The You Tube Roadshow

Once when I was talking to the boss of a book chain about how much promotion I’d give my books I found myself saying “And for Grumpy Old Men we’ll probably shoot some short interviews with some of them we’ll put on YouTube and that you can use on your website or wherever.”

“Ooh, that’d be good,” she said.

“Ooh, what’ve I done?” I thought.

But the grumpy old men in the book are such pussycats that the first seven I approached all said yes. That was good, because I only wanted five.

So last Monday Sam – who knows about these things – and I set off on a one-day road trip to shot all seven.

The day after the Warriors beat Melbourne e Storm dragged himself out of bed and into his Vodafone Warriors gear, obligingly stood in front of some of his Elvis memorabilia collection and was grumpy to order for a solid minute. Communications guru Mike Hutcheson sounded off in his open-plan office. Actor and comedian David McPhail extemporised eloquently in his garden. Scientist and philanthropist Sir Ray Avery let us into his laboratory. Pop star Shane let us film him in front of his partner’s extraordinary crockery collection. Broadcaster Brian Edwards managed to talk through a nasty throat infection. And rocker Graham Brazier not only let us into his bookshop, he also performed a song he’d written that morning, just for the occasion.

You can see the results on YouTube now. The quickest way to get there is to type “Paul Little Grumpy” into the YouTube search box. Or click below to see Graham Brazier’s contribution.