We're going through the archives and pulling out the best bits from the past year including:
Thanks for sticking with us while we take a short break!
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We're going through the archives and pulling out the best bits from the past year including:
Thanks for sticking with us while we take a short break!
Hang with us on socials to chat more noughties nostalgia - Facebook (@tminus20) or Instagram (tminus20podcast). You can also contact us there if you want to be a part of the show.
Transcript is generated automatically
The year is 2003. Tom is your first friend on Myspace, 50 Cent costs a dollar on iTunes. The Terminator becomes the Governator and nobody can find those weapons of mass destruction t -, 20, rewind, 20 years. With Joe and Mel.
Tis the week before. Christmas and everyone still. During I've had a few bees, so apologies for slurring. It's it's t -, 20, the podcast where we rewind to this week, 20 years ago, all the way back in 2003. Although we're not doing that this week. And how well did I do just then to say we rewind?
I was gonna. Probably doing the exact same thing this time in two. 1003 blurring away couple of shandy.
Yeah, possibly having a few codes and we were exactly exactly we're kicking back and having a little bit of a break. Having said that, we still have to go to work and pull out some of the. Spits from the year for you to have. A listen to. Isn't that right, Mel? It's your host, Joe and Mel, by the way. Hi, Mel. I'm a bit loose, so I do apologise.
Find some best foods. Yes, hello. Happy, happy Christmas. What did you get? For Christmas 2003, do you remember?
I I think I got a G shock watch from my ex. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's about all I remember. Really generous.
Oh, that's very early 2000s. Ohh, lovely. Lovely.
Yeah, I think I've still got it. Too it it was quite generous actually. And then, you know, we broke up a few months later, so. That was well done. At least they got the. Watch didn't.
Yeah, you kept it. You didn't.
Have to give that back. Yeah. Didn't keep the furniture, though.
Give it back. Wow, I got. I got Havana thongs. But I called them havanas back then. I didn't realise they had an eye in it, so I said I want those Havana thongs. Mum, the white ones, because I saw them when I was over in America, I thought.
That's pretty classy.
They were great all. The All the Australian girls were wearing them over in America.
Yep, Yep.
So I think they're staying. On them anyway. So I've got some havanas and I bought myself a hammock.
A hammock? Yeah. That's a that's a difficult gift. Well, for yourself, I guess it's OK because you obviously have the intention of.
I splurged because I think I. Think I found out that I was going to. Start working on the breakfast show with you at. That stage and I. Was like, oh, I need to relax. More I'm going to be working extra hard.
So you need. You're gonna snooze it. You're gonna nap in a hammock. Did you? Did it come with the frame to connect?
And have a nap.
And I have it.
All the bits and pieces to or.
Well, it was supposed to, but I already had a frame from my mum's hammock from the 1970s, so I thought I'll just put it on there, didn't you? Didn't fit. So then I hooked it up to the deck. It was good.
That sounds safe.
It was a good hammock.
Yeah, yeah.
And then Christmas Day, I remember Christmas Day well, 2003, because that's when World Idol was on. Remember all the idols from all the different countries congregated on world idols, and we were all like as if thus Sebastian's not going to win. We were, we were convinced and my grandmother.
Went and faced off at the Idol Olympics or.
So I'm team nosy, but my grandmother had a thing for guy she loves. No, just God. So I wasn't interested. But my grandma was. She's like that Guy Sebastian with the hair. We need to watch world idol, and we're all convinced that guy would win.
Uh-huh. Did God did noisy go to world Idol as well? Did he just guy? Ohh, that's yeah, me either.
Right.
He didn't win.
Here came seventh 7.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hillsong money's no good here at World Idol, yeah.
7th Norway, Norway one world idol Kelly Clarkson came second. Will Young Will Young the UK one? Yeah, he came fifth.
Really. Yeah.
What was that song? I think I better leave right now. Yeah. Think I'll leave. Right. OK. See you.
Think I better leave right now that babes angels brought me? Oh, he. Sang what a. Wonderful world. But I do remember that vividly sitting around the TV, and even though I was Christmas Day 2.
Christmas Day.
1003 and. Even though I was team noisy, I was team Australia in World Idol.
Yeah, we were devil.
That's a nice, relaxing way to spend Christmas Day, though everyone's having a bit of a stressful run into Christmas, but I've got this great hack now for Christmas because I've I've established myself as a bit of a low and slow BBQ.
I thought we didn't win it. You know rob.
Aficionado, which is not. A lot. What most blokes do that are approaching their 50s, they get into smoking meat. Or some other random I don't know, like they have a midlife crisis, history channel or smoking meat or both even.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But so when it's. Like what are you going to bring for Christmas? Dinner. I'm. I'll bring the meat, yeah. And that basically gives me a minimum of 12 hours peace and quiet in the run into Christmas because. I'm like, I can't. I'm.
Can't do anything and amazing the needs.
Doing a brisket for Christmas and I'll see you in 12 hours, yeah.
Gotta look after the mates.
And even even if it is a cook that goes through the night and I miss out on a little bit of. Sleep. I still find it. Far more relaxing.
Than having to interrupt everyone during Christmas.
Ohh, there's nothing better. Than when you do Christmas, you do a Christmas lunch and. You feel you. Ducks up and then you you sit around in the afternoon and you look over and all the dads are just to sleep with their mouths open. Isn't that great? Usually in a reclining chair. It's just the mouth open. Yeah.
That is pretty great.
Just having a good time sleeping it off.
You know, I was, I was reading.
Somewhere too, if you if you're a bit if your relationship's a bit tense in your family and you need to kind of get away in the middle of the entire festivities, just go and start. Just go and start.
Are you got a helpful tip?
Thing up, just go and do the dishes now. I've got this. I'll take care of the washing up.
Ohh so everyone thinks that you're really helpful and then no one else wants to help cause that's annoying.
Yeah, but you really, you just couldn't be bothered. Dealing with everyone. Else's. So you're just gonna go into the kitchen and do the dishes because the dishes seems far more and enticing option than the company of.
Your family.
Good Christmas I.
Business high.
Know it's it's it's. It is the most wonderful time. Of the year. Anyway, sit back. Relax, enjoy. As we get into some of the best bits from 2000 and.
Three, an Italian gang steals loose diamonds, gold and jewellery valued at more than $100 million from a Belgian vault.
I love a good heist from a vault, which means I would have had to crack safe. Yes, that's exciting.
In the early hours of February the 16th, 2003, more than €100 million in diamonds, gold and other jewellery were stolen from a Vault 2 floors underground. Here at the world famous Antwerp Diamond District in Belgium. The suspects are thought to be a highly specialised team of illusionists, known as the School of Turin. They managed to dismantle 10 layers of security, a lock with 100 million possible combinations, a Doppler radar and a seismic sensor.
Illusionist dumb magicians. That's like that. Now you see me movie. Remember that movie? That was great, that movie.
Isn't this right? This feel like a movie. It does the vault that house the diamonds is 2 floors below the main floor. So underground it was protected like they said by multiple security mechanisms, not just a lock. It had a lock with a million possible combinations. Infrared heat detectors, A seismic sensor, Doppler radar and a magnetic field. Yeah, that's a lot of things. The building itself had a private security force and was located in the heavily guarded and monitored Antwerp Diamond District. Cause diamonds are a big thing there, apparently.
Yeah, yeah.
It really is.
There's old districts.
Straight. Yes, yes.
So they have a. Lot of security.
Ohh, it's just I love it. It's so cool. The fact that they are illusionist see.
This is, you know, this is where magicians become cool again, not just something.
To scare you at a child's birthday party.
I still hate magic, but I love that they had names. It was.
I love magic. What I hate is people that drive around with those bumper stickers that say thing happens. I believe in unicorns. Well, your.
Five man team, led by Leonardo DiCaprio. Nor Bartolo, who was a professional thief. But here this.
He should be.
In the movie.
Is what I. Love the team we had the king of Keys feel like it needs like a little sting and maybe, like, a description of him. The King of keys. One of the best key fortress in the world.
The King of keys.
Yes, yes. And if they if they didn't get him, they were gonna use Mr Minute.
Also great at cutting keys.
Cutting keys is hard. I used to have to do.
I know.
It in a hardware store very.
Ohh that would be the worst job and the noise.
Difficult, especially when you give someone a key that you think you've cut correctly and they come back.
It's ohh and.
And it's wrong.
They can't get in their house, yes.
Yeah, that's pretty bad anyway.
We also had the genius, a specialist in alarm systems, the monster, an. Expert lock Picker why do they need a lock picker if they're at? Forger. Well, probably as a backup. Always want to.
