28: Breaking the Law - Judas Priest

Better than mine. I was just thinking of like a hardened baguette.

Hello and welcome back to We Can't We Rhyme We Gone Too Far, a podcast where we discuss

the weirdest, worst, silliest as fuck music videos. For this episode, we are without our

most favourite Bulgarian host, Nelly. He is currently indisposed due to having a wedding.

anyway congrats to nilly and scott from the now i guess getting married corner i'd forgotten

i'd written pause for cheers there and i had it muted so it's scrambling to unmute myself i'll

have to cheer yeah do you want to just insert like a cheer just in case okay

oh i don't know what the hell that was but hey today we are a podcast with nothing left to lose

we've assembled our crew, picked our target and synchronised watches.

All to the soundtrack of Judas Priest's Breaking the World.

There I was completely wasting

Out of work and down

All inside it's so frustrating

As a dream town in town

Feels though nobody cares

If I let what I

So I might as well be again

To put some action in my life

The video opens with the lead singer Rob Halfords

Riding in the back of a convertible

Lamenting his life

Apparently a breaking point and on the way to break the law.

Break the law.

He jumps out and regroups the rest of the band.

Bursting through the door of the bank, an expertly subdues the punters and staff

using the sheer power of their metal chops.

Antics ensue and it's revealed the band are after their own golden record

for the album British Steel, which they take an escape into the sunset.

For the 1980 album British Steel, the video was directed by Julian Temple,

best known for its work with the Sex Pistols and various other music-related documentaries and films.

Guitarist KK Downing later remarked in an interview,

We were young and it was exciting.

We were probably making the very first heavy metal conceptual video.

On another note, this is a podcast exclusive.

I actually photographed Julian Temple in 2018.

Oh really? I did not know that.

I photographed him with a filmmaker called Neil Fox.

It was a random job while at uni.

What was his chat like?

Well, he was talking about a documentary that he just,

I think he made like a year before

and it was about

was it about the Sex Pistols

or the Clash?

Yeah I think it was the Clash

he was fine

you know I had no idea

who he was

articulated everything

he talked about quite well

so yeah he was dead on

Talking about the director

Julian Temple

is it the director yeah?

Yes

The guy who directed this

but judging by his Wikipedia

he was quite an interesting guy

because he's done a bunch of

documentaries with his Sex Pistols

and loads of other stuff

in that kind of scene

at the time

I actually

do it i tried to change the wikipedia photo to one of mine but i couldn't i didn't know how to upload

it wikipedia is so hard to understand yeah you know people always talk about wikipedia like oh

you know anyone can edit it but i've tried i've tried it and like every single thing i've ever

added to wikipedia has been immediately removed it's like yeah it's true i don't i don't get it

i i don't understand it it's like like you literally you hit send and then when you hit

reload it's they've someone's already went and went nope you know what actually it's actually

in that respect it's the information on there should be the most up-to-date information about

anything you're looking for yeah yeah i think it gets a bad rap for what it is but previously he had

directed several kinks videos he's also referred to the name but that referred to by name in the

kink song too hot for the word of mouth album julian's on the street scouting out locations

says Larry

apparently

so apparently

he's popular

with the museless

but yeah

he's done

he's done

quite a lot

yeah so initial

thoughts do you

what do you think

uh initial

initial thoughts

is I fucking

loved it

um

yeah

yeah

I'm really

not familiar

with Judas

Priest

at all

sort of our

previous conversation

they had

I think I've

kind of always

bundled them

in with the

whole dad rock

thing

but I'm starting

to think that

was unfair

because this

is actually

a pretty good

song

I thought

for some

reason I

thought Judas

Priest

was Gene

simmons i i for some reason i thought they were the same thing i thought you know he was that was

something that he done he done separately it was a jane simmons side project yeah i feel like a

right twat and i think on that it's one of those videos where i didn't expect much and actually got

so much from it i'm sort of introduced now to a new uh a new show not genre music but a new sort

