The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Boybands, Benetton & Friendship Books: Claire Sisk

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

Who got up close with Robbie Williams, Matt Goss and spent her teenage years filling in friendship books and covering her walls with posters? Claire Sisk that's who! Blind creator Claire chats in this weeks The Phonebox Podcast about growing up as a boy band obsessed 14 year old. It was such a joy to find someone who I had so much in common with!Be sure to follow Claire on instagram here and check out her YouTube channel here. Here is her wonderful experience with Robbie.For more of me follow @brummymummyof2 on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok and follow the @phoneboxpodcast account on Instagram for polls and nostalgic fun.If you have any guest suggestions, topics you would like me to cover email [e-mail] and be sure to tag so I can see where you are listening!#90s #90smusic #RobbieWilliams #TakeThat Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan, you know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Phone Box Podcast. As you know, I love to do a weather check and it's drizzly. It's absolutely drizzly. I walked my daughter to school this morning and came home in a sheen of water and sweat, which was not attractive. I have got a guest on this week and we met an event last week. And at these events, guys, I'm not going to lie, everyone's 23. Everyone's 23 at

these events. And I tend to gravitate to anybody who I think maybe they might be similar age to me. Try and hunt them down. And this, I looked at her social media and I said to my husband we've got we're gonna have a lot in common Claire welcome to the phone box podcast thank you for having me okay so tell the people where they can find you online all my social media channels are can see can't see okay and that's on youtube instagram everything yep everything okay i'm greedy do you know what so i'm on i'm on i'm even on pinterest i don't know if any anything's coming out i'm on it man i'm like yeah i'll do anything um now it's going to be a bit interesting because explain to the listeners so you are blind now and I'm presuming you weren't blind when you were 14 correct yeah okay so do you want to give the listeners just like a real brief kind of

description of what happened to you yeah so uh 2009 I was 29 I had a stroke in the April I had another stroke in the September and it was from those strokes that I started losing my eyesight uh 2013 I was registered as visually impaired and then on the 1st of November 2017 I woke up with the majority of my vision gone and then I was registered blind and that's been my life since oh Oh my, and you know what? She's an icon. I'm just kidding. You're just great.

I was having a look at your social media and there's some bits on there and I was like, I cannot wait to deep dive into it. I saw a bit of Matt Goss thrilled. I saw a bit of Robbie Williams double thrilled. So we'll come into that in a bit, but I like to um uh kind of chat a bit in the beginning about music and films that were popular the year you were 14 so what year were you 14 I was 14 in 1994 okay 1994 a great year two years after me so can you have a

little guess um what was the UK's best-selling single of 1994? Was it Prince, Beautiful Girl in the World? No, it wasn't. That's not even in the top 20. That might have been 95, though. Maybe. So, Annie, I'm going to give you a point. In fact, did you know what? In fact, the number two top song,

you were in the area when I was dancing to it at this particular event, if you can remember. Was it the Macarena or Wigfield? It was Wigfield. We thought it was the Macarena and I was trying to do the Macarena, but no, it was Wigfield. Oh, I wish I could have seen that. Do you know what?

You certainly don't. And do you know when the certainly don't and you know when the um so listeners they do professional photos of the events when the professional photos came back there was two of me doing that flipping dance i look i look my dress is bunched i look like a mushroom okay so number two was wigfield number three was stay another day with e17 that's a great one christmas that would have been a christmas number one wouldn't it i'm not an east 17 fan you are a true take that fun if you're not on east all the way through number four was baby come back by pat and banton and number one it was the biggest number one for a long time wet wet wet wet wet love is all around. Love is all around. I've got beef with that song.

Why? Because they kept Let Loose from getting to number one with Crazy For You. And I love to let loose. Oh, my God, Claire. Did you know I had Let Loose on my podcast a few weeks ago? Did you? I'm friends with them. Well, I'm friends with them.

