Charlie Watts

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand and one, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My castaway this week is a drummer. Sixty years old this year. He's been at the centre of British rock music since thirty five years ago he joined a band called The Rolling Stones. He never expected the fame and fortune it brought him, and he remains to this day a little apart from it all. He's no hell raiser. His contribution has been the essential qualities of professionalism consistency and loyalty. The Stones were just another band, he remembers. I thought they'd last three months, then a year, then three years, and then I stopped counting. He is Charlie Watts. Your head sank when I said sixty this year, Charlie. Do you hate the thought?

Charlie Watts1:06

Charles you have

Charlie Watts1:08

No, I'm quite comfortable with age really. But it lately it's sort of been a a number, isn't it, to contend with.

Presenter1:16

So 60 is a big one, I suppose, isn't it? People used to worry about 40, but uh

Charlie Watts1:19

Yeah.

Charlie Watts1:20

When we were getting to forty, yeah. No, I've never it it's never really bothered me to actually be eighty or whatever, but uh as it gets there, you suddenly oh gould.

Presenter1:28

Yeah, it doesn't feel like you really, does it?

Charlie Watts1:30

I think it's it's a

Presenter1:31

How much uh you know, I s I just quoted you as saying that you didn't think they'd last the stones. I mean, how much would you have minded if they hadn't, if it's possible to answer that? I mean

Charlie Watts1:41

No, I wouldn't no, I wouldn't have minded, oh dear, I'm gonna miss that bit, but looking at the life I've led, very nice and very privileged, really. I mean, I get paid very well for doing what I love doing, you know.

Presenter1:50

Hmm.

Presenter1:55

But would you have preferred to have done what you love doing, which is drumming?

Presenter2:00

In a jazz band.

Charlie Watts2:02

Love.

Charlie Watts2:03

No.

Charlie Watts2:04

No, because I I enjoy being with the Rolling Stones. The problem with the Rolling Stones is that they became so popular that you kind of saw them in the newspaper as opposed to how I knew them, you know.

Presenter2:18

But also, it does it feel like something apart from you when you see all the publicity? It's not the people you know, is it?

Charlie Watts2:21

Yeah, you see what you have to see.

Charlie Watts2:25

What them or it. What I mean is my f m Keith is a friend of mine and that's one thing, uh but the rolling stone's a whole nother thing. I know it's as much him and me, but it it's I've always kept it a long way away from me. A,'cause I never really believe it or to be honest with you and uh I feel happier that way. The rolling stones finish when the curtain closes. And I've always been like that, even when I used to hate girls chasing you down the road and that. I mean it's it's f a bit flattering and that, but I used to actually hate it.

Presenter2:27

What I mean is by f

Presenter3:00

But you still find Duke Ellington more exciting than all of that, eh?

Presenter3:04

No.

Charlie Watts3:04

Oh, I find him a notch above the world of pop to be very pretentious.

Presenter3:09

Do you do you think jazz jazz is more difficult than than rock, is it?

Charlie Watts3:10

I think Jazz Jazz is

Charlie Watts3:12

Yeah.

Charlie Watts3:13

No, no, not good. I mean a Motown record is hard to play as well as Duke Ellington's song.

Presenter3:20

It's just that you've hung on to the jazz thing, and I know you play jazz now and you you record it with your own quintet and so on. It seems to me you've gone back to your roots, which is where you began. And somehow you seem to think ultimately that's I I'm I'm searching for the right face but better quality or?

Charlie Watts3:29

Well like the

Charlie Watts3:36

It's not better quality. It's it's some I've always been in love with people that improvise.

Charlie Watts3:44

Hence my first record. I was thirteen or fourteen when I first heard him, with a bass player called David Green, who lived next door. We were he was about ten, and we played this record and

Charlie Watts3:59

He is now a wonderful jazz bass flower and I'm whatever I am. But thanks to this man in a way.

Presenter4:07

Charlie Parker

Speaker 14:51

Yeah.

Presenter5:05

Charlie Parker and Out of Nowhere with Duke Jordan on piano and Tommy Potter on bass. Um you may be sitting up the back, Charlie, but you're certainly the the sharpest dresser of the band. You enjoy clothes, don't you?

Charlie Watts5:20

Mm.

Presenter5:20

Hm. Got a lot of them.

Presenter5:23

Ever throw them away.