of you know a new band which i didn't really know much about i guess it's quite refreshing especially

from what I've mainly learned

during this podcast

is quite refreshing

especially a video

this sort of era

for one to have

an actual story

running through it

and a story which is

you know

told cohesively

in what like

two and a half minutes

something that's not just

a fucking

like a stream of nonsense

going into our faces

as frequently as in this show

but

Nelly's missed out

so badly on this one

because

it's just got so many

good points in it

well speaking of that

well what

what weapon non-weapon would you use to rob a bank i was thinking about this earlier all i could

really think of was weaponized hand sanitizer i've got one of those uh i've got one of those like

massive bottles that you hit the pump and it sprays and uh and i was using yesterday and for some reason

i think it's gotten clogged up and that and that alcohol just went like smacked me in the eye

that's where it it's yeah it comes out even more ferociously because the gap's smaller yeah

and ends up just going a direction

I'll insert a clip of Neely sniggering in the background

here

but I don't know

if you saw that picture of the guy going around Walmart

and he repurposed his gun holster

as a sanitiser holster

I'll just have that and I'll just be like rapid fire

and the fuckers you know

that's pretty clever I thought it's better than mine

I was just thinking like a

hardened baguette because then you know

you could eat the evidence

and there's no weapon to worry about.

I'm sure that was the story of like a Sherlock Holmes

or some other detective where someone got murdered

with an icicle.

Not an icicle.

What's the word I'm looking for?

An icicle?

An icicle, yeah.

Someone got murdered by an icicle

because you can melt the evidence away afterwards.

You'd be in there swinging your baguette.

Would you be wearing like, you know,

the stereotypical French outfit as well

just to throw people off the sense?

With garlic hanging around my neck.

Yeah.

So everyone will be looking for a Frenchman.

They won't be looking for an Irishman.

I think that's not a bad idea.

Tell you what, some baguettes I've got now,

Greg's are pretty fucking solid.

So yeah.

Depends what time of day you get them.

Would you use that to pry open the safe as well?

Yeah, it's one of those things

where you just get caught up in the safe.

I find it really, really curious

how they didn't actually spend any time

showing like a safe cracking.

I think they sort of missed the boat there.

Though I think, I mean, not to be really boring,

I think most banks actually don't have their safes locked

unless they're closed.

So there's a hint of truth there that the door just opened.

But yeah, they, a guitar, yeah, what do you think of that?

A guitar to open a safe?

I don't know if we're meant to get the impression

that they've opened it with the guitars or not,

but it looks, that's what I thought straight away.

They've just rifted the safe to such a degree that it's opened.

No, they definitely did, yeah.

Well, I'm just trying to watch it back.

Yeah, it just magically opened.

Wait, I'm trying to see if there's someone actually pushing the door open.

Yeah.

Someone was already inside.

Yeah.

Just saying that now.

You can see down like the slither, there's one of the bad memories.

Oh, yeah.

The inside.

Ah, okay.

Yeah, I feel like they've missed an opportunity where someone could be like climbing through the vents or something there to drop down into the sea.

Yeah, well, I mean, it could have got really Mission Impossible style, you know, where, yeah, they were, I don't know, using lasers coming from their guitars and dangling from ceilings to get in there.

but yeah, I mean, they just played a pretty brute force.

Would hand sanitizer work within a safe?

I guess you could kind of lubricate,

although no, I actually did try that.

Speaking of, my chair is very squeaky today,

and it needs some WD-40,

but I remember I did once on a job,

and there was a squeaky chair,

and I didn't have any WD-40,

so I tried hand sanitizer,

because it was like after the pandemic,

and it doesn't work.

Oh, I think it was like magic and shut it up.

So I can confirm.

If anything, I wonder if the alcohol would sort of strip away the grease.

So yeah, it probably made it worse.

Yeah, but you know, did it for science.

Breaking the law

If you're taking guitars out, it's kind of your stereotypical bank robbing sort of situation.