They're not friends with me. I did. I had Let Loose on my podcast a few'll have to have three of them i know because um i had lee um matthew pateman from bad boys yeah and um rob and rob yeah i had the three of them on we all we did a podcast together oh my gosh i'll have to go and listen to that i never know do you know them i mean they came on the podcast i don't well they're not they're not hanging they're not around my house now i told you i've got so much in common yeah let loose came on um with matthew pateman from bad boys inc and i asked richie i was obsessed with bad boys inc when i was younger like matthew after gary barlow it was Matthew Payton for me. And now he follows me on Instagram.

And I tell you what, that man is a delight. He likes all my posts. He comments on my posts. He direct messages me. I just think he's just gorgeous. Such a nice guy. Such a nice guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, that's so funny. And I wasn't a huge bad boys fan, but I always remember Matthew having the best jawline and the best cheekbones of any boy band member oh good and you know what he's still gorgeous now when he came on the podcast I was like and that night I did um like a full face of makeup like like full face curly hair full face of makeup like real like Steve was like where you going me and Matthew have you been to see them I haven't I haven't they've not come to Birmingham have you yeah I've been to see them twice oh my god I love this this was it good oh amazing the first night that I went to see them I was really really drunk but it was so good and

Matthew DM'd me and he was like let me know where is best for you to sit that you will have the best experience which I I was so blown away by like yeah I I love live music and my dream is to make it audio described so the fact that he did that just made me feel instantly included so we were right at the front in the center and then the second time I dragged my daughter with me yeah she wasn't best pleased about being there after a few porn star martinis, she lightened up a bit. But they were brilliant. They were so, so good. Okay, when they come to Birmingham, I'm definitely going to have to see it.

I'll come up. And guys, if there are any boy band fans out there, do go and give Matthew Pateman a follow. Because he really is genuinely a really nice guy. And his dog died recently and I was ever so sad for him. So he's, oh my God, I love this. We've got so much to comment on. Okay, so we've done the best-selling songs of 1994.

Can you guess the best-selling film? See, I was at that age where I wasn't going to the cinema anymore. I was a bit too old for it. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling,

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in an exciting live dealer studio, exclusively on FanDuel Casino, where winning is undefeated. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario gambling problem call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca please play responsibly with the Fizz loyalty program you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan you know for texting and stuff and if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan you're not with fizz switch today conditions apply details at fizz.ca it must have been four weddings and a funeral you hit the nail on the head yeah it was such a cracking film then it was Mrs Doubtfire

The Flintstones I mean that's an alright film my kids like that The Lion King, The Mask, Aladdin, Schindler's List and True Lies which I went to see with my mum and dad in the cinema beautiful I think I passed maybe maybe it was something to do with some sort of exams

or a treat for parents evening or something we went to yeah because I'd have been 16 in 1994 so it may be for the gcses they might have been like mom we'll take you to see true life okay fab so 1994 you were 14 where did you grow up i grew up in um a town called cruelly in west sussex which is right next to gatwick airport for anyone who doesn't know okay what was your bedroom I'm presuming lots of posters oh my god yes I unfortunately had to share a bedroom with my middle sister um we have an amazing relationship now but when we were teenagers she hated me but um my half of the bedroom yeah it, it was covered in Take That and Let Loose.

I just, do you know what? Did you get your name on the Let Loose single? Yes, I did. Yes. Was it 17, the seven inch vinyl? It's one of them upstairs. Yeah, I've got it upstairs. I've kept all my, well, my mum kept loads of my seven inches.

So I've got, because I, on Instagram, sometimes I do like 90 sketches and I've got like all posters and all scrapbooks and everything. Yeah, but my name was on there as well. Oh, how funny. Yeah, mine's on there. I was so excited when I saw that. I was just like, goal achieved. I wonder, how did we get, because we didn't have the internet, we didn't have Twitter didn't have direct messages how did we get our name on there did we write in do you remember when back then you would um when you bought a cassette or a cd you'd get a little card in it that you would fill out your details and send back to the music yeah the record label and then they'd put you on the mailing list yeah and then you'd get like little mail shots when a new single was coming out and I it must have been on either one of those or in somewhere like fast forward

or something yeah yeah yeah and you sent a self-addressed envelope yeah or I feel but there was like oh my gosh I've just I've just had a memory unlocked I actually sent a self-addressed envelope to Matthew Pankman's house. Where the hell is that? This is the other thing. So I had this conversation. I'm sure I had this conversation with Lee because I interviewed Lee for my radio show. Yeah.