Back up back up plan. Do you reckon those guys got on well together? I don't reckon they would have. I don't think that the king.
Have a backup.
Of keys and the monster would have got on well.
They all did, but the last member of the group was Speedy, who was a friend of Leo and the others didn't want Speedy on the team and come back to Speedy in a minute. Come back.
All right.
What we need to unpack? Is. I know you think this amazing.
So much fun. Yeah. Yep. Yep. I'm really.
This has got to be a movie, so Leo. Here's how we. He did it. He rented an office in the same building.
Of course, that makes perfect sense.
Genius posed as an Italian diamond merchant to gain credibility, made friends with them all, cause the diamond diamond merchant.
Met them at. The water cooler. So how about those diamonds guys? Ohh yes. How was your weekend? Great.
How about that cuts or clarity? Yeah. You know, just throwing diamond terminology around sees seems legit. 18 months he spent preparing.
Yeah, yeah.
They used camera pens to take pictures of the vault, so he was going in and out because he's a diamond merchant, had a.
Camera PEN 2003. That's pretty good. I mean, you think about how they how they're using like cameras on phones back in 2003, not so great. Pen cameras. I love it. Yep.
I know, I know. Camera pen. They hit a small camera above the vault door to get the combination of. The lock which was broadcast. To a sensor hidden in a fire extinguisher.
So they, so they they had like like Bluetooth camera sensor in the fire extinguisher in the same room.
Filming the guy. They pushing the numbers and then they transmitted it.
And then they get. The that's everything.
To a sensor in a fire extinguisher.
And then they went. Let's look at the footage and they're like, they could see what he was pressing. On the keypad that is.
Amazing. Amazing. They built a full scale replica of the vault so they could practise.
Full scale, obviously not in the office.
No, there there somewhere else, somewhere else.
That he rented in the building. Wow.
They used Hairspray on the thermal motion sensors to temporarily disable the sensor system while they disabled it properly.
That's amazing Hairspray.
Yes, who would have?
Thought I don't. Know, but that's pretty Hairspray is pretty toxic stuff. Hmm.
This stuff seems a little. Bit more low key, a little bit more amateur.
Right.
They put plastic bags over security cameras.
It's just practical, like you know.
And they used a fake metal plate for the magnetic locks. So they made this plate and somehow, as they were walking in, stuck it on with double sided tape so that it wouldn't lock behind them.
So the little up behind and they get stuck in the vault.
This just.
Feel like a movie and then the key the key king. Not Mr minute. The King of Key. Yes, he was able to duplicate the key, which apparently was impossible to duplicate. The king of Case did it.
I love it. Yeah, yeah, but can can he resold your boots. As well, cause Mr Minute can.
Probably not. Probably not. He was very focused on.
And and give regards to.
His key game.
He reprogrammed your garage door opener. These are the things that Mister Mines getting engraved getting, engrave, you know some nice pewter goblets. Maybe. Maybe for all of the members to to of the team to celebrate for the like. Ohh, and by the way, well, the key king wasn't cutting keys. You gave yourself something grave. Pewter goblets.
To celebrate afterwards, no.
Well, key rings. I mean hello, alright. Yes.
No, he was focused. He was focused on his.
Game me not so much. Carry on.
Here's how they were caught do. You wanna know that cause? They got caught.
Well, yes. Well, yes.
Just think that.
How could you possibly get caught with that gang with? That, that, that. Hashtag squad goals, right? The King of Kays and the monster. Sir and the. The the the duplicate vault. How? Did they get caught?
Their their names aren't very, you know, unassuming.
They were caught after Leo and Speedy went to dispose of the evidence. Of their plans. So they stole all the stuff, but then they had to get rid of 18 months worth.
The plan, so they had to get rid of a full scale replica of the vault where you can't just take that down to the local recycling. No, they did out of cardboard boxes. Then you could take it to the cardboard.
Of plans. Yes, yes. Box recycling you could they were planning to burn it in France, but Speedy. Who was known to be a little unhinged?
Ohh see This is why they didn't like him. He's a liability.
Stay speedy. Panics. Doesn't wanna go all the way to France. So insisted that they dispose. Of it in the nearby forest.
Ohh speedy.
Not France. We'll go to the forest.
I've got a nearby forest in Antwerp somewhere.
He then suffered a panic attack and instead of burning the evidence kind of just. Hurled it everywhere and and it wasn't just bits of paper, there was. Tape like take footage and stuff like that. And he was just throwing it and was like hanging out of. The trees and in the. Bushes and he's stomping it into the mud and he's just made a massive mess, hasn't he? Didn't.
Ohh speedy, what are you doing?
They could have just bought it. Why?
You buy that spade.
Want to burn it? He just freaked out and just threw it everywhere. And Leo Leo was burning his stuff correctly so he didn't notice.
He had done job.
Till afterwards.
For Speedy was but what I mean what it speedy isn't like he's not the lock picker or anything like that. That's that's kind of like.
And then.
His only job, like the sounds of it, that one.
It's his only job he had. Job. Yep, spady. And then they hear someone coming, so they run away and. Then this is how they get discovered.
And it just so happened that this little piece of forest was owned by a retired grocer who had made it his life work in retirement to try to prevent littering and improve nature. And for him, the garbage was just a huge insult to everything he was trying to do with his retirement. And so he would regularly call the cops when he would find garbage on his land. And say, you know, oh, there's there's some beer bottles or there's this or there's that in the place where, like, yeah. Yes. Thank you, Mr Van Kamp. But this time, this Monday morning, Mr Van Kamp found this garbage, and it was unusual garbage. It wasn't, you know, the typical beer bottles and and wine bottles, though those things were there. But there were also diamonds. In the mud and within an hour, the area was swarmed with cups.
So they left some of the diamonds. In with the garbage.
And of all the spots to pick. A spot where you've got a citizen on patrol.
Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, he's a serial caller to the police. So like, yes, Mr Van Camp, they probably like. Alright, who's going out there today, you know? But I'm surprised that it actually yielded any results because I I I thought they might have potentially ignored him.
Looking for rubbish and calling it in. Of course, you've uncommon Simon.
Right.
Well, you was.
He had some beef with some local teenagers, I think. And yes, yes. Yeah. And I think the police sort of was just ringing to, to whinge and moan about them again.
Mr Van Kamp did I I'm not surprised.
But yeah, I think I think that he also found some envelopes from the Antwerp Diamond Centre and mentioned that to the police as well. And they thought, ohh, hang on a minute.
Right, right. Well, I imagine it would have been on the news at this time.
As well, you know, yes, yes. And it was enough for them to work out who they were because they had they identified Leo. From some security footage from a nearby grocery store, he'd gone to the grocery store to buy salami sandwich.
Ohh no.
Hmm. And when he was getting rid of the rubbish, either threw away his salami sandwich because he didn't like. It or dropped. A bit of it. And they found the. Salami sandwich and the salami.
Right.
Sandwich had his DNA on it, isn't it?
See if he. Had had a Fogo beam and put his footsteps like we do. We've got a Fogo bin. Now that Council gave us to put our food scraps in, that wouldn't have happened.
18 months in the making. All unravelled because of speedy and a salami sandwich.
To speed, he chucked his rubbish out the window and Leo had a salami sandwich with he left his DNA on the leftovers. He should, if he had finished his lunch and still wouldn't be a problem.
Yes, maybe he was stressed because Speedy, just, you know, did what he did and he couldn't finish his sandwich cause he had to help sort that out.
So I'm assuming they all got. Arrested. They all speedy, probably.
Got arrested?
Ratted on all of them as well.
They spent time in gaol, but they. Never uncovered all the diamonds.
Really. Umm.
Do you reckon Mr Van Camp is sitting on an island somewhere now? Yeah. Well, they said they said they found sometimes they. They this does.
You deserve something out of it. All those years of patrolling for rubbish.
That would be the ending. Of the movie, that would be the ending of the movie, right? Like, it'd be like they're all in gaol and Mr Van Camp sitting on some tropical island being fed grapes by girls in bikinis or something like that. And. Drinking pina coladas.
And rightly so, you know. Yeah. Protected the environment for this long and I'm just looking up to see and there isn't a movie made about it yet.
Right.
The right there was some rights that Paramount Pictures obtained. And they were going to get JJ Abrams to produce a movie of this, but the rights have since expired. Hello. You feel like making a movie.
No. OK. Have you have you seen how people go? What people go through to make?
That's the.
Movies make what was JJ doing? He's probably.
You could be speedy. Working, you know. Why would you turn? That would be. A a fantastic. Movie. I'm surprised.
He's probably like, I've gotta finish lost. Had he finished last at that?
