Billy Connolly

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy seven, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:32

Our castaway this week is the entertainer Billy Connolly. Billy, what would you be happiest to have left behind if you're stuck on this desert island right away from civilization?

Billy Connolly0:41

Well

Billy Connolly0:43

I think possibly I would like to leave my own records behind. I have this total aversion to my own stuff. Why is that? Because you think you could have done it better? Exactly. I just can't play them. I find it absolutely impossible. Sometimes I try and learn from them. I say, right, put them on. And I've come to the conclusion now that the best thing to do is just leave them out of the house altogether. I can't stand it, they embarrass me.

Presenter1:06

Well a lot of other people play them, that's the main thing. Well that's a great idea.

Billy Connolly1:10

Yeah.

Presenter1:10

Could you endure loneliness?

Billy Connolly1:13

I think up until about two years ago I couldn't, but now I I rather enjoy solitude.

Presenter1:17

Hmm.

Billy Connolly1:18

You know, when I'm on tour I just sit in my room all day myself, read books and Do you play discs a lot, other people's discs? Very much. At home I do.

Presenter1:25

On the Desert Island, what would you want discs to do for you? Remind you of the past, cheer you up?

Billy Connolly1:34

Er, I'm not terribly sure what I would expect of them. I don't'cause I don't really know why I play records at all. But I just uh I don't have any deep-seated reasons for for playing records. I just like what the what happens when I play them. Well, you've chosen Ape to Take with you. What's the first one?

Billy Connolly1:49

The first one's Frankie Miller.

Billy Connolly1:51

And it's a song called Bridgeton, and it's about an area in Glasgow where Frankie comes from, and he says so many things in the song.

Billy Connolly1:57

That I would if I was going to write a song about Glasgow, I would want to say it, but it's too late now. Frankie's done it.

Speaker 42:04

I wanna hear

Speaker 42:06

I wonder if

Speaker 42:11

Won't they all remove everywhere?

Speaker 42:17

Friend my baby

Speaker 42:20

The fan mouth soul

Speaker 42:26

Lord.

Presenter2:34

Frankie Miller singing Brigton. You, of course, are

Presenter2:38

A glass girl there, don't you?

Billy Connolly2:40

Yeah.

Presenter2:40

With an Irish name, Irish on both sides

Billy Connolly2:42

Part of the family? No, well, it's uh West Coast Ireland and West Coast Scotland. My grandfather.

Billy Connolly2:48

I came from Galway.

Billy Connolly2:50

And my maternal grandfather for such a thing came from Mull in the west coast of Scotland.

Presenter2:56

Yeah.

Billy Connolly2:57

Pro-identical types of community, fishing people.

Presenter3:00

Mm-hmm.

Billy Connolly3:01

Uh you were brought up by your father. That's right. My father and some aunts. What was your first job, Ellie?

Billy Connolly3:07

I was a message boy in a bookstore in Glasgow, and I was fired.

Billy Connolly3:10

It was Christmas time and stealing was rife in the Dispatch Department, and I'm afraid the buck stopped at me. And it wasn't me, incidentally. Somebody had stolen a.

Billy Connolly3:19

A Christmasy book, and I get the blame.

Billy Connolly3:22

What happened after that?

Billy Connolly3:23

After that I became a van boy, delivering bread in and around Glasgow.

Billy Connolly3:28

And then when I became sixteen, it was time to start an apprenticeship and I became a welder on the Clyde, an apprentice welder.

Presenter3:34

Yeah.

Billy Connolly3:35

Yeah.

Presenter3:35

You had quite a long time in the shipyard.

Billy Connolly3:36

Yeah, I was there for about

Billy Connolly3:38

Yeah.

Presenter3:38

Yeah.

Billy Connolly3:38

Seven. Uh

Presenter3:39

Big

Billy Connolly3:39

Eight years.

Presenter3:39

And what about music? When did you discover it? When did you start to get interested in the guitar and the banjo?

Presenter3:46

Uh

Billy Connolly3:46

It's kinda strange really. I didn't start playing until I was about twenty one or twenty two. It was very late, you know.

Billy Connolly3:52

By all standards.

Billy Connolly3:53

And uh it was a television programme.

Billy Connolly3:56

E de Beverly Hill Belise.

Presenter3:58

Ah yes.

Billy Connolly3:58

And the introduction music to that, uh

Billy Connolly4:01

On the banjo, I thought, Oh, I'd like to play that So I went and bought a banjo.

