The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Bros, New Kids & The Brat Pack: Fran Bacon

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Who thought she stood a chance with Luke Goss, fancied Andrew McCarthy and loved New Kids On The Block? Designer and fashion writer Fran Bacon that's who! She joins The Phonebox Podcast to chat all about 1989. Including the top films, hits and all the fashion faux pas we made.Be sure to go and follow Fran over at The Fashion Lift on instagram.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!#80s #80smusic #1989 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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How the devil are you? What's the weather like? And we're hurtling towards Christmas. Have you started your Christmas shopping? I have. I have a spreadsheet. And I was inputting stocking fillers just before I came on this call. Fran, have you started Christmas shopping?

Spreadsheet, Emma. Yes, spreadsheet. I do not have a spreadsheet. That is, no, I haven't. I'm literally still in my summer tops. Look, I have to have a spreadsheet. My son's, so my my birthday my son's birthday my daughter's birthday Christmas and my wedding anniversary is in the same month if I don't

have a spreadsheet it's going to be carnage so welcome to the podcast Fran can you tell the people where they can find you online of course I'm uh I'm the fashion underscore lift and I do fashion, et cetera. And I do little 80s and 90s throwbacks every single one of my stories, which everyone loves because we all basically live in our heads in the 80s and 90s. I am always. If you just have a look here, I bought a DVD player on a television this week just so I can watch DVDs again. And I know it sounds really stupid it's changed my life putting the DVD in and watching the adverts before the film so exciting so exciting I watched an Elmo's Fire at the weekend have you seen that recently

no I haven't seen it for ages I've actually went through all the 90s films 80s and 90s films with Jess who's 17 yeah so we've I've actually went through all the 90s films, 80s and 90s films with Jess, who's 17. So we've been working our way through all of them. I think we've gone through all of them, but we haven't done Breakfast Club or St Elmo's Fire. I'm telling you now, both of them, you will have to say, we don't do things like that in 2024. We don't just look up girls' skirts.

We don't slightly sexually abuse a girl and then blame them that's not what we do in this because those films are roblo i was like roblo should be in jail for what he's doing in st elbows fire i think he was was he for a while yeah but i mean in the film in the plot of the film he was in real life was he in real life was he in drugs he was arrested i've got a feeling or there was some kind of I mean probably like most uh things that happened in the 80s and 90s there was some kind of shadiness going on there he's so handsome that when I was watching the films like he was gorgeous wasn't he one blow absolutely yeah stunning but my favorite um from the John Hughes films is I like Andrew McCarthy he's my fave oh me too Mannequin

that was just gorgeous and he was and I think it was his whole demeanor he was such a he was so accessible he wasn't perfect actually when you look at the 80s and 90s films now you realize that people aren't perfect people don't have perfect noses. They don't have bright white teeth. They're all kind of perfectly imperfect. And they were the top of like, you know, the most beautiful people. The film, the film stars are beautiful, but they weren't perfect. So I've watched, I follow this person on Instagram

who does all the 90s and 80s throwbacks of film premieres. And they were like, they had shine on their face. They had, their hair was a bit all over the place. They just looked more natural. And Andrew McCarthy was just absolutely gorgeous. I love, he, in all the films, he's got slightly wonky teeth. And I just think you are so beautiful. Have you seen the documentary?

I think it's on Disney Plus where he goes and visits everybody from the Brat Pack. No, I haven't. Oh, you will love it. So he goes and visits everybody from the Brat Pack. No, I haven't. Oh, you will love it. So he goes and sits down. He goes and chats with Rob Lowe. He goes and chats with Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore. And they talk about being part of the Brat Pack. It is so good.

I went through a real stage of being a bit of a Matt Dillon fan as well. Oh, yeah. Back in the, what was the original uh brat um pack film the outsiders yeah the outsiders what happened to matt dylan he's not been cancelled he's he's alive isn't it i don't know with this and then there was the um the vampire one uh lost boys i watched that's one of the ones i bought on the soundtrack is insane I bought it the other day for a pound oh my god I love it so so we used to watch the lost boys when we were probably about I don't know 10 yeah it's an 18 it's an 18 film yeah mom and dad did not give a shit about what

