they ended up on air - with the odd edit for time and comedy effect.  They really seem like Morris and Murphy batting surreal ideas at each other, and Sgt Murphy was good enough to keep up with him and, as TJ says, at times seems even funnier.  But then, it's his segment, so Morris lets him take the spotlight, and just prods him along, and encourages him to develop the ideas.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

That is truly remarkable. I'd always assumed the Sgt. Murphy segments came about in the edit. He really found a gold mine there.

I love listening to the very early shows phone-ins, as Morris doesn't hide his disdain for anyone who tries too hard to be funny. I seem to recall he had a reputation as a charmer when it came to 'the ladies' and he's certainly more forgiving of female callers than male.

There's a clip I remember where a bloke calls in and says something that genuinely amuses Morris, then goes too far and adds another, unnecessary wacky element that Morris directly calls him out on, essentially saying he'd ruined it.

Thomas

You've just had me scuffle off to do some listening. I like the moments where you can hear that Morris is amused by something, as here after his enquiry about 'sniffing.' It takes him a second to respond to the woman's question -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIx0MVnk7NY&t=5m33s

The Giggling Bean

That's why I love the music shows. There's no earnest frontman character, it's just Chris revelling in the ridiculous and it's hilarious when he corpses. I've really been appreciating these a lot more. It's been ages since i last listened to them so there's a lot of things I'd forgotten which are catching me out and making me laugh.

How on earth did they schedule his Boxing Day show for 3 in the afternoon though? I'm amazed at how much stuff he actually got away with.

I also wondered why Ted Maul was never featured (although he did use the voice for another reporter in ep 2).

tubularnametag

Just going through the archive of shows, I know there was all the furore around show 19 (where there are all the 'apologies' to Frankie Valli's publicist, but show 20 ends really strangely, about a minute short, with some filling in keyboard music before the handover to Mark Radcliffe. Anyone know what was cut, would the Millennium thing have gone on longer?