Beaconsfield mine rescue - the week Australia couldn’t look away

Rewind to 23 April – 29 April 2006 — and Australia’s glued to a rescue, metalheads are doing emotional homework, Coachella quietly changes music history and horror gets… deeply unsettling.

⛏️ Trapped, televised, unforgettable
An Anzac Day mine collapse in Beaconsfield traps three miners a kilometre underground — and suddenly the entire country is emotionally invested. One miner is tragically found dead, but two are discovered alive days later, surviving in a space the size of a coffee table, singing The Gambler and rationing a single muesli bar. Cue collective national meltdown and wall-to-wall TV coverage like it’s the original binge-watch. 

🎸 Tool drop an album that requires… homework
Tool return after five years with 10,000 Days — a heavy, hypnotic, emotionally loaded beast inspired by loss, grief and existential dread (casual). It debuts at #1, sells big in a pre-streaming world and comes with actual 3D artwork because of course it does. This isn’t background music — this is ‘lie on the floor and think about life’ music.

🤖 Coachella goes from cool to cultural reset
In the Californian desert, Coachella 2006 delivers a lineup stacked with icons — but it’s Daft Punk who quietly change everything. Their debut of the now-legendary pyramid stage turns a DJ set into a full-blown spectacle and basically invents modern EDM festival culture. 

🌫️ Silent Hill ruins your sleep schedule
Silent Hill hits cinemas and delivers peak mid-2000s horror: fog, ash, cults and that deeply unsettling air raid siren. Gamers are shocked (a good adaptation? in this economy?) while everyone else is just trying to process Pyramid Head. Critics are confused, fans are obsessed and over time it quietly becomes a cult classic.

📚 Twins, telepathy and very chaotic reviews
Mary Higgins Clark drops a kidnapping thriller with psychic twin communication — because why not. One child is presumed dead, the other insists she’s alive and honestly… the Goodreads girlies are not having it. Reviews range from “riveting suspense” to “thanks, I hate it,” which feels extremely on-brand for 2006 book discourse.

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

Transcript is generated automatically. 

The year is 2006. We head to the hills and learn reality is scripted. Your Sony Cyber Shot uploads 462 blurry regrets. A Facebook poke makes everything complicated. And Twitter's like, cool story, you've got 140 characters. Go. T-minus 20. Rewind 20 years with Joe and Mel. Week 1223, April 2006. T-minus 20. Bringing sexy back. I want to forgive you. T-minus 20. I hate this long-distance relationship. And I want to forget you. You have no style or some succession. This is a beauty. This is very nice. Yeah, boys. 

Yeah boy, this is T-minus 20, the podcast that rewinds to the exact same week 20 years ago. We're diving into the news, music, movies, tech and pop culture that define the moment or moments thereof. Before algorithms, streaming, before we knew better, but honestly did we know better? Probably not. I still don't know better. If you lived it, then this is your nostalgia hit people. If you didn't, well welcome to the... Chaos with your hosts Joe and Mel, are particularly chaotic this week, wouldn't you say, Mel? 

Definitely. And you know, the algorithm knows me better than I know myself sometimes, particularly with music. I'm like, oh yeah, I do like that song. 

Oh, thanks, algorithm. 

Thank you for telling me that I like that song. It's great. We are rewinding 23rd to the 29th of April 2006. 

Live from Peaconsfield, this is National 9 News with Peter Hitchener. Anxious families keep vigil while a delicate mission to rescue Todd Russell and Brant Webb continues. 

That was one of those where were you when that all happened. The Beaconsfield mining. 

Clearly watching that one. Breakfast television. 

Yeah. 

Midday news updates. Was it a disaster? 

Was it a tragedy? Was it an incident? I mean, you know, somebody died. We'll talk more about that very, very soon. But first this. That's why you should leave your phone in your pocket at concerts. 

I used to sound like when I had the subwoofer turned right now. 

That was offensively loud. 

That hurt my ears. 

Yeah, I don't know that I'm sorry. 

My stomach is churning now. I need to go to the toilet. 

Damaged anybody's audio equipment. That was Daft Punk. Coachella in 2006 debuting the pyramid. We'll talk about some of the other things that debuted. Speaking of, it's not a debut, it's a new album from these guys. Yeah, Tool, the mighty Tool, released their album. I think it was 10,000 Days. That's what it was called. Something like that. We'll discuss that more with a bit more info to back it up a little bit later on in the show. But let's just jump straight into it. Let's do this. The Hatches, Matches and Dispatches segment is of course the thing that we wrap the entire program up with and we have a little clue that we play at the start of the show to kind of hook you through to the thing that we wrap up at the end. It's a hook and a wrap. Got it? Hook wrap. This week it's just a birthday. A celebrity having a birthday that said this. 

Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's A prankster. Think about it. He gives man... instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift. And then what does he do? I swear for his own amusement, his own private cosmic gag reel. He sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look, but don't touch. 

Yes, look, but don't touch him. That's such an easy one. I hope it doesn't invoke the curse because they're getting a bit long in the tooth. We'll talk about it a little bit later on. 