And he would be like, oh, girls are way outside my house. How did they find out where you lived? And he'd be like, they'd literally walk around Watford going, do you know where Lee from? Yeah. Yeah. I sent a self-addressed envelope to his house. And you what he sent me a signed picture back oh what a love yeah it must have been a free posting we were laughing on the podcast I did with them because um I've got randomly like a bad boys inc like fan club newsletter and in the back two pages it's just hi my name's charlotte i am giving you full address and i'd like to have a pen pal could you imagine now teenagers yeah full address we

used to do that on the on the take that one as well but the fans we used to send we used to be pen pals would meet fans outside studios and become pen pals and then we used to do these things called fbs friendship. Friendship books. I know them well. Let's get friendship books trending again. You'd be like, love, solicit all your boy bands, who you've met, who you've seen. Mrs Barlow, send it. Like a CV of boy band.

Okay, I need to know you take that for favourite member because I need to know it take that favorite member because i need to know it robbie right okay a few because i was thinking if it's gary we're gonna have to stop the podcast well when robbie left it was i see when prey came out yeah i was i i i remember so vividly having this torn heart i was like i'm actually in love with Gary but I can't I can't cheat on Robbie again no no you can't because what would Robbie do be really upset yeah I hid it from everybody but I I secretly did it when um their live at Wembley video came out and Gary's singing pray and he's got that little bit of sweat on his cheek. I used to just, I was in love.

I was in love. Okay. So I go into your Instagram. You recently, fairly recently had a bit of an experience with Rob Williams that I must admit made me cry and I had to show my husband. Please tell listeners what the heck happened. It was beautiful. So it's been reposted recently

but it was when he did his Royal Albert Hall gig um November he did like a one-off gig that they needed a bit of footage for his biopic that just came out um and my friend and I went and we were front row but like the tier on the side but your row of seats was the same level as the stage and um we just stood there singing along as you do and um I I use a white cane Rick the stick his name is of balance issues most most people with sight impairment will have some form of balance issues and I didn't want people thinking I was drunk so I have Rick erect fully erect so that I could uh you know stabilize myself and my friend Claire said Robbie keeps looking at you and I was like no he's not no he's not and oh my god he is coming over and he did he came over and he she said he's coming right for you he's going to talk to you and um he came up to me in it and not on the microphone he went it's rob i'm in front of you

which i was just like oh my god how amazing like i mean i did feel the presence there but then he said i'm going to put the microphone to your mouth and ask you a question and he said what's your name and where you're from and then he gave me a hug and he he was like have a great night um and then he always dedicates she's the one to somebody in the audience every show he does and he started singing it and then um he came back over um hugged me went back on stage and he's he said Claire I've got my chair on the corner of the stage I'm looking at you the whole time I'm singing this but I couldn't I couldn't see where he was like so when when I'm trying to find where something is I always put my arm out and someone will guide me to the direction I need to look in because I've got a very small pocket

of vision in in the corner of my eye I thought I'd be able to see it but the lights were far too bright and I couldn't and I think he could see I was struggling he got back off his chair and he came back over and he sang the rest of the song hugging me but he also kept telling me what was going on around us so he was audio describing it and then he was like everyone's looking at us and I was thinking I wish he hadn't have said that because in my head it's just us two right now we're just in a room alone nobody else no no my husband no nobody exists in this world he was just honestly in a in a world where I am often excluded and I don't say that for people to feel sorry for me I say it because it is true he made me feel like the only person there and he made me feel so included

