T minus 20
The year is 2004... Your polyphonic ringtone habit is sending you broke. George W Bush is sworn in for a second term. And in spite of everything going on, the most controversial thing is a wardrobe malfunction at the superbowl?
T minus 20, rewind to this week in history 20 years ago with Joe and Mel.
T minus 20
Ashlee Simpson takes Saturday Night Dive!
We kick things off with the brave but tragic story of humanitarian Margaret Hassan, whose kidnapping in Iraq shook the world 🌍. From the sand to the subterranean, we journey to the bottom of Krubera Cave—the deepest cave on the planet—where explorers went farther underground than ever before 🌌.
In pop culture, we're all about Delta Goodrem's emotional return to the ARIA Awards stage after her battle with cancer 🎤, only to find herself in the headlines with a rumored love triangle featuring Paris Hilton 😲💔. Speaking of drama, Ashlee Simpson had a major lip-sync fail on SNL and tried to dance her way out of it (spoiler: it didn't work) 🎶🙈.
We also revisit the launch of Battlestar Galactica, the sci-fi series that had everyone questioning their humanity 🤖🌌. Plus, we take on the controversy surrounding The Biggest Loser and its extreme approach to weight loss 🏋️😰.
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 2004. Your polyphonic ringtone habit is sending you broke. George W Bush is sworn in for a second term, and in spite of everything going on, the most controversial thing is a wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl. T -, 20 rewind 20 years with Joe and Mel.
Ohh 17 October 2004.
-20.
The rest is history.
You know what? I'm very forgetful 20. Hello.
There. Stop trying to make fetch happen.
What are we waiting for?
This is harder than I thought it would be.
My fellow Americans.
Let's roll.
Climb aboard our hot take time machine as we unfurl another episode of T -. 20, the podcast that rewinds 20 years to this week back in 2004 with your host Joe and Mel. Hello, Mel.
Hello how are?
You. I'm good. How are you?
I'm good. How's the weather?
This is great to hear. Why do you? Ask I'm always.
I don't know. I just thought it just well, you asked me how I was and then I thought I'd I probably.
Suspicious when you ask how I am.
Should ask you. Feels a bit.
Ohh I didn't, I just. I just said hello, but how are you?
You weren't expecting an answer? Ohh. OK, well, just yeah, good. 17 to 23 October 2004 that's where.
We are right now Margaret Hassan fell in love with Iraq 35 years ago when she travelled there with her Iraqi husband, Tahsin Ali Hassan.
But.
Margaret has dedicated herself and her life to helping people through her humanitarian work.
This was a big kidnapping in Iraq. Margaret Hassan, you might remember the name. It is a terrible story. We will look at that in the news.
Well, horrible story.
Today.
Laura is not the weakest link. This is a girl that is physically capable, that is strong, that doesn't have injuries, that is athletic and yet everybody perceives her as the. Weakest link. Why?
Ohh Jillian Michaels ranting and raving. I miss her on the TV.
Ohh.
I do. But then retrospectively looking at this show 20 years.
On Ohh has it aged well. Ohh dear.
No, it hasn't. It hasn't. And some of the things that have come to light over the. Years as well.
We will talk about the biggest loser a little bit later on.
Moments ago, this ship received the word. Of a Cylon attack against our home worlds is underway. The world is over.
The world is over. One of the greatest science fiction series ever made this I I loved this show so much that I binged, watched it twice, and I I've gone back to some of my favourite episodes.
Ohh you love. One, don't you? I was going to say I'm sure you've watched. It from the start of the times. Yeah.
Watch them again. That's how good it is and tell you what it takes a pretty damn good TV show to do that. So we'll talk about that a bit later on as well.
Yeah.
Is that said in the future? Yeah, what year?
Well, it's, it's not so much the future of Earth, it's it's on a different planet. We'll get to it. We'll get to it. It's it's it's science fiction. So I know that you're gonna probably kind of zone out, but what work. See. There you go. You've done it again.
It's in different time zone. I I wanna go back to the past though.
How are you? Play. Yeah. Good. Thank you.
Great, thanks. How are you going back to the past, I saw a really nice thread the other day on the old socials, people born before 2000. Ohh yes, definitely. What trivial skill do you have that no one uses anymore?
Yeah.
Right, yeah.
Ohh.
And I I read it. And I thought, hmm. But Oh my gosh, as I scroll through I'm going.
So many things, so many things.
Yes, tick tick yes.
Yeah, well, So what trivial skills do you? Have.
Alright, knowing how to get there. Ohh, did you memorise directions when you were when I first got my licence? If it was within the same region, the same state I'd memorised, I'd be this street. This street, this street, I'd remember left on this street, right on that street.
Yeah. Yeah. That's well. That's hard. Yeah. In a country town, that's OK. When you had to go to Sydney, though, you'd have to have a copilot. You'd need the gregorys.
That was the gregorys. No, that was the gregorys. And you tab the gregorys. Remember tabbing it? Yeah, we wrote numbers on the tabs. It was a good time. And then you had MapQuest where you could print out the directions off the Internet. And then whenever? When GPS's came in, the little devices, it was, I think it was around 2010. There was a.
I did remember driving to Sydney with you in the early 2000s, yeah. Yeah.
Stage where people were breaking into cars, stealing them. Remember that they were like windows, were being smashed, and they'd steal your NAV man out of the car and now it's just it's just.
The GPS's? Yeah, the NAV veins.
Integrated into your car.
This part of your car now, yeah.
Kids these days wouldn't even know how to read.
But.
A map.
That's right. Back in our day, we just knew how to get there. And do you know what that actually is? Has has fared very well for me knowing how to get there and having that hard wired into my brain. Because even when I've gone somewhere, stayed somewhere on a vacation or whatever, even in New York City, I have gotten blind.
