That's all for today…
Alex_Caroll writes:
You once said that your family name actually comes from the town Dury by Amiens in France. Do you know when (and why) your family came to England?
Guardian contributor Raoul Dury, a thousand years ago invented Dury I think. I think he controlled all the horses for the king, quite a dude, a Huguenot. He invented Dury the town, it's a bit of a shithole. We went in a tour bus there, and I went out to take a piss, and realised I'd never been anywhere so disgusting in my life. I swear the person in the petrol station gave me the keys and said: "Thanks mate". The men all dress as women and have Dury-esque potato faces. It's a uniquely disgusting place and one day I want to go back there and claim it. But we left for the east end when the Huguenots were being persecuted.
Hhhhssss writes:
Baxter, you are a great observer of the little things. As you wander about, do you have your singing voice ringing in your head, commenting on stuff?
Guardian contributor
LeandaJH writes:
For the video I’m not your dog, were they your ideas? The one take was certainly more emotive.
PS can me and my pal help make your next video?
Guardian contributor Totally down to the director, a guy called Tom Haynes, who cleverly realised the budget restrictions would be better... he conceived an idea that if you did one shot you wouldn't have to edit it. It took us 90 minutes to do that video, working between a huge storm that ripped Spain apart, doing nine takes in Benidorm at 5am.
Parsnipsoup asks:
What did you think of the film Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll?
I thought that lad from Son of Rambow did a good job.
Guardian contributor He was a sweetheart! He was very young when he played that part, and accidentally I was quite insensitive when I was trying to explain what I was really like. And his mum had to take him away because he was crying. Which is a bit of a sad story, but quite funny now.
It was a fine effort. It's impossible to comment on someone simplifying your own life like that, trying to frame it, because the universe of nuanced experiences are so much more complicated. But I find that cockneyfication is a bit of a dull culture. It's simplifies everything, dumbs it down. And me and my dad haven't helped that, perhaps.
Callenverdon writes:
Is Miami a play on words for My-am-me?
Your music is on a lot in our house, we have three children, so singing about goats, pissing on the hill, and being too fat to catch it creates colourful conversation. How do you feel about children listening to your music? Personally, I enjoy taking the taboo out of swearing and using them in unusual situations. Also, is your new video filmed on the French Rivera? Three questions.
Guardian contributor I think as long as it's filtered through someone responsible, it's their decision who listens to what. It's more attitudes that people pick up on that searing, and actions. But no-one wants a seven year old to swear at a priest, you really don't, so there's reasons why we regulate language, and prohibit it, because we have to give language certain kinds of power in certain situations, otherwise my songs would be benign. We have to celebrate how powerful being rude is, but also make decisions about what our children listen to. That was a lot of political bollocks, wasn't it?
SamKCL17 writes:
In your opinion, which famous figures are/were ‘full of promise and cum’ (living or dead)?
Guardian contributor That a controversial questions to answer... I don't know if I based it on anyone in particular. I based it on the non-judgemental eruptive people that have a lot of energy, negative or positive. It's not about being male or female, it's about dominant personalities. Mostly negative, because it makes for better copy, but that song is pretty gender and personality neutral, it's about behavioural quirks, in their ugliest form.
XMongo writes:
What was the inspiration for the urban goose, eye doctor, shipping tycoon and other vibrant alter egos from Miami?
Guardian contributor They were just me talking about people I know, me included, as a way of laundering personality traits and habits. And I found a way to force them into characters, it's pretty stream of consciousness, pretty off the cuff, it poured out of the darker cave of my mind. I didn't censor it when I wrote that song. It's mostly a cast of personal people, with a lot of me.
AlasdairDickson writes:
How long did it take you to find your voice, as both a singer and a lyricist? When were you first in a band and have you always been the front-person?
Guardian contributor I'm now quite confident because I feel like I've exorcised any doubt about what I do. It took me quite a while, but I'm from a unique set of circumstances. That have assisted me, and sometimes made me feel more vulnerable than I needed to be. But now I don't question it whatsoever. But I was pretty wilting when I first started, and there was a lot of attention on me, unduly, from having a famous father. I'm very lucky that I've managed to persevere to this point. But that's because I'm really good.
