Bad Dreams

I've had nightmares every night for the last few weeks. At least they're not as bad as these ones:

Date with Destiny

I am on such a high. I've just interviewed the amazing Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child and she's completely impressed me.

Wow! What a formidable woman! She is one of the most positive people I've ever spoken to.

Kelly was telling me about her mother having to leave her abusive-alcoholic father when she was small, and how although that was a really negative experience she believes in "turning salt into sugar" (beautiful phrase) and looking for the positive.

Even though she's never read it, her sunny look on life is straight out of the Secret. She told me she tries to say and think only positive things. She doesn't allow people around her to be negative and say things that are a downer. She remains thankful, and feels blessed, for what she's got, even though she works so hard for it.

A real inspiration.

My favourite DC song is this one:

It's a great pop song but I love it because of the empowering lyrics.

Unlike "I Will Survive", which I always thought was passive, and there's something of the victim to the woman in the song:
I should have changed that stupid lock
I should have made you leave your key
If I'd've known for just one second you'd back to bother me

She validates her life through having relationships:
Oh as long as I know how to love I know I'll stay alive

The song is very of its time. Even in the 70s it would have been shocking for a woman to choose alone-ness over being with a sub-standard man, which does make the song a trailblazer (compare it to Janis' "One Good Man" and you'll see how far women came).

Although men laugh at these songs, more fool them, because what a positive mantra to have to get you through a negative situation:
I'm gonna work harder (what),
I'm a survivor (what),
I'm gonna make it (what),
I will survive (what)
Keep on survivin’

You know, that apparently this song isn’t even about a man? It’s about the old members of DC leaving the group. That’s what makes this a thoroughly modern survival song. Women’s friendships are just as important as their relationships, and friend break-ups are just as tough.

I love Kelly's lines best:

I'm wishin' you the best,
Pray that you are blessed,
Much success, no stress, and lots of happiness

My next purchase: Nigel Tunfnell's Insides

When I was 21 I was obsessed with Nigel Tufnell. I fancied him so much. I loved his dim little ways and expressions like "Hello! There's a little man in here!", "It's a complete disaster", "Hear the sustain", and "None more black".

I thought his haircut was hot, I loved his belts, his arms (they were OUT all the time), then as he got older he turned into Jeff Beck, inventing passports for hamsters. I thought he was beyond adorable.

He was a breath of fresh air in my world which was inhabited by Nazi-Mods. I dreamt of a man who didn't let intellectual things worry him and just rocked out when he needed to.

A few years later I met a guy just like Nigel Tufnell and do you know what? He may be model cute but he's dim and therefore totally unsexy. Strange what happens when you get what you thought you wanted. I think meeting a real-life Nigel was a bit of a turning point, in that looks aren't everything, in fact, a lot the time, they're nothing.

But I digress!
One of my girlfriends at the time and I used to swoon, not just over Nigel, but also over his amazing ribcage t-shirt. For years we searched in vain, but my pal DD came up trumps the other night and sent me this link!

http://www.founditemclothing.com/t-shirts/spinal-tap-skeleton-shirt.html?gclid=CKmUrs7T0ZICFQHD1Aod3gj2Gw


You can Nigel-ify it by cutting off the sleeves if you like.

And look! Rib-cage on the back too!


Here's the shirt in action:


1 min 7 secs in Nigel talks about the T-Shirt:


I saw Spinal Tap play live for the first time last summer. This was the highlight. Every bass player in the known universe and James Hetfield:

Doing my Jane Fondas

It's Coachella this week and I'd've been there wearing my hot pants and drinking margaritas with Paris and LiLo apart from bad things tying me to London. But I won't them get me down. Instead, it's just a reminder that festival season is coming and it is most definitely time to get in shape.

How else do you expect to work 18 hour days traipsing around muddy fields and fighting over laptops? It also helps to have nice shoudlers and thighs while wearing summer fashions. I hope to take my Barbour off at a festival at some point this summer.

I am trying to decide what gym to join but in the meantime I have dusted down my Jane Fonda Workout DVD. Of course Jane Fonda is still selling loads of her fitness DVDs. I mean who wouldn't want to look like Barbarella?
Or Cat Balou?


(Shame she was suffering from bulimia at that period of her life, but that's another blog)

Here's a sample of the crazy exercises I've been trying to do:


BTW Don't laugh at her hair! After an hour of doing this work out my hair is now just like Jane's, and it was straight this morning!

It's really fun doing a double Oscar winner's work-out. When you're sweating she shouts out stuff like "You go girl!" "Be strong!" "Hang on and do it!" and I shout back "You go Jane! Show us how it's done Jane!"

She has some crazy work-outs; she does a country and western work out where you hand clap and yee-har, there's a highland fling work out, and my favourite, the 60s one. With the 60s one you do Monkey Arms, Scissor Hands and "the Donkey"...errrr...and there's this other crazy workout where you look a bit Rocky Balboa winning a match.

My fear is that all these routines will infiltrate my dancing style and I'll be faux mounting horses and pretend lasooing next time I'm shaking my stuff.

Martin Scorsese: I am his friend! You can be his friend too!