25th of April 2006, we have the Beaconsfield mine collapse here in Australia in Tasmania in Beaconsfield. 

Yeah. 

Happening on Anzac Day 25th. 

That's right, yeah. 

A seismic event, which was a minor earthquake, triggered a rockfall about a kilometre underground. This impacted a mine in Beaconsfield. There were 17 people inside at the time. 14 escaped immediately following the collapse, which left three miners unaccounted for. Larry Knight, 44, Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34. They were the three unaccounted for. 

So these guys are like a kilometre under the ground. And when you think about that, I mean, it's... It's nightmare fuel, absolute nightmare fuel. They're a kilometre underneath the ground doing their work. And, you know, they do blasting and stuff like that. So they're kind of used to a bit of stress down there. But then this minor earthquake causes this collapse. And suddenly, like you said, like 14 of them end up on one side of it. And then three of the others end up underneath the rubble. And we're talking about Larry Knight, Brant Webb and Todd Russell. Larry unfortunately didn't make it. They found his body on the 27th of April. And then the rescue attempts that they were making shifted more from recovery to a survival search. Because they... 

Yeah, at this stage, still not sure whether or not. 

No contact. They'd had no contact. 

Do you remember? 

So I think the news report happened and they were like, well, there's a little chance that those three survived. And everyone was like, okay, that makes sense. mining collapse, you tend to, the odds are stacked against them. But suddenly they discovered that they were alive. Todd and Todd Russell and Grant Webb were alive. And then it was like, well, let's start mounting the rescue plan. So Larry's discovered on the 27th, I think we get to the 29th and 30th of April when they've got this proof of life and they're about to embark on this. 

Brant Webb and Todd Russell may be alive, but the painstaking operation to bring them to the surface is far from over. As locals looked on in anticipation after the euphoria of last night, rescue crews continued their around-the-clock efforts to reach the pair, but it may be 48 hours or even longer before the two men are freed. They're alive 925 metres beneath the surface surrounded by collapsed rock. The first priority is to deliver sustenance through a narrow tube tunnelled into the earth. Rescuers will then continue to chip away inside what will eventually be the exit tunnel. There's 12 metres more to go of this rescue tunnel and that's where the hard rock is and it's... It's just amazingly extreme and complicated and difficult. 

We have still got a very dangerous and volatile situation. We're still a long way from getting the guys to surface, but the circumstances have improved dramatically over the past 24 hours. 

Now they say circumstance, that was Bill Shorten in there. You could hear him talking about it. He was a union guy at the time, I think, and he was present there for the sake of the miners. But you hear them talking about how the situation has improved. And even still, like it's pretty sketchy down there. So I believe there was a tunnel that, or the tremor caused that new tunnel to collapse towards them where they would be. And they were in a vehicle for some description. 

Yeah, they were in the basket at the end of But it's called a telly loader or a telly handler. And they're in a basket at the end of its arm where they'd been applying steel mesh to a barricade prior to backfilling something in there. And so once it collapsed, they're trapped inside that basket still. And it's a tiny space about the size of a coffee table. And they actually, at this stage, aren't sure whether they're going to be found. So they write messages on their clothing in case they die, like messages. to their family. But the rescuers are blasting a new tunnel where they think the other two might be. 

Oh, right, that's how it is. 

And it gets to the 30th. And that's when they hear them shouting, we're in here, which is what the news report then obviously followed that. 

Yeah, so this is like 5 days later. They are in that little basket for five days, that space that is no bigger than a coffee table, no bigger than the table that we kind of are doing this podcast on. There's Two blokes, 2 fully grown men, squished in there for five days. No food, no water. 

Well, they were drinking groundwater, apparently. They were catching it in their helmets. They collected it. 

Not super healthy. 

And they did. They did. One of them had a muesli bar. 

All right. 

One of them had a muesli bar. I think Webb had the muesli bar and he cut it in half to share with Russell. I hope it wasn't banana choc chips. They're gross. 

That's like the worst of the muesli bars. 

They'd agreed to wait 24 hours to eat it, but then added to that time, they kept extending the time. And I think it was the day before they were found, the 29th of April, that they then ate small pieces. That's the worst. 

I hate that feeling. Like, when you're saving sort of the best part of like a chocolate bar. 

Falls on the ground. 

Or like you're eating a kebab and it's got the meat in it and it's still got heaps of onion and sauce and all that sort of stuff. And you're just trying to leave that little piece of meat in the end and then the meat falls out and you're just stuck with this sloppy kind of, yeah. Look, it's probably not a comparable situation if we're being honest. But still, like, you know, this is also five days with no bathroom. It's pretty like horrific, what they're going through. But we get to the 30th of April. So while they're trapped down there, they're trying to entertain themselves and keep past the time. I think they had, they sung the song, the only song they know, which was apparently the Gambler by Kenny Rogers. 

Oh, it's the only song both of them knew the words to. So they decided to sing that. 

They shared that, which would have got tired pretty quickly as well, I would have imagined. 