But what I don't. Why?
Yes.
Hmm.
Drunk in some of these strange places and still found my way back to the hotel.
Yes. So come home.
You still?
Know how to find north, but I don't understand then why these car integrated things even bother putting up the map when it's just shouting at you to turn now because no one, they speak nicely.
They don't shout, they they speak in a nice, you know, gentle voice. I mean, I'm sure you could download a shouty person that.
OK, fine. Sometimes it feels a bit racist.
Goes turn right.
Maybe.
But I don't know why they bother putting up the map, cause not like anyone can read them. Alright, let's move on. Yes, memorising important phone numbers 131166 Pizza Hut delivery 131241. That was Pizza haven.
Ohh that's that's crucial. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, 4811111 I think it was pizza delivery in Sydney.
OK.
Or the southern highland.
Call 807155. That was the men from.
Mini skips. Ohh, there you go that. Sorry.
If you needed to skip anybody.
I thought you said memorising important.
That's important, but I would I would not. I knew back in the day I knew all of my friends phone numbers. I still remember them.
You never know when you'll need a skip.
And I remember because you know how over time more people move to a city and they add more numbers because it used to be the area code and then the area code becomes part of the number. So I remember this. Yeah, because we started.
Yeah. That's right. We had to get extra numbers in the in the phone book, yeah.
With we started with three and then we went to.
Yeah.
2-3 then we went to 623. It just kept it just kept evolving, but I still caught up with it. I knew I knew all my friends numbers. I knew all my aunties numbers and I knew my grandparents phone numbers, so there was at least, I'd say probably 15 numbers that I can still I still remember them. I'm not going to say them now.
Yeah, I reckon.
I don't want people ringing my.
No, of course. I I can remember because we moved a lot so.
Aunties.
I can remember several of the phone numbers that we had in the places that we moved to.
Do you know my mobile number off by heart? Yes, I know. Yours. Yes, I. Know yours, but I don't know. I don't think I know I. Know my sisters.
I also.
But I don't know anyone else's. Mobile number by heart.
I also know my credit card number off by heart, and I know the password to the Wi-Fi off by.
Heart you do that was impressive, the. Other day actually I was like good. Now I don't have to stand up and walk.
Yeah, yeah. And I I feel like I don't know, that just fills me with a little bit of hope and confidence that maybe I I.
To the fridge and get the magnets.
Won't suffer from anything like cause. My brain still retains that sort of information.
Hmm.
It'd be interesting to see what.
I hope that that that later in life that that's still like that.
Yes, I'd love to do a study around what impact that has on memory cause I when I when I studied at university, we would often have to read journals and you weren't allowed to borrow the journals from the library. And often the journals were at the different universities. So I'd have to jump on three buses and go from 1 university.
Hmm.
Yeah. Right.
To the other university and I'd go and look at the journal and you'd have to buy a photocopy card, which costs $2.00, and that was a lot of money.
To see the journals. Yeah.
Me a lot of money in those days.
Mm-hmm.
But the freedom that came with that $2.00 to photocopy was, I mean.
So. Well, no, what I'd do is I'd read the journal and I'd memorise the information in the journal. So I didn't have to pay $2.00 for a photocopy card. Then I'd get back on the bus, and then I'd go back to my own uni and. Then I'd write. Down the notes so I do feel like.
Really.
I'm gonna have a good memory later in life.
Why don't you take the notepad with you on the bus?
Yeah. That's a.
Good point. Yeah, well, I guess at least you knew how to get there as well.
That's a really good point.
Anyway, well, I know how to get there. Reading a clock with hands. Is that really a thing that people don't know how to do now, surely?
So that's great, right? Ready. I don't read with my hands, I I don't. I'm not blind.
Reading a clock with hands.
Ohh OK sorry I yes.
Like analogue time, is there people that can't?
Yes. I.
Get it?
Do that really.
I believe so. I believe there is. Yeah. Yeah. Like if the.
Really.
Big hands pointing at the 12 and the little hands pointing at the three they.
I learnt I learnt reading a clock with hands the hard way with Mrs Huber in Year 1 because if you didn't do you, did you ever have the? It was like a date stamp, but it was a clock face. So they come over and they put it in the ink pad and it was a clock face and they'd stamp it in your exercise book and they'd go draw. Yeah, draw 6:15.
Ohh yeah. And they'd say draw like 3:45. Yes.
And Mrs Huber in Year 1, if you didn't draw your clock face within something like 15 seconds, you'd Get your ear.
Yeah, really.
I think she got her teaching revoked eventually because she pulled a lot of ears. She pulled an earring out of an ear once so, but but but I as a consequence, I can read a clock with hands very quickly. Very, very quickly. Yes, I think that's a good way to learn fear.
For pulling your ears. Oh, that's graphic. Yeah. Yeah. Out of fear. Out of fear. Hmm. Yeah. I think I had a teacher be, like, draw happy hour. And but that would have been about probably 9:30 AM because we stressed her out a lot. And I'm fairly certain that she was taking sips from her hip flask under the. Desk.
Are the trivial skills setting up, leaving and checking voicemails? Do people not know how to do?
Ohh.
What?
Setting up a voicemail. Ohh, you know what? I have not set up my voice mails for about 20 years. I wonder how young my voice sounds. I should call myself and find out.
You still the same mom?
OK, probably.
Hi me it's me.
Yeah.
How to set up a VCR?
Ohh to tune it in manually.
People but people.
People born after 2001 even. Know what a VCR is and.
Well, why I?
It's not a skill that you'd need. Why would?
Don't. It's it's not an adaptable skill. You don't need that.
You need that. Anymore course handwriting. Did you do modified cursive handwriting?