Charlie Watts5:24

I've got a campaign. I'm saving the bespoke tailoring industry single-handedly. I have this uh disease that I see a swatch and have to have a jacket or something. I mean it comes from my father.

Presenter5:41

But did did he have a tailor? Did he take you to his tailor?

Charlie Watts5:42

Take him to his table.

Presenter5:47

So what did your father look like? What kind of suit would he have chosen?

Charlie Watts5:51

Actually very much like I wear. I mean, I live in T C M world, you know, turn of classic movies. So a lot of what he liked uh wa was late forties and fifties.

Presenter6:05

But tell me, uh I gather you've also got a very special travelling wardrobe that you take with you.

Charlie Watts6:11

That's come over years of practice. I got fed up with having hanging suitcases that hang and you put them in the wardrobe. I used to break so many bars in the wardrobe and uh also I got fed up with doing that. I just have this one that I open and everything's hanging there.

Presenter6:27

And it's got drawers and things as well.

Charlie Watts6:28

Yeah.

Presenter6:30

It's wonderful.

Charlie Watts6:30

But everybody used to travel like that. Don't know why they stop. The problem is you do need a staff a retinue of people to carry the thing around.

Charlie Watts6:39

I mean, I've never carried it, I might add.

Presenter6:42

The other thing you always do in your hotel bedroom, apparently, I am told, is draw the bed.

Speaker 16:47

Mm.

Presenter6:48

Why do you draw the bed?

Charlie Watts6:51

Started in sixty something.

Charlie Watts6:54

And it was something to do.

Charlie Watts6:57

It's a diary, and now I can't miss one because I it's like ruining a day and a life of. So I just draw every bed that I sleep in when I tour with the Rolling Stone.

Presenter7:06

So how many drawings have you got?

Charlie Watts7:07

I don't know. There aren't that many, there's about twelve, fifteen of them.

Presenter7:12

Books. Yeah. But it's a kind of discipline then. You're you're very much a creature of habit, aren't you?

Charlie Watts7:13

The

Charlie Watts7:15

Mm.

Charlie Watts7:17

Mm. The way I live is very uh a bit monastic and very disciplined.

Presenter7:22

Very disciplined.

Charlie Watts7:23

The entire

Presenter7:26

If you're um

Charlie Watts7:26

If you're um

Presenter7:28

If your father influenced the way you look, what did your mother influence?

Presenter7:35

No.

Charlie Watts7:35

I suppose the things I listen to. The memories I have of her singing, really. I don't mean Maria Callis at the window. I mean, like most people from my generation, you know, it's the radio on and you ought about singing.

Presenter7:50

Is this your your next record one of the ones she sang, Frank Sinatra?

Charlie Watts7:53

No, they they I come from a big sort of family of and

Charlie Watts7:59

parties he would go on. I mean, they don't really come any better today.

Speaker 28:05

There's an oh such a hungry earning burning inside of me

Speaker 28:13

And its torment.

Speaker 28:15

Want me through?

Speaker 28:17

Till you let me spend my life making love to you

Speaker 28:22

Day and night.

Speaker 28:24

Night and day

Presenter8:34

Frank Sinatra and Night and Day. That's Coltwater. You've recorded some of those kinds of numbers over the the past few years, haven't you? Gershwin, Rogers and Hart, Sammy Kahn.

Presenter8:45

I think people would be amazed that they appeal to you. Appeal in your memory, yes, but to record them now.

Charlie Watts8:51

The songs like Night and Day don't really come through Frank Sinatra to me. They come from jazz things, Louis Armstrong doing Sunny Side of the Street, you know. And that's how I hear them and that's how I first heard them, most of them.

Presenter9:06

So this was you back in well, you were born in a brought up in a prefab in Wembley, weren't you? And with your mate Dave down the road, playing what, when when you got together and you tried to make music.

Charlie Watts9:15

And skiffall music was what was the first thing we played on instruments.

Presenter9:17

The swap

Presenter9:20

What instrument did you play?

Charlie Watts9:22

banjo turned up the r other way with a pair of wire brushes, or on a newspaper, which was quite common in those days, and David would have a teacher space.

Presenter9:33

But eventually you did start buying kit. Where did you get the money from?

Charlie Watts9:35

My father bought me one.

Presenter9:37

They do.

Charlie Watts9:37

from a guy who played in a pub.

Presenter9:39

Were you allowed to play this in the prefab?