OK.
A song that is still iconic today was released 7th of January 2003.
This summer.
Making love so come get me.
I can't believe that's one of those. I can't believe that's 20 years old songs, yeah.
Yes, iconic from our very own life Coach 50.
Yes, the king.
From his debut studio album Get Rich or Die Trying, it was written by 50 and Doctor Dre, so we've spoken about 50 star last year, so he was a protege of Jam Master Jay and that was in the 90s and he taught him how to count bars, right?
All right.
Yes, that's right.
Maurices and structure socks, so he took. Him under his wing.
Teach him how to measure weights of like cocaine and stuff like that. They teach him how to use a set of scales, yeah.
Had to hide it. In the car. No, no, he didn't. And that was why there was. Remember when he was shot and they went and they put 50 into protection because they thought that it was connected to that because he was jam Master Jays protege. So he's a protege. He learned some mad skills. He brought out some mix tapes and then remember M&M's, I think it was M&M's lawyer.
OK.
Because he was a friend of jam Master Jays.
Right.
Gave M&M the mix tape. Eminem listens to the mix tape of 50 and goes amazing. Signs him up, introduces him to Doctor Dre.
And the rest is history.
Well, no.
Indoor club was originally so written originally by Dre, so the. Music was done by Dre. He had originally given it to D12, as in dirty dozen as in M and. M's fruit.
Ohh, they got with bizarre and and all that, yeah.
That did purple. Yes. And I think Obi tries says yes and they did purple hills slash pills depending on what version you listen to.
My band that song, yeah.
Pills, yeah.
But then they passed it on to 50 because D12 didn't know how to. Approach the song.
Really. Yeah. So what did?
They have. Well, when you talk about the song, like as a rap tune. Was it just like, did he just create the music right?
I suggest they just have. The the music Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo. Think about the music. Was it? Was off beat so she.
I don't know. Why you just did a Nokia ringtone? But sure.
It was off bait. Yeah. So it was quite different at the time you listened to it. And there's there. There was something about it that made you feel a bit uncomfortable, but also made it cool. Yeah. It's kind of off beach.
I mean, I I don't know. Like, I listen to heavy metal and that nothing sounded uncomfortable.
So I don't know.
Yeah, they told didn't know what to do, so they gave it to 50.
Right.
And then he just had the beat, he went. Into the studio.
And he just he just.
Riffed and he recorded that and seven other tracks from that album in five days. Yeah.
Really. Is that for that get rich or die. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Five days, all the good albums take really short amounts of time to make. Don't.
Isn't that amazing?
They like that. Happens in rock'n'roll too. They they go in this. Yeah, they smash it out, and it's usually early on in their. Career and then they forever chase that magic, yeah.
Yes, yes. And so much pressure from whatever label they're on to achieve that.
Yeah, well, probably more fair for these guys, but yeah.
Same kind of success. It was quite different from the other songs, so the other songs in the album were quite dark and 50 said that this one was more a celebration of life and and relevant every day because it's always somebody's birthday and.
Yeah, relevant every day as in like you know, I I don't really like to sort of I'm not I'm a non committal guy. I like having sex, but I don't like making love to people. I'm just like, you know. Ohh yeah into that and then also taking drugs.
And also there's a Shorty having a birthday somewhere. There's a there's a Shorty having a birthday somewhere in the world, so we can play that song every single day.
Yeah, OK, cool. And everyone does that every day. Sure. Excellent.
In the clubs. Quite a few.
People a little bit worried when. It first came out.
Dun Dun Dun Dun right so boom so there's no but wait a minute. You're bringing it back. So I'm like, I'm like the beating because he's nuts. He may have one, but let's see if he connected the dots lyrically. He may have not connected the dots.
Does that.
You can find me the I'm like, is it? I turned the rule and everyone in the office and I said yeah, buckle up. We have a major problem.
Who was?
He said he tends to rule. It's not. It's not like first episode of 2003 and he's crept in again.
As in. He has. We can't keep him away. That's Irv Gotti. He is the murdering CEO.
Irv Gotti.
OK, it's it's.
Producer so works with Ja Rule.
Went to Goddy family like an underworld family or something in the states.
Didn't he name himself? I feel like we've had this discussion. I think he named himself after maybe he was part of the family. I don't know. Anyway, he runs. He runs Murder Inc and he hears the beast. And he's thinking. That's amazing. Hopefully the.
So Gotti isn't his real name. Ohh what a what a flog. Ohh. He thinks that Ja Rule. Sure. Yeah. OK. Yeah.
Singing's pretty bad. And then he hears that and then.
Well, it's not singing like let's, yes.
The rapping OK and then he turns to rule and says we have a major problem.
Why is that a problem?
Because it's amazing. He knew that that song was going to be iconic.
Isn't there?
And he knew that that was going to knock the rule off the. Top so because. Thinking back to 2002, Gerula was all over everything, so Geral had his own.
Ohh, suppose he was on everything, yeah.
Albums. But then he was. Also collaborating with a lot of artists.
Right.
And he was he. He was the big wig rapper, so he's.
He was at the head of the table.
And this is when we're starting. To see hip hop. Become a lot more mainstream and enter the charts more. So than what it did in the 9? So that was Gerald's, you know, that was kind of his thing and all of a sudden this comes out and they're like ohh dear.
And like jewels, like a kind of a little guy, you know? And then you've got this huge muscular bloke, 50 Cent, who's, you know, he's he's hanging upside down in the gym.
Yeah, he's been shot and he he.
Came through that.
Ah, Izzy. What? I watched that video.
Clip saying he doesn't give a cause. It's somebody's birthday.
Singing upside down in a in a chesty bonds? Yes please.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's been shot a few times already before he's even hit the charts. He's in the club. Wow. Jarrells just.
You can make club.
Yep, Yep, yeah.
Hanging out with. Who was who was in the? Club with him. The Who was the other rapper. Exhibit friends of exhibits their mates exhibits in the film clip. I think he name cheques him in the song and and and 50 was starting to do the collab thing as well so he had magic stick with little Kim. He did a collab on get rich or die trying with Nate Dogg 21 questions so he was kind of taking the mantle off to rule.
Ohh in the is that in the film clip is it? Yeah, yeah.
Right, yeah.
And they were all running.
Scared and so. They should be.
Iconic that song.
Yeah, well, he said.
So this time 20 years ago was when it. Was released.
That doctor Dre backing as well, which is like you.
OK, not a real doctor, by the way.
But, but he'll take a look anyway. Yeah, Beyoncé recorded a remix version of in the club titled Sexy Little Thug in 2003. She did? Yeah.
Is it any good? No, I don't remember. It sounds pretty forgettable. Yeah.
In the club has been sampled or interpolated. What that means? Maybe. Maybe the. Lyrics are being thrown into other things.
Interpolated others remix remix. What? You're gonna work on your pronunciations?
Interpol, how do?
You say it, interpolate it. I don't know, I've just. I've I've. I've joking.
Interpolators interpolators well it's been sampled in at least 90 songs. 90 songs, including one from Kanye. West's good life.
Ohh dear.
On December the 14th, 2022, so a couple of months ago it surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify. 1 billion.
Is that so? That's it. That well, like, what's the standard? I mean, that's not. That's never happened before.
It's his first track to do so on Spotify.
Right. So it's his first. OK, well, he one. He's he's have enough money.
1 billion there's a lot of shorties having a birthday.
Have enough money to afford a new chesty bond. Signet with all those Spotify streams cause they pay so well.
This is one I think that everybody remembers really clearly. Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all 7 astronauts on board. It was launched on the 16th of January 2003, so only a couple of weeks. Earlier, yeah, carrying the seven member crew who were selected in July. 2000. This was actually the first space shuttle to fly into space in 1981. And it had successfully. Completed 27 missions before the disaster so.
Was there a? Bit of wear and tear, do you think, do you? Well, do you remember where you were when you when you were watching it? I saw. I definitely remember watching it on the news.
I saw it on the news, but yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it was live or if it was a little bit later on, but yeah. During the launch, a piece of the insulated foam broke off the space shuttle external tank and then struck the tiles on the left wing of the shuttle. The mission and ground. Crew didn't notice it at the time. It wasn't discovered until they did this routine review of launch. So what they do a few days later as they go back and they. Review the launch. Yeah. And they were going through the footage. Yeah. And they saw it. And if you've seen the replays of it, it's once looking for it. It's very noticeable. You see this? Chunk actually fall off and hit the wing and then then bounce off.
So So what happens is that compromises the integrity of the whole of the space shuttle. And then as it's coming back in on reentry, of course, because the whole is compromised, it breaks.