What's that? Modified curse. I know that was just the book.
Cat, we had it in year 3 after you got your pen licence, you did modified cursive writing in. A book.
No, I could still, I could still write personally.
And cause I was left handed my cursive sloped the wrong way and I had. To stay in at little lunch.
You're backward. Cursive.
Yeah, I had a sore ear from doing my clocks too slow and.
Also left handed and I I didn't mind cursive, but I found that I used to. I used to always come home with a blue ink stain all the way down my pinky finger from dragging along the page, and I'd smudge everything. It was incredibly vexing.
My cursor was. Ohh and your hands. Yes. Ohh I know, I know I. Fixing CDs at skip.
Ohh like by taking them out and cleaning them. You mean the fingerprints off them? Wasn't there something where you could draw on a scratch on a CD with texture or something and then it would fix it as well? Or am I imagining that?
Rubber. Yeah, rubbing his shirt over the fingerprint. I think that's the whiteboard when someone draws in permanent pen and then you write over it with whiteboard and then you can get.
It off? Well, that's another skill. That's another one, though. Well done, great.
Ohh, people don't use my boards now. This is like the the smart. Board, isn't it?
Yes.
How to get a Nintendo cartridge to work by blowing inside of it? Tying your shoes, getting your TV antenna to pick up the perfect signal.
By blowing into it. Yeah.
So many so many.
TV antennas were always an interesting one.
So many. And then the last one on the on the. Scroll just says.
This what's that say, people born.
No, this just the picture, the boondoggle. This is a skill that people.
Ah.
Don't have anymore boondoggle.
To make boondoggles, I don't think I ever knew how to make them in the first place. Ohh the skate S thing that used to draw. Yeah.
Or the S remember the S the skate S yes. But I did see a version of it the other day that looked 3D. We never got to the 3D.
Really.
We just had two DS. Never did the yeah.
Yeah, that's wizard level. That's that's. That's when they, when they when Judgement Day comes and they need to sort people out.
3D's. A bit wow. If you can do the 3DS, you stay.
If you can draw a 3DS you you'll end up in a good place. And if you can't do a 3DS, you'll be in the bad place. Let's do the hatches, matches and dispatches. Glue. Nobody's going to any good or bad place this week. We did. We had terrible dispatch last week with with Christopher.
Oh.
Yeah, that sucks.
Leave this week. It's a celebrity who's having a birthday. Ohh. Nothing like a birthday to kind of just clear the air and bring a little bit of happiness into the world. A celebrity that said this.
Search search.
I just woke up in in gaol with a bunch of penises on my forehead. Ohh.
We've all been there.
This is one more time just in case you missed it.
I just woke up in in gaol with a bunch of penises on my.
Hmm.
Have you had? That happen. Wake up when someone's grown. On your head. No. Ohh you haven't.
No, no, I'm pretty good. I I'm usually. I come close to being the last man standing. There's probably only gonna. There's a couple of occasions where I have not been the last man standing and and and. And thankfully people have been a lot kinder than I would have been.
OK. You're the one drawing it.
Let's do the news and on the 19th of October, international aid worker Margaret Hassan is kidnapped in Iraq. At the time, she was the country director for Care International, which was a major humanitarian organisation. Yeah, yeah, she was highly respected and well known in Iraq, having lived there for over 30 years, she could speak fluent Arabic, and her kidnapping drew a massive amount of attention.
I remember them. Yeah, we used to make their. Hats.
Due to a humanitarian work and dedication to the Iraqi. People now. She was abducted on her way to work and the government forced her out of a car in Baghdad. She was held hostage by a group that made various demands.
Margaret Hassan fell in love with Iraq 35 years ago when she travelled there with her Iraqi husband Tahsin Ali Hassan. At Keras at Marguerite.
Margaret has dedicated herself and her life to helping people through our humanitarian work. She is Iraqi and she was born to help the Iraqi people.
She was Dublin born but held three passports, Irish, British and Iraqi. She stayed in Iraq throughout the war, working as the head of the Iraqi section of Care International. Hassan was kidnapped in 2004.
Been caught and maybe we will die. I will die like Mr Biggley, please.
Please beg of you, I beg of you, please. Ohh, that's terrible.
That is chilling. Hearing the the the her talking on the actual video, it's horrible.
Yeah, she was abducted while she was on her way to work. They forced her out of her car in. Baghdad and she was then held hostage by a group that made various demands through video, and obviously that we heard part of it there. Several videos were released showing her pleading for her life and I think ultimately what they wanted to achieve was the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. And she also urged the UK government. To end its involvement in the conflict. And close its embassy in Baghdad.
I mean, that was it's never gonna happen. Like never gonna happen. And there were lots of international appeals for her release, including police from the British and Irish officials and even the Pope and and and people from Iraq who had benefited from her humanitarian work that she'd done over there as part of Care International.
Hmm.
That's right. The Organisation Care international immediately suspended operations in Iraq following her abduction, expressing shock and concern for her safety. And then we get to November 2004 after weeks of uncertainty there, there were attempts to negotiate her relief. But a video emerges in November showing the apparent execution of Margaret, and it was never released to the public. But it did confirm that she had been shot, obviously leading to widespread condemnation and sorrow. But her body was never found, and many details around her death obviously unknown.
Yeah, even the motivation behind the kidnapping, like, why did they do it? There was there was never clear and then and the subsequent murder even less clear.
Hmm.
And that she'd been living there that long. And what she was.
Yeah. And. But she's doing humanitarian work. She had no political ties whatsoever.
Doing for the.
People, yeah.
It was just, I think, the fact that they'd identified that she was a British and Irish citizen and and they were able to. They thought that that would be the way to sort of send a message. She really.
Yeah, yeah.
