The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Marverine Cole: Boys, Bands & Birmingham

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

"You alright bab?!" we all shout as Marverine Cole joins The Phonebox Podcast. We chat about growing up in the best city in the world in the 1990's. Sunny Birmingham. We discuss the perks and pitfalls of going to an all girls school, what we used to wear clubbing and how brilliant Go West are.Proud Brummie Marverine has been a journalist for over 20 years, probably best known at the moment for reading the news on ITV1's Good Morning Britain. She also has a beer column for BBC Good Food.For more of me follow @brummymummyof2 on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok and follow the all new @phoneboxpodcast account on InstagramIf you have any guest suggestions or topics you would like me to cover email [e-mail] and be sure to tag so I can see where you are listening!Editing by Soundtruism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, lovely ones, and welcome back to the Phone Box podcast with me emma conway i hope you are well and as per usual remember stop or what you're doing and take a picture or while you're listening and send it to me on brummie mummy of two or also over on the phone box podcast and instagram where we're doing all sorts of fun things we're doing polls trolls recently won best trend this is hard-hitting news we are dealing with

and also i recently asked for some topics to chat about on a boy band episode we did that it's coming next week can't wait for you to hear that bonus episode it is a corker and today is a cork over an episode it is with the wonderful marverine cole she is a journalist and has been for over 20 years you might see her popping up on ITV's Good Morning Britain as a newsreader. She's a fancy queen. She's often hosting events. She's out and about in Birmingham, which we like to see. She also is a beer expert and writes for the BBC Good Food and online. How amazing is that? And she is cracking. We talk a lot about music, which she's very passionate about

and also towards the end of the podcast not gonna lie gets a bit niche we're getting down to the nitty-gritty we're getting down to the Birmingham we're getting back down to the places we used to go clubbing in Birmingham in the 90s so you know you won't know these places or you might do and if you do you will thoroughly enjoy this podcast so if you want to stick around and listen to that that would be amazing coming up is marvin and i will be back at the end for a little chat enjoy i am so excited to have my first rummy on the podcast you're right you're right oh yeah okay it's marvin i am so excited to have you here i've had so many requests we need a brummie we need a brummie on the podcast we need somebody who knows what mr reg is we need that we need somebody who's been to the dome oh my gosh the dome too which is where I used to hang out or all the classics I want to know when

you turned 40 it was the summer of 1985 1985 was a real for me like a total seminal year because it was all about some of the best music in the world, in Marva and Cole's world, right? Yeah. So very quiet, shy girl. My life revolved around my bedroom, my little pink ghetto blaster, my little stereo. And all I used to do after mum would make the tea, you know, we'd watch the A-Team or Chips or something or something you know whilst we're having our tea go up to my bedroom and just sing songs um my favorite bands were go west but go west is a classic we close our eyes was number one in the february that year we close our eyes honestly peter cox and richard drummy me, were the hottest men on the planet.

As a young girl, as a young girl, modal girl. Really? Have you ever crossed paths with them recently? I've never met them, but I have seen them in concert over the years and get this. So March 22, it was their 30th anniversary tour and my husband austin got me tickets and he went with me to symphony hall and it was the best thing ever i'm bouncing around like singing all the songs and it's just like being a teenager he had that video what was the video he had like is that where he had a white vest yeah that was it and there's one where he's like hitting a... White vest ripped. That was it.

I think he was like hammering. He was like, was it like being like a blacksmith? Or a spanner. Or a big spanner. Yeah. It was a white vest. It was like, yeah, like a... Yeah.

And it was all dirty. It was all like blackened. And it was all really sultry. And he was all sweaty. I all like blackened and it was all really sultry and he was all sweaty i mean come on at that age you were just like oh they're yeah they were great so 85 was a we know i we've already chatted you're in bartley green so the brummies out there listening you're in bartley green what school you don't have to say the school if you don't want to but what school kind of school did you go to yeah no i went to um when i there, it was, for the first year it was Bartley Green Girls.