They've had this. Occur before during previous launches. It was apparently a foam problem that had been known for years, and it caused damage previously ranging from minor to near catastrophic, but never to the extent of losing a ship or the crew any, never anything that serious. A few people within NASA, once they saw that footage of take off, they really pushed to get pictures of the wing while they're out in orbit, just to assess the level of damage and make an informed decision.
Yeah. OK.
But that didn't occur. I I think. The Department of Defence even offered some type of assistance to be able to take those photos, yeah. But they weren't overly concerned because it was. A known issue. Like I said, hadn't caused too many problems in the past, so they didn't. Go to that, that level. The crew, however, were sent a 15. Second video of the strike. So the launch and when the debris fell off to prepare them for press conferences afterwards. Yeah. So that when the press started asking them questions about it falling off, they could go into those conferences having seen the footage and being able to talk through it.
Before they come back down. Ohh. Goodness me, yeah.
But then we're reassured it's not an issue. Just wanna prepare you for the briefings. No safety concerns. All good. So on the 1st of February, the shuttle made its usual landing approach to the Kennedy Space Centre just before 9:00 AM Eastern standards. However, they got some abnormal readings. Temperature.
Yeah, yeah.
Readings from the sensors located on the wing were.
Lost. Yeah, because they were too hot. So they they cooked, they fry.
Then tyre pressure readings from the left side of the. Shuttle also vanished.
Cause the tyres fried as well like. Basically the wing. Has melted off on reentry, right? Yeah.
Yeah. So they, the communicator called up to to Colombia to discuss the pressure readings and they called back but were cut off mid sentence. So at that point they lost communication.
Yeah, yeah.
With the shuttle.
It was near Dallas travelling 18 times the speed of sound. Still around 200,000 feet above the grounds. Yep, Mission Control made several attempts to get in touch with the astronauts with no success. 12 minutes later, when Colombia should have been making its final approach to the runway and Mission controller, received a phone call. The caller said a television network was showing a video of the shuttle breaking up.
Yeah, it just it it like it looked like a a meteorite. Like it just it was just a fireball.
In the sky.
The space Shuttle Columbia was going over North Texas. You're looking at a live picture now of Mission Control, and this was the shuttle going over North Texas at the time. It looked like a normal reentry because the shuttle would normally light up and reentry because of the heat of the friction of the Earth's atmosphere. But then we began to see. This you'll notice here it looks like you can see pieces of the shuttle coming off pieces of the shuttle coming off and. NASA, we can confirm that the shuttle is behind schedule. It was to land in Florida. There you see what appears to be multiple pieces. The shuttle. We cannot confirm whether this is an indication that the shuttle broke up upon reentry or not. Well, we can confirm right now that NASA has told us shuttle is at an altitude of 200,000 feet travelling at 12,000 miles an hour. When Mission Control confirms it lost contact, there's been no further communication with the shuttle Columbia since then, and there you can see numerous streams. Of what appeared to be some kind of objects leading some kind of trail over the skies of North Texas.
Now those objects were the pieces of the shuttle. It was basically the shuttle was blowing up. And so like I said, when they when that tile came off the shuttle and compromised the wing, as they were coming back into the. It's fear all that hot gas from the the atmosphere. You know how they burn up a little, they get really hot and they got all the scorch marks on them and stuff. We've all seen that stuff 1000 times and we've probably seen this footage quite a lot. So there's. The heat shield. Once it gets in there, like even the tiniest little crack, I guess once it gets in there, it's just gonna spread and blow the whole thing apart because of the pressure. And that just that's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. So they spent weeks. I remember searching for debris and they because they obviously wanted, you know, something to to bring back to the families of the crew. And it took, I think it like it was over, like over 2000 square miles just in East Texas.
And it took quite a few weeks, I. And I've seen. The the photo where I I can't remember where it was, but they had a big storage facility where they laid out all the pieces that they fouls and there was ohh there.
All the bits and. Yeah, yeah.
Was so much.
And it was. They were so meticulous and yeah.
Like I I this is what I.
Love about space travel and the brains behind. It is. They are, they just. They leave. No, it's. I mean, I say they're meticulous. It's in hindsight, like, obviously they're like, hey, yeah, we saw this on the video, but we think it's OK and we briefed them and they should be fine. And obviously that wasn't the case. But that's the risk. Like you're rolling the dice. Like there is such a thin veil between life and death. I mean, on this planet. Let alone when you start to leave the planet like the the odds of you surviving. Obviously go down dramatically, but there there was like 84,000 pieces like it's, you know, it's the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle and. They I think they they picked up about that was equated to about 40%. Of the shuttle and amongst that was the DNA of the crew. So they were actually able to identify because they found remains of the crew members via DNA. Obviously there wasn't a lot left of them, you know, but. They they were able to. And they actually put out a report that detailed their last few minutes, and the astronauts, they reckoned, survived the initial breakup. So they would have been terrified. Yeah, but they lost consciousness in seconds as the cabin loses pressure because obviously all the there's no oxygen in there. And it's like, bang and then the. They're out so. They probably would. Have lost consciousness before they died. Which I mean is a small mercy, I guess. Yeah. And that, I mean, I cause I can remember challenger in 19.
86 I remember that one so much because of the hype leading up to it, and the crew were on Sesame Street. That's why I remember it because Sesame Street interviewed them and there was so much hype.
Right, yes.
And I don't. Know if I was at. School yet, but I know that we watched the launch. Whether we watched that at school or whether I watched it at home. Yeah, I'm not sure. But I do remember watching that go. Up and thinking ohh they're. Those people from Sesame Street and I don't think my parents told me till. A few years later, what had actually occurred?
I watched, I watched the launch of of Challenger live as a kid and that was horrific and it was very hard, I think for a lot of parents to explain to their kids what was happening. But this is the the thing with with space travel. It's an accepted risk and the people that do it accept that risk. Yeah. And we are very grateful for. Them to to do it. Like I I think that space travel is amazing and I think that we should continue to do more of it and I'm so happy that there are privateers out there continuing to drive it because for a long time there, none of that stuff was happening. And then you've got you, you, Elon Musks and you, Jeff Bezos is riding his giant ***** up into space. You know, you've got that stuff happening. That is all good and I think too with the the fault that happened with this particular one. It's only a matter of time before I think they start to build spacecraft in space, which is very Star Trek. But if they do build spacecraft in space, all of a sudden all the costs of getting the cause the most expensive part, like Elon Musk, talked about this. You know how he's because like this time 20 years ago or last year 20 years ago, so 21 years ago, he started SpaceX. And remember, he said the most expensive thing was actually getting them off the ground. And it's once you're out in space, things become a little bit easier to sort of juggle. And so that's, remember, he did the deal with the Russians and he went and bought all the nukes.
With most of that, yeah.
Or the the missiles.
That weren't armed to to to get the Rockets happening. But you know that's it's only a matter of time before they do do that. And when they do do that, that's gonna be amazing. I mean, there's talk of them putting man back on. The moon again, which I think would be great.
I feel like it has ramped up over the last few years cause particularly after Colombia, I think they stopped space travel. For a good. Few years after that, they didn't do anything for for some time. So I do.
Yep, Yep.
Feel like it? Yeah. That we're getting back into it and it's all getting very exciting again.
It's fantastic. It gives.
Us hope it just to to think that we could go. Beyond this vessel that we live on this planet and go and explore, I mean that's that's what humans are all about. Like, you know, we've explored the entire world. Now what? Let's go into outer space.
Cricket is Shane Warne, Warny suspended from cricket for one year after the Australian Cricket Board the AC B's Anti Doping Committee. Found him guilty of using a masking. Agent he tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide thiazide thiazides.
Are masking agents. Thiazide the inside thiazide. I guess it just depends on which part of the hemisphere you come from.
And a Millerites, uh, both considered by the. World Anti Doping Agency as masking agents.
After taking medication prior to the tournament, Shane Warne failed a drugs test just before the Australians opening match. The drug, a banned diuretic, was given to him, apparently by his mother, having tested positive, worn returned home to Australia. It was a major blow for the world champ. Champions after failing a second test, Australia's leading wicket taker would in time receive a 12 month ban from the game.
So goes all something like this one. He gets a positive drug test. He's a bit confused, yeah. Has a chat. To his physio, physio is a bit confused they. Go through his toiletries bag.
They're like Shane, what's in your toiletries bag?
Open open your toiletries bag. Let's have a.
Faucet. Yeah. Can we? Have a ferret. Through your toiletries bags then.
They ferret through, they probably found dupe, maybe some links. Africa. Uh. Maybe the toothbrush.