Was, I guess, a martyr in that regards amongst a lot of people in the international aid community because she dedicated her whole life to helping the Iraqi people and it just goes to show how dangerous it is when you go to these conflict zones, you know, it prompted a lot of discussions on security risks involved in humanitarian efforts in Iraq. I mean the time of some pretty intense conflict following that invasion in 2003. People might want to go off and, you know, save the world and do all that sort of stuff. But the the the flip side of that is, you know, you're. Not. Untouchable or invincible, especially in the face of some of these enemies that are emerging these days like they're they're their ethics are very different. There's no there's no real rules of engagement. Like if they kidnap you and you don't meet their demands or you the people that they're asking don't meet their demands, then you're dead, which is very, very sad. Now let's go to some more.
Hmm.
I guess, well, these are people that are risking their lives as well for stupid reasons, really. I mean, I guess it's like they see a hole in the ground and they're like, I want to go and find out what's on the bottom of that.
Hmm.
Alright then go in there. Squeeze myself through that crack. Why not?
Yeah, well, they were squeezing through a lot of cracks on the 19th of October when a team of explorers reached the bottom of the Krubera cave in Abkhazia, Georgia. It is the world's deepest cave. It's known as the Everest of Caves, in fact.
Lots of friends. Hmm.
That's deep.
With the depth of two kilometres. Just or a little bit over 2 kilometres.
Ohh.
It doesn't sound that deep. When you put it that way.
Well, you walked. That's that. That's from here to the lake. You know, from our house to the lake, that's two case.
Ohh OK.
We'd get the bends if he came up too quickly, and it was. In the water. Yeah, fair enough.
Well, exactly. This is Krubera cave. The Cave was discovered in 1960 and has since been explored by numerous expeditions revealing a fascinating underground world. The Cave has a total depth of 7208 feet, making it the deepest known cave on Earth. To put this in perspective, The Cave is deeper than the height of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Exploring Krubera cave is not for the faint of heart. The Cave is challenging to navigate and requires experienced cavers and advanced equipment. The journey to the bottom of The Cave. And takes several days and requires passing through narrow passages, steep drops and underground rivers.
I don't know why. I don't know why the narrator in that sounds like the like a an English translated character from a Japanese anime.
Oh, OK. You put that in perspective. That's an AI, isn't it? I feel like that's an it's a name where where you didn't describe the accent very well.
Ohh, probably I don't know. I I was just desperate for something and that was basically the best I could find. So there you go.
But it did.
It did put it in perspective when he said Burj Khalifa. I'm like, well, that is deep. OK, I take, I take back that comment around 22 kilometres and that is deep. That's deep when you're looking at a cave in the dark.
Yeah, it's pretty deep. It's pretty deep.
And lots of narrow passages. And yeah, it's there's vertical drops. There's large chambers, there's underground streams. So it was.
Yeah, yeah. Quite dangerous. Ohh, it's terribly dangerous. I mean they I have you see videos of people caving.
Where where they're going. When they are on their forearms and they're dragging themselves along and they, yeah, they're pulling themselves along and they're sort of squeezing through and they don't know they're trying to squeeze through this little hole and they don't know where they gonna end up on the other side. Yeah. And they don't.
Oh, oh, they're trying to flatten themselves to get through cracks. Yeah.
Know if going. To be able to. Get back through the hole. That's stresses me out.
Yeah, yeah. And it's just like, you know, it's the point where, like, I've just gotta take my backpack and my pants off so that I can get through this gas. Yeah. It's, it's that is hideous.
That's so stressful. Yes, yes, gotta loop myself. Often shoot through it.
And then there's all these viral stories. You see, if people that get stuck in these caves and they, they die there, it's it's well.
They die. How do you get?
Why did you stick your head in there in?
The first place? Yes. Well, snakes. I always feel like the snakes. What was that in the Temple of Doom where they were in a cave.
You know. Ohh yeah, Raiders of the Lost Ark. He falls into a pit of snakes. Yeah, yeah, stats bugs, all sorts of hideous things. They actually discovered a new species of bug in this particular cave. Yeah, it's it's, it's so The Cave itself is like 2.2 kilometres above sea level. But when you go.
Or something with lots of snakes in the pits. One of those pits. Of I feel like there's snakes. Ohh great. Good on them.
Do to the deepest point of The Cave, you're actually below sea level, so.
It could fill with water and you could. Drown as well. Well, fabulous.
There's lots of plot. There's like underground lakes and rivers and stuff in there as well.
Right.
It's.
Got lots of entrances too. It had 6. I saw there was a person who took a photo of themselves at each of the six entrances and I thought they were naked in the photos, but they were in Karki, but they looked naked and I was like, why are you standing at the opening of these caves in the nude? And then I realised it was just a very light beige. It was the same colour as their skin.
Yes. Oh really?
Hmm.
It was very unfortunate.
Yeah, right. This is lather themselves with baby oil, so they could just slide through there.
Very unfortunate. Through exactly. Aerodynamic.
The.
Dynamics. So in the 60s when they discovered it, there were some Ukrainian spelunkers that explored it somewhat spelunkers. So they go spelunking to the cavings called spelunking. Yeah, you go spelunking.
Is that what it's? You're a spelunker.
That just sounds great. Yeah. So. Ohh, got, you know, covered myself in. Covered myself in baby oil and slid into The Cave and ended up with spelunk all over me. No, that's not what it is. Stop. You're gonna offend all the spelunkers. It's not a sexual thing.
Mother Spelunk now. I'm in the nude at the entrance and. Off I go to spelunk. OK. We do have, we do. Have a a high concentration of spelunkers that do listen so I apologise. Sorry spelunkers.