But then they drill a hole on the 30th of April and they could then add the pipe, which they talked about in that news story as well. And through the pipe, they could then deliver water and food. They actually asked for an iPod as part of their care package. 

Well, then they finally broke through that tunnel too. They could hear them shouting. They're like, we're here, we're here. And they're like, oh my God. Like, I can remember it very distinctly. So from the 30th of April, once the contact has been established, The rescuers are obviously moving through that thing. And I think that they actually were able to reach close enough to shake Todd Russell's hand. So they're able to reach out and touch him. But then there was a massive setback because they were saying that particular route that they had gone through was deemed too dangerous and risky and there could have been another collapse. So they had to go back to the drawing board. So, and this is a thing, it was a massive roller coaster ride. And I remember it at the time. It's like, they got really close. We've made contact. with them. Now we can reach out and touch them, but oh **** like we can't keep going down that further because we might risk another collapse with more people being trapped in there. And so, and that's when, but that's when they use that hole to create the lifeline after that, you were talking about that they, with the contact. And that's when he asked for the iPod. 

Yes. 

So God, you'd be ****** if the only song on it was The Gambler. 

No, they asked for some songs. I think they asked for Foo Fighters. That's right. Evan Bloody Wilson. 

Because then there was the concert with the Foo Fighters. 

Yes. 

I think they got. I mean, yeah. 

They got a radio, they could talk to their family as well. But because it was getting risky, they then had to move to a slower. sort of drilling right. So it was taking a lot longer than what we expected. And I think they were drilling in a different area with rock that was a lot harder. So it was really, really, really slow process. And they had to slow it down to avoid that other collapse. So that was from the 3rd till the 6th of May. 

That's right. So we're jumping. I know it's like it all started in this week, but we're just going to kind of bundle it all up into the one episode and talk about it now rather than prolong it and go through it all again like we did back in the day, if you know what I mean. Because it was just, it was all over the news and it was just such a stressful time. I think we placed a lot of hope in these guys surviving and everyone got so, because of the news coverage, we all got very emotionally attached to Todd Russell and Grant Webb. And you know, I think... But also the fact that they were in good spirits and they were able to communicate with them exacerbated that. And it strengthened that bond that I think the entire country had with them. Because like Todd Russell was making jokes in there about how they were looking, he was looking for a new job, you know, and things like that. 

I think they asked for a pie, didn't they? When they got out of meat pie, it was one of the things that they wanted. 

But also, that's where they broke the news to them once they'd established communication that Larry Knight had passed away, which I think was quite devastating to her. So like you were saying, that rock was a lot harder. Like it was apparently five times harder than concrete, which made it so slow. So then when they hit that, they have to switch to low impact explosives, which I mean, just sounds even more horrific and more dangerous. 

And I think we get to 8th of May, late in the day, there's only a metre between the rescuers and the miners. Imagine that. It's just so close. You just, you just want to get there. But it wasn't until the next day, the 9th of May, that they had the rescue. And I do remember they got the audio of it about, I can see your light. I can see your light too. 

But do you also remember, and this just joggled my memory with that drill going through the hard stuff, didn't the drill bit break? And then they had to then wait for another one to come down. But they had to get another drill bit delivered. I'm sure something like that happened. But yes, the breakthrough on the 9th of May was the big thing where it was, I can see your light. 

And they came out, they didn't come out together either. I remember one was rescued and there was a bit of time between, I think it was, Webb first and then Russell about 5 or 10 minutes later. And they walked on aided, which was incredible. Like, imagine. 

But they came out when they when they actually got to the surface, because this is all still happening at the base of the mine shaft. When they got to the surface, they're obviously in the elevator and they came out together and the joy and the news reports were it was it was a great like. It was a massive triumph. 

They're alive, they're reasonably well and they've been rescued. That's the news the nation has been waiting to hear from Beaconsfield in northern Tasmania. Just before 6am Eastern Standard Time, entombed miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell made it to the top of the shaft that's kept them prisoner for nearly two weeks. And they amazed everyone at the sight, walking from the elevator that brought them to the surface just as they said they would. After a number of heartbreaking deadlines had come and gone, a series of small explosions and hand tools were used to clear the last metre or so of rock into the cramped chamber where the pair has been pinned since Anzac Day. 

It's just extraordinary. And I remember watching the footage of them coming out of the elevator and I just thought to myself, they look surprisingly good. 

Yeah, they're in good nick. And the fact that they were walking too was so surprising to everybody. I think they ended up getting the meat pie. 

I'm imagining that there would have been a little bit of preparation for that moment behind the scenes. Because, you know, it's like, okay, like there's a bunch of cameras out there, boys. Let's just collect ourselves. Can you walk? Yep, good. Okay, this is how it's going to go. Because remember, they put their tags on the hook, like, which is basically them clocking off when they return back to the surface, which was very, like a very historic moment. It was a big moment. And it's, I mean, the fact that, it was from Anzac Day, there was all those stories about mateship and resilience. And the media had an absolute field day with it. And the blokes that were involved, you know, I mean, Todd Russell and Grant Webb, good on them. They cashed in big time. Can you remember? 