He used to take you take baked beans with him because he didn't like to eat the food over in.
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe some Colgate with baking soda, but no tablet.
Yeah, his teeth are very white, so yeah, definitely Colgate with baking. So no, tablets 0, no snow evidence.
They are very right, yes, no tablets. So Physio says.
Did anyone give you?
A headache tablet, no?
Ohh, they're thinking like someone set him up.
Pseudo foods. Did you take any Sudafed? Mark Panadol nurofen? No, no, no. What? He has a bit of a thing and he says, you know what, the only thing I can think of is my mum, mum Mumsy gave.
Yes. Yeah.
Me a fluid tablet. Physio asked what it was called, what is not sure.
He's thrown his mum under the bus.
He calls, he calls his mum. To ask about the tablet and and he said himself. Look, you know, my mum is not gonna have something that would be on a band list. This is my mum she's got. You know Mentos and a. Doll, she's not gonna. She's not gonna. Have something that is a banned substance.
No, she's not Heisenberg.
No, nothing that she got from some dodgy laneway. Out the back.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, she innocently gave him a tablet. She said it was moderate HIC. Mojo Reddick, mode. Reddick.
Module redic. Yep, we'll go with module radics.
Let's go with. Modric. So warning and physio do a. Bit of a Google search.
The penny drops.
Masking agents. Ohh.
Mum. So come on, Harry. A few extra chins there. Let's just make sure you haven't got. There, I'll take one of my. One of my fluid. Tablets. Yeah. Which she took for water retention. And those other women things I said? Sure. So I took it, took some water. And you. Pee a lot and. And then you get rid of a few kilos. And that.
Was it that? Was it so? But but that particular drug that he'd taken, the diuretic which made you pee a lot to shed fluid, to shed water weight so you could lose kilos. And your chins? Well, it's cause of the fluid retention, which is also used to mask.
And your chins?
Other banned substances like I don't know, steroids, nandrolone, something like that, right. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So because of the fact that it can be used to mask other. Substances. It is also a banned substance in and of itself, so poor warning. Just trying to get rid of a couple.
Of chins? Yeah. Consequence. They sent him home. He wasn't allowed to compete. That's a.
And he admitted from the outset that he'd taken it once he found out what it was once mum had gone. This is this is what it is, he. Wasn't trying to. Cover up. He's like. Yes, she gave it to me and he. Wanted to look. Good for the TV cameras. That was what it was all about. It was purely about looking good on camera because he's going to get a lot. Of camera time because he was at his peak around this time.
Well, you don't nab Liz Hurley as a girlfriend. If you, you know, got all those extra chins. It's it's all very vain, isn't it? And it's terrible. Hey, it actually really affected him. He was devastated when he found out what had happened. He he went and confronted the team and told them what happened. He broke down in tears in front of the entire squad because he didn't obviously want to bring the rest of the team into disrepute. He felt like he'd let the side down. I mean, and, you know, he was banned. He was banned from playing cricket for a little while.
Yeah, they had a full thing in front of the board. I think there was 7 witnesses. Mum came in and explained the whole stitch. I think normally it's a two year sentence, but they actually reduced it down to 1. One because they figured it did more harm than.
Good. Well, absolutely. I mean, he had to pee every 5 minutes. Could you imagine how long it takes to play cricket? I mean, I don't know. Was it a Test match? It wasn't a Test match. I can't remember what it was going for. A Test match or one day series. At least with the one day series. The Australian cricket team's pants are yellow. That's a I mean, that's more of a sports story than probably a new story, but we might as well transition into sport while we're on A roll. And on the 16th of February, we this is the funniest sport ever, really. The 45th Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway at Daytona Beach in Florida takes place now. This is NASCAR. This is where they just drive around in circles. You see the movie days of Thunder driving around in circles. So what?
Of what sort of cars are they driving? Is it like Formula One cars or is it like every day? It's like this Corolla.
Now stock cars like nascars like Nas cars like it would be similar to if they're not V8 supercars like we'd have here. Yeah, but similar. They're like big, you know, muscle cars that they've got around the surface.
I like the arcade version of Daytona I used to like playing that yes, but I never realised what the cars were. Ohh McLaren, there was a McLaren I used to always drive.
It's great fun, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.
The McLaren. OK, I know what to talk about now.
Yeah. So this yeah, it. Just it just goes straight back to the AU bar to the. Daytona machine that's.
Right. That's you.
Know what's funny? They still have Daytona machines. And and it's like and you look at it now when you've got like these new fandangle game consoles and PC's and all that stuff, you're like, wow, those graphics are really dated like this one was a bit of a non event for NASCAR fans and for the participants alike. Now prior to the race, they had all these decals on their cars. Remember, we were talking last week about the astronauts.
Ohh yeah. Couple of weeks earlier. Yep.
That that crashed in the Columbia disaster. So they had a couple of decals on their cars to honour those guys. So that was a special. Comparative thing and then and then Mariah Carey cuts up and performs the national anthem. You know, just to say, hey, everyone, I'm still here. Yeah. And and like, I would have thought, a country and Western singer might have done NASCAR, but Mariah?
Ah, yes, right off the back of Christmas, yes. Well, Gloria Estefan? Hmm, maybe.
Did it, which was great. Gloria Estefan? Really. So, like, shake your body, baby, do the conga, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. I'm hearing you. So, anyway, this particular one, it pours down rain. Michael Waltrip wins for the second time in three years after the race. And so they called the race 109 laps in, which is not too far from the end of the race. But it was pouring rain.
Yeah, Florida.
Think that.
That's on brands.
And as a consequence, it's an hour sort of earlier than what they had actually planned. And Michael didn't care either way. He was just happy that he'd won.
You know, when I pray to God, I pray for first, for him to forgive me of my sins and make me a better person. And then I ask him for what I want. So I've done all those things and I want. It to rain really bad ladies and.
Gentlemen, it's official. The rain has persisted. It's going to continue through the night. The race has been called and Michael Waltrip is a two time. Champion of the Daytona 500.
No, I tell you what. What a thrill. What a great accomplishment for him and his team. And it's just got to make him look at him. Let it rain.
I I just don't know why it's a thrill or an accomplishment like the race was called off because of the rain. Anything could have happened in between when the race was called off and what potentially would, it was obviously too dangerous. Do it so you know it's up.
Yeah, but as a fan, that's a bit of. A let down cause. You'd be, yeah. You'd be ready for a. Whole whole other hour of cheering.
Can I tell you I was looking at the footage they were dedicated to. They stayed at the track in their ponchos and all that sort of stuff, enduring the wet Floridian weather just to, you know, in the vain hope that potentially the rain would stop and they would start the race again. And they never did.
And what if one of those people that sort of waits to the end to really flog it to really put? Your foot down? Yeah, that's a bit umm.
Hang back for a bit, you know, bite my time. Do a Bradbury? Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
And then, like, you know, Waltrip's like Woo, I won. Victory is mine. And like, you know, yeah, I I imagine. I mean, there would have been a, you know, I'd like to thank God or whoever is responsible for that. I'd like to thank global warming or, you know, La Nina or whatever the hell it is.
That's a bit of a let down, isn't it? Ohh well, we've got some more sport as well this time. 20 years ago on the 22nd of February 2002. Pakistani pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar bowls the fastest bowl recorded in.
It was.
Cricket history at the time. Time at 100.2 mph or 161.3 kilometres per hour.
Well, that has brought. A lot of cheer from the crowds because schrab after has just broken that barrier.
100.1.
Cheer from the crowd, it says shut up and take a breath from me and I'm not stood 22 yards away from him.
They not stood 22 yards away from him. I think he's from Liverpool. That guy's first bowler to do this first bowler in the history of cricket to do this and it's a feat that he has achieved twice in his career.
Think our car can go that fast, can it?
100 mph. The Corolla.
161.
Yeah, I wouldn't like to push it. I wouldn't like to push it. I.
It would be a bit shaky be a bit dangerous.
Feel like something could fall out. On the road. Is that although it does have a spoiler, maybe if we really pushed it, could I mean it's? A Corolla ascent sport, you know.
Yes, it's the sporty 1. Well, how? Yeah. How could you throw that fast? That's crazy.
Well, it's bowl. It's, you know, it's the the ball that outran the Corolla. I don't know, and unfortunately for actar, he's he's a bit of a controversial player. He was often accused of unsportsmanlike conduct. He liked to poke the bear a little bit. He was sent home during a Test match series in Australia in 2005 for an alleged poor.
Attitude. I'd like to be sent home for poor attitude. You've got poor attitude. Go. Home and rest. OK, sure.
That was like, that's like school, isn't it? Ohh, you're suspended. What? OK, so I'm misbehaving and I'm being rewarded.