Yes. To our spelunking. Keep this belongs to yourself, so the spelunkers they. They conducted this, it was very difficult. There's lots of tight spaces and it's it's humid in there too. Yes. And you need. Yes and you need.
Yes.
There's frigid.
Good caving equipment to get in there? There's it's because it's multi stages. So like you've gotta kind of dive and then cave and then dive and then cave. And it it actually.
You need multiple skills.
Well, this these guys, it took them a couple of weeks to get to the bottom. They had five tonnes of equipment that they took down with them as well.
How did you get?
What? Well, that's maybe they. Maybe it's it's a lot of baby oil from Costco. Just slide all that **** through the code and they had to. They had in some places they actually had to blast rubble from passengers that were narrowed or or blocked by what they call Boulder chokes.
How did you spelunk that? That's heavy. Ohh. No thanks. If you can't get through there and you have to block, that's a sign. To just. Go back home. This is the.
Yeah, I'm just like I'm uh.
Most pack up. Let's pack up. We're going.
I wonder what side.
To game the bottom of that hole like I just don't wander that bad.
Oh, let's just blow it. Set up great idea.
I mean, I don't know what the, what the point is, what they would. Ohh it goes all the way to China. You're in Georgia? Yeah. They said they say camps. They had camps at 700 metres deep 1.2 kilometres deep 1.4 kilometres and 1.6 kilometres deep and that's where they would sleep and cook food and then further explore. And there's like 20 hours of work to set these camps. Up at a stretch that took ages and then they had a a rigging like 3 kilometres of rigging. It was. That was strung with like a telephone wires, basically like the tin can.
It's intense.
Yeah, to talk. To the surface. Yeah, and. And so they get to August and September and they've got some pretty big obstacles. And the third week, like a flooded package passage, blocks blocks for you. Well, it's better than a flooded package.
Hello, are you there? Nothing worse than a flooded passage.
Just you just do some spelunking and you'll clear that that out no problems. And then finally, finally, Dennis Cutter and Dimitri Fedotov squeeze through this narrow 100 metre long passage. They.
Ohh.
Dennis demetri.
Squeeze.
Through it. And they bypass the sump and they go down and do they go down in October, a team of nine of them were sent back to pick up where those people in the 60s left off, right? Mm-hmm. And they examined all the leads in the caves lower section, and they broke through to a new series of passages and vertical pits. And they found the bottom on the 19th of October.
Hmm.
The team leader by the name of Yuri Kajan dropped down a pit and discovered from his altimeter that he had gone further than two kilometres, so they found more pits and passages. They went to a set. They found a sandy champ.
Wow, I'm very. Was there snakes?
That was at about 2080 metres, which is the deepest to date that anyone's gone, although apparently there are gold miners in South Africa that go to about 3.4 case, but this is a caving thing. So they christened the Chamber game over, that's what.
I reckon that had a snake.
What?
They call it.
Ohh cause they've got to the end.
And before, before 2004, nobody had ever explored a cave to.
The end stage.
That depth. So that's.
Well, because no one was that stupid, yes.
Yeah. Yes. No. Well, it did greatly expand the understanding of the depth potential of Earth's cave systems. Yeah, it also showcased the extreme nature.
Why would you do that? Right.
Of spelunking or spillage Y and the technical.
It puts spelunking on the map to that grace. Fantastic.
Yeah. And the technical capabilities that you need to Splunk in these environments.
Just belong.
Because we all needed to know. More about spelunking.
Yes, all that talking about exploring depths, we might as well talk about some music.
Let's dive in. Let's dive deep, deep dive.
Dive in. Let's spelunk. Our way across to the charts.
Alright, we'll start with the UK. So Robbie Williams was number one last week, but Eric? And he's like or have come back with a. Vengeance this week.
Umm, that'll make you spelunk.
Over in the US, this is what the top. Five sounded like.
Don't dance. Just pull up my pants. Do the rock away. Lean, lean, lean.
Hello.
I find it perplexing that. The goodies I think it's because the goodies you always want. What you can't have and I think the reason why goodies is number one is because they stay in the jar. That's what I think.
German Amber Daryl Lee and.
Yeah, I do remember Darrell Lee delicious chocolates.
Do you remember they had a a jar? I think it was called the Bo Peep Jar and it was a little jar.
Hmm.
And it was shaped like this, kind of like a women's hourglass figure.
Like an hourglass? Yeah, with the boiled lollies in it.
And it had the little tiny boiled lollies I loved, though they were the goodies in the jar for me.
Yeah. Did you like those?
Well, there was probably out of the flavours. I liked the mint and the ones the white ones with the green stripes were mint and there were a few that were white with a red stripe that were mint.
Yeah.
And then there was most of. The rest of them were. Horrible, but I loved them. I loved them. They were like the goodies, goodies in the jar and if I was good, I was allowed.
Boiled lollies.
Settings.
To have them.
You are a an 85 year old woman trapped in a. 50 year old woman's body.
They were delicious and they were small enough just to enjoy his boiled lollies are.
Yeah.
Too big, generally spanking.
Yeah, you keep them in your handbag and.
But then offer them.
The children.
But then if you had them in summer, they'd sweat and they'd get stuck together, and then you couldn't get the goodies out of the jar cause the goodies did stay in the jar because they sweat it and turned.
Ah, there's nothing worse than us.
Into one big goodie.
Yeah.
They got stuck in the Bo Peep jar.
Smash the glass around it and. Just.
Geez, that would glimpse my Pape. Hmm. Anyway, great.
Have a giant goodie.
Still number one. Yeah. My book #2. Lean back. #3 lose my breath has moved up to #4 Nelly. My place is out. See you later. And marone 5. It's coming back in.
Yes. Yes. Have just slid back into the chart. Slithered even back into the charts. Ohh.
Slumped back in.