we watched we were watching the dog like you know you know it's quite scary films yeah freddy films i was watching no one cared nightmare on elm street yeah poltergeist come on come and watch that with us nightmare on elm street really really affected me um i did for a long time think he was going to be living in a doll's house in my house or like under the covers um I'm not would I want to watch it now I don't know but the Lost Boys I put it on my insta stories and people like that was an 18 I was watching it when I was 11 I was like yes it's an 18 seriously and I it didn't scare me at all I just remember eat the noodles Michael I remember that there's so many like things and I love Star, Star was the girl in it and there

was this um saxophone uh thing in it they're in a concert and it was like this I love sax and he was like yeah and he was really really dancing and his hips were going and Star did this dance and I used to just literally do Star's dance all the time what happened to Star because I was watching I was thinking I don't think i've seen you in anything since this film guys go watch lost boys if you go on to here's a top tip if you want to buy a dvd player they're literally like 20 pounds but if you go into amazon and just look for a film and then i just buy them used so it's like literally 1 pound 24 so i got the lost boys it's an almo's fire um what else did i get step mom which obviously is a bit later but just been loving loving my i've been maybe it's because obviously is a bit later but I've just been loving loving

my I've been maybe it's because we're a bit older maybe we're just reminiscing yeah but I did I mean my my Friday nights used to be in blockbusters um just deciding what to watch like with my sisters going oh but we've seen that we saw that last week we saw that last week and then inevitably like picking up mannequin again or something that was or adventures in babysitting was the one that we probably watched on repeat I might get when I get off this call I might just order mannequin for a pound as well and add that to my collection but talking about films so you were 14 in 1989 and we had Melissa on last week and we chatted a bit about the songs I think of 1989, but the films of 1989 were cracking. So just try and guess one of the top films of 1989.

And I can give you a clue if you want. Goonies. That was Goonies earlier. Goonies not one of the top five films, but that was a brilliant film. I love it. I mean, that was one of the best,

wasn't it? Yeah. I knew all the words of that. I love it. I mean, that was one of the best, wasn't it? Yeah. I knew all the words of that. I basically still know all the words of all the 80s and 90s songs and all the films because we watched a lot of TV when we were younger. Oh, Pretty Woman I just saw was 90. I'll give you a clue. I'm going to give you a clue.

I'm going to say Michael Keatonaton batman yes well done so number five we have rain man great film give me some more clues and i guess them okay okay um number number four was uh michael j fox uh back to the future yeah back to the future 2. Back to the Future 2, yes, well done. Number three, Scouse Woman goes on a holiday. Shirley Valentine. Shirley Valentine got number two as Batman and number one, a very hunky Harrison Ford. Race of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

That was a good year for films good year it was a good year in life and then 89 was a good year it was a good year oh number 10 was dead poet society that's another great film yeah it's amazing captain my captain such a good film so 1989 was a crack year i want to know where you grew up and what was on your bedroom walls. So it was definitely, I think, 89 would have been New Kids on the Block. Yep. Who was your fave? That was before, because I moved from New Kids on the Block to take that. So I was 14. I was working in a newsagents.

Oh, nice. At the corner, around the corner, because I was 14, obviously. That's what you did when you were 14 back in the old days um yes so I was going to the juice bar the disco local disco at sports center and I shared a room with my two sisters and it was a mess and our we had sliding door cupboards and the tracks were broken so the sliding doors used to come out the ways not along the ways so we should just pull them out and pull the stuff out we had loads and loads of toys and games and shelves of clothes from three girls that just used tumble out bunk beds and one bed it sounds fun it was really really good fun because there was four girls then it was always a really really busy house so we always had

our friends in and mum and dad are Glaswegians. So it was, they loved having a party. So it was lots of parties. They had all friends around all the time. We had friends around all the time. It was great. So New Kids on the Block was on the walls. Who was your fave member?