I just I just don't have the words to express how he made me feel that night I was on cloud nine and oh my god my 11 year old self was just like dying inside as soon as I got out the venue I phoned my mum and dad and I was like oh my god you're never gonna believe it and my dad's like my dad hated take that when I was younger because he was so sick of listening to their songs but my mum was all like wasn't Robbie the fat one I was like no mum that was Gary you kept calling Gary the fat one yeah but Robbie got fat and that's how she'll remember them and I was just like and they were just over the moon for me oh my gosh how much that meant to me and honestly I just are still to this day like on my bad days on my I don't want to be blind days it's those memories that I'm like you know

what it sucks to be blind but I'm bloody lucky because of what happened yeah I will share it on my I'll reshare what you put on my um insta stories so people see but I was like so did was that in the program as well the clip of you two no no they needed audience engagement because we weren't allowed our phones out because they said back from when it was that he did his first Royal Albert Hall, no one had mobile phones. Oh, right. So no one was allowed to film anything. But luckily for me, the guy sort of in front of us got his phone out

and Robbie said, no, that's fine. He can film it. And he then put it on YouTube. He said to me that night, he said, I'll label it this and I'll put it on YouTube and you said to me that night he said I'll label it this and I'll put it on YouTube and you can you can have it so I have got footage yeah yeah yeah it's it's just oh what it's just so beautiful and the fact that he was audio described it's just I know that I just watched it than anything I just watched it and I just thought my little heart was just like oh it's just so lovely so you live take that you live let loose did you like any other music or you just full boy bands I was full-on boy band but I've always loved all music

country uh 50s and 60s but in my teenage years it was it was all about the boy bands 100% same for me as well what kind of um school did you go to and where did you fit in the hierarchy were you like popular were you nerdy I just went to your average normal high school and yeah no I was the dork with with hardly any friends because of my love for boy bands oh really did you have loads of friends outside of school because I did I didn't have loads I had a few the friends that I played with outside of school went to my school but we we our school was in like two different buildings at two ends of a massive field and all my outside of school friends were in the other building um and I and my one best childhood school friend she was also a massive take that fan so on the

weekends we could just sit and literally indulge in as much as we wanted but at school none of my it wasn't cool to like a boy band at 14 it was not cool none of my friends at school vaguely liked boy bands. So I had a lot of friends that I'd found like, you know, like you're going to gigs, going to signings, going to whatever. You'd meet people like, and I'm still friends with them. Like my friend Sheila is my daughter's godmother. And like Melissa, I've still got lots and lots of friends from that era

because it was just so fun and so special, wasn't it? Yeah. And it was only when fun and so special wasn't it yeah and it was only when I got to sort of 15 16 and I was going to sign-ins and stuff that some of the girls then wanted to be my friend because they were like oh wow she's meeting these bands we want to meet them and then they wanted to be your friend but I knew their number I was like nah you're not using me now nah yeah yeah yeah I was did you used to like we used to at play time or break time we'd be like let's go and phone Jason Orange's twin brother from the paper we do stuff like that what goes through our head when we're thinking that let's just call Gary's mum

why my friend um Lucy obviously like let's phone Louis Walsh let's just phone all these like random we had we didn't care did we there was no there was no shame oh god not an literally not an ounce of shame I went to like hiding in like a like a a program stand and and me and my friends and we were like moving the program stand a little bit forward and a little bit forward just to try and get it's just like what are you just hiding oh but it's fun though isn't it it honestly they my boy band days were some of the best days of my life yeah same i i i really i wouldn't want my 13 year old to do it because it was not safe no going all around the country not safe booking into hotel rooms not safe unsafe but I had a great time okay so Robbie you had a crush on Robbie but

was he your first crush or did you have any other first crushes no Robbie was like my 11 years old when I first discovered take that so my cousin had gone on to The Big Breakfast, the TV show, the morning TV show, and Take That were on it on Valentine's Day in their underwear in the bed. And my cousin was there. And they had recorded that. And we were at their house for New Year's Eve. And I was like 11.

I was quite tired. I wasn't, you know, party animal at that age. And I lay in her bed and she was like, oh, you should watch me on The Big Breakfast with Take That. And that is when I was like, who is this man? I love him. So Robbie was like my first actual love. Yeah.

And also he's not that much older than us, is he really, Robbie? No. Robbie was a baby. He was probably like, what, 17? He was 16 then. Yeah. So he was quite a young lad wasn't it yeah the big breakfast just shoving shoving men in pants on the bed yeah why are you eating your cereal let your 11 year old watch these men in

their underwear that's nothing wrong with that i've mentioned it before but when i went to see bros at the end um yeah we'll talk about br, actually. I went to see Bross and at the end they pulled down their trousers, didn't they? And Matt had like an American flag on or something. Like, not appropriate. Not appropriate for children. But on your Instagram, Matt Goss was also there. And you said you had a story.