In this case, like they're using guitars and they're playing them so loud that a guy's glasses crack.

Yes, I think that's the bank manager.

I think he's in so much shock, which that's actually pretty violent because, I mean, he would probably go blind if anything got in his eyes.

So that, I mean, that was actually pretty, that was pretty rough on the band's part where they did.

it did bring a little bit of violence into this.

How loud does a sound have to be to break glass?

So we can get an estimate of how loud they're actually playing

without amplifiers, I'll add, but let's not worry about that.

I do think there's something really funny about it,

and I'm just realizing it now,

is the two guitarists and Rob obviously come in for the front door,

but the drummer's already in the bank.

Is he?

Just casually in the corner.

Yeah, well, you think about it, his kit's already set up.

You know, it doesn't show him coming in with the other ones.

I never noticed the drummer was even in there.

But I just find it really funny.

The people in the bank, I really wonder,

why is this guy in the drum kit just sitting in the corner?

The video might be a perfect example of like you're making a movie

and you're not cutting corners,

but there's stuff that the audience just won't notice,

but it doesn't really matter.

This is kind of the perfect example

because I genuinely didn't even notice

and I've watched this like 10 times.

No, I think that you can get away with it

because the charm's all there.

Well, I've found an article here.

How loud does the sound have to be to break glass?

100 decibels.

So they're playing at 100 decibels right now.

What is that relative?

Is that loud?

How loud is a jet engine?

I should know this, but I don't.

I think a jet engine's 140.

Between 140 and 153.

So they're not as loud as a jet,

but they're still pretty loud.

But yeah, it's probably gigs that have been how loud it.

What was the loudest gig?

Left field England, 137 decibels.

Sleazy Joe, 140 decibels.

ACDC, 130.

So yeah, they could have went louder.

They could have went louder.

Yeah, it's probably enough to crack your glasses.

Burst an ear drum, maybe.

But also on this article I found,

it's what frequency do you need to break glass?

It's roughly 556 hertz, apparently.

but then it also goes on to talk about

Mariah Carey, Blake and Grass, where I was.

We're getting sidetracked.

Point is, they may have futuristic

sort of sonic weaponry disguised as guitars.

Yeah, that's a very good point.

I mean, they are driving an American car around London.

Looks like London anyway, so anything can happen.

It's not in the notes, but I kind of thought

this when you were reading the history.

The guy saying we were making the first ever

heavy metal conceptual video.

Do you think that holds weight?

I don't know.

When I hear conceptual video,

Here, you know, I can visualize something which is really, really out there, really different.

This is as good as this video is.

It isn't conceptual.

Is it?

Am I wrong?

Well, if you take it from the point of view of it, like a concept album, I think usually

that just means an album with a story.

So maybe that's where they're getting the word that's conceptual from there.

If you're talking like a film, a conceptual film would be like something weird and out there.

But maybe there's kind of taking the music definition of it.

Yeah, I guess so.

Yeah, that would, yeah, let it pass for that.

But I agree with you.

If it's in the film definition, then it's a straightforward story,

which is what I like about it.

It's very straightforward.

I mean, as straightforward as that security guard

who literally does nothing apart from entertains himself.

Yeah.

For people who haven't seen the video,

you see the odd shot of the security guard for the bank

passed out on his table next to the monitors.

Once he notices the band and blowing people's socks off

and breaking glasses, he looks very excited

and kind of watches it with a look of glee in his face

and then eventually he picks up a cardboard guitar

and starts the air guitaring.

So he's not very good at his job,

but maybe made the right choice

not trying to fight off Judas Priest.

I mean, this is after they blew up a screen.

But also, maybe he's in on it.

Maybe they've already paid him.

I mean, at this point, it's probably an inside job, isn't it?

Yeah, well, the drummer was already there.

He must have unlocked the door and let the drummer in early.

Or maybe they just had it set up and he wasn't there and he ran in.