It was a grammar. And the year I went, it switched to being a state school. So it turned into Hillcrest Girls and Sixth Form. And I was mixed because, so lads from the local area could um come into the sixth floor it was a great school i loved it absolutely loved it was is it on a hill i feel like it's on a bit yeah it had a nickname it did didn't have a nickname brothel on the hill it's terrible i mean oh goodness knows where that comes from so rude we'd be really offended by me and my little friends going to school it's called brothel on the air yeah i i didn't want to i didn't want

to say i mean it's just insane and i think that come from because it was king edward's boys was up at bartlett green scotland lane yeah at what a couple of miles away i think that just used to be the thing that you know that the boys would um would call us very unfair it's quite that is not a not that is not a great name no no and I think it kind of um it grew because for one class in sixth form or something called general studies lads they'd bust down lads from King Eddie's to come and do classes in our school, Hillcrest School. So they'd always be... Was that exciting?

It was, yeah. Because I'm pretty sure, first or second year of Hillcrest, our form room was down the corridor from the sixth form common room. So we would scoot down to the double doors and peer through the windows and we see like lots of king eddies hanging out and chatting and flirting with the girls um of course i had a legitimate reason for going to um investigate those corridors because my two brothers went to king eddies they would come down i'm looking out for fits i think some of my friends have crushes on my brothers. Yeah.

I went to an all-girls school as well. And if one boy, if there was one boy in the school, it's like we could sniff him. There's a boy in the common room. Pass it on, pass it on. It'd just be like feral. Yeah, so irrational, isn't it? It's just like the excitement of

it's it's another species among us and they're not wearing a bottle green a-line skirt oh no it'd be so exciting and it wouldn't matter what the boy looked like any boy any boy would be like it's did you used to do discos because we used to do discos at the boys' school. No, I think they probably knew that that could be quite catastrophic if that actually happened. They'd call you a brothel. I think it was probably disco bananas. And actually, there might have been discos, but little Marv would never have known about it because it's not something my mum would ever have allowed me to go to. Why not? Was she really strict?

Yeah, mum was protective. ever allowed me to go to why not was she really strict yeah mom was um protective and she didn't need to be strict with me because i was the only girl was the youngest she was strict with my brothers because you know obviously they were they were kind of sporty tony loved football fitz loved rugby and cricket and all that stuff um in the hierarchy of your school where were you were you in the cool gang were you in the quiet what where were you it's really interesting question because I loved school I never missed a day even if I had a cold or whatever and I didn't feel very well I wanted to go to school loved it very swotty very nerdy I was also very quiet and shy um but I had a lot of friends which surprises me for a quiet shy person I was top set maths I first year I was form captain second year I was school council

rep what really surprised me was that I just don't know why I was really popular. So they had head girl and they had head boy. And they had deputy head girl. And I was voted deputy head girl. Oh, that's a fair play. It was a vote. That was a vote. Still now, all these years later, you're still like, yeah, I was deputy head girl. I was nothing.

We had a prom at the Botanical Gardens with the boys' school. With the boys' school. What a treat. All the teachers were there getting tipsy. There was no limos and stuff. Did you have a lovely posh frock? Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, as posh as it was in the 90s.

I think mine was from Morgan. I think it's probably the only time I've ever fit in a dress from Morgan. And I wore no bra with it. I couldn't be doing that now I couldn't do that now we need to be dragging on the floor me boobs are out there so hang on a minute you wore a posh frock from Morgan yeah so what were you a cup b cup me being really nosy now I'm like i was in because now i was i was a no cup i was just flat chested nice little dress the boys wore tuxedos all that all looked a little bit big we had like a little prom yeah i went i and then i actually went the next year because i was dating a boy a year younger cougar hello i went to two proms yeah yeah it was um in two parties

like dating the younger boy i bet all the other girls like oh god she's a right loser and i'm like back again guys were you a good dancer was he throwing shapes on the dance floor or was it more like i mean i always throw shapes on the dance floor they might not necessarily be good as long as you're flailing your arms around and having I do like a good dance so you have you were popular but you were reserved very quiet very shy um I think probably that was outside of school so it must have been amongst my mates you know I had a good strong cohort of mates I I remember me and Eleanor, so I'm still really good friends with Eleanor. She's just a wonderful support to me. Eleanor and Karen and a bunch of us,

we walked around like we were the literati. We really thought we were proper, proper intellectuals because we did English literature, French literature and German literature. Oh, you're so sophisticated. We were studying Simone de Beauvoir and all this stuff. It was mad. We all thought we were really cool.