Charlie Watts9:42

Yeah, yeah, but it they're really noisy. Anyone that's got a son who wants to play the drums is it's hell. Before Amplification got so sophisticated with Jimi Hendrix and things like that.

Charlie Watts9:54

The drums were the loudest thing in the room, really.

Presenter9:57

Why do you think it came to you? Why do you think you turned out to be a natural drummer?'Cause you obviously are, right?

Charlie Watts10:02

'Cause you obviously are, right?

Charlie Watts10:06

I didn't think so. I used to work at it a lot, I still do.

Presenter10:10

Team?

Charlie Watts10:10

Well, not properly. I'm a halfway there person. When I was young, I should have gone to lessons. I should have learnt to read properly. But I I preferred the stage and the glitter. I mean, when I was sixteen, I used to go and stare at these people like Phil Seaman, play. But that to me was a height being in this smoky dive and you'd see Georgie Fame come on.

Presenter10:16

What does it mean?

Charlie Watts10:39

But I wanted to be that, them. I thought that was the most glamorous life you could lead.

Presenter10:46

But you're obviously still being really quite responsible because you went to art school and then you had a job, didn't you? You became a graphic designer.

Charlie Watts10:51

Well, I never really saw myself actually doing it physically.

Presenter10:55

But in the end y y you stopped pursuing that course.

Charlie Watts10:58

Well in the end I was how did the actors say? I was between engagements. I I'd moved uh from one job and I was waiting to get another one. And in fact when I joined the Rolling Stones,

Charlie Watts11:12

I used to live with my parents at weekends and stay with them in the week. And uh I'd have the um advertisers weekly and go through it looking for jobs, while listening to the great Jimmy Reed. I can see this huge radiogram, they're called.

Charlie Watts11:29

But Brian put it on the forty five s.

Charlie Watts11:32

Mick would be at college and I'd be, as I say, looking for jobs. And the longer it went on, I had more work going with the Stones and whatever.

Presenter11:42

Record number three. Tell me about that.

Charlie Watts11:45

This man is someone who I learnt when I was in the studio via people that worked there who were older than me. And then there's another thing that my wife chose this record f for a show for one of her stallion horses.

Charlie Watts12:01

and then my granddaughter.

Charlie Watts12:03

picked up on it. So this particular section of Petrushka by Stravinsky is uh the dance of the coachman, and uh I will forever see my granddaughter running round the room, galloping to this.

Presenter13:17

Dance of the coachman and grooms from the fourth tableau of Stravinsky's Petrushka, played by the CBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer himself. Um Charlie Watts you say that and you've often been quoted as saying that you were embarrassed by all the girls screaming when the stones really got going, but then there obviously is nevertheless has always been for you a magic about being up there on the stage. Can you?

Presenter13:42

Is it possible to describe that? What is it?

Charlie Watts13:46

Usually you're too worried about the next number to really I mean, on these big stages you can't really feel a lot of it wh where I sit. It's really in clubs we used to get really of thing, you know.

Presenter13:59

Well this kind of communication with the audience.

Charlie Watts13:59

This kind of communication with the audience.

Presenter14:24

But you're the only person who's ever seen him from the back.

Charlie Watts14:27

Or Mianke's much to his annoyance sometimes.

Presenter14:31

It's quite a vantage point, though. I mean, he is, when you say he's terrific, he does play the audience very much. Oh, he's fantastic.

Charlie Watts14:38

Fantastic. Yeah, I mean, I don't we

Charlie Watts14:42

Good bands really are chemistries, you know, it's like the Who, you could say Ooh But, you know, Pete with uh Roger, you know, it's it's like a chemistry going. I just like to be in there, right in the front and very loud.

Presenter14:57

But you're right up the back and very large. You still get the same buzz, you still get the same kick. Oh, sure.

Charlie Watts14:58

But you still get the same

Charlie Watts15:00

Yeah.

Charlie Watts15:02

Sure, and yes, the same worry, you know. These first five shows, is it gonna be all right? Really? I get like that every night I go on, yeah.

Presenter15:10

Really?

Charlie Watts15:13

I think you have to, otherwise it'll be terrible. I mean, it'd just be a I mean, the last tour got a bit much because it was so long and this I felt like it was a tape play.

Presenter15:13

I think you have.

Charlie Watts15:25

And that's what's difficult. Yeah, that's when it's difficult because it's not a tape. But, you know, that's when bands become great.

Presenter15:25

And that's what's difficult.

Charlie Watts15:33

When they become like that.