I think in return for a cardboard guitar, he was sold.

Yeah.

Didn't take much to buy him out.

Yeah, they promised him a real guitar, but he just didn't know it.

It looks real.

Just ignore the no strings.

My theory, the guard was in on it all along.

Also, I would also explain why the door was open.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm going to go inside job.

So what do you think of them once they get in the safe?

What's your views on the quality of the...

I'm going to say that's a set

because I don't think they actually shot in a safe at that point

because going by those rubber bars...

It's fine.

I actually do like the bending the bar thing

because they're obviously trying to go for like a Superman bending the bars

but it's so obvious what's happening

but it's hilarious anyway.

So it's fine.

The reaction's great though.

Yeah, I think he kind of looks down the camera

like for a split second and yeah he does just as a just as he's starting to bend it so he kind of

looks like he's going like oh no time to go do you know i think they i think they shot this of two

cameras yeah you know i was just thinking that because it go i it goes straight from him bending

the bars into his face so yeah well yeah that's probably even more ammunition for being a studio

yeah i'm just trying to scrubbing through it because it's it's exactly the same look and position

and you can see the other guys behind him.

Oddly decorated safe in general.

It seems like.

It looks like they just went,

just fuck everything in the safe.

Just throw it in.

It doesn't matter where it lands.

Well, the walls are covered in what looks to be,

like, if you remember this sort of tacky background

from, what video was that?

It was Eye of the Tiger.

He ended up fucking background.

Yeah, they've just plastered that on all the walls

like gold foil.

Golden record, a bunch of golden cassette tapes.

Yeah, there's golden cassettes.

A lot of golden cassette tape.

Golden records.

There's a filing cabinet in there.

Possibly also golden, but that might just be the reflection.

So yeah.

But this is where you get the reveal of the video where you presume that they're just going

in to get some money and break the law, but they're actually stealing their own golden record

back.

Is that a metaphor for like, you know, musicians who work for record companies where, you know,

the thing they make they never really own?

Could be.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's definitely, he's waving at the camera quite angry, the golden record.

So it could well be.

It makes me laugh every time I see it.

Whenever he picks up his own record and sees his own name,

he's almost surprised.

If you can watch a video, it's 1.34 is the timestamp.

And then, as you said, he just literally breaks out

and shouts at the camera with his prize.

He kind of looks like he wasn't expecting it.

Yeah, it's like breaking into your bike

and you just find your family photos.

It's a bit surprising.

So maybe they were just wanting to rob the bank

and they just happened to find their own.

They're like, what the fuck?

How did you guys get this?

What the fuck?

Taking that back.

That was actually his safety deposit box

he's broken into.

Lost his password.

There's no other way in.

There's actually a really,

I've just noticed it this time, Ryan.

There's a point when he's shouting at the camera,

if you look where the drum set is,

the drummer just appears and just runs

for a split second.

That drummer, he's always popping up in weird places.

Yeah, he's literally popping up.

In fairness, when he's in the car at the end,

he's still selling the idea and just drumming away.

Obviously without a drum kit.

I was going to bring that up because there's a split second at 2 minutes 12-ish.

He's just smiling away at the bottom.

Just slapping his hands on what I guess is either a bongo or his lap or whatever.

Driving off into not the sunset, but driving off at the end is pretty cool.

I thought it did sort of sell the idea of the car being a convertible.

They're all shutting out the top.

Pretty dangerous, but pretty cool.

Yeah, it looks like fun that they're all in the convertible

and still playing away and shouting away.

And it looks like they're having a lot of fun.

That would be a nice way to travel in, around London.

There was less health and safety back in the end, then.

So they were told, go and get it.

There's way too many of them in the back of that car.

In fairness, when it did drive off, when they were out,

escaped the bank, it looked like the base almost fell out

because he's literally just one foot in the car

and it's starting to drive off.

I'm trying to figure out how they would have done that car shot.

Which one?

The one where it's like the close-up of them in the car.

