[rove home] [rove episode guide] [rove transcripts] [rove/pete/corinne/dave pics] ROVE CHATS TO MERRICK WATTS (ROVE 1999) ROVE: Well, alright lets welcome our guest for this evening shall we ? He's one half of Triple J's drive time heavyweights Merrick and Rosso...he's flying solo tonight, will you please make him feel welcome, the very funny Merrick Watts...How are ya ? Merrick: Very good thanks, very well yeah... ROVE: Good to be here ? Good to be seen ? Merrick: Television's very exciting isn't it ? ROVE: Is it weird to be seen and not just heard ? Merrick: It's nice to be overweight in a different medium...I'm used to it in radio and I think people really miss out with the overweight thing in radio...but no, it's great... ROVE: Well, it's a special treat to be seen in the flesh... Merrick: Ah, thanks... ROVE: As much flesh as there is, it's great...it's fantastic, I love it... Merrick: Wait until later on when I disrobe...How's that, then there'd be flesh, flesh enough for everyone... ROVE: Now, how do you find the pressure of working five nights a week ? Merrick: Yes, it's quite difficult, but ah...it's not at all, it's a lie...it's very easy, it's just a lot of talking really...um, I could think of harder jobs, one of them would be digging holes... ROVE: Yeah... Merrick: It's a lot harder than talking - I've tried digging holes, and I've tried talking - talking's easier... Pete: What about digging holes while you're talking Mez, would that be tough? Merrick: I can assure you Pete, if I'm doing anything I'm talking...sometimes I get told to shut up and to be more romantic...but you know...what can you say - I like talking about me... ROVE: How is it being here tonight by yourself, without Rosso ? Merrick: It's sad, it's sad....but, unfortunately Rosso couldn't make it here tonight because he's actually at home knitting...he's knitting a banner for the troops in East Timor...he's knocking it up, it just says "We love Oz, we love you" Like you could run through it if it was at the footy so... ROVE: You'd bounce back... Merrick: You'd be bouncing back, but I think he's made a contigency plan for it so, um I think it will double up as a massive doona for the troops when they leave or something like that 'cause wars tough ROVE... ROVE: Aw...I know... Merrick: Apparently not involved in one...I always thought shooting guns was remarkably like war, but apparently not... ROVE: Peace keeping... Merrick: With weapons...Instead of just saying, "Look can you cut that out", just go, " No, or I'll shoot you"...They're doing a great job, good work Australia, very proud... ROVE: Now, you have some big name guests that must come in the studio, have a bit of a chat...can I just actually say before I ask this, a big fan of the show...but I've got a question, this P.I. guy you get in from time to time seems like a bit of a flash in the pan, a bit of a chump...bit of a chimp, bit of a punk... Merrick: It's not like he's gonna end up anywhere...He might get some more gigs from here to there, but...no, he's great...Pete, we love you, fantastic... ROVE: Getting all teary... Merrick: Pete's great, we sort of picked him from the depths of obscurity and made him almost really a small star...then we realized that we were even smaller than that....sorry Pete, it's all gone horribly wrong, but no he's great...Pete comes on the show of course on Triple J and he does a bit of a fact finding mission, finds people for us...and brings them to us where we proceed to hang s*it on them...and everybody's a winner ! ROVE: We were astounded with the "Bevan the Musical" one...I mean, not just from his side, from you guys - did you even think it was going to be as big as it was ? Merrick: No, it was frightening to see Peter become really popular and Rosso and I had a few meetings about that... ROVE: But, what I was going to say, for those who don't know tell them what "Bevan the Musical" actually was... Merrick: Well, it's a phenomena...it's not unlike to the movie, "Ghost"...Pete pretty much is like Patrick Swaze...He'll dance as well... ROVE: ...and I have heard that he and Bevan have more than once recreated the pottery scene... Merrick: Yes, there is a lot of touching of hands...Bevan Addinsal of course from YTT fame so he was pretty big back in whenever it was and I remember him, I remember lemon shirts, it's hard to forget them and we challenged Peter to find him, track him down see what he was up to and Peter came through and managed to write with friends, with Tripod of course...a fantastic group of young men