Chiel90 asks:
I was wondering if you had any advice on writing and advice for young artists
Guardian contributor Don't listen to anyone. Put your head down. Believe in yourself. But don't ignore that you have to be quite good, which is important. If you don't think you're good I can't help you. But if you do think you're even a bit good, ignore everyone.
Macca_Macnair writes:
My favourite moment at Latitude festival last year was the collective intake of middle class breath upon hearing your colourful lyrics. Brilliant set!
What is your favourite festival moment?
Guardian contributor Festivals on a large scale are usually quite hurried anxious affairs. Sometimes when you're presented the goat curry by some mayor in a small town in France it's more heartening than being in the big ones. Another festival in Scotland, this apparition just existed next to me, this half boy, half Bon Jovi kid who didn't get on stage, just appeared on stage. And he had a tear in his eye. It was the scariest thing. We didn't see it go off stage. It was the strangest thing. We even put out on social media who he was - it wasn't a kid maybe, just a Bon Jovi apparition, he had a cowboy hat and cutoff sleeves. As I turned round the thing had disappeared. There is a picture of me with the thing, but we didn't see it disappear. It didn't even move. It really was genuinely one of the oddest things ever. Quite like The Shining actually.
Laurasnapes asks:
The delivery on a lot of your recent stuff is brilliantly malevolent. I find it quite cinematic. Are there any great movie villains/antiheroes that you have in mind when you’re writing or delivering these scenes?
Guardian contributor No, I just have my own malevolent dark ghouls and spectres that exist in my own mind. I'm really into The Shining, because it genuinely scares the shit out of me, and I compare everything I do to The Shining. I'm being chased in the maze, I live in that hotel, everything's about the Shining. I've never done anything that hasn't been about The Shining.
Rubberechoes writes:
I struggle to think of anyone who writes as funny as you in music - but tell me, do you work on lines to make them more humorous, or are you just a funny, off the cuff kinda chap? my feeling it’s the latter.
Guardian contributor
AmandaCB29 writes:
Your band is awesome and clearly love working with you - do they have a hand in your writing and character creations?
Guardian contributor Not so much the character creation, but they definitely help me realise the music. I'm pretty musical, but I'm as capable as a wet bagel. I'm not a reliable craftsman in terms of playing instruments, so people are constantly involved in making the magic come true. I'm carried significantly through the process by a lot of people.
1Love1Heart writes:
Maybe difficult for you to analyse, but what have you taken from Ian, musically and lyrically? It’s great that your music is so different to your dad’s but has the same spirit.
Guardian contributor That's a big long political question. It is what it is. People are there for a reason, to fight against. I personally enjoy having a fight. I don't know who's meant to be there.
New Boots and Panties!! cover photo
25aubrey writes:
It’s 43 years since you and your father were on the cover of one of my favourite albums of all time, it’s a big ask, but can you recall what caught your attention away from the camera, that made you look left? Wishing you continued success in everything you do personally and professionally.
Guardian contributor Weirdly enough I remember that moments so clearly, because it's compounded as a memory. I was constantly reminded of it since it was printed, and the consequent success of that record, you're forced to remember it. And I don't remember anything else!
I was lost kid with his dad on the weekend when he was obliged to look after me, and it was quite awkward... My dad always had a sexist view of it, like we were looking at someone on the other side of the road... but I don't remember exactly. My dad must have spotted something, maybe an old car. But I do remember that whole day really clearly, really vividly.
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Ddubya writes:
If you were to make a record in a completely different genre what would that genre be?
Guardian contributor Delusionally, I feel I span all genres already. I do think I'm at the top of my own genre, the best of my own genre, and no-one else is in competition with me. There's no -one else who does my genre. I'm not very scheduled to genres, I don't try to think about it very much - but I would like to do a cod reggae record.
BottleBohemia writes:
Ey up, Baxter... I can’t recall ever seeing you in anything other than a suit. How many do you own?