You've got a bad attitude. Go home and sleep. Have a nap. By no school.
With a with a day off. Yeah, yeah.
Yes, that doesn't make sense at all. Maybe that's why I had the poor attitude, didn't like Australia.
Well, you. Later on, he received the ban after testing positive for nandrolone. He should have got some, got some pills. Well, he should have used the masking agents warning mum that.
Ohh, his mum gave it to him. Should have got a tablet from warnings Mom.
Did he learn?
Beautiful by Christina Aguilera.
Insurance companies and commercial entities around the world were salivating when they heard this potentially make up companies as well. I don't know.
I am beautiful no matter. What they say bring me down.
Charities actually, lots of charities, I reckon. Rescue charities for ugly pets. They would have just been lapping it up. Literally, yeah.
That's true. Yes. No, I was thinking more skin care. Yeah. You don't need makeup.
Skin care and Nah.
Cause you're beautiful.
Ugly pet rescue.
It's like you need this 10,000. Dollars serum with gold please.
I'd if I was watching like a montage of ugly pets in slow motion, set to that song. I would just be in tears. I'd be a mess. Ohh, I'd just. I don't know about that, but I'd be very emotionally heightened.
You'd buy all of them. Yeah, beautiful is the second single from her 4th studio album stripped. So the first single, obviously dirty. So yeah, a big change of pace. It's going from dirty to beautiful.
Smart. Smart to go. The the big dirty poppy thing to a song that ended up being a classic for.
Her, we alluded to this last week. Because she performed it at one of those awards that we were talking about.
Yeah, that was what that.
And we had.
Was from, yeah.
Linda Perry on the piano because she. Wrote and produced it.
Famous from the band 4 Non Blondes or the.
Group 4 non blonde? Yep.
Yes, and the the theme or the the undertones were inner beauty, self esteem and insecurity. I didn't know this back story and this makes me love this song even more. I loved the song at the time, but this makes me love it even more. So Linda had originally wanted to keep it for her own solo career. She was going to use it as a comeback single. She was going to come back to her own solo thing early 2000s. Christina comes over to her house. They're already working on material together.
Right. So she's, she's basically fallen back into a writing career as opposed to so much of A performing.
For the album. Career also working with Pink at this stage and he's understood. So Christina comes over.
Yeah, yeah.
And Christina says to. Linda. Hey, how about you play some songs? Just to break the earth. And she's like. Sure, just got a studio set up at her house. Yeah. And she. Beautiful. Yeah. To Christina and Christina just walks up behind her. Stands behind her. Just play the. Piano and it's just blown away and says can I have that song for my album?
And she's like, how much you.
Well, no, Linda, Linda and her manager.
No, she's like, sorry.
Linda and her manager. At the time sort of went out into the other room. And had a bit of back. And forth about whether. To let have it, because this is gonna be her comeback. Song she was. Going to use this. For herself. And they're talking about it and they're thinking. You know what? Why not? We give her the music. Send her away. And let's get her just to come back and do a demo. We'll see. We'll see what she can do with it.
So so basically familiarise yourself with the song, come back and show me, show me that you can do it and give it the give it the the credit or the justice or whatever that it deserves with her having written it. So she's like prove to me that you can own this song.
But she's still she's still at. This point, she's not convinced, right?
Sceptical. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, is it any wonder, like, this is the chick that just put out dirty and genie in a bottle? You've gotta rub me the right way. Like these. These are not profound lyrics. Hmm.
Right before. I you know, so I push play record and she sits there and and and and also you hear this in the track because she's learning the song. Right. You know she doesn't she didn't memorise the the lyrics yet. And then she goes. Don't look at me. Turn her friend. And those words at the top opened up. A whole world for me. Because I realised this beautiful girl that has this writing, you know, high on the charts, everybody knows her is just as insecure as I am.
Yeah. Hmm. Well, yes. I mean, I think that every performer that, that people would obviously brand as an extrovert are probably more insecure than anyone would ever realise because they need so much validation like they, it's they they perform to get that validation that. That that then makes them feel worthy. And if they don't get that, then obviously you look at, I mean I don't want to go down the road of talking all about, you know, some of those stars that are no longer with us. But I feel like that validation has a lot.
To do with that, and also there's a lot of performers that are introverts, and they're all about their art and they don't necessarily want the attention and they. Struggle with that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You wouldn't catch them on Freeview being streamed, no.
Well so that. No. So that, that that don't look at me. You hear that at the start of the song. That is her talking to her friend. Yeah. When she goes in. To record it, and it was that demo version that was actually used as the single Christina wanted to re record it. You heard Linda was saying about she could hear the shuffling of the paper cause she.
No way really. Pipe there's.
Hadn't learned the lyric. Yeah. Yeah. She wanted to read Christina wanted to rerecord the song because she didn't like the initial vocals. Not that you didn't like it. She thought there was things that she'd like to do differently, like she really wanted to sit with it. And come up with some stuff, yeah.
She hasn't learned it properly. Yeah. I mean, if if she knew the words, she'd probably think of different ways to.
Phrase parts yeah, and she's. Quite the perfectionist as well. If you've ever seen her sort of backstage and the way she prepares for stuff, she's yeah, she's very much a perfectionist. But Linda said no because the song is supposed to be about imperfection. Being vulnerable and Christina said if it was her choice, she never would have kept it as that that version because she was saying that she didn't punch into it. She didn't. Correct it. There was things on there that she would never normally live with, but eventually she trusted Linda and embraced the the honesty of it. Because that's I. Guess that's the real sentiment of the song about feeling insecure and kind of bearing all, and that's what she went with. And I went and had to listen. So Linda over the years. Has performed it herself because I thought. It would be. Really interesting to hear her perform. In listening and nothing against cause I think Linda is amazing. I love 4 Non Blondes but when you listen to them side by side you can tell why she gave Christina the song because what Christina did with it is just just phenomenal compared with.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, really. Well, Linda Perry is a very different style of musician. She's she's very organic. Like, if you if you.
It was kind of a bit more. Folky, I guess her version.
Well, if you listen to the way she talks about how she writes songs, she songs come to her. Organically, so she'll sit there and kind of just jam and riff away and roll tape on it and just let it meander through her. It's it's almost like a train of thought committed to music, whereas a lot of these pop performers are they it's and I'm not taking anything away from the way they write songs. It's like, you know, horses for courses, but it's more methodical, it's more meticulous, it's got a lot of structure. To it. It's very it's very confined and and and it's trying to get something that is really, really gonna grab people within the confines of that structure whereas.
Yeah, verse book for us. Yeah. Yeah.
Linda Perry has a lot more freedom, I think, and probably continues to, because vicariously she can just be pushing out stuff through all these other musicians. It's I'd like to see more of her, you know, in, in music. And I'm sure that you could probably seek it out. I guess she's just, you know, marching to the beat of her own drum, which is.
Good for her. Yeah, and she. She's not to take anything away from her. She's a fantastic singer and her version it's not. That it was bad but. After listening to the way that Christina interpreted it and thinking of it with the video clip as well, which we'll talk about a bit more, I think cause this song stays in the charts for ages. So we'll talk about that one another time. But yeah, combined combined with what, Chris, where Christina took it and the video clip and just how it was received and what it meant to people.
Yeah, yeah.
It was the. Right choice for her to give that to Christina. I think it it received universal acclaim. It was ranked amongst her strongest material Grammy Awards Song of the Year, Commercial Success number one in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK peaked at #2 in America on the Billboard. Hot 100 and certified double platinum selling over 2 million units.
And over 1,000,000 ugly pets adopted.
I am beautiful. No matter what they say.
We had an estimated up to 30 million people around the world take to the streets to protest the impending war with Iraq. It was a coordinated day of protest held across the world, and actually, I apologies to our New Zealand. Brethren, because it would have started with them because they would have been the first country to actually start doing the protests and good for them and good on New Zealand. And God bless New Zealand and I love New Zealand. It was a coordinated day of protest. Like I said, held across.
Yes it did.
The world's people in almost 800 cities expressed their opposition to the imminent war in Iraq. It was described by social movement researchers as the largest protest in human history. It was the largest anti war protest and remains the largest one day global protest. The world has ever seen.
Not in our names, not in our names.
The institutions the British state had set out to tell lies.
The biggest demonstration coordinated from the whole.
Earth. It was all.
Through something began on that day that cannot be reversed.
A mass, beautiful movement that's gonna stop them from dropping those balls.
We had something like 60% of.
The American people believing.
That Saddam Hussein was connected with 9.
11 They blatantly lied to all of us.
The rallies of February 15th followed the Sun.