The media deals, yeah. 

The sh*t news. It was a sh*t fight in the media between A Current Affair and Today Tonight and the Breakfast Television shows in 60 Minutes. Every media outlet wanted a piece of it. of them. And they were like, we'll sell it to the highest bidder. Fair enough. Absolutely, absolutely. But they became, overnight heroes. 

And I think the mine ended up closing in 2012 and obviously sparked a lot of debate around security practices within mines. 

Well I mean everyone talks about how good it pays. everyone talks about how good working in the mines pays. 

I went in one once, it's horrible. 

But I think this is a bit of a reality check, don't you? Yeah. A bit of a change of pace with music now. Of course, there was the Foo Fighters connection as well. 

Yes. 

And then the Foo Fighters put on the concert and then Dave Groll made friends with them and all of that. The rest is history. 

Lovely. 

As you would say in this podcast. Let's do the music. 

Okay, same #1 over in the UK, Niles Barkley. I think you're crazy. I think you're crazy. I think you're crazy. 

I remember this being number one in Australia at around the same time. But I think first and foremost, I don't even know if it was released here yet. I don't know. I'm not sure. But because first and foremost, we had to deal with this. 

S-O-S-P, someone help me. It's not healthy. 

I mean, it was such a chore having to deal with that, wasn't it? 

Still #1 here in Australia and the top five in the US sounding pretty familiar, but a slightly different order, I think. And I can't be without you, baby. And I'll be waiting up until you get home. Cause I can't sleep without you, baby. 

You're beautiful. 

You're beautiful You're beautiful. 

It's true Yeah, would you know about it? Would you know about it? Would you know about it? I know all about it I got the right temperature fishes to you from the storm Hold on, girl, I got the right ethics to turn you on And girl, I wanna be the papa, you can be the mom, oh-oh 'Cause you had a bad day. 

I think we've just had a switcheroo at #4 and #3. 

Yeah, that was basically TI is starting to climb the charts. What you know about that? 

Sounds better next to Sean Paul, actually. 

Well, yeah, a bit more compatible. Yeah, slightly more compatible. No, I mean, it's still, you know, Sean Paul comes in pretty strong. there's a juxtaposition, I think, is a good word. They're juxtaposed. 

Okay, sure. And Daniel Powder with Bad Days still, number one. 

I'm just trying to sound intellectual as we get into the album release, because this is like that. There's a lot of snobbery around being a fan of this particular band. 

There is actually. I remember when I was in college, there was that vibe of anyone who had one of these t-shirts, thought they were pretty good. 

Pretty elite, better than the rest of the music. one of those elite music fans because I listened to Tool and their new album Ten Thousand Days is out now. That's pretty radio friendly. That's the song Vicarious from the album Ten Thousand Days. Released this week, I guess you'd call it prog metal or alt metal or... What the hell is this? It's their first album in five years after Lateralis. So there was a lot of anticipation for a new Tool album. Everybody was very excited, especially those elitists in the Tool T-shirts. I mean, look, I'm throwing a lot of stones. I was a big Tool fan. 

They made a nice long sleeve. 

Big Tool fan. 

They made a nice long sleeve. They were a little bit more tasteful than the metal. 

They challenged the metal shirts of the day. They challenged the status quo. They certainly took a lot of the thug element out of metal and just made it a a little bit more cerebral. I'd take it more as almost a psychedelic progressive rock with a bit more of a heavy edge than anything, I know. The Tool fans are just going to be like wanting to absolutely lynch me with every word that comes out of my mouth in the next few minutes. 

Hang you with one of those long sleeve shirts? 

But it was a big deal. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, which is a pretty big deal for like a rock metal band. Sold 564,000 copies in the first week, which is huge with pre-streaming stuff happening. And it's one of those albums where people are like, this is where it comes in. You don't just listen to tool, you experience it. Okay. All right. You experience it. You're going to let the music flow through you. So Key Tracks Vicarious is the one that we had then the lead single. The Pot, which was a groovy, catchy, sort of bass heavy thing. Jumbie, which had a lot of talk box stuff happening. Right in 2, Philosophical Haunting, and then Wings for Marie Part 1 and 10,000 Days Wings Part 2. to a bit more of an emotional centerpiece on the album. 

Yeah, that's to do with Maynard's mother, actually. The album's largely inspired by her. She was paralyzed for 27 years or 10,000 days before she passed away. So that's where the title of the album comes from. And the two-part Wings for Marie song that you mentioned there is a tribute and processing the grief in musical form. So it's quite heavy in both sound and emotion, that particular song. 

Yeah, and like Maynard Keenan is an interesting lyricist. He pushes a lot of boundaries. He's not afraid to go there with a lot of the stuff. But this one just, it really, this album had a very, it was weighty. It was an emotionally weighty album. It was, I wouldn't say it's a chore to listen to because it's, some of the stuff on there is sublime. Like I just love their sound. I love the complex drum patterns. I love the progressiveness of it all. But there was an emotional weight that I think came with this album. And it was because of that subject matter. The other thing, there's something that I was always interested in with Tool Stuff is the packaging as well. There's always got to be packaging. Like Arnima had that lenticular cover with the eyeballs moving around. And then Lateralis had like the, it looked like the old biology books with the different layers, the psychedelic sort of human thing. And then this one had these two lenses. 