Was it Jordan or was it Joey? Joey. Joey, 100%. And funnily enough, so so I was like I cannot tell you how obsessed I was with Joe I was absolutely 100% I dreamt about him all the time you know like how you'd sit there and go oh yeah just everything about him was the dream to me so I had loads of of them all but he was my favourite um and then my first boyfriend when I was 16 looked like Joey oh lovely man's version of Joey lovely I thought I was going to marry Matt Goss I kept trying to

work out the like well you know I'm working at the edge okay so I'm like 10 and he's like 19 so when I get to like 16 he'll be so we could potentially go out with each other it's like Matt Goss is never going to go out with you Emma but that's what I thought oh okay yeah sugar I was I was I was sometimes in between Luke because I thought Luke I might have more chance for Luke because he wasn't the main man so I was like in between Matt you know Luke yeah you know maybe I've got a chance that we went to see Ross in Brighton in the 80s and I I remember we came out and we got taken by our friend's dad Kevin and we were all like

because we've been screaming so much our voices were so high and we were just we would have bottle tops on our trainers on our shoes probably actually, probably DMs at the time, the Grosje bottle tops, and we were all brossed up. A brossette. He was so gorgeous. I loved him so much. Okay, if there's a knock on the door and you've got current date Matt Goss or Joey and they ask you on a date, who would you go with?

Joey. Joey. I don't know what current day joey looks like is he still hot no he looks the same but with an old filter on probably like we all do that's awful isn't it and also he's quite small and and i know i saw them recently and they were doing their dances and singing the rad stuff you know that, like, oh, oh, oh, like I'm doing the dance now. But they were doing that and they just looked a little bit,

yeah, they looked a little bit old. Like dad dancing. Did you go to the concert? I saw them when they toured with Backstreet Boys. I think it was called like B-S-N-K-O-T-B. I can't remember what it was, but it was Backstreet Boys and New Kids on Block on tour. And that was quite a good concert.

That wasn't that long ago. That was only, I don't know. When I say that wasn't that long ago, it was probably 10 years ago, but time just goes so fast. Yeah, I love them. I wasn't such a Backstreet Boys fan, but I definitely liked New Kids on the Block. My mum went to a Matt Goss weekend recently

at Warner Holidays you know Warner Holidays which is kind of for like older people with my dad and my dad was filming it and Matt Goss came on the stage and all these old ladies just got up and just like they kind of ran towards stage. And my dad was just filming like really cackling while he was there, really going for it. But do you know what? He put on a good show. I bet he did. A bit of Matt Goss.

He's got a good voice. Yeah, he has got a good voice. Okay, so what kind of music were you into, apart from pop? FanDuel Casino Daily Jackpots. Guaranteed to hit by 11pm with your chance at the number one feeling, winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do.

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Guarantee void if platform or game outages occur. Guarantee requires play by at least one customer until jackpot is awarded. Or 11 p.m. Eastern. Restrictions apply. See full terms at canada.casino.fandu.com. Please play responsibly. I liked a bit of indie. I liked the charlatans. Yeah. Oasis. Wonder Stuff. Oh my God. I love the Wonder Stuff. That's from birmingham yeah they're

brummie so like oh i just love the wonders of so much yeah and the levelers yeah so i was i was quite kind of i was it was in between i was always i've always been a bit of a mix of everything really i mean probably basically people pleaser so i just listened to whatever everyone else likes so i was i did like pop and i did like indie and I kind of dressed in between the two I would dress in my I'd always had I always wore dms I paid tights paisley shirts I wore hot pants quite a lot which is a bit weird sounds like I'm from the like the 60s no that was kind of like velvety kind of hot pants did you have a top did levelers have the top with levelers written down the sides no that was kind of like velvety kind of hot pants did you have a top did levelers have the top with levelers written down the side or is that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so i used i

used to wear um hot pants bodies so i used to go to the gym palace in tooting when i was far too young to be going out i used to go when i was 16 17 and it was a club and i'd go with my fake id and i would wear velvet hot pants opaque tights DMs and bodies everyone else used to wear high heels but I used to wear DMs because I was half grungy half trying to be popular um fake IDs uh are were brilliant what what did your fake ID say what were you did you belong to something or was it just pretending it was an nus card what was it it was my sister's real birth certificate so with no photo on i didn't i just took it out of me when mum found out she went absolutely flipping mad she was like this is a legal document this is really important joanne needs this she needs to get a new passport she was three and a half years older than me i

looked really really young and i just used to just show it, shaking, just go, what's your name? Joanne Carroll. And then, yeah, so I just used to be like a nervous, I was really, really small, looked really, really young. And I used to just kind of be surrounded by taller, older looking girls. And I would just kind of nervously show it and then just literally be so nervous for about a week before I went. And then I would get in and then have a few drinks and be fine. Like it makes no sense because there's no photo of you on a certificate. So you could have like I these bouncers did not give two shits if we were 12 or 22 they didn't care they were just like getting their backs yeah they didn't care they wanted to go yeah yeah i checked it she had a birth certificate we had one lady uncle jess you know jess on the plus size she just like