Billy Connolly4:05

It cost me two pounds in the marketplace, the barrows in Glasgow. So I went to the Information Centre in George Square, in the centre of Glasgow, and I said, Are there any folk song clubs or anywhere a guy can learn a play a banjo?

Speaker 14:07

Uh

Billy Connolly4:17

And they directed me to the place, and I've never really looked back. That was the beginning of it all. Mm-hmm. Let's have your second record, was that?

Billy Connolly4:23

It's by the Drifters. It's called Save the Last Dance for Me. I chose this because it reminds me of my youth, of the dance hall era. Because this marked the end of the

Billy Connolly4:33

Holding on to each other, dancing.

Billy Connolly4:36

That means a great deal to me.

Speaker 44:41

You can dance.

Speaker 44:43

Heavy dance with the guy who gives you the eye and let'em hold you tight.

Speaker 44:49

You can smile

Speaker 44:51

Have you smiled for the man who held your hand if the pale light

Speaker 44:57

But don't forget who's taking you home and in whose arms you're gonna be.

Speaker 45:04

So darling, say the last dance for me.

Presenter5:08

Save the Last Dance for Me by The Drifters.

Presenter5:12

So you were working in the ship, you aren't what was the first occasion in which you were paid to sing or entertain?

Billy Connolly5:17

There was a Glasgow singer called Matt McGinn who died this year.

Billy Connolly5:21

A great singer-songwriter, and I met him one day in the centre of Glasgow.

Billy Connolly5:25

And he had a gig in green

Billy Connolly5:26

And he said, Would you like as English people say Greenwich?

Billy Connolly5:29

Would you like to come with me and play banjo? And I went and there was uh three of us at the time, we were in a little band and we backed Matt that night and the guy gave us a pound and we got six and eight pence each. That was my first fee. It was folk music right from the start, wasn't it? Right from the start. It was but it was I used to play real folk music and introduce it seriously and everything.

Presenter5:40

That was my first time.

Presenter5:49

Mm-hmm.

Billy Connolly5:50

Yeah. And you're mainly with Uh

Presenter5:51

Groups.

Billy Connolly5:52

Yeah, all the time. I I didn't go solo until about five years ago. Yes. It was a big step when you decided you were going to be a full time pro.

Billy Connolly6:01

It wasn't such a big step. It became rather obvious that's what I should be doing because I was playing at night and working in the day and I was.

Billy Connolly6:09

Fidnaway

Billy Connolly6:11

And one had to go and there was no way I wanted to be a welder.

Billy Connolly6:14

So I just went professional, I kind of fell into it.

Presenter6:18

Yeah.

Billy Connolly6:18

What

Presenter6:18

Sure, third record.

Billy Connolly6:19

The third rag is about John Lennon. Imagine John, if I have a favourite performer, it's John Lennon, and I think this is just a lovely thing.

Speaker 46:34

Imagine there's no heaven

Speaker 46:39

See if you try.

Speaker 46:45

No hell.

Speaker 46:48

Below us

Speaker 46:54

Bubbles only sky

Presenter6:57

John Lennon a Matchin.

Presenter6:59

So, Billy, you're in the business. Have you started writing your own songs?

Presenter7:03

Yeah.

Billy Connolly7:03

Well, I I started to write my own songs in a kinda strange way.

Billy Connolly7:07

I liked the Bob Dylan stuff and I wanted to sing it.

Billy Connolly7:10

But I didn't know how to play it. I didn't know the chords, man. And so I started to write stuff that was vaguely similar in melody, but.

Presenter7:14

And they

Billy Connolly7:19

the chords of which I could play

Presenter7:21

Yes.

Billy Connolly7:21

and then just stuck some words on. But I I wrote what I thought were serious songs then, but on reflection it's a bit embarrassing. These various groups you worked in, tell me about them. I was once in a really strange band called Craig Doo.

Billy Connolly7:35

Craig Dew's the name of a mountain in Scotland, and they they were very much mountaineering types, bearded guys with black polar neck pullovers, and they were all a great deal older than me.

Billy Connolly7:45

And we they used to sing folk songs. At at the beginning of the folk revival there was a lot of bands like this. It was a very manly sort of stamp on the floor and shout the words about battles and all that. And I didn't really like it very much, but I was the banjo player and I wouldn't wear the outfit, the poloneck thing, so they threw me out of the band eventually.

Presenter8:04

Yeah.

Billy Connolly8:05

I think I was getting uh too flash, you know, I was a bit flash banjo player and I d it didn't really suit the Emmy, so they threw me out and I joined a bunch of lunatic guys.