Yeah, okay, so that must have been really, really tight

because there's too many of them in the car in the first place.

But who's driving the car?

Come to think about it.

Well, now I'm looking at you can't actually see the car,

so maybe they're on like the back of a lorry and it's kind of faked.

That'll be the safe way to do it.

I think Julian's literally in the car with them.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

I mean, there's seven people in that car.

It does give me a bit of a flashback to a student film once where the cameraman was the only person who could drive.

So he was driving while he was operating the camera.

Yeah, that was unsafe.

Yeah, that's absolutely ridiculous.

Why didn't someone else just hold the camera?

I don't know.

I can't remember.

But no one died.

Oh, good.

Well, that's...

This was before all the big hoo-ha about health and safety in the film industry, unsurprisingly.

I don't think you'd get away with that anymore.

No, you would not.

one of the notes here,

the video was shot before this album,

British Steel album,

went platinum.

I think the upshot of this,

which is quite funny,

is that they put this video out

before the album came out,

or at least before it went platinum.

So they were just that confident

that they were like,

oh yeah,

just stick a golden record in the video.

We know it's going to at least sell that much.

I guess, yeah,

kudos to them.

I mean,

they must have,

yeah,

they must have really believed

in what they were doing.

One tiny thing I will add is

one of the band members comes out of a

love shop at the start

I love, oh my, I missed that

Cinema Club, video film, videotapes, mags

sex aids, oh wow

yeah, I did not notice that

Peep machines

Oh wow

So he's got a good night out planned after

they finish rubbing the bank apparently, or night in

I guess. Which band member is it?

Oh, it's one of the guitarists

Yeah, it's one of the ones who are dressed up, but

I can't tell which one

because he's hiding his face

because he's coming out of a dirty shop.

You know, I'm actually just noticing as well.

The, it's like 12, 13 seconds in.

The security guard's napping.

On one of the screens,

you can already see them.

Really?

Like, I think it looks like a guitar.

They're already robbing the bank.

Maybe this is a dream.

The whole thing is the security,

it's either the security guard was an inside job

or it was his dream all along.

Again, probably reading into it too much.

Probably, yeah.

all right fun points i don't really have much to say about this video i i thought it was fantastic

and original um the concept was simple and it wasn't overdone uh i do think it looked like it

would have been great fun to make and everyone involved looks like they gave um 110 percent um

i think the song's pretty darn good too i think this is probably one of the probably the best

videos we've had a chance to look at originally we're going to have rob back on this episode uh

but he was too busy working stuff unfortunately but he suggested this so thank you rob for

suggesting this fine video.

Pretty refreshing seeing a video which is

funny, short, to the point.

Just sort of tells the story well

and gets out of the way.

I really don't have much. Many complaints about it.

It's just a good laugh.

Favourite part? I think if I had to choose one

53 seconds in, Rob

the singer's literally just

shouting to people. I just, I don't know, that just

made me chuckle. He got really into it.

You know, these poor people are on the ground

with their hands but their head.

He's just singing away to them, but really, you know, really violently singing.

I mean, there's lots of other honourable mentions, but yeah, I like that bit.

He's a true showman, even if he's weaponising his showmanship.

Oh, worst part.

You know what?

First time in a while, can't find anything I don't like about it.

I mean, even the bits he chatted about, I'll let them pass for this one.

Yeah, I'm the same.

Couldn't really find a fault.

just for the sake of finding a fault

I'll pick out the mild continuity error

with the monitor but

I don't actually care it's just

the only thing I can actually

think of which is very impressive

yeah so it's an eye from me

yeah eye from me so Nelly

you have missed out

take a look at the show notes for links to today's video links to instagram etc

or email us at

gone too farcast

at gmail.com

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thoughts or if you

would like to tell us

what you would rob a

bank with that isn't

a weapon I would

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rejoice see you next

time bye everyone

Nelly says goodbye

in spirit getting

married what an

excuse

*gunshot*