yeah plus size fashion um she had like some sort of cereal packet like i don't know like alpha frost's like kind of card that she'd like stuck her face on they're like yeah that's brilliant in you go exactly fake ids we don't talk i don't think people get away with that now would they no they have to be scanned now so now they have to be there they have to so they there is a fake id um you know those fake ideas go around obviously and they have to be they're really. And they have to be, they're really expensive and they have to be scannable. They have to be driving licensed.

They have to be scannable. They have to, because the UV light, they have to work with all that because they are very, very full on with fake ID nowadays. Yeah, with us, they did not care. Okay, what kind of school did you go to and where did you fit in the hierarchy? So I went to St. Philomena's Convent School for Girls.

Lovely. And it was exactly how you imagine it would be. It's all girls school taught by nuns, which made us very naughty as a result because we rebelled against everything. So, yeah, so it was it was very strict and we wore a brown uniform we used to get coins thrown at us as a some kind of charity as a joke by people boys walking past everyone used to just like vomit as we walked past because we had this like really really diarrhea brown cardigan yeah kilt thick socks they still wear actually um and now they've got tartan trousers which are even worse but yeah yes it was it was it was

fairly it was kind of quite tough but it but it was also um fine at parts I didn't really like school to be honest yeah girls schools are interesting because I went to a girls school as well and it it's an interesting atmosphere it's good because you don't have to make any effort for boys well I didn't but it's bad because it's a lot of girls a lot of girls and it's and it's quite can be very very bitchy and it was quite you know it's quite tough kids in there as well it was quite kind of it was yeah so it was um it was it was fun so I sat I would say I was a splinter popular girls group okay so there was three of us and we were called heathers which wasn't very nice but I wasn't part of the heathers oh so okay like heathers is in the film heathers oh right okay but we but I was I was I was basically I I was a I guess I was a an olden

day pick me girl so I wanted to I I wanted to be picked and popular, but I was actually quite quiet. And I had brown hair and really, really thick eyebrows and big lips, which at the time weren't very attractive because, as my mum used to say, you're all features and no face. So I just used to be big. I used to have a big nose big eyebrows big lips and a perm brown all features no face that is a classic mom thing to say moms are just brutal weren't they there was no like mental health or trying to be a bit woke it was like no that dress is horrible

oh it's too tight get it off it's just mommy's mommy's always say to us are you ready are you ready? And you're like, I've been ready. Are you not going to get changed? I have spent about six hours on this. Oh, the Heathers, they sound terrifying. Catholic school girls in a group called the Heathers sounds definitely like a film that needs to be made. Yeah, we were like, we were kind of, I guess there was,

there was the, there was the populace.ace there was us there was only three of us and then there was the kind of geeks um and my daughter is I guess my daughter is now in the kind of geeky crowd and she has so much more fun because I think she's like oh the pop she always talks about the populace the populace this the populace that and i was like you gotta understand the populace are not having fun they are having the most miserable time they are too busy worrying about what everyone else thinks about them how they act actually you coming back and saying you laughed all day at school is life that's what that's what life should be about is laughing and being accepting and I hate all that kind of stuff all this my door um I hate all that kind of stuff so it's so I think it was it was a it was a tricky a tricky place to be um but also I got to go to good

parties and and oh yeah a lovely little cheeky house party um who was your um first kiss with if you went to an all-girls school did you have a boys school that you kind of like fancied uh there was boys schools that we yeah I mean I fancied everyone basically okay so I fancied everyone um basically because I went to a common girl school so boys to me were the unknown and doesn't matter what they looked like, how they treated me. They were boys. So I fancied them. So my first kiss was with Dave, a boy called Dave. He was really, he had like short, spiky, geled hair. And it was in a juice bar in Leatherhead at the end of the disco after a slow dance.