Billy Connolly8:15

called the Acme Brush Company. And there was no definite number of members in the band. Sometimes it would be twelve, sometimes it'd be four people. And if you knew the words you sang the song, and if you knew the chords, you played along.

Speaker 18:28

Hello

Billy Connolly8:28

And everybody just joined in. It was lovely, a great period in my life. And we used to go by public transport to the gigs and we'd act my brush company written in the guitar cases and like people must have thought, What an original way to carry brushes And then there were the Humble Bums. The Humble Bums came I was in a a band called the Skillet Lickers.

Billy Connolly8:48

And we played Hellbelly music.

Billy Connolly8:50

and right after that I joined the Humblebums, or I sort of formed the Humblebums.

Presenter8:54

Oh, then the the great year 1971 when you went solo and you were an overnight sensational flop. I mean I did that.

Billy Connolly9:00

Mm-hmm.

Billy Connolly9:01

That's right. The longest night ever. But hey, going solo was was really strange for me. I realized I couldn't play at all my guitar. I'd always played little bits. In songs I had a little bit of guitar work to do. I didn't realise how

Billy Connolly9:15

sort of much energy you need

Billy Connolly9:18

And you're playing to be a solo artist, it has to drive along all night, and I just didn't have that. I had to go

Billy Connolly9:24

I was I did a tactical withdrawal and learned how to do it.

Presenter9:28

You you developed an act called the Great Northern Willy Boocho.

Billy Connolly9:32

Yeah.

Presenter9:33

Yeah.

Billy Connolly9:33

I realized after a while in playing that I was just another one of the Sing a Song Tell a Joke Brigade.

Billy Connolly9:40

And I wanted to be slightly different, so I rearranged all my songs to give the act a beginning, a middle and an end, so as it looked a wee bit special. And I called it Connolly's Glasgow Flourish. The motto for Glasgow is Let Glasgow Flourish. So I had Connolly's Glasgow Flourish and it was a success. And I went from there to write the Great Northern Welley Boot Show. In conjunction with uh an Edinburgh poet called Tom Buchan.

Presenter10:03

And it was while you were playing that in Edinburgh that you were, as it were, discovered, that you were a big chunk of the.

Billy Connolly10:07

Discovered, yes. Big chunk.

Presenter10:09

Yeah.

Billy Connolly10:09

Uh Yeah.

Presenter10:09

Okay.

Billy Connolly10:11

How did that make out right away?

Presenter10:13

Yeah.

Billy Connolly10:14

It was a very, very good, the Welly Boot Show. When it got the length of Edinburgh, it was terrible in Glasgow. But we did it at Edinburgh Festival with a lot of young

Billy Connolly10:23

accomplished actors and things and it really it was a bit special. I don't think Edinburgh Festival has quite recovered from the Belley Boot Show.

Presenter10:30

Yeah.

Billy Connolly10:30

Record number four.

Billy Connolly10:33

This is uh a Beatles. I must have a Beatles in its surrounder universe. I just I I want this to remind me of that lovely sixties era that the Beatles almost single-handedly created.

Speaker 410:49

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup They spither wildly as they spick away across the universe

Speaker 411:03

Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind, Possessing and caressing.

Presenter11:14

Across the universe, the Beatles.

Presenter11:17

Right. You were discovered, Billy. You were a big success. Um a tremendous success north of the border.

Presenter11:23

There are many Scots comics who worry a bit about coming South, even with a translator.

Presenter11:28

Uh

Billy Connolly11:28

Indeed, it's a strange thing in Scotland that the media, that the the press in particular.

Billy Connolly11:34

when they're speaking to Scottish artists, they continually go on about not being understood in England. They used to say to me, Do you think they'll understand you in Falkirk, which is about fifteen miles away?

Billy Connolly11:47

Well, since then I've been in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and they understand.

Billy Connolly11:51

So why not Falcon?

Billy Connolly11:53

It worried me a great deal. It was really getting to me that nobody understood me. I felt like a sort of Swahili poet or something.

Billy Connolly11:59

So I hired the palladium.

Billy Connolly12:01

And they did it. And it was a huge success. And we've never really looked back in England since then. How much do you vary your material for different parts of the country? I don't vary it a great deal. I I I don't adjust it to suit any particular types of people. I think uh if I'm on stage I should do the leading.

Presenter12:17

Where do you go from here? Is this it? Um touring, making records? Do you want to um produce or make films or?

Billy Connolly12:24

I would like to make films, sure. I'd like to act more.

Presenter12:27

Mm-hmm.