It was Australia with Sydney.
North Asia and South Asia, Africa into.
Europe and then we had London.
I thought I was on the wrong March because there were all these families, but.
Say everybody I know was on it. The whole of my family went on.
It was so beautiful.
This was they can't hold us back.
The future of humanity.
And fellow Americans.
Let's roll.
That's from the documentary. We are many, which is definitely worth a watch. That was the trailer for it has George Bush, my fellow Americans. Let's roll. Who does he think he is?
The transfer is, it is. A transformer? Is that what?
Stop. Optimus Prime. No, it's like transform and roll out.
They say yeah, that's roll out rollers close.
But you know, very close.
Faster Transformers. I'd see him over that.
Absolutely intellectual property. Optimus Prime's coming for you. George W.
Yeah. Watch out. The largest protests took place in Europe. The one in Rome involved around 3 million people and is actually listed in the Guinness Book of Record for that as the largest anti war rally in history. For them, Madrid had the second largest with more than 1.5 million.
Yeah, right.
People Mainland China was the only major region not to see any protests on the day, but I think there was some stuff that happened a little bit later on in in China more than a million people were in London and Barcelona, 200,000 in San Francisco and New York City. In Australia we had around 150,000 people.
Right.
Participate in Melbourne. 200,000 in Sydney and when? You add up because. They were doing it in all. Regional like Bathurst and Orange, yeah, Everywhere was participating so.
Yeah, yeah. Bathurst, Orange in those country ladies, bring a.
They I'm sure they. Did that was the vibe I think around.
Yeah, they had a cake stall. Potentially. Sorry, I'm. I'm interrupting you.
Around 600,000 people across Australia. Yeah, joined in, including myself and my dad.
You went with your dad.
And I've never had like, at this point, early 2000s, I wasn't really paying too much attention to politics. In the world. Obviously September 11 and Bali like those things.
Well, you couldn't avoid that like, I mean, that's stood out for.
Stood out for more.
Everyone but I've.
Never really been involved in a protest or anything like. That before, because I'm pretty lazy. So I can't be bothered to do that.
Yeah, well, maybe, but I.
Mean people protest or don't protest for lots of different reasons, and that's fine. But why?
But this one came along and I thought. This makes sense.
Yeah. OK.
I don't, I don't. I don't think we should be going to war. I don't. I I don't feel comfortable with this. And I had a. Chat to my. Dad was like, hey, they're doing something here in. Canberra, do you wanna go along? It's like, yeah, Dad loves a protest.
Loves it.
Does he? Does he?
Really loves it. He's such a. Quiet, unassuming man, but put him in a. Protest loves it.
Yeah, yeah.
And we started at Parliament House and there was lots of people speaking and as. Soon as you. Got there. You just felt this fear. I've. Never felt it before. You just felt. This feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself. And just everyone around you and it was just, it was amazing. And we marched up and down. I think it was Commonwealth Ave we went across the bridge and looped around. They did and there were people that weren't too happy about.
So they closed the road down.
That I remember.
Ohh, they're stopping traffic exercising their democratic right to protest. How dare they?
Lots of coins. Yeah. So we walked up and then walked. Back and I'm yeah. I'm pretty sure I had a sign. Yeah, but it was, yeah, it was all it was. It was such an amazing thing to be part of. And we came. Back to Parliament house. And then I remember watching the news, and obviously because Australia was one of the First Nations to to be protesting. Of the time zone. Yeah. And then I remember watching the subsequent process across the world. And I remember this. Thinking there is no way they're going to go to war, there is no way they can do it with with the way that everybody is against it. They have to listen to this. I was so confident.
Yeah. Now they went to war. Everyone was wrong. Millions of people were wrong. They were. They had it in their heads that they were gonna do it. They went and did it. Look, I can understand why you would have gone to it. I was always completely befuddled. By why we? Were so interested in going back to Iraq, we'd already had a Gulf War. Remember in the early 90s, and that was Saddam Hussein again. And it was almost like they brought up.
Yes. Yeah.
The IT was. Like when they did the last Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker or whatever it is, and they decided to bring Emperor Palpatine back because they've run out of ideas. Ohh, they feel like they've run out of ideas and they're like I will just bring. Hussein back and we'll go and we'll go after him again. Weapons of mass destruction. So, and we talked earlier in an earlier episode about Colin Powell and his 70 minute presentation where he was just produced.
Everyone. Hi. Name show.
Seeing all these different pieces of evidence, like so many different pieces of evidence about why and what they were doing, it's like they've got scientists and they've got clandestine laboratories and they're doing this and doing that, they're hiding them here and they're all in mobile trucks and they're going to different places. So we can't see them. And none of them were wearing shoes. So they didn't leave any footprints. I mean, they would have left footprints, but yeah.
It was, yeah. It was kind of like, yeah, here's my presentation on why we should go to war, wasn't it? And so people were starting to get that feeling. And yeah, I think a lot of. People thought that. Just given the scale and hate to use the word unprecedented, but it really was you, you'd never, we'd never seen anything like that. Yeah, and everybody. Thought they have to pay attention. This is this is people power. I think the New York Times. It was a writer, Patrick Tyler. He said that the protests showed that there were two superpowers on the planet, the United States and worldwide public opinion.
Like you said these they were massive demonstrations nobody had ever seen anything like this in the world before. This mobilisation of people to do this. They so they actually thought, well, maybe. Yeah, it could. But it and it was it. Like it was pretty compelling. I wonder what would happen these days. I mean, The thing is, there is so much big business behind that war effort and so much money goes into like if you wanna sort of, I guess, see an economy take off then you go to war because all of a sudden there's jobs and there's manufacturing and all that stuff that needs to happen. When the war starts like you think about how expensive the hardware is, like the the the, the military industrial complex goes into OverDrive and it's spend, spend, spend, spend, spend. So I think once they had it in their head that they were. Gonna do it that.
Was it? They're going back to the. Security Council and yeah. Collins's PowerPoint presentation, remember?
Ohh yeah yeah, I don't know. Was it a PowerPoint? I don't know that it was I. Think he just sat there so.
He should have. Had a PowerPoint. Did have? He did.
He anything to distract from Colin Powell would have been great, yeah.
Have some evidence I wouldn't wanna slide. Would have been a few. Slides, but part of the Security Council. Remember they said. Yeah, we'll go away and. Think about it. They didn't sign up straight away. They were, they call them the uncommitted 6, so there were six representatives that just were, like, not too sure about this. Yeah. And the the protests were powerful enough for them to resist the pressure and say no to endorsing the war. So it did have an. Effect on some of the people within the. The Security Council, however, it was generally dismissed by the big leaders. Obviously Bush, he said. He came out and said listening to or paying attention to the protesters was like developing policy based on a. Focus group.
Isn't that how you develop policy?
Shift. Yeah, maybe you should try and find out what the people would like before. You start to develop some policies.
Do you wanna? Go to or no. OK, next question.
Well, too bad. I don't like this focus group. I'm gonna go to war anyway.
We're just gonna bring our mate Colin in, and he's gonna give you a short 77 minute presentation and maybe then we'll ask you that question again.
Prime Minister of Australia John Howard at the time claimed that the protests weren't representative of public opinion, saying, I don't know that you can measure public opinion just by the number of people that turn up. At demonstrations.
Hang on a second, John. I'm unprecedented. Yeah.
Across the globe.
America, let's roll.
Condoleezza Rice is reported as saying that the protests would not affect the administration's determination to confront Saddam Hussein and. Help the Iraqi. People Tony Blair, obviously.
So that that was an interesting one, Tony Blair, because he he really fell out of favour with his constituents with, with just, with all of his countrymen. It seemed to me when I was watching this play out at the time that the majority of people in England were against going to war in Iraq.
Yeah, yeah.
The majority of them, and Tony Blair, was sidled right up to George Bush and it didn't. He fell out of favour. He and I think that history has probably been very unkind to him as a result.
I think there is still that feeling and I think that was a real turning point in public opinion on him. They did do a survey and I think 52% were against the war and only 29% were in favour. So we had these demonstrations 29 days later. The invasion of Iraq began.
Yeah, that'll be t -. 20 in a month's time. We'll talk all about that. Where it's America, let's roll. And away they go.
I was looking. I was looking at. The well, we ended up watching that documentary. It was really, it was a really good. One, we are many, it's thought.
We are many you. Should check it out. It is very interesting.
Yeah. Yeah. And I was watching. I was watching the. I was watching the guy from what's he. What's his name? Damon Alban from from blur? Yes, that's right. He he.