And it was a really, really bad kiss. I was really nervous. He was just kissing was it wet no it was quite dry oh that's even actually what's worse a wet kiss or like a really like right he had really really like i remember it because he had really really like tight lips it was quite a tough boy and he was like had this really really tough face he was just like basically really ugly but I wanted to be honest I just wanted to get the first kiss out the way 14 I thought 14 that's it you know I've been around for a long time now should be kissing people so 14 first kiss and then that was it the start of many I think we've had a lot of people on the podcast that have gone to girls school and we're

all boy crazy i'm still a bit boy crazy today to be honest me too what is that but it's almost an unbalanced boy crazy so jessica goes to a mixed school jessica and jack my kids go to mixed schools and she sees boys for what they are she's she's like oh no i saw him when he was a snotty 12 year old yeah he's not attractive even if they have glow-ups they're still they still remember how they were whereas I was like just get me any boy I just any any boy any boy that would come come near me and even today if I'm at like an event and there's lots of men there even today I'm like a little bit on edge I find it's very it's really sad isn't it it's like it's really sad yeah me too I don't because I didn't have any brothers or anything like that either so I was in a very all-girl I mean my dad

was there but he was very low-key it was um he just kind of kind of just had to accept everything that was going on but yeah with with um yeah yeah still I'm like wow they're talking to me yeah wow it's a boy I bet they're like and also at events these men are like in their 40s and 50s and we're like what's wrong with these people um yeah imagine so this week uh I met Marti Pello which people have seen on Instagram imagine me in a room with Marti Pello I honestly think my boobs were sweating so much I thought I was going to just sweat through my dress I've never experienced anything like it and I just kept saying to like the people who work um at the team oh my boobs

are really sweating I'm surprised I didn't walk in see Marty Pello and just shout I've got sweaty boobs you didn't tell him did you keep it to yourself I managed to but it was on the tip of my tongue at all time I was I got back to Birmingham and I was like oh ripping my clothes off yeah Marty Pello because he's got that twinkle he's got a little he really has fun fact the other guy in the band the guy um i can't even remember his name there's one called neil is there a graham i feel so graham used to live in my village i think he's moved i used to always see him cafe nero he was ever so nice he used to always stand and open the door he used to always sit by the side of the front he used to always open the

door say hi yeah he was and my mum just talked to him a lot because she was Scottish and he was Scottish. So mum was friends with Graham. He's not in Wet, Wet, Wet anymore, is he, Marty Pellow? No, I don't think so. There's Wet, Wet, Wet, who've got Kevin from Liberty X, and then there's Marty Pellow. I wonder what happened. No way, Wet, Wet, Wet, I've got Kevin from Liberty X.

Yeah. I did not know that. So Marty and Wet, Wet, Wet, where i wonder i wonder what happened there i wonder what marty if you're listening i did like um wishing well and love is all around um sweet little mystery there's some where i've got some absolutely gorgeous songs they're really really good okay so snog was gross now you're known for your fashion oh but i want to hear about your fashion faux pas what was suit you wore then that was horrific okay so i used to um have a perm nice i've got a photo lovely check that out that looks nothing like there's not a semblance of you in that photo at all but that is a great perm head perm so that was pretty bad um

not only she got a perm listeners she's got a perm but she's kind of done the thing with a fringe where she's got a bum i've got a big yeah i've kicked it back and then pushed it forward yeah yeah yeah i mean you had to do that and then pulled five strands down nice was the perm like crunchy with aose crunchy it was moose start it was well you know what it was the worst i'm not just on the same to jessica it was the worst thing i had a perm i got taken to alders in croydon got got my hair done in the hairdressers in alders and they permed it all like that in a big kind of like a big kind of like big ball on top of my head and then I had trendles hanging

down of perms of just curls so I looked like Charles I and I walked out and you know one of those times when you're a teenager and I walked out and I was like you know when you just think I look like shit but I'm just going to go with it because I'm in a headdress so I have to just walk out and just pretend I like it I walked out mum said oh Francis you look like Charles I get back in there and tell them and I was like no no no I can't tell them and she went so she brought me back in she went cut off all those trendles so they went around and cut off all the all the trendles that were coming down from my big um ball of perm um and that was quite a traumatic experience and I've just done

the same to Jessica I've just sent her back to that last week I sent it back to the hairdresser they gave her a bowl fringe and I said to the woman you've given her a bowl fringe well you need your mom's to stand up for you that's good we need well why would they give you tetrahendrals what was their thinking I have no no one really knows to be honest no one got to the bottom of why I had Charles I as my inspiration for my perm but anyway needless to say it was pretty bad and I also used to wear um I also for my Nana and Granda's uh Ruby wedding anniversary I I thought I was really cool I wore a peach um polo shirt and floral denim dungarees and boxer boots. What?