Yeah. So let's go to the Australian charts. We've got a number one over in the Australian charts. DD goes to number one in Australia without of the blue.
Ah, our delta, yes.
Yeah.
I can't see you without you.
And this.
No way.
You do have to give it to delta. Well, people give it to delta all the time. I actually kind.
Hi, James.
Of feel bad for her.
But.
She has a musical style that I would say is not really compatible with a lot of the other popular music of the day.
What are you saying? It's a bit. Different but nice, yeah. She's very ballady, isn't she? Very ballady.
She's kind of like, ohh, I'd buy that CD for Nana for Christmas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yet she's charting at #1. So good for.
My mum.
Yes.
Her. Yes. This is the lead. Single for her second studio album, Mistaken Identity. This was the big comeback for her because she had taken a a pretty big break from music due to.
Yes.
Battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma that a type of cancer so she. Taken a year or so off and we had, was it innocent eyes? The first album?
Yes.
That just went crazy.
Ohh, people were mad for delta when innocent eyes came out.
Well, then she got sick and we didn't really hear from her. And then we found out that she was sick. And then this was her big her big comeback debuts at #1, obviously on the Aria charts, as we've just shown you, and remains there for a few weeks certified platinum. There was also some news about her. That wasn't so great.
Hmm.
This week, 20 years ago, you remember she was going out with Mark Philippoussis the Pooh.
The Scud, the Scud, the the Australian tennis player, for anyone who's playing at home, who's not sure who the poor or the Scud is.
The scud. Yes, my Philip pieces. Do you remember his reality show? I had to write a promo for that and I thought I was so smart. It was it was. No.
Ohh.
What was that called? Was he? Was he just the bachelor? No.
It's ace of love because of, you know, tenants. Yes. And it was the Cougars. So there was an A group of older women, and the younger women. And it's like, who will he choose? Remember we wrote we I think you helped me. We wrote a promo and it was like he crossed the delta.
Ice of love with the Scud. That's right. Yes.
He spent a night in Paris.
Oh God.
But this time, could the Scud be playing just for love? Ohh it was great. I thought it was great.
How do you remember that?
Because I I. Just I was so proud. I was so.
Yeah. Well, the whole cause, the whole Paris thing was that he.
Proud, so proud of that. And this is what we're coming to right now. So this week, 20 years.
Yeah.
Ago Paris Hilton, so there was must have been a radio station competition where they gave away the opportunity. God, I would have loved this. I would have loved to have won this. You could win a shopping date with Paris and Nicky Beverly Hills. And so two women from Melbourne 1.
Yeah.
Thought.
Hmm.
Yeah. Well.
Hmm.
And they got to do it so. They go over there and they're going shopping. They're in a jeans shop. I. Think and then Paris turns around and she says got a new.
Right.
Man head over heels. I adore him. He's So what? His names Mark Philippoussis.
She told the two competition winners, the radio competition winners.
Well, there was also the media there because it's it was a big deal because she's there.
Ohh the photo opportunity because she's going shopping with some plebs from a radio station.
From radio station.
That's a that's a high risk manoeuvre on Paris's behalf because, well, listeners, definitely, but also, you know, back in the day we have competition winners on radio stations and it's like.
Hanging out with listen listener cake, it's listener. Cake. Yes. No risk.
There's a certain type of person that will spam, will ring up radio competitions relentlessly like they are consumed by it. They do it all day, every day across multiple stations. That is the term that we would call them the prize pig. So a couple of radio prize.
Yes. Yes.
Hmm.
Are you referring to a prize pig? Pigs, But it depends. If he's got a prize. Pig that's excited and screams and gives you the sound bites.
Gives you a good sound bite, yeah.
I don't care. That's great. That's great radio. But if you get the indifferent prize pick who's just like.
Hmm.
Ohh yeah yeah. Then you then you, you weigh you're just like no, mate. You can't have that Delta CD. I'm taking it back.
Yeah, it's. But you don't know what you're gonna get. I can, and I can remember one time when we were working on the radio back in the day, I was still in promotions, and I was driving Black thunders. And there was a huge Christmas hamper showcase thing that we gave away that was like white goods. And was there a car? I don't think there was a.
No, you don't. You don't.
Car. But there was white. That's.
What are you price is right.
Lots of bits and pieces, and the and the winner. The winner of this showcase. So I had to go and deliver it all in the back of the car. It was like and there was a couple of trips like it was a coup.
White goods. I don't remember white goodies.
Trips. So the winner, the winner was from the flats at Bernie courts in Lyons, and for for for anyone who doesn't know, burn Bernie courts Bernie courts in lines in the ACT was a housing estate or a housing Commission block of flats.
No. Well they. Probably needed it. They probably needed some white. Goods.
Hmm.
And all the all the pizza delivery places, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Eagle boys at the time. All of them refused to go to Bernie courts.
Someone I went to uni with accidentally rented a place there. Hmm. Not knowing what it. Was cause they came from.
What Bernie thoughts worth? Yes. Yeah.
Interstates and they said. I just found all. Of these things in the communal laundry, so I think I'm gonna. Have to move.
Yes, yes. There's lots of there was. There's lots of drug use and stuff in there, so there's lots of things to be found in burning courts and interestingly.
Things, not the. Yes, yes.
So you delivered white goods to Bernie courts. Nice.
Yeah, and. And then and interestingly, all of those white goods showed up in cash, converters sold a lot of it. So their prize exactly, but that's what I'm saying. It's a high risk.
Ohh fair enough. If I've already had some, doesn't matter. What they can do, what they like. You never.
Louvre to as a celebrity to go. Yeah, I'll do a shopping spree with a bunch of radio winners.
Right.
