Richard Coles

[laughs] Hello there, Pottering listeners.

I'm very excited that my guest this week is the incredible Reverend Richard Coles.

And, um, I've admired Richard for such a long time, mainly, I think, because we're both similar in our, in our [laughs] thinking.

Um, and, uh, we both have a sort of slightly olde worlde way of looking at the world.

Um, but for now, um, for now, please enjoy the chat.

And, um, yeah, thank you for joining me, as ever, on Pottering.

Joining me in the garden, Richard Coles.

Thank you.

This didn't sit right with me.

I went to Reverend Father Richard.

He's a white man, by the way.

Reverend Richard looks at me and says, you know what? Yes, what that person said is true.

Jesus could not have been a white man.

In fact, he thinks that Jesus was black and that Jesus was darker than myself.

You know, these Christians are very different side of beautiful Christians.

You know, like butter will not melt Christians.

I don't know why.

Well, the Communards are Jimmy Somerville and Richard Coles.

They are from the UK synth pop group Bronski Beat, and very much in that scene in the 80s.

Somerville was very outspoken about his sexual identity as a gay man.

I think he was the one who sort of kicked it all off.

Him and the Reverend Richard Coles as well.

Absolutely.

Well, I mean, I wouldn't...

Question two for two.

The Reverend Richard Coles play keyboards on a string of 80s hits alongside singer Jimmy Somerville in which group? That's the Communards.

Certainly is the Communards.

And three points for this one.

Morning to you.

In his scurrilous autobiography, the Reverend Richard Coles describes meeting me back in the 1980s when he was in the communards and I was a go-go dancer working in gay clubs in Newcastle.

I think it's fair to say that no one expected either of us to get ordained.

Back then, dancing was pretty much all I wanted to do.

So when I started going to play gigs and all that, I would have been about... 16 maybe when I did my first gig and probably when I saw the Simple Minds I would have been 18 yeah

and quite a long time ago quite inspiring to kind of see guys like that from Glasgow up there knocking

out it was it was it felt things were I suppose developing really quickly at the time you know Glasgow was amazing at the time yeah was really vibrant.

Absolutely.

Like jaw dropping.

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

And also going back to the Klein thing, I think, you know, I don't know as an artist, but it kind of feels quite brave to do stuff like that where, I mean, these guys can tour their own stuff, I guess, if they want and they're...

Yeah, I think it seemed like a really great project, you know, like a great idea.

He did.

Thank God it was Liam and not, like, the Reverend Richard Coles or someone like that you interviewed.

So Carol Vorderman, tell me about being part of Mensa, and just says, "Boobs." [laughs]

Yeah.

One of my favourite authors of all time, Jodie Pickle, will be in conversation.

The Reverend Richard Coles, Britain's favourite vicar.

Yeah, he'll be with me.

And Billy Monger.