Guardian contributor
Noirnoirnoir writes:
Is it true you once ran a Car on peas and managed to get to Watford Gap services from Hammersmith on one bag of Birdseye? If so are you thinking of developing this idea more?
Guardian contributor In the fog of my memories, I barely remember the incident, but it did happen. But as a result of it happening no-one believed me, and I was like the mad scientist trying to sell the idea and no-one responded to me.
What the fuck are you talking about?
Bigtoast asks:
Couple writers I know reckon you used to do a bit of that aerosol art. Is this true? Got any stories?
Guardian contributor Graffiti? Yeah. My name was Aggro. And my best mate was Dare. We had a significant monopoly over Chiswick to Hammersmith. I had a policy where I wouldn't paint on churches or phone boxes, and I started to lose respect. We persevered for a long while and got loads of commissions. By 15 and 16 everyone got more adventurously dangerous. My career was stopped when one week we went to an abandoned place in Hammersmith and some travelling hippies had moved in, and one day the dog bit me, and I had to go to Charing Cross to get an injection, and the following week we went back, and the same dog chased me and my mate kicked it. My mate also kicked over the hippies' dinner that was cooking on the stove. And one of them came out and broke my leg - well, the combination of chasing me and falling over - and I was carried back to Charing Cross the same way I was the week before, and I never did it again. Quite a horrible story actually!
Lou Reed
Kelso77 asks:
I always thought it was a bold and brilliant move to lift the chorus from Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ and add it to Oscar Brown from Len Parrot’s Memorial Lift. Was there any interaction with Lou Reed about it, even through third parties? Do you know if he heard it? And finally, was the original idea always to include this lyric?
I realise this is three questions. But when Len Parrot came out this blew me away. Goosebump material. I thought, “Ballsy but an absolute masterstroke”. I don’t say that lightly. I think Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ is possibly the finest swan song to any final album by a band.
Keep doing what you’re doing. X
Guardian contributor I nicked the chorus because I didn't know what I was doing, but when you nick something it's hard to get rid of, it stains the process. I wasn't good enough to change it. Then Geoff Travis who signed me looked at me, and said, don't worry about that, we get a great vibe from Lou. And we put it out without telling him. And Lou Reed found out, and left me out mathematically with the smallest amount possible, he took 99.9% or something.
Then I had the accident, and had some reflection time, and then a biography came out that talked about Dad and Lou's ill fated tour together; Lou didn't really know who dad was as he was doing a lot of heroin. Dad never actually went back to American due to some incidences that occurred.
And then about eight years ago I did a TV show called Tara Tara, like Jools Holland in France, and I was on it with Lou Reed, Metallica and Lana Del Rey. And we were grouped together for a harmonious shot as the show ended, and you do have to talk to each other. Lana Del Rey looked like someone had given her an injection, I think she had been frozen in a private jet and thawed out. Lou Reed, it was a month before he died. He was literally a mannequin. Lars Ulrich was amazing and so dissing to Lou Reed and Lana Del Rey, it was hilarious. There's a shot that pans away from this really awkward group, and you can see me and Lars bonding.
Pinkypoo222000 asks:
Firstly my smash hits questions oh&morning.
Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
Chocs - soft centre or hard?
Walking in rain - love or hate?
Next Q - I read somewhere you disclosed you can’t spell, Do you think you are dyslexic and if yes How does that effect /enhance your word-smithery?
Guardian contributor I don't know if I'm dyslexic - I am when it suits me. I'm almost that generation of pre-diagnosed syndromes, so before everyone got diagnosed and supported, but because it's unaccounted for I can blame anything on something that's been undiagnosed. Which is ideal.
It doesn't make a difference being dyslexic in the modern world, does it? You don't have to spell. Or even wake up. You don't have to do anything! ... That's proper old bloke's rhetoric.
Guardian contributor Christmas Day, definitely... I've changed my mind, Christmas Eve. Sometimes either. Eve! Day! Shit, he's got me, he's stopped me in my tracks. Christmas Eve.
If you were an aggressive mafia type could you call yourself Christmas Eve to make yourself less scary? Would you be more scary than he was called Christmas Day?