um...that he met at the YMCA, managed to get a bit of a recording going, a bit of a song and we played it on Triple J and it was very very popular and then Peter started to become more popular than us and that's when we turned and hated him...just kidding Pete, we love you... Pete: Thanks Mez ROVE: But did you even expect it was gonna be, is it one of those things where you go...I can't fathom that there are that many kids out there that have just gone yeah... Merrick: I think it's hilarious that people just go "I don't even know who Bevan is, but dammit I love him!" ROVE: ...and it's a good song, a catchy song... Merrick: I just love him cause apparently he wore lemon, lemon's a great colour - in shirts or pants! ROVE: Men should wear more pink, you know back in the 80s everyones' wearing pink, with the white leather tie... Merrick: I want to see more people under the age of 25 wearing a type of pant that can only be described as tropicals...personally, I think a pair of pants with a built in belt is something this country lacks. Doubling up, it's smart, it's ingenuity... ROVE: Tell you what, I've got something here that actually just came up... Merrick: That's a computer... ROVE: It's a computer, yes... Merrick: Seen one of those before... ROVE: But this is actually our discussion board that people log on during the night and it's got here..."Just thought I'd write in the hope that you might read this out tonight...." , because they said, "They love Pete, they love the show but tonight the'll only have eyes for Mez...thanks so much for putting on the sexy bastard!" Merrick: And thank you so much mum for changing your name... ROVE: How do you take the fame? How do you face getting out there in the street where you can be tackled? Merrick: Well, it's hard being sexy...um radios got one of those things where you're sort of a little bit obscure...people don't really know who you are and somethimes we get recognised by our voices because we don't have a huge visual.......arrr...you know, you know the word that should fit in there... Corinne: Recognition, sweetheart... ROVE: Shoe ? Merrick: Yeah yeah and I nearly said vibrator and I remembered that was a bad word...um, no we don't get recognised alot by you know our visual gear and that and...smart talkin'...and sometimes people recognise us by our voice and that's very strange when you know you're out somewhere and somebody says to you "are you Merrick and Rosso?", and we just go, "...mm..m.might be...", "You are so...", and we go,"Are not, what wanna fight about it?" But no, it's actually kind of nice being a little bit away from it... ROVE: It's gotta be...and how's it being up in Sydney now, starting out based in Melbourne? Merrick: Yeah, being a Melbourne boy there's a few things I miss about Melbourne from living in Sydney...football is one of the big things but I quite like Sydney. I think one of the good things about Sydney is it's remarkably like Melbourne in the fact that there's quite a lot of Australians there... ROVE: Which helps... Merrick: It does and it's really good for me because I'm not very good with languages... ROVE: You do a very good Sweedish German, like Petes' French laugh - it's very authentic... Merrick: It could really be anything couldn't it? Pete: We were actually with the same community radio station together, Pony Valley Fm... Merrick: That was a very nice day... Pete: You were kicked off 'cause you swore too much...how are you dealing with you not being able to swear on Triple J ? Merrick: Ooh, it's very hard...no, yes I was asked to leave Tony (?) Valley Fm...oh sorry - did I name them?...because I might have accidently said a bad word...and then they just went..."You have to go now...", I said,"But it's only my first show...", and they said, "No, go away now...and take your bible with you...", "It's not mine, it's yours..."...and so, um radios really cool, it's really really easy to be well behaved on radio sometimes and other times it's very difficult, particularly when, like you know you're reading about somebody, like the Klu klux clan and you just so want to swar and sometimes the word dickheads is just not enough for people like that...you just think, I need to go further than that, but I'll do it off air... ROVE: That's alright, well as a special treat now say "Poo"... Merrick: Can I... ROVE: Yeah, go on... Merrick: Poo.. ROVE: Yes, thank you very much, Merrick Watts! [rove home] [rove episode guide] [rove transcripts] [rove/pete/corinne/dave pics] |
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