Oh, that's right. 

Two goggles. I've got it out in your shed. 

Yes, I remember that. 

The lenses, these weird, what are they called? The stereoscopic lenses that were built into the CD case. So you could look through the booklet and then see the 3D artwork. Oh, is that what you did? I was like, I never got to the point of that. 

What were you looking at with the glasses? 

I don't know. I just stick it out to my face and I ended up looking like that. What was that guy from Trailer Park Boys? You know, it just looked really strange. Looked like somebody who's incredibly short-sighted and have thus proven that by not actually exploring any further than that. Get out of the shed and have a look at my mind's completely blown by tool yet again. 

Again, this is when we did make the product and experience as well, which you don't get anymore. You don't get the joy of... flicking through the booklet or experiencing something a little bit different like these types of albums. It's a shame. 

It is. And I think, you know, it's that experience. It's the experience of having some physical media. And nobody does it better than tool. And, you know, I'm a bit of a tool for not actually understanding how it all works sometimes. But big themes on, you know, human nature, ego, religion, war, suffering, all that stuff that we talked about. Lots of Fibonacci patterns, hidden meanings, all of these things, long tracks, odd time signatures, hypnotic builds. Tool are just one of those bands that do their own thing. They do their own thing. And it's funny because I've run hot and cold with Tool. I absolutely adored them when I first discovered them. And then I tired of them very quickly. And I tired of them when I went to see them live. And I saw them in a small venue. I saw them at the ANU. And they were pretty great there. 

That's a small venue for them. 

Yeah. It was just when Arnhema had come out and Tool had started to break and they were like doing these small venues in Australia and I think they were like, wow, like these guys could have sold double, triple the size of this. They could have done an arena probably at that stage. And then I saw them again at the Royal Theatre and the second time I saw them, Maynard was standing behind a sheet and just had a, so he was in, he performed the entire show in silhouette. And I'm like, that's ******. That is a rip-off, mate. I've come here to see you guys play and now you're doing this arty-farty thing. And like, one thing I will give them though is they play their songs live to the utmost perfection. They sound incredible live. They are a sonic tour de force. Or should that be tour de force? I don't know. But anyway, but it's also, it's kind of nice to have that elitism in music as well. 

I don't know. Did you ever find out why he did it behind the sheet? Like, did he have a big zit or something? No, because Art. 

I don't know, because Art. Maybe it wasn't even him. Maybe he had an understudy, I don't know. 

Maybe, I reckon there was a reason. 

He's done a lot of weird things on stage. I remember one time, because he's a big jiu-jitsu guy, right? 

Is he? 

Main Art, yeah. Jiu-jitsu, winemaker. you name it. He's quite the combo. Yeah, he's renaissance man. There was one time when somebody invaded the stage. He has a bit of contempt for the fans as well, which I don't appreciate. But I get it sometimes because this guy invaded the stage. And rather than let the guy crowd surf off the stage, Maynard puts him in a choke, in a rear naked choke, jiu jitsu style, and just hangs there with him and sings an entire like 7 or 8 minute song. 

Did the guy pass out? 

No, he just kind of stuck there for a bit, but he didn't let him move. 

He would have loved it though. 

I don't know that he did. I think there's a point in that footage where you can see where he's regretted his decision. Yeah. 

We had some music news as well this week, 20 years ago. Coachella. 

Wouldn't you like to put some of those fans in a rear naked choke? 

Taking place in California. 

Although Coachella wasn't, was it starting to get pretty trendy by now? 

But this is a pretty good lineup. Madonna, James Blunt, Kanye West before Kanye really broke. Depeche Mode, Paul Oakenfold and Daft Punk. 

Oh yes, Daft Punk. That is a that was recorded live at Coachella. And that is just offensive volume. That is offensive volume. I remember, actually, the second time I saw Tool, they had offensive volume. And in that moment, I shut down and went to sleep. Like I actually physically went to sleep, my whole body shut down. And I feel like that Darth Pump in movie as well. It was too stimulating. There was too much stuff going on at the Mario Brothers movie the other day and I fell asleep. 

You were snoring. 

Oh, I would have. That's how I knew you were asleep. 

You were actually snoring. 

I would have definitely fallen asleep listening to Daft Punk with that bass. 

No, I don't think you would have because this was the first time they performed inside what is now become iconic, the LED pyramid stage. And performed one more time around the world, Robot Rock. And it was one of the most Excited, recalled, discussed, live sets in festival history. 

Yeah. 

Became quite famous. 