The man's on myspace!
Welcome to my MySpace page

Check out his page, so many great behind the scenes videos from Shine A Light.

This is so bizarre, why am I developing a big crush on him? Everytime I see him now I'm enthralled. I just want to sit at his feet and listen to him talk about everything in the whole world. I mean he's a tiny man! Even in flats I'd be towering over him........

But still...wow. He's got it.

Shine A Light London Premiere: I Was There

Of course I was!
Here's me looking goofy on the red carpet:

It was amazing! I was standing right behind Keith, trying to soak up his aura when a PR asked me to move along. But it didn't matter! I was standing on the red carpet in between Jagger and Richards!
Here are a bunch of pictures my friend Camm took. He was behind the crash barriers where all the devout fans were (hey, one devout fan has got to get on the red carpet, might as well have been me!).

I like this picture of MJ, he looks HOT! He's talking to Edith Bowman, who I actually thought was a weird choice to interview the Stones but she was really good, super professional but fun at the same time. And respectful enough to the Stones to please a worshipper like moi.

The best bit was when Keith Richards, obviously bored of being interviewed made a big show of getting something out of his pocket and said "Here you go darling! Have my card!" And flounced off like Errol Flynn.

Gee whizz, what this girl would do to get one of those cards from Keith.

Here's Keith leaving the cinema:



I was sitting in the theatre next to my buddy Rachel Richards (she's a Richards in the same way that I'm a Jagger) and then Mick, Keith, Charlie and Woody walked right by us (we were sitting on the edge of a row). Rachel has worshipped the Stones since about 1978 and has never been close to them so her heart was doing palpitations as they walked past. It was so sweet. Then they went on stage and Mick introduced the film. Then they all left the building!

The above picture is Keith going home. I just love his shirt. The man knows how to work leopard print! A style classic is a style classic.
Here's the lovely Charlie leaving:


Charlie was good that night!
When Edith interviewed him on the red carpet he was as dry as usual, but he brought along his beautiful brunette grand daughter who I think is about twelve. She yelped to Edith "I can't wait to tell all the girls at school about this tomorrow!"

Just adorable.

Noel Fielding and his lovely girlfriend Dee were there too. When Edith interviewed him Dee ran up and interrupted saying "Noel! Ronnie Wood just kissed your mum! She's so happy!" I've spoken to Noel about the Stones before, and actually I always bump into him at UK gigs. He is as big a fan as I am (but he hasn't seen them as much), he knows all the obscure album tracks, even the 80s stuff, because his mum and dad are such big fans, he grew up hearing it. Noel's favourite album is Exile On Mainstreet but he also loves Midnight Rambler from Let It Bleed.



Best Stones fan of the night award though, apart from Rachel, the guys outside and me of course, goes to Rob Brydon.

I never had him down as a Stones fan but when Edith interviewed him he said he loved Steel Wheels best! Amazing! I love a Stones fan with an off the wall favourite. Rock And A Hard Place is a great track off that album.

Sean Maguire turned up. He grew up a few roads away from me, in fact his mum and dad taught Irish dancing at my old convent. It was so exciting him coming to my school, he was always surrounded by the girls because he was in Grange Hill, then later Eastenders.

He was very unpopular in the neighbourhood though, probably just jealousy, and in later years when he'd get the train from Liverpool Street to Ilford he'd fall asleep but everyone let him sleep on and miss his stop. Mean or what.

I would almost feel sorry for him if he hadn't replied to a question from Edith about why he loves the Stones "I prefer the Beatles". Nob.

Here's a vid I found on youtube of the red carpet action:

Miiiiiiickkkk! Miiiiiickkkk! Keeeeeeeeeeeeith! Keeeeeeeeeeith! etc
BTW Is that Adam Camm I can hear saying "Keith you're awesome man!" Maybe.

Interview the Rolling Stones!

I've been lucky enough to speak to the Stones on several occassions, but I'm greedy so I'm going to try and do it again!

You should too!
What on earth does one ask though? Where do you start?

That Stones and Jack White Cover

Sorry it's so teeny, I'll replace it with a bigger one when they're online:

HOT or wot!
Such a beautiful cover. Rolling Stone just have the kind of access and budget that British magazines would die for. They don't even have to worry about whether their covers are going to sell because 80% of their readers are subscribers. That's generally why their covers are so damn gorgeous.

But a very corporate office to work in apparently. I heard that you can only keep five things on your desk at once, so a pen, a cup, a pad, a book, a mobile and you're screwed! Fortunately for NME staffers Jann Wenner has yet to buy out IPC....



Here's part of the Brian Hiatt interview with MJ:

In your mind, what's the difference between the Stones we see in this movie versus the Stones in, say, 1972?
Much older [laughs]! I'm still singing the same old songs, you know. It's just a more matured style of playing, with maybe some of the more extravagant edges taken out. You know, the band — they were very inconsistent back then. They would do a fantastic show one night, fucking raise the roof and be amazing, and the next night they would do a terrible show, where the tempos are wildly wrong — too fast, too slow, terrible train wrecks and awful mistakes. Now it's a much more consistent-playing group.

