Brian, Julia & Jack — some Rockwiz magic on my podcast
My Speakola content is leaking over to Good one, Wilson, because I talked to two of my favourite people for Speakola podcast, and son Jack crashed the second half of our conversation.
I’ve known Brian Nankervis and Julia Zermiro for most of this century. In Julia’s case, we met when she was out publicising a show called ‘Backpackers’ at La Mama theatre in the year 2000. She came on ‘Road to Nowhere’, a travel show I presented on Triple R with Andrew Harvey between 1998 and 2002, and she lit up the studio for half an hour with her now legendary showbiz joie de vivre. Back then, we had a pretty low key vibe going on the show, and Julia was unknown, and arrived across the desk like a supernova. Miraculously, or horrifically if you’re Andrew, Julia or me, I’ve found the episode! Yes, for whatever reason, I kept about 50 minidisks from the Triple R era, and Zemiro’s year 2000 ‘Backpackers’ interview is one of them.
Brian Nankervis is similarly one of those Triple R and Melbourne music scene icons that everyone knows and absolutely nobody dislikes. You get it listening to the Speakola episode, or watching Rockwiz — he just radiates positivity, he makes you feel good. And maybe that’s the most important ingredient an MC can have, which would explain why he’s been one of Melbourne’s most sought after hosts for decades.
For this episode, I went to Brian’s music scented front room home office, and we hooked up to Julia in Bowral. Good one, Wilson readers may recall that Jack and I attended the Rockwiz Good Friday Show this year, and that after a shaky start, our little noise sensitive music nut had one of the nights of his life.
We bootlegged that show (for our ears only, Jack asks me to do this for all live music and comedy), and he has listened to it over and over. When he found out that I was interviewing Julia and Brian, he wanted to come along to ask the questions. In the end I did the first half hour without Jack, but the second half gets an injection of a very excited and well prepared 12 year old, zooming in from the multi purpose room at school. He is a very good MC himself, and likes to do it at any opportunity, particularly a birthday dinner table. It’s very cute.
Anyway, it’s a great ep, and so I thought I’d share it with Good one, Wilson readers, as well as Speakola newsletter.
This is the Jack section in the second half:
There were some questions from Jack that I cut out, just to keep the episode at a reasonable length. If you’d like to hear those, they are below for paid subscribers, or on the speakola patreon special feed. If you have been a payer this year, I’m so grateful. I think I’ve done just over 100 posts, and it’s not really a sound financial project yet (138 payers) compared to writing for traditional media, but I do think it’s a strong long term option. It’s also been a lot of fun to effectively have a column.
If you’re after a book for a Christmas present, there’s still time to get a personalised signed one of mine. For 1989: The Great Grand Final buyers, I write ‘thanks for paying the price (plus postage)’. For The Cow Tripped Over the Moon buyers, I write ‘you will jump moooooooons!’ Or whatever you want me to write. Or not write. Paid subscribers get 20% off (check out code below Jack bonus audio)
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