I do. I do. So I was a little bit young for Bross, but my older sister's four years older than me. She loved Bross and Brother Beyond. Yeah. And so I loved them. She used to feed her posters chips.

And when Matt, I think it was about two years ago, I'm sure it was because it came up as a memory on my Facebook. Two years ago, Matt did a one-off gig at Prism in Kingston, his new album that he'd bought out, and he did a sign-in as well. And my friend and I went and we got into the shop and he was just so, so lovely. He was spending a lot of time with everyone, but I felt he just spent that little bit longer with me and I stood there and we were we were just talking and he said to me

said you want to feel my face now I think people think when you're blind the way you learn what someone looks like is you feel their face it's not we don't do that we don't walk around touching people although I'd like to some of them but I was just like oh no you're all right you're all right he's like feel my face I was like no no it's fine feel my face and I've got this filmed on video and I'm like no no no and then he takes my hands and he feels his face now I would have felt his face but I'd literally just eaten a burger and I'd ketchup all over my hands and all I kept thinking is can smell my fingers and think what the fuck has this girl been eating gherkin and gherkin fingers oh god is this girl gherkin fingers is lady but did his face feel nice yeah his beard was very soft and then yeah and then he just like pulled my head in

my friend was like oh my god i thought he was gonna snog you the way he pulled your head in i met him in vegas um there was a film premiere and he i have no idea why matt goss was there i think he might have had a residency and he just came over like the loudspeaker, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome Matt Goss to the red carpet. I was literally at my honeymoon and I could have, I would have left my husband. I was like. I was just.

You know what? He is beautiful inside and out. He's another one like Matthew Pateman, just a beautiful soul. Yeah. He had a lot of makeup on when I met him oh did he oh see I couldn't see that when I met him no but could you smell him

because he smelled lovely oh my god yes yeah he smelled expensive he looked expensive he had a bit of a jazzy hat on that I wasn't a huge fan of but the picture of me and him I looked and I said my nine year old self would be deceased I was so happy and the picture of me and him I look and I said my nine-year-old self would be deceased I was so

happy and the pictures me and Matt and I'm like literally look like oh my god I'm ascending to heaven and Stephen's behind us just really smiling in the background like a little proud dad you need to get Matt on your podcast no what we know i couldn't oh you have to know what i do i mean i had matthew pateman and i managed to like um i managed to calm myself down for that yeah maybe maybe maybe i should reach out to all of them and get them all on okay what was your biggest fashion faux pas what kind of styles were you wearing i hate that t-shirt there we go and you're like boys will fancy me boys will fancy me I'm gonna take that t-shirt it was either that or I had this almost luminous green united colours of Benetton jumper Claire you're the first person to

have mentioned united colours of Benetton and for that you win a prize of my honour because how have I not mentioned that on a night there's been over 50 episodes no one's mentioned it was a classic it was United Colours of Benetton I thought I was the bee's knees in that jumper I bet that was quite expensive you know you know it was and I'd got it for Christmas so things like that we'd always ask for for Christmas but I love I love colours I always have loved colourful things and I was quite a podgy teenager and you know a lot of time you wear dark colours but I was like no I love this luminous green jumper and it had United Colours of Benetton embroidered across the chest in all the rainbow colours and I just loved it but this was the sort of phase that you would wear a button-up shirt

underneath so the collar was poking out and then the the end of the shirt was poking out under your jumper and leave Levi jeans obviously absolutely classy or a naff naff jumper naff naff yeah naff naff or a bomber jacket did you have a bomber jacket? I didn't have a bomber jacket no because it wasn't warm enough for me you're not having a bomber jacket I had a United Colours of Benetton puffer jacket though it leaked water

but I did not care you were rich I would have seen you and I would have been like jeez I was wearing my market bomber jacket I would have seen you and I'd have been like, gee, she's a fan. I was there in my market bomber jacket. I'd have seen you and been like, what a fancy legend. And we all were like,