We were so not. People must have been looking at us going, will you just get over yourself? They're doing German literature. You're like, yeah, we are. So apart from Go West, did you have any other posters on your bedroom? Did you have anything funny in your bedroom? So Go West literally plastered, was plastered all over my bedroom walls.

Some, I think, on the ceiling. I need to find pictures. I know I have pictures of them. Yeah. Did any fall on your head when you were in bed at night? Because that used to happen with me. The blue tap. No, thankfully.

But that was a beauty of having them on the ceiling as well. There wasn't a secret. So you could look up. I was massively into the Pet Shop Boys as well. Yeah. Which people will go, Marv, okay, were you not into any black music at your age? You were into like duos of white men. I was like, I did.

But I don't know, they were just my thing. Love Petra Boyz, love George Michael. George Michael was on my bedroom wall. Weirdly, Simon Mayo was presenting. He was a Radio 1 breakfast show. I know Simon, spiky blonde hair back in the day and i'm sure they did a double page spread on him in looking or something so that was on the wall blondie i was into blondie as well do you know my sister went to um my sister

crops up every week i always have like a my sister met debbie harry and she got a photo with debbie harry she sent it me and i just, my sister gets in these circumstances and she's like, you never get to who I met last time. Idris Elba. And I'm like, what? And she's like, me, Debbie Harry. And I'm like, what? She got a picture of her and Debbie Harry?

That is quite random, isn't it? She looks great still though, Debbie Harry dress. Such a kind of avant-garde, like real feminist girl power. Yeah. How? Yeah, like a style icon as well i think that was what was so exciting about her i imagine your room was tidying yeah it was quite yeah lots of cuddly toys

all over the bed yeah pink it was pink wallpaper all over the place that's like my little pink ghetto blaster but you could barely see the wallpaper because of the go west posters yeah and what i used to do is like everybody really although you didn't know that everybody did it at the time you only know now when people talk about what they used to do in the bedroom i would i'm like i'm like with bated breath here like it's not gonna be rude okay like what's she what's she doing um there was a go west did a live album called bangs and and Crashes So it recorded I don't know where it was, Hammersmith Apollo or something like that

But I loved the fact that They'd recorded it in concert Because I thought I'll never ever go and see them in concert So my job would be I'd be the backing singer And I would sing every single song Hairbrush, in the mirror Dancing

Because I had a black backing singing to see this incredible woman and i was like this is me and i'd be doing all the all the way yeah yeah of course you did it'd be a challenge i would do the entire album every night i know all the words it's really sad the the day i meet peter cox and richard drumming i'll tell them i can sing sing your Bangs and Crashers album every single word, every single note. I really hope you meet them. You need to get your other half to film if you ever meet them because I want to witness the joy.

I've talked about it here before. I have met Matt Goss, which was, so me in my childhood, that was a dream. Like, I went back. It was like, I went back in was like I went back in time and I just were you able to speak? I

I I mentioned before I said my nine year old I was like my nine year old self would be so

happy because you when you're nine you're like well this isn't well first of all when I was nine I thought I was going to marry him

like in my head but you couldn't and he had his arm around me and I smelt so I was with Stephen he smelt good yeah but you couldn't drink like and he had his arm around me i'm like i smelt so no i was with steven i smelt good yeah but you didn't see steven at the time like steven just melted i've just married him he gone he smelt all lovely clean he had a bit of a hat on oh yeah he likes yeah yeah he had a bit of a hat and a jazzy suit but it was it was and i look so in the photo i look happiness personified yeah yeah yeah

bros were banging though weren't they bros were banging i owe you nothing come on when will i be famous yeah they were were you new kids in the block or yeah definitely um i dreamt of the shoes and then the shoes with the watch on on the front was it a watch i dreamt of one of those those kind of things didn't make it to birmingham did they we didn't get all you could do was stare at a picture of in looking or whatever it was um and just dream that you could have one of them. Yeah, or the bottle top. I've never had that in Birmingham. Yeah. Yeah. Grosch.