Billy Connolly12:27

And I would uh I'd like to write more. I've written two plays and I'd like to do more.

Presenter12:30

Late.

Presenter12:31

Is

Billy Connolly12:32

Yeah, my new one goes on this year at Edinburgh Festival.

Presenter12:34

Explain it.

Billy Connolly12:35

And uh I really I get a great uh feeling of achievement from writing the plays, more so than I do with my stage work.

Billy Connolly12:42

I think that, you know, I'm so used to being on stage and uh

Billy Connolly12:45

And the applause and all that. I get a different kind of uplift from from writing a play. You get it directed?

Billy Connolly12:50

You know, I I I just I write it and give it to the theatre company and they do what they like.

Billy Connolly12:56

The most nervous I've ever been was was sitting watching my play, the first one I did on the opening night. I've never been quite so nervous I've never felt like that in my life. Where was It was done in a little town in Scotland, Ilvin, in Ayrshire, because that's where the

Billy Connolly13:10

The little theatre company, that's their base. And it went from there all over Scotland. It toured like a rock and roll show, one night stands everywhere, and eventually came to the Royal Court Theatre in London. Where's your home?

Presenter13:21

Yeah.

Billy Connolly13:21

Uh

Presenter13:21

Still live in Glasgow?

Billy Connolly13:22

I live in Drummond, a little village at Loch Lominside.

Presenter13:25

Mm. Not far away.

Billy Connolly13:26

It's nice and quiet and I don't get for a while it was getting really silly in Glasgow.

Billy Connolly13:30

There were people outside my house, it was like Buckingham Palace, you know, when you those people who stand outside waiting for a glimpse.

Presenter13:34

And who's

Billy Connolly13:36

And when I passed the dining room window a wee cheer would go up the street. Because I put embargo. Snap.

Presenter13:41

Well this must be a bit wearing because you are, let's face it, easily identifiable.

Billy Connolly13:45

That's right.

Presenter13:46

You can't fade into the background or into the crowd.

Billy Connolly13:48

I can't know, so that's why I went to Drummond, up to for the quiet the little village. I was a sort of seven-day wonder.

Presenter13:54

Mm-hmm.

Billy Connolly13:54

and then became a local.

Presenter13:56

And of course you've got a couple of children, you

Billy Connolly13:58

I have, I've got a boy and a girl.

Presenter13:59

Yes, and a lot of animals.

Billy Connolly14:00

Oh, I've lost count now. I heard on the telephone the other day we've got new cats. My cat Dobel has just given birth to two cats and it it's nice we've got kittens and goldfish and rabbits, guinea pigs and dogs. Record number five.

Billy Connolly14:17

This is by the Albion dance band Postman's Knock and uh it's very typically English music and I like it very much. And they've been so nice on the tour. They they've been the support band on the tour.

Speaker 414:29

Man the postman is as he hastens from door to door What medley of news his hands contain for Ilo rich and poor In men is the face, the joy you can trace And men is the grief you can see When you open the door to his loud rapt up his quick delivery Every morning as true as the clock Somebody hears the postman's knock Every morning as true as the clock Somebody hears the postman's knock

Presenter14:58

The Albion dance band The Postman's Knock.

Presenter15:01

You've done a lot of travelling about, haven't you? In fact, you've been round the world a couple of times.

Billy Connolly15:05

I have indeed.

Billy Connolly15:06

And uh I enjoy it immensely.

Billy Connolly15:09

I even enjoy Australia. And I had a riot there last year, you know, in Drisbon.

Presenter15:15

Yeah.

Billy Connolly15:15

Some s Scottish guys in the audience went crazy and started to shout and bawl and created this riot thing. I think they expected one of those uh sort of kilted Scotchmen with a velvet jacket and square buttons and all that.

Billy Connolly15:27

And when I turned up in tights and banana boots, I don't think they could take it. It wasn't the heritage they had come to know and love.

Speaker 115:32

I wasn't there.

Billy Connolly15:35

But I thoroughly enjoy all the travelling. I like the absurdity of being in Pago Pago at four o'clock in the morning looking for a cup of tea. It's just it's a lovely way to live.

Presenter15:45

What's the next record?

Billy Connolly15:46

This is called You Are My Flower. I chose it because I used to play this type of music, the sort of Carter family and Appalachian mountain stuff. And also when I'm doing radio shows, this is the one uh I put in f for my wife, Iris, because she also likes this type of music. I'll tell you a wee story, a wee quickie, that uh when I first met my wife I invited her up to to my flat, come and see my etchings limited, and uh she assumed that I would have sort of Frank Sinatra smoothie records. And when it was she discovered that most of my records were like this, she was quite happy. She'd never heard this type of music.