I mean, I'm not, I'm not, I'm just guessing. See for me, I was wondering why don't boys like fancy me? It's like, because you're wearing a bomber jacket with tartan trousers and a man's white shirt yeah the tartan trousers and kickers the kickers that we used to wear and wallabies did you have those as well again out of my price

range but yeah i remember wallabies my sisters i wasn't allowed them because i didn't look after my shoes apparently my sisters my eldest sister had a purple pair. My middle sister had a brown pair and she would wear one of each so that everyone knew she could afford two pairs. And those big hideous Fila boot trainers. So wallabies were like suede, weren't they? They would be quite hard to look after. Yeah, I wasn't trusted. Yeah, no, I didn't really know what I wore on my feet. I can't, oh no, I had some Doc Martens, I think, I think probably,

I don't know, I don't know, it would have been cheap. Yeah, Doc Martens were expensive back then, I mean, they're expensive now, but like hardcore kids wore those at our school, like my kind of range, we wore gola oh yeah yeah i need to look back and go and have a little look what i wore on my feet with my photos because i can't remember i have no idea at all okay so was there any fashion item then that you'd wear now my take that t-shirt do you still have them yes do they still they still fit? Well, do you know, I was a podgy teenager and, well, I'd been big all my life, but I'd lost like 12 stones. So, yeah, they'd fit now.

Wearing with a little pair of leggings and some Converse or some little New Balance, you'd look lovely. Awesome, yeah. Yeah, the opposite. I was slim and I don't know if you ever remember they sold a Mark Owen crop top that would be Johnson's baby powder no Johnson's body powder no it wasn't no it was just like a picture of Mark Owen and it was in a crop top I bought it I don't think I could get well maybe my wrist in it I don't think it was that's long gone but I do have some like

take that t-shirts that I've got more recently but no I ain't wearing that that crop top okay what um about your first snog oh gosh his name was Russell Gates oh Russell if you're listening shout out um and I can't even remember how old I was. I was in middle school though, so I hadn't got into high school, so quite young. Yeah. But I thought I was going to marry him and then he cheated on me with my friend. Russell, you have let yourself down.

So how old's middle school? Do you call it junior school? We'd call it junior school around here it was just before you went into high school so what you must be up to about the age of 11 and Russell he wasn't going to commit well he gave me um a ring pull from his coat can as my my ring so I felt you know that was a sealed deal but it wasn't the listeners she's still got it on now my finger's green but I think yeah I think it was just about to drop off well bad bad bad luck Russell to you um was it a night was it nice experience or was it just a kiss and let's get it over and done with um oh gosh I can't even really remember. I remember it being outside on the field of the school.

So this is back in the day when schools did not have fences around their fields and that. Just let all the wrong things in. Yeah. And after school, you'd just go over and, oh, should we go and play on the school field? And there was like a group of us that would play out. We all kind of lived near each other and would do handstands and cartwheels

and kick a ball because that's what children were meant to do. And, yeah, and it was on the field that we kissed for the first time. And I don't really know what I felt. The thing that springs to mind is so my mum used to make like a liver dish liver like in flour it was gross it was the worst one of the worst things I've ever put in my mouth because since then I've put worse in I remember the kiss being a bit like the texture being a bit like that liver and I was I'm not sure Russell if you're listening you've got a liver tongue

add it to your bio on your social media yeah it was just a weird a weird thing can you tell us about a teenage flop that you look back on and you regret oh gosh Okay, can you tell us about a teenage flop that you look back on and you regret? Oh, gosh. Quite a few, really.

I wish I'd sort of stood up for myself more. Like when the girls used to pick on me for wearing my Take That T-shirt, I wish I'd just sort of stood my ground a bit more and been like, wear what you want to wear. Yeah. But you don't think of that at that age no I definitely with some and the girls at my school were lovely but if I was going to any like there I wouldn't have wanted to take that t-shirt I would I would have kind of that was an out school out of school experience in school I would have tried to be a little bit Doc Martens-like. Remember Klotz? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Fair of flowery Klotz. Just a bit cooler, but like out of school, I weren't cool at all. Yeah, I just wish I'd just sort of stood up to it or maybe just not been such a dork, but that's who I am.