Looking at old footage, you appear to be even more physically frenetic onstage now than in the old days. How can that be?
The problem for me is that you need a certain amount of physicality and oxygen and fitness just to sing. So if you use too much up dancing, you got nothing to sing with. I'll err on the side of the physicality, and I let the singing down. So I can't make the notes some nights. I've overdone the physicality.

How did you feel looking at the long, intense close-ups on you in the movie?
It was a little bit too much, I felt. But directors always like to use slow numbers to have these lingering shots. Yeah, I didn't care for it too much. Boring. It didn't look very good.

Your performance of "Far Away Eyes" is really campy and funny in the movie — it's a reminder of how much acting there can be in your singing.
All of these songs have characters. They're all different. That's the thing about the Stones, they have lots of other kind of facets which make them kind of interesting. They're not really stuck in classic-rock mode.

If you were forced to define that particular character . . .
Oh, God, don't force me [laughs]! Don't force me to intellectualize it. I just do the characters. I've done a couple of songs — even very early, on those songs like "Dear Doctor" and all that — they're that sort of character. I have an affinity with that country thing, I think.

This is one of those things you've got to see to believe

Oh.
My.
God.
Snaps to Brian Blessed though. What a ledge!

Keith, Mick and Jack White: It's what we've all been waiting for

From this week's Rolling Stone:



There's a video of the shoot if you go here, but I can't vouch for it working because on my machine the quality is very >ropey


Here's an interesting piece by David Fricke. Cover to follow.

In the Rolling Stones' new concert movie, Shine a Light, there is a vintage interview with guitarist Keith Richards. A reporter asks Richards what he thinks about when he's onstage playing with the Stones. Richards coolly replies, "I don't think onstage. I feel."

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Shine a Light captures the Stones in their current feral prime, in breathtaking close-up. Scorsese shot the band in 2006, during two intimate shows at New York's Beacon Theatre, with guest appearances by Buddy Guy, Christina Aguilera and Jack White of the White Stripes, who duets with Mick Jagger in a heated country-soul version of "Loving Cup," from 1972's Exile on Main Street. But Shine a Light — named after another Exile song and the latest in a long line of Stones documentaries, including Gimme Shelter (1970), Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones (1974) and Cocksucker Blues, Robert Frank's notorious, unreleased chronicle of the backstage excess on the Stones' '72 U.S. tour — is a testament to the power of feeling, the blues-band empathy and brotherly defiance that continue to drive and define Richards, Jagger, guitarist Ron Wood and drummer Charlie Watts in concert.

Shine a Light has also inspired a first: the following interview with Richards and White, in front of a roaring fire in a New York townhouse on a recent wet, cold afternoon. Born half a lifetime and a few rock revolutions apart, Richards, 64, and White, 32, had never talked at length before. In fact, White did not see the Stones live until the White Stripes opened two shows for them in 2002. But the two guitarists quickly bonded over their mutual love of the blues and the spontaneous joys of live performance. "It's like describing the Pyramids to someone who has never been there," White says, when asked what he feels in the middle of a hot guitar solo. "A man after my own heart," Richards agrees, smiling.

Richards, who, after a fall from a tree, underwent brain surgery a few months before the Beacon shows, brushes off doubts about his health. "I must be fine, because I'm not seeing any doctors," he growls cheerfully. As for a future Stones tour, "I've never heard anything about not going out again," Richards says. "I'm basically giving the guys a year off. I'm not pushing. But I might withdraw their wages," he adds with a cackle, "and see how they feel then."

Keith, what do you think of "Shine a Light"?
Richards: I'm just seeing what Marty Scorsese sees in the Stones. I was never aware of the cameras. I knew they were there. But once you go to work, your job is to give the audience what they want and, at the same time, get yourself off. I've no doubt that Mick was far more aware that he was making a movie. But once I get going, I just look at Charlie.
I've always been amazed by how much fuss goes on around us — the big screens, the technology. And it has to be coordinated. Mick loves to coordinate. But I'm selfish. I gotta feel good. I can't go up there worrying about things. I go onstage to get some fucking peace and quiet.

Jack, what did you learn about the Stones when you opened for them?
White: How good they were. You could see the comfort level between them, in Keith's guitar playing and Ron's slide playing. It's impressive, man, when that confidence is exuded. Someone once told me when I first started playing — you get a lot more respect if you act like you own the joint. If you fumble around, you don't gain respect.
Richards: You could have asked me that question back when we went from clubs to opening for Bo Diddley, Little Richard and the Everly Brothers on one tour [in 1963]. I learned more in those six weeks than I would have learned from listening to a million records.

What was the primary lesson?
Richards: Stagecraft — what works and how to feel comfortable onstage. The Everly Brothers were superb every night — those beautiful harmonies. We'd open, then climb the rafters and hang there, watching them. Watching Bo Diddley was university for me. Every set was twenty minutes long in those days. When he came off, if he had two strings left on the guitar, it was a fucking miracle. The Duchess was there [on guitar], and Jerome Green, with the maracas in each hand. It was my job to be Jerome's minder. I used to fetch him from the pub — "You're on, mate."

[Excerpt from Issue 1050 — April 17, 2008]