Presenter15:36

Tell me about the next record.

Charlie Watts15:38

When I was f my first job, I used to go to work and we would

Charlie Watts15:44

Listen to this man, it's Tony Hancock by the way, on the BBC the night before and we go in and do all of his jokes the next day. That's how big a hit he was. And now I can say anything that Simpson and Gorton have written to my wife and she'll answer the same Simpson and Gorton line and my daughter's the same. We could do Sunday afternoon as a family, but I just think he's the funniest.

Charlie Watts16:14

And birds.

Charlie Watts16:18

Could he get the birds?

Charlie Watts16:23

He's the only man I know who came back from Dunkirk with two women.

Charlie Watts16:29

Two of them.

Presenter16:29

Uh

Presenter16:30

Well, it's too far for one girl to run, isn't it?

Presenter16:35

He was a liar. Well, I'll tell you this, next to Smudge, Errol Flynn's confessions look like the ramblings of a backward choir boy.

Presenter16:42

Tony Hancock and Sid James in the Reunion Party.

Presenter16:46

You didn't, um, Charlie Watts, take advantage of the groupies on tour.

Presenter16:51

We're very much married and always have been. But um what about the drugs? Were they more difficult to resist?

Charlie Watts16:56

Take advantage of them.

Presenter16:58

Yeah. What else am I supposed to say?

Charlie Watts16:58

What else am I supposed to say? I don't know. No, I didn't.

Presenter17:01

Uh

Charlie Watts17:04

I took a lot of drugs late in life.

Charlie Watts17:08

and didn't do it very well, so I nearly lost the marriage and uh my life. So uh I stopped that but whenever it w

Speaker 117:12

My love

Presenter17:17

But how did you manage to resist it early on for all those?

Charlie Watts17:20

I don't know. It was never something I wanted to do and it was always around me but I just wasn't interested. And then I got a kind of midlife crisis and became this other person.

Presenter17:22

Something I want.

Presenter17:33

Is that what you put it down to?

Charlie Watts17:33

Some people I do, it's very convenient, isn't it? Yeah. I don't know what I'd mean, my wife's probably got another one.

Presenter17:41

What would she say it was was due to?

Charlie Watts17:44

He being horrible as I was.

Presenter17:46

What were you in your forties by the time you were in the

Charlie Watts17:50

Yeah.

Presenter17:50

Eighties

Charlie Watts17:51

Yeah.

Presenter17:51

Not my

Charlie Watts17:52

Not my eighties, in the eighties.

Presenter17:53

In the eighties.

Presenter17:55

And what did you what did you take? What were you on?

Charlie Watts17:58

Oh, did I take? I used to take uh heroin I suppose. And I drank a lot and then the they all go together.

Presenter18:05

It's kind of completely out of character in many ways from everything you describe. I just

Charlie Watts18:10

Well it did yeah, I know.

Charlie Watts18:13

But you you know, with all those things you always think you can handle them, whatever it is. And then I found I was at the bottom of this thing and I couldn't stop.

Presenter18:22

How did you stop in the inn?

Charlie Watts18:24

I've I've got to a point where I realized it was I was going to lose everything.

Charlie Watts18:30

I just stopped.

Presenter18:31

Apparently Keith advised you to give it up, which is quite a turn up.

Charlie Watts18:35

Yes, he found me on the floor once and said uh you should wait till you're sixty to start doing. Then you can do it slowly. And he uh never ever offered me any ever anything.

Presenter18:48

And you don't you don't certainly don't do drugs anymore, do you

Charlie Watts18:51

No, I stopped everything, including eating. Eating properly. I mean it was a stopping thing. I mean I'm a I'm a all on a hu you know I'm like that so just and I lived on it sounds like a Tony Hancock water, sultanas and uh nuts for about six months.

Speaker 118:57

No.

Presenter19:19

But you're now in control again, are you? You feel

Charlie Watts19:22

Hmm.

Presenter19:23

Yeah.

Presenter19:24

He hesitated.

Charlie Watts19:25

Yeah.

Charlie Watts19:26

Uh yeah, I mean, yes, yes. I mean, I was another per I was Dracula in the mid eighties. I used to go out at night and it was ridiculous.

Charlie Watts19:37

It was the life of a junkie without being really down there. I saw it before I really got there.

Charlie Watts19:47

And it's a thing I frightens me actually.

Presenter19:51

That's it.