There's footage of it everywhere and all of it sounds like *** ****. But anyway, I want to draw attention to the headliners as well, Depeche Mode. Hero, personal, Jesus. Reach out of touch, babe. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, Depeche Mode. I watched some of that set and there's a singer who's lived a bit of a life. You know, he's on stage with his shirt off and you know, they've like obviously had some kind of substances that they've been big fans of in their younger days and they kind of get this body, this kind of skeletal yet like really like skinny kind of arms and a really thick kind of trunk. and he's walking around shirtless, doing songs like your own personal Jesus. And it's like, well, there's a bloke who's lived a life. It wasn't an attractive sight, but it was very interesting. It's like, it's like looking at, you know, because he's quite weathered. It's like looking at a piece of antique furniture that's maybe been through some ****. 

That looks comfy though. 

Yeah, well. 

It's comfy. Maybe a split seam here and there? 

I don't know. if I don't know if I'd want to sit on it, but I certainly wouldn't mind having a look at it over the other side of the room. That's kind of my thoughts on Depeche Mode. 

Tool actually closed out the festival as well, which obviously perfect timing with the album dropping. 

Oh yeah. 

This week as well. 

But that's kind of a follow-up to like Depeche Mode. Everyone would have ****** *** home after Depeche Mode. I don't know if I could cope with Tool at the end of the day. It's just a lot, but if. 

It was at the start, it'd make you tired for the rest of the day. 

That's very true. It's, well, maybe, but then I could have a little rest. Yeah, I don't know. Like, I just tool at the end of the long festival. 

I think your festival is just out of the question full stop these days. I can't make it through just a standard concert. 

It's pretty tough. It's pretty tough. Or it's like, if you want to survive a festival when you're my age, you really need to have a look at the lineup and see how it's stacked. And if it's weighted more heavily to bands you want to see at the end. of the day, do not go at gates. Do not go any gates. 

Well, stay nearby and have a little nap. Have a little nana nap partway through and then go back. 

Well, that's what I did. Remember I went to that festival a couple of years ago up in Sydney and the whole family came along, but I was the only one with a ticket. You guys had a wonderful time. It was great. And I had a little power nap and I left very late in the afternoon. And when I got to that festival, I felt like an alien because everyone else was just in this really different state of mind because they'd been there all day and I just felt ridiculously out of place, but also because I felt well rested, I felt like I won the day. Not like that bloke from Depeche Mode. People were like looking over at me going, yeah, I'm just going to stay here. I don't think I'm going to sit on that. It's been a while. I'm glad we're doing it though. We're opening up the boombox. This is your place, if you haven't heard before. This is your place where you can lodge your boomer complaints, free from judgement. Any problems that you've got with the world that you think somebody might relate to, you're not alone here. We open up the boombox and we celebrate it. We celebrate it, we acknowledge it, you are heard when we open the boombox. And I have to say, just as a bit of an aside, I always get nervous, like in the music segment when I talk about music that I kind of like, because it's something I care about and I don't want to sound like a d*ckhead. 

No, okay. 

So I get a bit shy. 

Right. 

Self-deprecating. I kind of, and then I, and I talk a little bit too much. It's kind of like a masking thing. But anyways, it's a boom box. Let's do the boom box. Give me a boom, Mel. 

Okay, this one is from at taco underscore Bell. B-E-L-E. 

Oh, it's a chick that likes tacos. Yeah. 

All right, are we ready? 

Yeah, sure. 

Website, what's your address? Me, types my address. Website, here's the address we found. Do you want to use this correct one or your stupid one? 

Don't you? I'm like, I know where I live. 

Yes, every time. Well, I found out that I'd been spelling our street wrong. 

What? 

Through that? Yeah. 

Are you serious? 

Yeah. 

We've lived here for a decade. 

Not the name of the street, but the thing that comes at the end. Oh, yeah, I always thought it was... plural, but it's not plural. 

Isn't it? 

According to the thing when you type it in. Yeah. 

Well, there you go. 

Yeah. 

That is interesting. I just think. 

So, I don't know. 

I wish it would pre-populate a little bit quicker and tell me that I've done it wrong. 

Sometimes it takes a sweet time. 

Some websites will just wait until you've typed the entire thing. 

And then what's the point? And it's like, well, I'm going to capitalize this bit. So do you mean this or do you mean you're stupid? 

It's like you finish it and then the website's like, I suppose I'll go and get it. Short and sweet, the boombox. But from the boombox to the box office, do you see what I did there? 

Oh, lots of boxes. 

That was professional. 

Box-o-rama. 

That was professional, if I do say so myself. There isn't a lot going on in movies and TV. 

Well, we've still got Ice Age here in Australia, but we have a new number one at the US. 

Oh, this is a bloody video game movie. Christopher, Sharon's gone. I need your help. 

I'm not okay. 

Please, hurry. 

Fire started 30 years ago. I don't know what's happening. Do you know what's going on here? This place is completely cut off. Only the dark one opens and closes the door to Sandandale. Hey. 

Where is she? I'm trying to find my wife. She looks exactly like Shannon. Why? Rose, come on! Rose, hurry! It's coming. 

I think the best thing about this film, Silent Hill, was that it had an Aussie in the lead, Rada Mitchell. 

Was she from McLeod's Daughters? 