I had short, all from Marks and Spencers, I had the shortest haircut ever. Like, and everyone thought I was a boy. In fact, my first bank account was opened up as Master Francis Carroll. We were talking about this with Melissa. She thinks she had a similar haircut because of Yaz. That was Master Frances Carroll. We were talking about this with Melissa. She thinks she had a similar haircut because of Yaz. Do you think Yaz was the inspiration for your whole outfit? What was the inspiration then?

My mum was a very big influence in my life. She said, why don't you have a pixie cut like Audrey Hepburn? Now, bearing in mind I had big lips, big nose eyebrows brown hair massive freckles I was not a big square face I was not I was the most on was like kind of like little kind of feminine faced so I just had this big head freckly pale big featured head with a short haircut and everyone just say to my sisters oh is your brother coming and I'd be like I'm not I'm not a boy I'm a girl I'm a girl and also my name is Frances so it was just yeah yeah yeah of course yeah and growing out short hair is awful because it just looks terrible at every stage it just I had very short hair and growing out was unpleasant

did you have it too I had short hair but my hair was based on like i talked about in last week's episode the ladettes so zoe ball when she had short hair and like cameron diaz in have you seen that film with ewan mcgregor and cameron diaz i can't remember what it's called um but she had very short hair so i did have very very short hair um short haircut in the one turn back time the sliding doors that's Gwyneth Paltrow it was also very similar to that yeah that's awesome yeah all of those women had blonde short hair i went for blonde short hair and do you know what i think i I looked all right, but not now. And also getting it cut's a real pain in the bum.

You have to get it cut like every, like real keep on top of it. But yeah, mine was more like a 90s ladette, short hair, jeans. That's what I did. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it was cool, but that's what I did. Okay. Is there anything you wore then that you'd wear now? In the 90s, I used to wear shell-toed trainers Adidas shell-toed trainers that I

absolutely love that I would wear now yeah I used to wear so I used I guess because my 90s goes from 15 to 25 so it covers my university period so even that kind of I used to I used to love my fashion obviously at university so I used to wear a body a denim jacket a brown puffer over the top and jeans and trainers and a cap like a I used to have like Dallas Cowboys cap whatever so I used to love that I still love that look that's that's kind of the 90s is very much coming back into fashion so I think uh the slip dresses you know like in fact my 90s dress that I wore to my 90s prom um Jessica wore for her from this year oh I love that that's so nice yeah it's beautiful it's principles it was from principles and I absolutely loved it it was just it was such a classic black dress and we had it taken up so it was shorter for her it's

kind of a bit longer on me and she wore it she looked amazing that's so lovely I do you remember when it was cultural appropriation that we all wore Chinese um style dresses do you remember that little fashion yeah I wore red I wouldn't wear it now but I wore a red one to my prom that I got from the Chinese quarter in Birmingham but it was it was at the time a very trendy thing to do wasn't it but beautiful dress as well and I loved I love I mean I love that style it's absolutely stunning and it's um yeah my sister wore one to hers as well yeah mine was mine was mine was red and and then I went to another prom with a boy I was his date and I wore a dress from Kukai oh nice um but it was it was a bit short and I wore it with no bra couldn't

be I couldn't do that now it's just bra less bopping around in a kukai dress okay what was your biggest teenage flop what do you look back and regret a little bit I had so many like I was so so many I think um I well when I was when I went to that prom I loved how I looked and I it was in a boat party it was a boat party so it was on the Thames and I fell down so everyone was downstairs and I fell down all the stairs into the base of the boat and everyone was looking at me that was I mean I just I basically I was just I was just a bit of a goon and I and I I had liked confidence and I I went red all the time basically I blushed all the time so every time anyone spoke to me then I blushed that was my constant

blot basically my face. Did you ever use the green stuff to try and combat the red yeah the green like green concealer I remember using that quite a bit. But that didn't help because I just every time I spoke I went I blushed deep red so and then I looked like I was I was hiding something or I fancied someone or I probably did fancy them but I I just I just used to just go red I mean I still do go red from heat but I don't go red I don't get embarrassed as much but it was yeah I was I was just I was basically a bit of a disaster zone oh you sound like you were lovely with your tendrils and your red face. Okay. Is there anything that's a real teenage success that you look back on and go, I smashed that?