Speaker 119:51

Uh

Charlie Watts19:52

Hmm.

Presenter19:52

Because you can't quite explain it.

Charlie Watts19:54

No, I can't explain it.

Charlie Watts19:56

I don't know why I did it.

Presenter20:00

Record number five.

Charlie Watts20:01

It's Jack the Bear, Duke Ellington's famous orchestra, 1940. Even now people listen to this and wonder how they did it. You marvel at it really. You're not just marvelling like with Stravinsky or that the players are capable of doing it. It's the actual sound they make together that is beyond the symphony orchestra, I think. You know, for me it is.

Speaker 120:12

Yeah

Presenter21:27

Duke Ellington and his famous orchestra playing Jack the Bear, and that was recorded in nineteen forty. One of your heroes, Charlie. How does making your jazz albums, which you've done several of in recent years, as I say, compare with with uh recording a Stones album? I should think it's compressed.

Charlie Watts21:43

It's a lot quicker. But it I don't face the same problems that the stones do, you know, do I don't write the songs, I don't do the stuff.

Presenter21:53

And who is it who is it who says that's not good enough? Let's do it again.

Charlie Watts21:57

Well the person who wrote the song, it'll either be Keith or me. We make records in a really old-fashioned way, as Ringo said, like dinosaurs. You know, we go in and that's how we make we sit and Keith will play this song over and over again and we play to it and it'll either work or it won't, you know, and then you do so it it's very time consuming. But you don't have to eyeball it beforehand, before you go to the bottom.

Presenter22:19

But you don't have to be hustled beforehand, before you go to that's a very expensive way.

Charlie Watts22:24

Well, yeah, that's how Keith works,'cause sometimes you do a one take and they're good.

Presenter22:30

What about the the tours? Br Bridges to Babylon y was the last one we were talking about, that it lasted

Presenter22:36

Best part of two years, really, ninety seven, ninety eight, wasn't it?

Charlie Watts22:37

Nine to seven

Presenter22:39

Do you still approach them with the same enthusiasm or if if one of the group rings?

Charlie Watts22:43

You always approach them with the same thing.

Presenter22:45

Yeah, but when they're first suggested, if somebody rings up and says,

Charlie Watts22:46

First suggestion, if somebody rings up and says the arm is hold up time, I always I've always looked upon it like oh gall you and then you get into your

Presenter22:50

I was

Charlie Watts22:57

battle stations and you're off, you know.

Presenter22:59

You do y the war analogies come out quite a lot with you, don't they? Same as being on stage and not being on the front line and that sort of thing.

Charlie Watts23:02

Same as being on stage and not being

Charlie Watts23:06

Keith uh often uses singular.

Charlie Watts23:10

A fight in force

Presenter23:11

But Mick's the prime mover there, is he?

Charlie Watts23:15

Prime Minister

Charlie Watts23:16

Yeah, I suppose. I mean, he's got more Mick is more I mean, even now he hasn't doesn't stop. Mick Mick never sits down.

Charlie Watts23:26

And it's great fun to be around when he's like that, you know, he's he's it's very ex ex catching, the excitement or whatever you call it.

Presenter23:36

He's been a good friend to you over the years, hasn't he?

Charlie Watts23:38

Yeah, very good.

Presenter23:39

I mean, he's good on the advice.

Charlie Watts23:41

Yeah.

Charlie Watts23:42

Yeah, not very good at taking it himself, but he's very good at giving it.

Presenter23:46

Well, he's good at family advice, is he?

Charlie Watts23:48

Yeah, it's very good like that mix.

Presenter23:50

And what about a tour? Are you are you planning one for next year?

Charlie Watts23:53

I got no idea yet.

Presenter23:55

Um are you hoping not? Or are you hoping you will?

Charlie Watts23:55

Are you hoping not?

Charlie Watts23:57

I don't know. I hate leaving home. But as my wife said, it's time you went to work.'Cause I I I don't actually do anything other than play the drums. We have a a huge farm that

Charlie Watts24:13

My wife runs really.

Charlie Watts24:16

So I'm really

Presenter24:17

In the way.

Charlie Watts24:18

Well, I do get in the way.

Charlie Watts24:20

As you said earlier, I tidy up. A friend of mine said this'll be the tidiest island you'll ever

Charlie Watts24:26

See how we put in all the twigs on the

Presenter24:32

Okay, let's have record number six and I'll ask you more about that farm.