I think she got a run in. She's been in quite a few. She's a bit of a journey person as far as I could see her face. 

I think she was. 

It was good to see her in a blockbuster, albeit a video game film. And I do remember the Silent Hill games. So the game came first on the PlayStation. Yes. 

I remember you having it. 

I don't remember. It was a survival horror game. 

Yeah, okay. 

Yeah, so I'll talk more about that in a sec. So the plot for this movie is this chick Rose takes her adopted daughter Sharon to this eerie town called Silent Hill and Sharon sleepwalks and keeps saying it's town's name, which is I think the motivation for them driving there. It's like, well, mate, if you're sleepwalking, you're saying the name of something. I'd suggest you move in the opposite direction, not take advice or travel tips. So they crash when they arrive. Sharon disappears. Rose wanders into this fog-filled nightmare town with cults and monsters and ash falling like snow. And it's more of a like a walking nightmare thing. It's very, it was big on atmosphere and a bit on plot, really. But, you know, there's some iconic characters that you'll see cosplayed at comic book conventions. which is now and probably well into the future, like the pyramid head, which was terrifying, but I don't even know what it means. The nurses, the sexy nurses with the twitchy body horror, scary heads and the scars. the air raid siren before everything goes bad, and that shift from foggy emptiness to like rusted hellscape, which is what the town was. And gamers actually really liked this movie. Like most video game movies aren't very well received, but a lot of gamers liked this one because it kept the tone and the aesthetic of the game. And it used the original soundtrack from the game as well by Akira Yamaoka. And it leaned into that psychological horror stuff as opposed to just straight out jump scares. So they enjoyed the atmosphere. fear and stuff. The story underneath Silent Hill from the game is about Alyssa, who's a child that's abused and punished by a cult and it's got all these themes of extremism and guilt and punishment and motherhood and protection. It's very messy. It's not really fully explained. And if you're not a fan of the franchise, you're probably not going to enjoy that movie. So there were lots of split opinions. Like the critics were just like. 

I don't think they liked it. 

What is this? What is this? You know, the fans are like, I love this. And then over time, it's actually gotten more and more of a cult following. but that peak 2006 horror stuff, grey filters. slow dread instead of jump scares. And it was like, let's make it traumatizing and a little bit arty farty as well. But I mean, it is based on a survival horror game. And survival horror games are like horror when you're gaming is just even that much more scary, I think. 

Yeah, too much because you're kind of, you're immersed in it because you're controlling something within it. So when something is jumpy outty or horrific, it's like you're right there. 

Because there's something there to kind of draw your concentration. concentration. I think this is how it works. So you're really locked in. 

You can't hide behind your hands like you can. 

Well, you've got to pay attention to what's going on because you're kind of in control. And so you're locked in and then if something happens, it just tends to kind of spike your adrenaline a lot quicker and scare the **** out of you. And so I'm a big fan of like Resident Evil and some of those and the alien Isolation Game, which is a survival horror game. Dead Space, like all really gory and pretty scary. Bioshock was another one, although that was probably more, it's still pretty survival horror. You know, so Silent Hill was one of those games that came along. And this is when I started to have less time for games, which made me really sad. So if I was going to game it, it'd need to be a good one. And I'm not saying that Silent Hill was a bad one. It's just one that I didn't get into. And the reason why I didn't get into it is I started playing and it was just in the fog all the time. And I'm just like, you and navigating your way through this fog. And I'm like, this is, if I wanted this, I'd just get up early on a cold winter's morning and go for a drive. Like, this is a pain in the **** more than anything. And then, you know, something more horrific would be the conversations that you would have at work the morning after the foggy day of the, oh. 

Pee and ham soup. 

How about that fog out there? Like, that's where the real horror lies. 

New York Times bestseller that we didn't read. 

Books we didn't read. 

Yes, another new one this week. Two Little Girls in Blue from Mary Higgins Clark. 

Yes. 

Mystery combined with twin telepathy. 

I'm going to say. 

Have you got some twin telepathy music? 

Okay, this is a music track called Lilith by Elysium Audio Labs, which you can find on YouTube in that copyright free thing. And if you want to use their stuff, you've got to make sure you give them credit. Okay, so this is Lilith. We'll use this one. It's very, I'm getting Silent Hill vibes. 

Yes, and telepathy, definitely telepathy vibes. 

This might be a bit much, but we'll go with it. In this riveting thriller from Queen of Suspense, or is it Queen of Suspense? And #1 New York Times best-selling writer Mary Higgins Clark brilliantly weaves the mystery of twin telepathy into a mother's search to find a kidnapped child presumed dead. Okay. When Margaret, Margaret and Steve Frawley come home to Connecticut from a black tie dinner in New York, their three-year-old twins Kathy and Kelly are gone. The police found the babysitter unconscious and a random note from the Pied Piper demands $8 million. That's very specific from the Pied Piper, really. Stoives Global Investment Firm puts up the money, so they paid the ransom. But when they go to retrieve the twins, only Kelly is in the car. The dead driver's suicide note says he inadvertently killed Kathy. Oh dear. 