Getting a boyfriend. I think you're just getting a boyfriend. That was my, that was, I mean, that is so sad, isn't it? And that's such a sad reflection on on me I loved my fashion but I I thought when I was 16 I got my first boyfriend he was lovely it really and I went out with him for two and a half years and he we just had a great time like he was just like my best friend at the time and I guess because I'd been in a popular group so the girls weren't so nice

then this was this boy who was a year above me and he was just a nice lad and he became like our my sister's brother so he was he was just a nice lad so I think sadly when I was 16 I would say that would have been my um I did I obviously went to university and got good a levels but yeah um but apart from that I was yeah getting a boyfriend and also we didn't have phones or anything did we didn't have mobile phones you kind of like had to phone up the home phone and can I speak to so-and-so please and have a little phone call for us it was a very like sweet romantic time wasn't it it was so lovely and we and we used to have a phone in our hall and that was it because we weren't allowed to phone anywhere else.

So it was in the hall. So we used to take it in turns being on the phone so mum could listen. Like she would basically, I don't know, I don't even know if she did earwig. I don't even know if she was bothered. But she would,

yeah, so we got kind of monitored on the phone and it was just, yeah. And then when you put down the phone, that was it. Watch TV. So we used to watch,

then we used to watch so much tv watch bay watch watch gladiators watch beverly hills 90210 beverly hills 90210 was my favorite i loved um brandon um jason priestly i liked david silver who was brian austin green because he in my head he was younger so he would go out with me yeah Yeah. It felt like Brandon. It felt like Luke Perry and Jason Priestley were a bit out of my league. Whereas Brian Austin Green, he would have gone out with me, even though I lived in Birmingham, not Beverly Hills. I mean, Luke Perry was, I mean, you probably would have had a good chance with him. Luke Perry?

I mean, no. Brian Austin Green. Oh, have you seen him now? He's gorgeous. He's an absolute. Does he? Oh, he is a punk but luke perry i know he's sadly no no longer with us but he married a fan i always remember that story yeah he married

um a fan and i think she might have been british but yeah he definitely i remember two things about him he had a potbelly pig and he married a fan and i must have read that in smudges yeah he was he was very very good looking and um and obviously my ongoing uh obsession with take that just carried on through yeah who was your favorite member of take that mark yeah of course dolphin tattoo floppy hair you know what as soon as I said mark that's like you know you know that baddie powder oh yeah when he's wiping his sweat and the dolphin tattoo, that literally played on my mind a lot of my life. I absolutely adored him. I adored,

I adored, I adored them all, but I actually went to see them recently in Barcelona and he's still my favourite. He's so tiny and so cute. And he really dances well. And I know we shouldn't care about people's looks, but he looks better now he's had his hair cut.

He does. And shaved his, did he have a big beard he went he looked he looks much better now he's had his hair cut but yeah mark was gorgeous and that dolphin tattoo i wonder what it looks like now but it's not the test of time it's probably a bit sagging now isn't it okay so um if you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself? To not care what people think so much. And actually, the people aren't thinking what you think they're thinking. People aren't really taking as much notice of what you're doing as they're thinking. And I would just love to have given myself the confidence that I've got now as a 50 year old nearly 50 year old then which you don't get because you're young um but I just wish I could have just gone you know what you're okay you're okay look it's okay life is going to be okay you're not a disaster you're not

um embarrassing you're not you know just just and speak up speak up it's okay to speak up and it's okay to um give your point of view and and just just kind of settle into you but then I kind of think when you're that age you don't really know who you are and it's it's such a tough time and I I'm always saying to my kids Jack's quite confident but Jessica is very much like me and I'm always like oh you know you should say this or you should back yourself and you know because if her manager's a bit rude to her or anything like that i'm just like no you go in and tell him this you go in and tell him this and and she's like i can't mom i'm 17 and i just wish i had i had the confidence that i have

now for sure yeah i would love to give every child, just go, no one really knows what they're doing. Even when you're older, you don't really know what you're doing. So just go for it and just be you and just really, really settle into yourself. And you're brilliant as you are and you're amazing as you are.