So I can't change that. Yeah. And you know, we had a great time it was so fun I wonder if we were ever at any of the same things so I used to come to London quite a lot because I had pen pals down there um we probably were and I bet there's people who will talk about that we like I know that person yeah yeah yeah definitely definitely I had a um a pen pal called Mia I'm still friends with her on Facebook and her mum worked at Wembley

and I think I don't know what she worked as I feel like maybe she was on the cleaning staff but they got access to tickets earlier than everybody else Yeah because back then we used to camp outside the arena to get front row because we didn't have the internet

So she used to get tickets so it would be like front row of Wembley like imagine like a front row yeah so that that was um that was but then also that does mean I was going to like London when I was 15 by myself and navigating all the tubes and stuff that was a little bit that was a little bit scary okay what was your biggest teenage success my biggest teenage success. I think for me, it was, I had a paper round, which was about two pound a week, a million houses. I saved all that money and bought tickets to go and see Take That. To me, that was a massive achievement for me.

And I think it's something that's lost in today's world like my daughter don't get me wrong she did have to do chores to earn her pocket money but it wasn't two pound a week it was more like a tenner a week and yeah you know she wanted to go and see a concert it'd be oh I'll take you and I'd pay for it whereas when I was younger if you wanted something you paid for it you had to save for it because your parents couldn't afford it, even though the tickets were only like £17.50. Now they're hundreds. And I just feel like for me, it taught me the value of money. And it taught me if you want something, you work hard for it. Because that night that Take That came on stage, I just felt every single newspaper was worth it for this moment.

I just loved it. Loved it. It's a real shame. I mean, I do take my daughter to concerts, but I've had some of my followers message me, like, it's just, concerts are so expensive now for just, like, a mum to take, at the cheapest price in the crappiest seats

for a mum to take a kid to a concert you're looking at easy like 300 quid it is absolutely insane it is it is and I don't know how people afford it and I know you know when back in like the early 90s ticket prices were one price whether you were right at the back of Wembley or right at the front, they were all one price. And it's good that they do the tiered pricing, but it also categorises people. You've got rich, you've got middle class, you've got poor, because if you're in those nosebleeds, well, you're obviously poor, but you want to be there and I just doesn't sit right with me it's like the meet and greets as well you know people will pay hundreds of pounds to do meet and greet and it's well if you're rich you get that luxury but if you're poor then then you don't and you you miss out and I just don't it doesn't sit right with me it's just at, like, my first take back concert was like £7.50

at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall. £7.50? I tell you what, a Taylor Swift magazine now is like £8.99, just for a Flip It magazine, let alone for, oh, don't we sound old? We do, but I love it. I love it. We're old women who watch old men now dance on stage. Most of my daughters, when I took her to see,

because I went to see Garyary barlow did you go and see him when he did his little one-man show he did a one-man show she did why am i asking you that she was a bro when you went to sit so i took my daughter i went to sit with my mom once which is brilliant in wolverhampton i went to sit with my daughter in london and she left and she went mommy that was an old man singing old songs to old ladies. And she would be correct. And I was like, and I loved every second of it. Yeah.

She's not a huge, she's not a huge, she's not a huge fan. Because whenever they come on the telly, like, say if it's like, you know, I don't know, Coronation or whatever, you always get to take that bopping up don't you do a song or the end of Saturday night takeaway and I'm like doing all the dance routines and my kids are oh god she's off she's off again she's and I said I said if any I said if anything when anything happens to Gary Barlow this will be far in the future I was like I'm gonna have to take a week week off work because I'm gonna be so upset did was you did you take time off. I was like, I'm going to have to take a week, week off work. Cause I'm going to be so upset. Was you,

did you take time off school when they split up? I'm going to be completely honest and listeners, please do not judge me. By the time they split up, obviously I was like 18. Right. So I had kind of, I'd found no like actual boys that would kiss me,

not posters I would kiss. So I had, I was like, oh, that's like kind of sad, but I had posters I would kiss so I had I was like oh that's like kind of sad but I had I'd had moved on a bit right if you upset oh my god my mum actually did let me have the day off school I was devastated I my world ended and when those clips now come up on social media where like Gary, Gary's like, as of today, take that, it's no more. I still, I'm like, what? Yeah. Honestly. And people are like, it was only a boy band.