Charlie Watts24:35

Well always reminds me of my wife this. I'm glad you got uh Nigel Kennedy playing it, and Sir Simon, as he's called now.

Charlie Watts24:46

Every one is sir.

Presenter24:49

You're expecting yours any day.

Charlie Watts24:49

No, no, thank you. It'd be the death of us if we got recognised in those quarters. I I love Nigel Kennedy. I love his open mi I mean uh the haircut I'm not too keen on, but the open mind he's got and his playing is wonderful, I think.

Presenter26:05

Nigel Kennedy playing the opening of Vaughan Williams's Lark Ascending with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. That sent you into raptures, didn't it?

Charlie Watts26:14

It's amazing to think you can do that with a a little acoustic box and four strings. It's incredible. And also, I can imagine sitting there on this is it gonna be like Barbados, this island or bit Might be, might be the odd

Presenter26:29

But

Presenter26:31

Might be the old storm, though.

Charlie Watts26:33

Well, I can imagine lying there, and you just see the where I live, really. I mean,

Charlie Watts26:40

How English form Williams is, I don't know, but it it's

Charlie Watts26:44

For me it's kind of that.

Presenter26:46

It is. It's very English, isn't it? And you you're now, you tell me, collecting England.

Charlie Watts26:52

Well, we bought bits of farms around the place'cause we have a rather large collection of horses.

Presenter27:00

You've got mostly Arabian, I think, haven't they? And dogs I think you've got a lot of.

Charlie Watts27:02

Okay.

Charlie Watts27:04

Yeah, eighteen. We did have twenty four.

Presenter27:08

And uh as as well as collecting horses and dogs and bits of ink, you yes, what else do you collect?

Charlie Watts27:12

And everything else.

Charlie Watts27:15

Everything. Lots of things.

Charlie Watts27:18

I've always been like that though. When I lived in Lewis I used to spend half my time going in junk shops, antique shops there in Brighton, or just buying collar starches, a little machinery starch collars you know, things like that. I mean, just

Presenter27:35

I read you've got a couple of the Duke of Windsor's shirts as well, is that right?

Charlie Watts27:38

Suits and shirts and ties, but they're just there, you know. I just look at them, they're like a reference of incredibly elegant man.

Presenter27:46

So you have them copied by your tailor.

Charlie Watts27:48

Well little bits on them.

Presenter27:50

Yeah.

Presenter27:51

So

Presenter27:52

Even though you're not working when you're at home and you're getting under Shirley's feet, the fact is you're y you've got a lot to look after it. I suppose you've got to brush down the suits and check everything's all right.

Charlie Watts28:02

Not the sort of thing you say on the radio, is it? Sort up with a pinny on and uh the duster now they just hang there, you know.

Presenter28:04

Sort out the collection.

Presenter28:10

But do you look after all these kids yourself, or or does somebody else do?

Charlie Watts28:12

I hate people touching my things.

Presenter28:16

Yeah. Well you you polish your own shoes, yeah.

Charlie Watts28:19

Yeah, yeah. I hate people doing things like that. I hate maids coming in my room in hotels. I live in hotels a lot of my life, but I always put they do not disturb and sometimes I'm in there for two weeks and I never have them in there. I hate them in there, except I to change the bed or something.

Presenter28:33

Flip

Presenter28:35

What is it you hate?

Charlie Watts28:37

touching things I have.

Presenter28:40

Have you always been like that?

Charlie Watts28:43

I suppose I have. I don't really know.

Presenter28:46

It's not since you've got money and been able to afford beautiful

Charlie Watts28:48

No, I don't think I have.

Speaker 228:49

Yeah. Oh thank you. Uh

Charlie Watts28:50

Yeah.

Presenter28:55

Feature of heaven. No, I'm just trying to work it out, but I can't. Come on, let's have another record.

Charlie Watts28:55

You're looking at the

Charlie Watts28:59

Uh no

Charlie Watts29:01

Well, this has send everyone either to sleep or out to make a cup of tea. I have to have uh something on there that would be the summer. And this man's voice is summer to me. It's a game I love. And uh reminds me again with Mikto Lords. It was just.

Speaker 229:23

England in the summer Uh

Charlie Watts29:24

Really?

Speaker 229:25

Laker comes in, bowls, and Maddox drives to cover.

Speaker 229:34

Well, old Trafford has redeemed itself with a last hour of flawless sunshine.