Blur sing from. And Gorillaz, yeah. Yeah, the nemesis. To the guy from Oasis. That's why you.
Like him, that's why. Yeah. Yes. And he was also very, very strong in the movement and was helping to to mobilise and and rally people. And he was reflecting on it. And he said. Where we failed was the fact that it was just one day, he said. Yes, it was unprecedented, but it was one day and then it kind of fizzled out. Yeah. Had everybody come back the next week? Probably still wouldn't have made too much of a difference, but people were going ohh OK they're serious and he said. How we come back the third week? It may have made a difference, which I thought was quite an interesting take upon. It was more we needed to keep up the momentum and we needed to keep it in the news. We needed to keep talking about it rather than just have. This one day we needed to continue rallying around.
I do wonder how something like that would play out now with social media being more powerful.
Social media. Exactly. Yeah. Well, we didn't have social media then. So even coordinating something of that scale.
Yeah, but even and the court of public opinion being so powerful as well, and the bias of the media, everything's changed. Like lots of things have changed since back in 2003 when this first happened. And I I do think, you know, I mean, you like people stormed the capital building over, you know, and for for whatever right or wrong reason. Like people stormed the capital building when they weren't happy with something.
That's just amazing.
Under knowing what we know now, if some, well, I don't, I don't know that it would happen again, but if something like this did happen and you had 300 million people around the world rallying against it, how I I feel like the outcome would probably be violent, to be honest with you. Maybe, I don't know. I mean it's. Yeah.
Think so?
The other thing is, is that we, we pick up activism and put it down very quickly. And so Damon Albarn has a point in that. He says that if we had have come back, if he, if you had have, I reckon if they had have done it across 3 weeks and they came back.
Yeah, yeah.
Week two you probably would have had maybe 75% of the people involved Week 3, maybe 25%. You know, they they'd be like not being there. Done that. You know, it's it's interesting. People are fickle. People are very fickle. However, it was an important thing and and I think it is quite shocking that it was ignored.
Yeah, that's the other thing. Yeah, keeping.
Up that.
Keeping up the numbers momentum. Yeah, yeah. I think so too. And when I was looking at. The trailer I read. The comments underneath the trailer and one of the comments that was really it, I don't it made me feel quite emotional actually. Yeah, I'll read it out it it was a person who said I'm Iraqi and I say to all the people who participated in the protests. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. All Iraqis know that governments are destroying countries and not people. Thank you to the peoples of the world. We will never forget you and this person posted an emoji of every flag of every country that participated in the protest.
Wow. Yeah, that's really sweet.
Isn't that powerful, like just hearing the the the impact that it did actually have on people?
Well, I mean, Iraq was just destroyed by that. I mean, Saddam Hussein, he's not a nice guy. He's a bad guy. He's a. Bad guy, I mean. But you know, they would have kept him around for as long as it was convenient, and then they would have played the Saddam card when they actually wanted to get something else. And a lot of people would say oil, you know, a lot of people would have said that oil and money was driving it and maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. But. It's it's an interesting theory. It is and.
And just looking at. It it, it was just such an amazing moment in time and. Yeah, just can't believe that it didn't have more of an impact even even now looking back.
I like.
No, I like what cat lady Trucker had to say. I was in the San Francisco March. It was families, Buddhist monks, Catholic nuns, the elderly, little kids in strollers. Everybody. At one point I crested a hill and looked back behind me and I saw people for as far as the eye could see. Something changed forever in me that day. After I got home and realised it was not covered anywhere. On our local TV or national news isn't that interesting media bias? Yeah. Yeah. And I I do remember, though, the coverage in Australia, there was lots of news coverage of it in Australia, but it's just unfortunate like they did it anyway. And and I don't think you can ever forgive them for that.
Really. That's. As well. There was lots, yeah, yes.
And we'll take this injustice.
From outlaw, drop your arms.
Two hero.
We're having banks.
There's nothing there to. Pay the rent.
His courage. Inspired a nation.
You took a risk coming.
Yes, and his name.
Then that Kelly, aren't you?
Became legend.
These are men who have been glorified as the leaders of a movement that threatens the stability of an entire country.
Ned Kelly, starring Heath Ledger and Geoffrey Rush. It of course, dramatised and perhaps glorified, the life of Ned Kelly, a legendary Bush Ranger and outlaw who's like Australia's answer to Robin frickin Hood when he was all over Victoria doing his thing.
Polls poll.
Yeah. How? What do you reckon?
The ratio of such is life tattoos to Southern Cross.
Tattoos is poor. Geez, I reckon if I reckon if you've got one, you've probably got the other.
That's on par.
To be honest.
Just sex.
With you. But here's the thing, OK? And I I needed to look this up because I wanted to remember it. Did you know that people with Ned Kelly tattoos are nearly eight times more likely to have been murdered, according to researchers?
This is true, this is.
True. So there was a professor.
So people who've got a Ned Kelly tattoo are more likely to be murdered.
The second you put that Ned Kelly tattoo on your skin, you are 8 times more likely to be murdered. Such is life indeed. Yeah, there was a there was a professor at the UNI of Adelaide named Roger Byrd, who studied the cause of death of nearly 20 or 2020 S Australian men aged between 20 and 67 years.
Your targets.
We had tattoos of Ned Kelly or about Ned Kelly, so such as life slogan.
So you could have such a life, or you could. Have the helmets? Yep.
Exactly so. Out of it. When he saw that there were an unusually high number of these tattoos in the Adelaide Mall. I don't know what he's doing, checking out corpses.
I shouldn't laugh. It's terrible that those people are dead. Yeah. Wow.
Tattoos they got? Yeah. So it was death by murder, accident or suicide compared to the rates of around 1000 other deceased S Australians and the suicide rate and homicide rate were higher for those with the tattoos.
That's dangerous. Wonder if.
Only three, only three of the 20 men that he studied with Ned Kelly Tattoos 3 out of 20 died of natural causes.
Such is what I guess.
Such is in life, mate.
And don't you love in Australia? Everyone you meet is somehow related to Ned Kelly. Me too. My dad. My dad tells us how my.
Ohh yeah I am.
Great, great, great. Grandfather was a police man in Victoria, cause they lived around that area, as did everybody. Else in Australia. And he, even though he was a policeman, he was friends with the Kelly family. So he. Was he wasn't. He didn't like go after him or shoot. Him or anything. Like that? Yeah, they were friends. What's your relationship to Ned?
Right. He's from CUDA, he's from Cootamundra. I don't know. Everyone's from cootamundra.
Isn't that true, though? Everybody's somehow related to then tell.
Yes, and they're all from Cootamundra. I don't know. Look, the movie was was pretty good. I remember going to see it at the cinema. It did really glorify Ned Kelly and like, but we do that in our popular culture. Like he is this cult hero and stuff like that. He's and just don't get him tattooed for God's sake.
Ledger. Oh. Lando Bloom was in it as well. Hello.
He was. Yeah, Joey.
And Naomi Watts Jeffrey.
You didn't had something to do with it? Jeffrey Rush was one of the bad guys. In it was awesome car.
All Star cars. I looked up how it did on Rotten Tomatoes and in the description it. Brief nudity for those that are.
Yeah, I think you get to see like someones bum.
Interested in a bit of. Bit of new I'd say it. Would be a Lando bloom just quietly.
Yeah, he doesn't mind getting his gear off. Yeah.
55% critics score 53% audience score. So I didn't actually do. That well, no, but I.
Enjoyed it? I thought it. Was OK, I haven't.
Seen it? Yeah. You liked it.
Yeah, it's good. It's good. It's.
With my great, great, great. Grandfather represented well in it.
As the friendly cop? Yes. Sure. Yeah, there was a friendly cop or two in there. I reckon that's enough. That'll do. That's.
Cop one. The best we've. Well, half of the best. We've got cause that we we're doing it again. Next week, aren't we because we're late?
Yeah, that's right. That's right. You know, we need to recover. We've got New Year's to get through yet as well, so.
Extra lazy.
That is the best we've got.
By halves for now. Yes, exactly, we're.
We've half asked it, yes. In other words, look. But look, thank you so much for joining us each and every week for the last few years that we've been doing this podcast. We thoroughly appreciate you. And we are wishing you all the best to you, your family, your loved ones, even if they don't listen. You know, and they're practically dead to us. Just for now. Just because it's Christmas. Merry Christmas to all of you and to all. A good, I don't know. Whatever you want to call it.
Find us on the socials, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. You know the deal. Bye.
Thanks for taking the time to rewind. Join us next time for another week. That was 20 years ago and in the meantime, come and reminisce on the socials search for T -, 20 podcast on Facebook. Instagram and TikTok.