Well, remember we gave. Well, not you. But I remember we gave away when your height in CD's. And it was a tall guy that won, but he just he was so indifferent. He's just like, ohh yeah. And I think you came with me to go and get the CD's from sanity with him. And we were trying to get a sound bite to send back because it's like, oh, well, OK. Well, maybe you'll be a.
Couldn't give it. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Bit more excited IRL.
When he, when he actually sees his heightened CD.
So you were there with like the mini discs and I I recall you actually saying, would you like to sound?
Yeah.
A little bit more excited.
Yeah.
I was like, hey, hey, look, you've just won your heightened CD's. What do you reckon, head? Yeah. And he just like, Yep, Yep.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Would you like to sound more excited? No. Yeah, that was a.
Hmm. Hmm.
Good time. So Paris.
Yeah.
Is is is doing community service. She might have got some cake as well. Who knows. So she she decides to share that she is going out. As Mark, which is news to delta because. Delta is also still going out.
Just say hey and that's my man. What do you mean? He's he's he's double dipping.
With Martha's point, yes. Well, she had. She had receipts. She showed an SMS picture. Yeah, of him with no top on, so it must.
Rush.
Have been Paris. Yes, must have been. Must have been legit. So then yeah, it hit the tabloids. It was in the the Sydney Morning Herald and they asked Delta for comments and say anything, but then it was revealed a few weeks later that they had in fact split.
Hmm.
But the poo, the Scud Philippoussis, was interviewed many, many, many, many years later on Nova Radio and.
Yeah.
Well, he reckons he.
Set the record straight.
Is that with Fitzy and Whipper?
Yes.
What was tougher carrying that log or carrying Paris Hilton in that relationship?
Ohh that is.
Was that?
A personal.
Question. I mean they were pretty wild days back then, weren't they?
Well, like he's. You know, I don't know what to say to that, but first of all, that nothing ever happened. There nothing ever happened. So what do you mean? I thought you and Paris were like. So. Could have been. No way, no, that have made up something to sell. Some newspapers and magazines. No. Like, come on. I couldn't have made it out to look like the bad guy could have. Ohh no. Can you give?
Sorry.
Wow. So he completely denied. Any relationship with Paris?
I believe him. I I'm sure they got it on. I'm sure they did. In 2000, there was big news. There's big news. I don't actually like the way that they were referring to it. It's the way they were referring to Paris in that interview. Yeah. Feels like it's still 2004.
You reckon?
Well, the. Way that people spoke about Paris in. 2004.
We wrote that promo saying that he'd spent the night in Paris.
It's been a. But that was the name. Of the film.
Hmm, it was.
And we wrote the promo in. Probably like 2006.
Yeah, we were bottom feeders.
We were, yes. I do regret it now. Yeah, but it's interesting that in an interview these days.
Well, I don't. I don't think you should regret it, because you would have somebody breathing down your neck to actually produce some kind of promo, you know. Hmm. So you probably had a several attempts. I reckon you probably went through.
They're still talking like that.
That was a.
Good word plan. Is he playing just for love? Is he playing just?
Knowing you, that's right, knowing you, knowing you, I think you would have gone for a more highbrow or.
For love, that's good. I thought that was good.
And then you probably started to do a little bit of a deep dive into the kind of audience that you were producing this work for, which is and I'm not saying it's the people who perhaps watched the show, although I could be, but also the people who are approving the promos and you went lowest common denominator and they went, that's fantastic. And you went, Yep, played you like a deck of cards.
They. Actually, when I resigned, somebody sent me an email going. I'll always remember that promo that you wrote.
That one.
Yes, that was the one they remembered, right? I personally liked the.
Really. Yes.
Heroes in a nutshell, to the tune of heroes in 1/2 Shell and it was a recap of heroes. I thought that was my best work, but.
Ohh. From the the show, he writes. Yeah, heroes in a nutshell, that was pretty good.
Yeah, I thought that was my best work, but no. Apparently the the the Paris Scud 1 was so anyway, so they've broken up. But then an an official statement comes out a few days later saying that.
Yeah.
They'd spoken on the phone before the RES, which we'll get to in a moment before the RE awards. So just before the RE awards and agreed to end their relationship, she's performing at the Arias. Let me come back after being sick. Yeah. Why would you break up over the phone just before the?
Yeah. Yep.
Hours.
I don't know. See like the single is called out of the blue. And if she's blindsided by the Pooh out of the blue? And you put two and two together and you think, what did he do? And he's like, well, he went over to Paris Hilton and he had a screw. And I'm just freestyling here.
What did he do? It's just, yes, it's it's all adding up, isn't it?
Yeah. Umm, but it was before the areas and the Arias kicked off on the 17th of October. The 2004 Arias, now the Arias. The Arias. The Arias is terrible. Is terrible, are terrible.
OK, say what you do. Ohh plural. Umm. Well, I don't know. Is Arias singular?
What's the Aria awards?
Aria award. So it's plural, the Arias. Are. Yes, that's correct.
Oh, terrible. But I I would say that they were trying here. They were trying to lift the RV. Is by having the most popular TV host in the country at the time. Host it with Rove. McManus.
Ohh right. Yes. OK, that's yeah. Let's move. I think roving Entertainment actually produced it that year. His company.
Yes, and they'd put it on at the Sydney Superdome. I think they did, which kind of lifted the production values of it as well. And the best thing about the Arias is that you can go over to their YouTube channel and they do the Arias in 2 minutes and then if you don't want to kind of get done for copyright, you might cut that down a little bit more. Which is what I did to a minute and 1/2.
Welcome to the 2004 Aria Awards, the only event on television. I actually tucked myself in for the best.
I said, are you gonna beat my girl?
Goes to Guy Sebastian.
Father Strange thought that I would be here and and I never thought I would be holding one of these things ever in my life.