Yikes. 

At the memorial, Kelly tugs Margaret's arm and says, mummy, Kathy is very scared of that lady. She wants to come home right now. At first, only Margaret believes that the twins are communicating and that Kathy is still alive. But as Kelly's mornings become increasingly specific and alarming, FBI agents set out on a desperate search because they've obviously connected telepathically because they're twins. 

Twin telepathy. 

Oh, this music. I mean, it's all a bit much, isn't it? Really. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed now. Okay. 

Well, let's see what the people... 

Nothing silent about this hill. 

See what the people said. 

Yes. 

Amber, one star. Thanks, I hate it. Good. 

Yep. Rachel, one star. Uneventful and silly. 

Kelly, one star. Also read against my will. 

And Erica spelt Erica spelt the bogan way. AERYKAH. What's your daughter's name? I think I'm going to call it Erica. How would you spell that? Oh, that'd be AER as in aero bar. Your car. Yeah, okay. As in your car. Aero bar your car. Two stars. Note of warning. For the readers out there who are looking for a clean read, this is not Christian fiction. There isn't any sex or anything, but there is bad language in this book. Thanks, Erica. 

Michael Edwards, two stars. Wonder twin powers, activate. Form of ruining a book. 

Wonder couple activate form of hatches, matches and dispatches. The final segment of the show. Let's do this. We just had a birthday. A celebrity celebrating their, I think it's like their 86th birthday. Who said this? 

Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's A prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift and then what does he do? I swear for his own amusement, his own private cosmic gag reel. He sets the rules in opposition. 

Anyway, we've heard that if you said Al Pacino. You'd be correct. 85 years old, of course, survived by his brother Cap Cappuccino and his baby Babitino. That's a terrible joke. And he's still alive and kicking. And I do get a little bit worried when we mention people sort of in their 80s having birthdays on the podcast, because it doesn't bode well for us from time to time. And then people think that we've got some kind of curse going. But I would argue that Al Pacino is pretty hard to kill. 

Yes. 

I would. the quiet, calculating rise of Michael Corleone. That's who I remember him most as I loved Pacino. Pacino in The Godfather. I mean, he's just, he is such a great actor. To Tony Montana in Scarface. He built his career on that real intense, unpredictable character. And, he can go from zero to really boisterous. And he's just, he's got a lot of range in between though. Young bloke from the Bronx with a massive legacy. We all know the lines, say hello to my little friend, who are. And that's why I just wanted to do something a little bit different there. So he was born on April 25th, 1940, and he's one of those guys that would go on to redefine acting and screen intensity, I think. And, you know, He was just, I mean, such a great actor. Big fan of Pacino. 

Yeah, so what else? Godfather, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon. They were all in the 70s and the 80s to 90s, Scarface sent to a woman in heat. 

Heat was such a good movie. More recently, he's been in The Irishman. He was in the series Hunters. 

Oh, that was cool. 

About the Nazi hunters. Yeah, But like, we're rattling off a list of hits here. Now, Pacino, has also said that he'd kind of just take on roles for the money as well. And he's done that a couple of times as well. And we probably don't need to mention those kind of movies. But also his personal life's been in the headlines recently because of the high profile relationships and having fathered children a lot later in life. There's a lot of these older celebrities hooking up with younger women and then having babies, which is, well, it's interesting, isn't it? You know, how would you be, you know, being like, I don't know, five or six years old with a dad who's How would you be? 

In your 80s changing nappies? I don't think Pacino changes nappies. 

No, probably not. I don't know, but it changes the whole meaning of hoo-wah when he opens up a nappy anyway. But you know, I think he's a reference point, Pacino, for those really intense monologues. And he's a bit of an anti-hero in a lot of these things as well, even in real life, I think, you know. He's not one of those method guys or anything. He's just like, I don't know. He's just really good at his craft. And it's his birthday today. So happy birthday, Al Pacino. 

Yes, HBD. 

Yeah, that's the end. That's the end of the show for this week. There's be some things happening next week though, Mel, I'm sure. What have we got? 

Oh, what have we got? I think we've got, I think it's mainly music. Snow Patrol, something from Hoobastank, Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

Yep. 

That's all I got right now. I'll do some research and find some other things, I'm sure. 

Strap yourselves in if you're in Australia this week and you have to watch all the Beaconsfield mining disaster 20 years on coverage. 

20 years on, yes. 

You can just, if you have a look, like look at it through the lens of having heard us talk about it and remember the absolute **** fight that was between the media outlets at the time and let's see how that coverage pans out. That could be interesting and infuriating and fun and everything all rolled up into one. Much like our presence over on the socials, if you want to come and find us there, look for T-minus on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, just search for T-minus 20 podcast. That's all you need to do. And then you can find us on YouTube as well if you want to consume the podcast there. That's pretty much it. 

Is, yes. Catch you next time. 

See ya. Bye. 

Thanks for taking the time to rewind. Join us next time for another week that was 20 years ago. In the meantime, come and reminisce on the socials. Search for T-minus 20 podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.