Billy Connolly16:22

And that that's why I choose it. It's nice memories for me.

Speaker 416:29

You are my flower That's blooming in the mountain so high

Speaker 416:42

You are my flower that's

Speaker 416:46

There

Presenter16:50

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Presenter16:52

You were once a boy scout, Wenchaman.

Billy Connolly16:54

I was a cub and a scout.

Presenter16:55

Well come

Billy Connolly16:56

And I'm glad. Did you get a lot of bad?

Billy Connolly16:58

I get very, very few. I was an extremely bad cub, and an even worse scout, but I had thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.

Presenter17:05

How do you think you're going to be at Camp Fire Cookery?

Billy Connolly17:07

Oh, I think I could do that. Ever done any fishing?

Billy Connolly17:10

Yeah, I fish and I like it. I love watching as well. I shouldn't really say that. No, you shouldn't say that. But I love it. I like it better than the official fish. If somebody offered me a stretch in the tea

Presenter17:12

I love that as well.

Presenter17:15

No, you shouldn't say that. But I love it.

Billy Connolly17:22

Uh I would take it and do it, but I'd much rather go to the tea at night time than to go to

Presenter17:26

Yeah, tickling.

Billy Connolly17:27

Yeah, Lasso in them.

Presenter17:29

Would you try to escape?

Billy Connolly17:31

I don't know really.

Billy Connolly17:33

I wouldn't light fires and do those things.

Billy Connolly17:37

But I w I would hope somebody came along, you know.

Presenter17:39

He wouldn't make a bed.

Billy Connolly17:41

If I tried to make a boat, there is nothing sure I would be eaten by a shark.

Presenter17:45

I'm not sure whether you're going to get your castaways badge or not. I think second class.

Billy Connolly17:50

I would think I'd rather enjoy being cast away.

Presenter17:53

Record number seven we got to.

Billy Connolly17:55

This is by Elton John. Sorry seems to be the hardest word. I chose it because it's a it's a rather splendid song, but he's a bit special to me, Elton. With I was his support in America last year.

Speaker 418:08

What do I do?

Speaker 418:09

Make you want me

Speaker 418:15

What do I gotta do to be hurt?

Speaker 418:22

What do I say when it's all over?

Speaker 418:29

Siren seems to be the hardest word

Presenter18:34

Elton John. And that brings us to the last one. What's the last one?

Billy Connolly18:38

Yeah.

Billy Connolly18:38

Laurel and Hardy.

Billy Connolly18:40

At the ball, that's all.

Billy Connolly18:42

I think it's absolutely sp what I love about their records, when I play it, I can see them. I can see them doing that silly dancing.

Billy Connolly18:49

holding on to the coat and stepping out. I think

Billy Connolly18:52

In Highland the step dancing, they call it in Highland that. But they I think it's absolutely beautiful. It just makes me happy.

Speaker 419:00

Dancing, commence to prance, commence advance, right and left and dance, a little bit you dancing, slide and glide and prance in you do the tangle jiggle, to the stompy wiggle, take your partner and your hold slide and fold

Speaker 419:19

That's what you should all have me all

Presenter19:29

Laurel and Hardy at the ball, that's all. If you could take only one discard of the eight, which would it be?

Billy Connolly19:36

That would be Lolan Handy.

Presenter19:39

And you are allowed to take one luxury with you to the island?

Billy Connolly19:42

I would take the most absurd luxury I've ever seen in my life. I saw it in America, and it was a little electrical device to heat your shaving foam. And I think it's the most absurd luxury I've ever seen, and I would take it to remind me of just w what nice people the human race are, what nice beasts.

Presenter20:00

And one book, putting aside the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already there, and uh big encyclopedias on which we have put up the bar.

Billy Connolly20:09

We'll take catch twenty-two.

Billy Connolly20:11

Because I've read it, I think.

Billy Connolly20:13

A boot

Billy Connolly20:14

Ten or eleven times now.

Billy Connolly20:16

And it's like a different book every time I read it.

Presenter20:18

Yes.

Billy Connolly20:19

And I think it's I I would need a book like that.

Presenter20:22

Catch twenty two. Who's it by?

Billy Connolly20:23

Joseph Heller, very good writer.

Presenter20:24

Right.

Presenter20:26

And thank you, Billy Connolly, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Billy Connolly20:30

Thank you very much for allowing me to be stranded. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 120:42

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