And the Aria goes to Delta Goodrum.
Thank you so much.
For taking me into your into your world.
And and I can't think about this.
Tonight, that is the Little River bands classic line.
Up. It's a wonderful thing for us to be up here. Thank you. Kindly.
John Butler Trio.
John Butler.
John Butler Trio and told. Music to musicians and music. The people who are making it happen in Australia. Thanks.
To you all.
And now he goes to Casey Chambers for one. You make my life so much fun just buying the albums and coming out to all my shows and. It it really does. Make me one of the luckiest people in the. World incredible. Say man. Jet jet.
Or are you gonna be my?
Jet jet. Are you going to be my girl? I think 11 bunch of people. We've got to thank so far and they're probably the most important. That's a shame. We left it to last. But thank you to everybody who enjoyed the record and everybody.
Take the.
Everybody bought the record.
This to the end of this year's Aria Awards. Congratulations to all of tonight's winners.
That's actually a really good way to consume the areas 90 seconds.
Yeah, I feel like I know everything.
Tight right out of sight. I didn't have to cringe as much as I did when I watched the actual broadcast.
I need to know. Well, do you? You don't remember. There was a bigger night of nights the night before these areas that we actually attended in 2000. And we were in Queensland. I remember sitting in a hotel room very hungover, watching the 2004 Arias.
What?
Ohh.
Because the night before we went to. Radios night of.
Ohh, we went to the Commercial radio award. What was it? Was it? What was it called back then? The raw awards? I think it's like the acres now or.
The. The rewards. Something it's changed names. Remember we stole the Candelabra. It's very nice Candelabra.
That's right. We did. Stop the Candelabra from the rail boards. How did you get that home?
I think that's. What you have to do I put. It under your.
Jacket. That's right. How did we get that home? Cause it was huge. Yeah.
All run on a plane I don't know. I think we disassembled it actually because it.
Yeah, we must have. We must have.
Had lots of. Parts. So that was a bigger night, to be honest.
Well. Well, it's probably as bad as screens. I do remember having a cigarette with Kyle Sandilands at one stage. I don't think he'd remember that.
Ohh an agro remember we spoke to the agro guy and he was telling us the story how we'd left Agro in the back of the car and.
Yes, Jamie Dunn.
The heat and all. These people were worried that aggro. Was fixating in the car.
Yes, yes, yes, he's he's had a bit of a renaissance. Jamie Dunn? Yeah. Bit of a larrikin. Well, yeah, I I think that that was probably as cringe as what the Arias was, to be honest with.
That was good. That was interesting.
Great to him.
He was a lovely. Guy. I liked him. Yeah, it was good.
A bunch of radio people all stand around patting each other on the back. Hey, congratulations.
Great. Great talk break, love your time spent listening.
Well done to you. I'll stop it. Yeah, yeah, you could imagine the bantering.
Would you like some listener cake?
Imagine the banter in the men's toilets for jeez, all those projectors? Hey, I'm just going for a ****.
Yes. Anyway, that's good enough.
Alright, I'll be right back after this quick.
Ohh gosh there was some good projectors back in the day, wasn't there? Wow. Amazing.
Yeah. MMM. MMM, yeah. Coming up next. I'm gonna go outside for a cigarette. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, this is we're talking talk about the we're talking about the Aries, the Aries, big return for Delta. It was all there. You heard it all before. Big House will come back for her. She performed out of the blue live. She won the award for Innocent Eyes and everyone was very emotional about Delta.
For. Arias. Well, there's nothing else to talk about, that's why. I just transitioned to the radio wars.
Hmm.
It was. It was actually very emotional. I do remember, yes, but I was hungover as well, so that might have had something to do with it, but I I did get a little tear. I was like Ohh did you I delta.
It was a standout.
Hmm.
Alright, let's do some music news.
Well, we just did, but let's do some more. We've been building. We've been building the, we've been building the hype for this one for.
More news. There's this and more music news. You know what? Yeah. And I think we, I feel like we peaked too early cause like like now we've arrived at the actual moment in time and I just couldn't.
The. Last probably 14 months. We don't have much to say.
Give about it. I couldn't care.
Less we do need to cover it because it was such a big, big moment in pop culture history and.
All right.
And. Big for all the wrong reasons, but I reckon if it happened today, no. One would give us.
No, they wouldn't care. That's what I'm saying. I don't now. It didn't then.
23rd of. But back then, but back then, it was, it was such a shock and people. Outraged, the 23rd of October 2004, Ashley Simpson is accused. Well, she's not just accused.
I'm outraged.
She was lip.
Caught red handed.
Syncing after a a live performance on Saturday Night Live.
Yes. And this happened after she, as the musical guest on the show had already performed piece. Of me, which was the big hit single and then she goes to the stage to do the second performance of the night, which is probably the, I don't know, a B side or something like called autobiography. Yes, yes. But the band chime in and they start and then the wrong vocal track comes in and it's pieces of me only thing is.
Yes, yes. Autobiography. Well, that's the name of the album as well. So it's the title track.
His the microphone is nowhere near Ashley Simpson's lips, and it's painfully obvious that she's using a backing track. And here it is, in all its horrific glory.
Once again, Ashley Simpson.
On a Monday, I'm waiting Tuesday. I'm waiting.
I like the band are like, ohh, OK, we'll just play that one again.
They started grooving. I actually watched it goes on for quite a while and they were getting.
Yes.
Into it cause. She gets she. She does a stupid dance and walks off, and then they're like, oh, well, let's have a jam.
Does a little dance and then walks. Off. And I reckon I reckon somewhere there's a little bit of. Is it Sheldon fraud? Is that what you? Call. It you know when you're happy that somebody else. Come undone.