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Vammyp asks:
Hi Baxter, I’m a big fan of your soups and will definitely be stocking up in light of recent events, of all of your soups which is your favourite soup?
I also like your new song.
Guardian contributor
Cavecanem asks:
What’s the story behind the Goya that hangs in your flat?
Has it inspired any songs?
Guardian contributor By me talking about having a Goya, is this a security risk? It's a budget Goya, an engraving, or an etching. From the series The Fortunes of War I think. This journalistic series of illustrations he made depicting a Spanish war and he wanted to show how brutal both sides were being to each other. Everyone in my family has been painters and sculptors and artists - my grandad was a painter called Thomas Rathmel and I just found it in amongst his stuff. Maybe the rest of the family will be annoyed but I nicked it basically. On many levels, it's wrong. I don't know if it's valuable, hopefully no one will rob my house, but it's an amazing thing. I do sometimes look at it in peak destitution and think hmmm...
Goya is by far the best of them all. And soon, I shall purchase a bigger and better one and show the Guardian.
Matt08 asks:
Were you aware of how big a tune Miami was, at Sean Johnston’s and Andrew Weatherall’s A Love From Outer Space?
Guardian contributor No, I didn't realise. ButI've always had a big respect for Weatherall, and shared the same DJ agent, unbelievably, considering he was one of the best. He was one of the only people I've heard referred to constantly as a lovely reliable funny guy. That's a really nice thing to hear - and a sad thing to be reminded of. I never got to meet him.
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Richgart asks:
What was the biggest changing point in your life?
If someone is unfamiliar with you what song would you play them first as an introduction?
Guardian contributor I think, when I had a bicycle accident and smashed my arm. I got 62 bits of metal in my arm when I was attempting to get to a Strokes gig. A guy opened his car door and I landed on my teeth, and my elbow. The guy attempted to drive off, I had this massive Tolberone shape on my teeth, the bike had ventured off and buckled somewhere. And then a black cab driver grabbed me and threw me in the back of the taxi, and he drove me four streets away to St Mary's hospital, and the Norwegian world elbow specialist was at that point leaving in his taxi. And he got my x-ray, and stayed with me for six weeks and rebuilt my whole arm.
I landed on my teeth, but I landed on my feet in a way. The morning I woke up, with my leg suspended in a medical thing, and I had a drip coming out of me, and this Australian nurse woke me up and said: are you Baxter? She gave me the Guardian Guide and I had single of the week, when it was a really massive deal in 2002. Oscar Brown had come out that day. And I started crying, because I was in the orthopaedic hospital, like the line in the song. From that point on I became great!
Inezmae asks:
Who is your favourite artist? :-)
Guardian contributor Musical artist? Currently, as modern as I try to become, I've really got into Frank Ocean, which is about 10 years old. That one Orange, and the other one. There's a really big tune called Super Rich Kids, and I really relate to it... I just think his lyrical direction, this discontent vanity subjects are the stuff I would write about, not the middle class nature of the people he's damning, but the sort of stuff he's talking about.
And we’re live!
Post your questions for Baxter Dury
Sidling out of the shadows comes Baxter Dury, with yet another brilliant solo album and survey of humankind’s desperation. Night Chancers, he has said, is populated by “failed fashionistas, Instagram voyeurs, jilted Romeos reeking insecurity, the willingly self-deluded and the comically unaware”.
It’s a world he witnessed after the success of his excellent 2017 album Prince of Tears, a period skewed by his emergence from a breakup. “It’s all a bit of a theatrical scream into the night,” he has said. “There are these moments and characters across the album – it’s quite a diss-y record, but most of the disses are inspired by insecurities. The characters are very flawed. It’s cocky but it’s really vulnerable.”
Or, in the words of noted fan Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods, it’s “a metal pipe full of the type of disco that disco didn’t want to know”.
Baxter will be coming into the Guardian’s offices at 1pm GMT on Tuesday 10 March to answer your questions about his solo career, BED project, family legacy and anything else you might have on your mind. Post your questions below!
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Keep listening, watch me as much as you can, buy my T-shirts, and goodbye! I really love you.