And I just think children are incredible and I think they have a really really tough time at the moment with social media and I just I just think that the comparison is insane and the levels of perfection are way off the chart and it seems to be definitely at the moment the more beautiful you are the more successful you are the more liked you are and that's not true and that's not real life because everyone is beautiful in their own way and I think I just wish there'd been more of that and I wish I could have just told myself that it's going to be okay yeah are you glad you grew up then or do you wish you were growing up now then oh my god 100% then I absolutely the 80s and 90s were awesome. Brilliant, fun, not so many restrictions. Mental health was, that was bad because no one really gave a shit. You're just told to.

No, no one cared. No, there was no mental health. It was not a thing, was I think it was just just like fun amazing films amazing music uh you had time out in your head um just it was just like no no one recorded anything no one um you didn't well I mean we did shows on the VHS all the time but we didn't nothing was recorded so it was just it was just a fun time um when i because you were talking about the wonderful stuff wouldn't have filmed a video in um birmingham and we all turned up and i and i've talked about it before i don't know how we knew they were filming the video because there was no internet so i'm not sure did they just put a sign up i don't know but we all turned up and the video's on youtube and there's not one phone out.

Everyone's just dancing. But now if there was a group doing a pop video, everyone would have their phones out, wouldn't they? But there was no phone. It was just people like just all dancing together. And I do kind of miss those times. And being in the moment. And I think that's what you don't. I know in Coldplay concerts, they say for one song, they're like, everyone put away their phones. We don't want to see one phone out and just be in the moment and at that moment it's the most wonderful experience and the most wonderful atmosphere but now everyone's trying to capture everything then you miss out on the the moment for sure so I think yeah I think it's hard now I think one thing my mum does say that is that like obviously we're online and my mum's like you're lucky because

our children will be able to see what we were like as young m online and my mom's like you're lucky because our children will be able to see what we were like as young mums and young people whether I can't see I only really see my mom as she is now you can't like so my mom does wish you know that she could have filmed a little bit of stuff um then so our kids can kind of see what we were like when we were young and hip and cool like we are now exactly kind of but i do polls on instagram and i do polls on spotify so on spotify this week i'm gonna do the top five films of 1989 and people have to pick the best one which would have been your favorite out of those top five films batman shirley valentine indiana jones um what were Indiana Jones. What were the other two? Oh God, I've already forgotten. Rain Man.

Batman. Indiana Jones. Shirley Temple. Back to the Future. What would have been your fave? Back to the Future. I love Back to the Future. Back to the Future 2.

What was that plot then? That wasn't the cowboy one. The dad in Back to the Future 2 wasn't the same dad as in Back to the Future 1. It was a big thing. The actor wasn't paid to do it. dad in Back to the Future 2 wasn't the same dad as in Back to the Future 1. It was a big thing. The actor wasn't paid to do it. And there was a big hoo-ha. Found that out yesterday. Oh, blimey.

Okay. And then on my Insta stories, I might just, I'm going to do a poll. Hunks of the 80s. I'm just going to get people to message me who they fancied in the 80s. And we're just going to pick the fittest person in the 80s. And would that have been Joey for you or Matt Goss? Joey, but I used to really fancy Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Tom Cruise is a good contender. I mean, now I know he's like, no, so that's kind of, I think. Well, you'd have to join Scientology and it would be a whole thing. Exactly.

And yeah, it'd be a bit strange. But yeah, I think I really fancied him. Who else did I really? Oh my God, there was probably loads that I really fancied. And I can't think of who it was. It was obsessive when I was younger. Quite like Tom Selleck with a moustache. There was quite a lot of older gentlemen.

Tell you who I used to love. Ralph Macchio in Karate Kid. I think, I feel like he might be on one of the people that have been cancelled oh i always there's always one in every episode this podcast where i'm like i think they've been cancelled for doing something if we can't we've not got through an episode so those are the polls i'm going to be doing everybody go and check front out i'll leave all her links in description if you're looking for real like fun fashion on stories like 80s and 90s talks go and check her out and thanks so much for coming on the podcast thank you Emma I've loved it guys I will hear

well you'll hear me next week and I'll speak to you soon bye We'll be right back. you enjoy the number one feeling winning in an exciting live dealer studio exclusively on fan dual 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