Speaker 229:40

And Laker comes in again, hair flopping. Bowles turns it onto Manica Peels. He's out OBW and Laker's tighten all ten.

Speaker 229:48

The first man to congratulate him.

Speaker 229:51

Is Ian Johnson?

Charlie Watts29:54

Okay, now the excitement's died down. It's such a wonderful man, Jim Laker. When they did this particular feat, my father got Jim Laker and Tony Locke's autograph as they got off the train at King's Cross, which I still have, along with a lot of other bits. And it's always been a thing for me. He went on to take the other nine wickets, a feat never done.

Speaker 130:11

So we

Charlie Watts30:21

Cinch.

Presenter30:22

Amazing. That was the fourth test between England and Australia. Old Trafford, July 1956. John Arlett.

Presenter30:28

Of course, and Michael Charlton.

Presenter30:33

There are no chambermaids on this desert island, so you'll be all right. But you'll get it all in order. I can see you now. You'll sweep up the sand every morning and

Speaker 230:35

And he said,

Speaker 130:35

Uh

Presenter30:42

Bit like the south of France, you only get those brums out and make it all tidy.

Charlie Watts30:47

Yeah.

Presenter30:48

You'll be all right, will you?

Charlie Watts30:50

No, it's going to be horrible, isn't it? With sand everywhere and the sun. Horrible.

Presenter30:55

But what about cooking and things? Can you can you do that?

Charlie Watts30:57

Can you do that? No, forget that. I'm not very good at that sort of thing. And I couldn't kill animal or anything. I mean, I say that, you might who doesn't who you

Presenter31:02

I'll make a

Charlie Watts31:05

You probably could if you were but it wouldn't it's not something that comes to mind, you know, making the traps and all that skinning things. Yeah, I'd soon I'd eat an apple, I think, if I could find them.

Presenter31:12

Mm-hmm.

Charlie Watts31:16

Uh

Presenter31:16

Yeah.

Charlie Watts31:16

I mean, you know, I don't know, and I'd hate to go fishing.

Presenter31:19

But are you ultimately a a a survivor? Or would you

Charlie Watts31:23

I got no idea. I'm I'm I I could live on my own'cause a lot of time on the road you are on your own. I mean, albeit you can go to Keith's room or Ronney or whatever.

Presenter31:34

But if no ship came across the horizon for one year, two years, what would you do?

Charlie Watts31:42

Go mad.

Charlie Watts31:44

Another mad drummer at all. Nothing unusual about that. They're all mad. Um I think I don't think I could cope with that now, really. My last record? Yeah. It's nothing to do with sun and sand.

Speaker 131:51

Uh my thing

Charlie Watts32:00

Fred Astaire singing The Way You Look Tonight. Fred Astaire to me is the ultimate in

Charlie Watts32:08

What you should be of your profession

Charlie Watts32:11

And I think and and also I danced with my daughter at her wedding to this song. So and that's the first time I danced in forty years, I think.

Charlie Watts32:23

Lovely never, never change.

Charlie Watts32:30

Keep that breathless charm.

Charlie Watts32:33

Won't you please arrange it, cause I love you?

Charlie Watts32:39

Just the way you look

Presenter32:47

The Way You Look Tonight, sung by Fred Astaire with Johnny Green and his orchestra. Now, this is really difficult, but if you could only take one of those eight records, Charlie, which one would you take?

Charlie Watts32:56

I

Speaker 132:56

Uh

Charlie Watts32:57

Well, I'd take dance with a coach run'cause of my wife, the horses and uh Charlotte running round the room to it.

Presenter33:08

And what about your book? We give you the Bible and we give you the complete works of Shakespeare.

Charlie Watts33:13

My book will be the collected poems, was it nineteen thirty four, fifty two, I think, of uh Dylan Thomas. There's a load he does of fab, you know, you know, change partners, there's so many.

Presenter33:27

And what about your luxury?

Charlie Watts33:30

Well I th I'd be a pair of drumsticks,'cause I I'd sit and play on my legs with these drumsticks and it's like a mantra. It would be s a

Charlie Watts33:43

A time waster or a time passer, one or either one.

Charlie Watts33:47

Uh

Presenter33:47

It's what you do, isn't it?

Charlie Watts33:49

Yeah, it's what I do. I don't know how long for, but it's what I do at the moment.

Presenter33:55

Charlie Watts, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you.

Speaker 134:06

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

Presenter34:53

Uh