Episode 125 - Sweet F.A.

The famous 1974 photo of Exotic Adrian Streeet and his coal mining father.

It’s always great to welcome back birthday twin Kevin Day (@kevinhunterday) to the show. First up, once I learned Kevin had been a fan of World of Sport wrestling growing up, I knew that would be the subject of his next appearance. Since he was casual fan watching, he brings a different perspective to the business than most of our usual guests, who are historians or competitors themselves. We talk about how it evolves over the 20+ years it was on ITV in the UK and chat about most of the well-known names: host Kent Walton, Big Daddy (no HOF talk here), Giant Haystacks, Mick McManus, Kendo Nagasaki (I explain to Kevin about his Japanese namesake in 80s American wrestling), Johnny Saint, Steve/William Regal, Robbie Brookside, Catweazle and others. But we spent a lot of time talking about Adrian Street. (Kevin was originally going to do the pod right after Adrian’s death earlier this year). We talk about his career in the US and the UK, the famous photo (seen above) with his Welsh coal mining father in 1974, his influence on glam rock, how the character was presented at the time and now in present day and, of course, his infamous showdown with a certain disgraced UK TV presenter.

From there, we discuss Kevin’s new book he co-wrote with former guest Kieran Maguire and their Price of Football producer Guy Kitty called “Unfit and Improper Persons.” We discuss how the book came about as a way to discuss the myriad of issues in the world of football finance without it being just a textbook (since Kieran already wrote that book). Here, the three of them start a fictional football team named West Park Rovers and we follow their journey from pub team to Europa League participant. Along the way, they discuss many of the issues plaguing the modern game: financial fair play, sustainability, accessibility, inclusivity and, of course, amortization. There’s also some chat about Lionel Messi in MLS, David Beckham, Pele, The New York Cosmos, Once in a Lifetime, the NASL, the NFL and other American sports.

Wrapping up, we learned on the Price of Football that both Kieran and Kevin were also gamers and both were playing the new Zelda game, “Tears of the Kingdom.” We heard from Kieran a few months ago about his thoughts on the game and now we hear Kevin’s opinions having finished the game and how it compared to its predecesor “Breath of the Wild.”

And, by happenstance, we recorded the show the night before our two teams played in the Premier League, so there’s some brief chat about the fortunes of our two clubs this year.

I love talking to Kevin about old school British popular culture, as he provides an eye witness account on shows and sports I either watched here in the US on PBS with no cultural context (Monty Python, Doctor Who) or only discovered years later (Randall and Hopkirk, Dad’s Army and Department S/Jason King for example).

Episode 123 - It's Full of Stars

It was a Starfield wedding and the old folks wished them well.

I’m excited to welcome back Jason Plays (@jasonplaysNMS) to the show to discuss a variety of topics.

First up, Starfield has been out for about a month now and we were both super looking forward to it. How has Jason found the game so far, his likes and dislikes, comparing it to both past Bethesda games and space operas like Mass Effect. I’ve been slow playing, where Jason is on his fourth playthrough, so while there are discussions of characters and missions, a lot of the big spoilers are not discussed, since I haven’t gotten to them yet.

Then, of course, we talk about No Man’s Sky, which dropped an update and expedition right before Starfield’s launch. How did Jason cope with trying to consume and play both at the same time? We discuss the most recent expedition and how it feels like Hello Games just might be making adventures to put a burr in the saddle of speedrunners.

We also chat about the upcoming Metal Gear Solid remastered releases. Jason was a huge Solid Snake fan in the day, so we talk about our memories of the games both good and bad (Raiden, I’m looking at you).

Then we shift gears for a long chat about the James Bond franchise. We discuss our favorite Bond actors and films, the out-of-continuity movies, serious spy films vs funny/campy pictures, other favorite spy properties and more. There’s also a lot of random popular culture chat, including (again) the greatness of Green Acres, the early years of having a VCR, life as a video game streamer and attracing an audience and other stuff.

I want to thank Jason for his time for doing a long episode, especially since we started late, thanks to a seemingly interminable traffic jam on my way home from work, which pushed back the recording time.

Episode 121 - Boys Don't Cry

An ad for the New York Cosmos that ran in DC Comics in 1977.

We are happy to finally have Kieran Maguire (@kieranmaguire) from the Price of Football podcast on the show. Even though he only a few miles up the road in Philadelphia last week, this episode was a Trans-Atlantic recording, done both late night and early morning. While his teaching day job brought him to the States, he managed to get to see his Brighton and Hove Albion squad take on Chelsea in one of this year’s Premier League pre-season matches taking place here. We started off discussing how he found the atmosphere of the match, both on- and off-pitch, desegregated crowds and exorbitant concession prices. That branched out into a general chat about football in England and the growth of MLS, the thorny topic of American ownership of British teams and the old chestnut, promotion and relegation. We also talked about some recent US-related topics that had come up on the Price of Football that related to US sports, like public salaries and agents’ fees.

Believe it or not, I wanted to keep the football chat to a minimum, but it was the first half of the episode. After that, we talked about Kieran’s other great cultural love, music, particularly the 70s and 80s bands in what some call the Second British Invasion. We discuss how the Manchester music scene in the early 80s influenced where he went to university and our mutual love for bands like New Order and Joy Division, OMB, the Smiths and the Cure. Also, some love for the New Music Express, Danny Kelly and Danny Baker, the intimacy of podcasts vs modern radio and more.

We wrap up with some video game chat. Kieran and co-host (and former podcast guest) Kevin Day were both playing the new Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom. We talked about how he has found the game so far, comparing it to Breath of the Wild, using video games as decompression time and more.

We had hoped to do a separate show with Kevin and pair them together, but scheduling issues kept that from happening. Hopefully, Kevin will be on before or in conjunction with the next Price of Football book, Unfit and Improper Persons, where the guys discuss how to start a local pub team and build it all the way up to Champions League success and what the financial realities are in such an endeavor. And yes, we did talk about how an unlikely Odd Couple of a Crystal Palace supporting comedian and Brighton supporting academic have managed to produce a successful podcast.

Episode 119 - Why Always-a Me?

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones. From the Super Mario Brothers Movie. (c) 2023 Universal.

With such a huge week for Nintendo, who else could we get to talk about it but Andre Segers (@andresegers) from GameXplain?

Of course, we start with the juggernaut that is the Super Mario Brothers Movie. On the day of recording, it had just passed the $500 million plateau, and still hadn’t opened in Japan yet. In a spoiler-filled chat, we discuss the plot (does it matter it was straightforward?), the voice acting (such a talking point prior to release) and some of the criticisms the picture has gotten from mainstream film critics.

From there, we talk about the last trailer for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom before its release in about a month. We look at the new elements in this version, including finally getting some clue about the plot, the game mechanics and how silly the idea was that it was “just a $70 DLC for Breath of the Wild.”

Andre tells us about his trip to the opening of Super Nintendo World in California, although he still hasn’t had the change to go to the park in Japan.

We end with the pain Andre went through to replay Paper Mario Sticker Star on its tenth anniversary. He famously hated the game when it came out and we chat about why there may have been extenuating circumstances then and have his feelings toward the game after all this time.

It was obviously a big week for GameXplain, so we thank Andre for finding the time to do the show again.