But they, I'm not even joking, they were my life. Yeah. Luckily, I just moved on. And then Robbie came to do a sign, and I went to that. And that was when I was around 18 in a local shopping centre. But, yeah, so I wasn't as devastated but yeah um when they came back I was just like oh it was just the dream okay are you glad you grew up then or do you wish you were growing up now no I loved loved my childhood and

I think it was life was a much more simpler way of living. I feel now it's far too complicated. Yeah. Yeah, it is, isn't it? There's so much pressure on the kids. But I will say that kids are more adaptable, I think, than we are. Yeah. Yeah, there is that plus. But I just I just feel like we experienced a life that this generation's never going to experience like going out to play and you know you could just knock on someone's door

you didn't have to book in advance or can I come around on this day at this time you could it's Charlotte coming out to play and it was just so easy and so simple and carefree and now I feel like there's so much pressure on on kids now you've got to look a certain way you've got to like a certain thing you know like my my stepdaughter she's 17 and it's almost frowned upon if they if they're not bisexual because they're not supporting their right their peers and stuff and it's just like be who you want to be, love who you want to love, but don't come for somebody because it's not the same as what you like. There's just so much pressure for them.

And it makes me feel sad because I think it makes mental health more common. A lot of us do have mental health but when we were 13 14 it wasn't really a thing because life was simple we didn't I think life was simple but also nobody would have talked about it no no one really talked about it but I don't remember being that age and struggling with anxiety or anything because I just feel like life was easy whereas now I look at like my daughter and stuff and I think god the pressure she's under just to you know even to have the latest gadget I remember when she was like seven or eight and she wanted a Nintendo DS and everyone in her school got one for Christmas and she was like does father Christmas not like me is that

why I didn't get one broke my heart it's like no i can't afford it i'm a single mum you know i mean my family then all did chip in to get her one because they were in tears over it but there is there's just hideous pressures on everyone now and it's it's it's sad because i just feel like the 80s and 90s it was so carefree yeah yeah it really was if you go back and tell Claire Smith then what would you tell her that you don't need to know everything about maths because you will always have a calculator on you do you remember that you won't always have a calculator on you are you sure about that Mr Smith you literally you literally and Pythagoras theorem like what we're never ever gonna know like i think the frustrating thing for me with with like maths and business studies is they

never taught you the stuff that you need like mortgages and and financial advice that you need when you're older you know but no i'm in all honesty if i could go back and tell myself anything it would be just do the things you want to do and don't let people's judgment stop you because ultimately you're the one that misses out not them yeah yeah that's good advice I have loved you coming on the podcast because and I as soon as I press stop I'm gonna spend 10 minutes talking about let loose to you I just I just I just love it right guys be sure to go and follow Claire on social media I'll leave all her links in the description I'll also share that

video of her and Robbie Williams on my insta stories so you can see it there and also it's on her account as well thanks so much for coming on the podcast Claire thank you guys come back next week and tune in for another episode don't forget to go and follow me on the phone box podcast instagram account where we do loads of different polls and fun stuff like that I think Come back next week and tune in for another episode. Don't forget to go and follow me on the Phonebox podcast, Instagram account where we do loads of different polls and fun stuff like that. I think last week we did a poll about the best duos in the 80s and the 90s. So it's hard hitting content as per usual.

I hope PJ and Duncan are in there. Do you know what? I don't know what's in there as yet, but we always, see, we always, if you don't follow me on my Instagram account, we always put up a call to action was like right you put your nominations in but pj and duncan's a great one because you've got wham pj and duncan kylie and jason you've got erasure you've got the proclaimers there's hundreds there's thousands of fab duos i don't know who's

won but you'll have seen it by now and also follow me on bring me mummy of two for just uh chats disney shenanigans right guys i will see you next week for another episode and claire i'll see you in a bit bye fanduel casinos exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling winning which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do. Enjoy the number one feeling, winning,

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