Eric Daley.

CLIVE ANDERSON: There are only a few great rock stars, even fewer mega stars, perhaps only a handful of rock legends. So it gives me great pleasure to introduce one of the only mega-legendary star rockers. The great, not late, Eric Daley.

ENTER PETER COOK. HE WEARS BLUE JEANS, A LIGHT BROWN JACKET, A BLACK OPEN NECK SHIRT AND BLACK CAP. HE WAVES TO THE AUDIENCE USING ONLY HIS INDEX FINGERS.

CA: It's marvelous. It's marvelous -

PETER COOK PUNCHES CLIVE ANDERSON ON HIS SHOULDER. CLIVE ANDERSON RUBS HIS SHOULDER BEFORE PUNCHING HIM BACK.

CA: It's marvelous to -

BOTH CLIVE ANDERSON & PETER COOK BEGIN CORPSING

CA: It's marvelous to have -

PETER COOK REPEATS HIS INDEX-FINGER-WAVING TO THE AUDIENCE

CA: No, concentrate. It's marvelous to have one of the great rock stars of all time, but let's go back to your early career. Perhaps for the younger viewers who may not have been familiar with it.

ERIC DALEY: Yeah, well as you know, I started very, very young at school with Reg and Jez -

CA: Yes -

ED: And we were just mucking around with skiffle, yah hah, a bit of lee lah -

CA: Yeah -

ED: A lot of that old Ethiopian sound, which we had in before it got fashionable -

CA: Yes. Yes, this was The Corduroys, of course?

ED: Yes, The Corduroys. That was the first group. God rest them.

CA: Yeah. Well of course Jez was the motivating force behind -

ED: Well Jez, God rest him. Jez, some would say he was the creative one of the three. I mean without Jez we would have just been a duo.

CA: Yes.

ED: But with Jez, there were three of us there. We all had - we had our little battles. We had our little battles. We had our, you know. A little bit of -

CA: Yes.

ED: And, err, he wrote most of the, he wrote the songs that were immediately available -

CA: Successful. The successful songs.

ED: The ones... Yes.

CA: But your ones didn't really -

ED: Ours was more the early white noise sort of - the type of sound you can't get into at once. The sort of sound you can only get into years later.

CA: If then.

EA: If then. Well, it's avant garde. But Jez was, he was the one with the -

CA: Talent?

ED: Tunes.

CA: Tunes, yes.

ED: Melodically, melodically he had the tunes. But looking back on those records, or listening to them even, you get a feeling of the times. You get a feeling of everything was full of hope -

CA: It was the Sixties.

ED: It was, it was. It was a time of, err, rejoicing. A feeling of, err... You could do anything if you just tried. And Jez tried and died, we tried and lived.

CA: Yes, fair enough. In the Seventies of course, you went on to form one of the first super groups.

ED: Yeah, Ye Gods.

CA: Yes.

ED: It was err, it was one of the... I suppose the first great, all white super group.

CA: Yeah.

ED: It was just me, and some other people I brought in, into the group.

CA: Yes.

ED: Who were very good in their own right. There was a little boy we found in Pittsburgh, "Blind" Tony Tintin.

CA: Yes.

ED: Just a little kid, he was about eight years old and he played like a dream. Played like a dream. He'd do [PETER COOK MAKES A NOISE THAT SOUNDS SOMETHING LIKE THE FOLLOWING, WHILST MAKING DRUMMING ACTIONS] pit-titty-doop, pid-diddley-doop, pit-titty-doop, doop, doop, pitch-itchy-choo, choo-choo.

CA: He was the drummer was he?

ED: No, that was vocals. [CONTINUES WITH THE "pitch-itchy-choo" TYPE NOISES]. Oh, he was a dream!

CA: Yes.

ED: But we never toured, because we could never find the venues.

CA: Yeah.

ED: Cause those were the days... I say it myself. I mean, it's on the public record, I've done a lot of drugs.

CA: Yes.

ED: I've done a lot of drugs and I've slept with a lot of women.

CA: Yes.

ED: And boys and girls at home, don't. If you think that by sleeping with thousands of women and taking thousands of drugs, you're going to have a good time, let me just say this, don't. Because I'm telling you, I just got out of the Henry Ford clinic, and I'm -

CA: Henry Ford clinic?

ED: Yes.

CA: Not the Betty Ford clinic?

ED: No, the Henry Ford one is a much tougher regime. You have to build a car before you're allowed out. But seriously, you scrub your own toilets, and read your own newspapers and everything like that.

CA: Yes.

ED: And thank god, just for today, I'm clean and sober. And I would not like it to be any other way.

CA: No.

ED: So don't. Whatever you do, don't.

CA: That's your message? Now in the Seventies, you -

ED: Just say "Hmm, maybe." - nah, just kidding.

CA: Yeah, I know, fine. Now Ye Gods of course, your big hit, the one that most people... what was it? "I love it"?

ED: "I love it," yes. Such a simple lyric actually. I mean it's silly to be proud of it, but I am. It's just... the lyric is "I love it". As simple as that. Just with a little tune underneath. "I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it. I love it, I love it, I loooove it. I loooove it. I looooooooove it. It. It. It. It. It. It!" and then, of course you need all the other people there at the same time, don't you? It's no good just doing alpollicello, whatever it is.

CA: Yes. Fair enough. What about your film career? That's been a bit up and down, hasn't it?

ED: I think I made a mistake in accepting the parts I did. I should never have played Edward the Confessor... I was at a loss, it wasn't my territory.

CA: No. Now you've become very interested in the environment.

ED: Yeah, I love it. I love, I love it! Can't get too much of it.

CA: Yeah.

ED: It is such a great thing to have. And we are the only species in the world, Clive, who systematically goes round destroying it.

CA: Yes.

ED: You won't get a whitebait going round saying... you won't find an anchovy going into the rain forest and saying "Let's tear it all down and put up a hotel."

CA: True enough.

ED: But only man. And without the environment we would not be able to live. This is my view.

CA: Yes.

ED: And that's why I think we should succour it, harbour it, look after it. As if it were our own child.

CA: Yes, and of course you have your own anchovy -

ED: Child. Yes I have my own child.

CA: Yes. No. You have your own anchovy farm, don't you?

ED: Yeah, it's just a small contribution to the environment. It's an unnatural salt lake, which I've built in Hertfordshire.

CA: Yes.

ED: Where I've got anchovies. Millions of them, swimming round and breeding and it takes a bit of money to keep them going, but it's lovely to see them happy. And the swans, the black swans fly over, and swoop. And I say "Don't you dare. Don't you dare. I'm saving these little creatures and just 'cause you're peckish mate, doesn't mean I'm not going to blast you out of the sky if you touch my anchovies."

CA: You're very keen on the -

ED: There's a little irony there, isn't there.

CA: Yes there is. You've come a long way from your early days.

ED: I've come a long way from my early days.

CA: Yeah, those early rocking days to owning a country house and everything .

ED: Yeah, I love the country. We're lucky to have a place in the country, very near town. So we've got the best of everything really. And Laura adores it, you know. She, she... that's my wife.

CA: Your fifth wife isn't it?

ED: Yeah, she came after the fourth one. And she's a beautiful, beautiful woman. Very wise! Very, very wise. Probably got more wisdom in her than I have.

CA: Yes. If that's possible. Now, I've got to ask you, because I won't be forgiven. Is there any chance of Ye Gods reforming?

ED: What can I say?

CA: Well, yes or no would be handy.

ED: It's on the cards.

CA: It's on the cards?

ED: There's a big gig, for the environment, in 2004.

CA: Yes.

ED: And we're hoping to get everyone mulled in and melded out. And get them all in, from all over the world. And get them all on the stage, and play that stuff again, man.

CA: OK. Well, I want to be there.

ED: Be there Clive!

CA: Well, thankyou very much, Eric Daley!

[CLIVE ANDERSON WRAPS UP THE SHOW - CREDITS FOLLOW]

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