Grosch bottle top. Have you ever heard of Wilton Market in Erdington? No, because I didn't live them, so I was south. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, mum bought me jumpers from Wilton Market with bross on, like just cartoon ones. They looked a bit rubbish, but you were like, it's got bross on, it doesn't matter,

even if it looked embroidered. Yeahed and she took me to the concert that was my first ever concert was bros with my mom and i don't know if you know this at the end of every bros concert matt pulls his trousers no are you serious that's horrendous what the mom's like just furious hang on not with his penis eyes so even still even if you had in his boxer shorts or whatever i think it was an amer weirdly an american flag actually now i'm thinking about it that is weird isn't it as a mother i think i'd be absolutely i think was, obviously I was screaming at the top of my lungs. Pull down his trousers and I think he did a pose like that.

And I hope the elasticated waist was very strong. Yeah, and the NEC went wild. What was your first concert? You're talking about the NEC? I think it was with me, Kate, Donna, Jane. We went to see Rick Astley oh he now he's still got it he's great oh my gosh oh my gosh and I think we were about 16 then he did multiple outfit changes

he had a bunch of neon suits so he'd be in blue then he changed yellow then he'd go pink it was incredible and we were so far back though but kate and kate's dad was very very enterprising in this regard he said um kate take the binoculars right so we and we were passing them around the four of us and we could see him on it yeah yeah it was the biggest blue suit because you know we were picked up and dropped off so it's first time and for me that's a massive deal because i don't even know yeah i don't even understand why my mom allowed me to go because she didn't really allow me to do much you know out on my own so that was a blessing thanks mom yeah rick astley oh i saw he supported take that you know not that long ago and he's he looks amazing he's got such a good

voice as well do you remember the hoo-ha because I remember hearing it so when it was in every never gonna give you up you heard him I was like this voice is sweet like chocolate everyone I swear down I thought he was a black man yeah and then when you saw him in the video he's a little white guy could be any more whiter could he wow It was a revelation that someone could have that kind of really soulful voice who wasn't like a black American. It was stunning. Yeah. Going to a concert at the NEC, it's still a thrill now today.

I still love it. I don't think it's called the NEC anymore. I don't even know what it's called. It's called the Resorts World Arena. Yeah. Seen some incredible bands there in the past peter gabriel because i was also a massive fan of him in the 80s his album so he's getting really nerdy now because i got brought up on prog rock my oldest brother tony used to play um original

genesis with phil collins and yeah always been in love with peter gabriel tony my friend tony mcdonald she will not forgive me for this and she's the breakfast presenter on BBC Hereford and Worcester. Hi Tony. We went to see Peter Gabriel a few years ago and we just were bawling our eyes out. We were crying. It was so emotional. It was so, just hit our heart so much to see him on stage. I think that was the first time we'd ever seen him on stage. We were bawling. Pet Shop Boys, we've cried out. NEC, man. The only problem with the NEC, sorry, NEC staff,

it's such a long way to go. It's a long way to go. You're literally doing a workout before you're even in the arena. Oh, my God, it's so far away. And the train station, the walk, it is so far. I took my mum to see Gary Barlow barlow oh it was such a palaver we got from the car the car park which is literally i don't know four hour walk away got there got to the front and they were like you can't bring that bag in it's too big you're

gonna have to take it back to the car and we were like you know what i did i took all the stuff out my mom's bag shove it in the pockets we threw the bag away went in saw gary varlet came out saw a bin bag full of bags i'm not on i ain't going back to that car park it's i'd admit i'd have missed leona louis or wherever the support was yeah it's fun but there's something about yeah seeing childhood music and the nostalgia it just melts you doesn't it it is yeah completely completely i hope my children still get that i'm not sure music's quite it's more about social media and stuff now erin's not listening to loads and loads of music like i mean all i did was listen to music all we had had though, isn't it? I think that's what's different about the world.

All we had was music. We had Radio 1, Gary Davies, Bruno Brooks. BRMB, I listened to. John Slater, Robin Valk, God rest his soul, because he passed away last year. We had the radio and we had TV. That was it. We didn't have all the stuff else.

All this social media, all this worldwide web distractions. So music was in life. I think, you know, when I was really into Pet Shop Boys, me and Miranda, my Bessie mate at the time, we went off to see them at the NEC for the Behaviour Tour. And the profoundness of the way music can affect you I have to say that concert totally changed my life it sounds dull but it was so theatrical because Pet Shop Boys

have always had loads of dancers loads of costume changes they were big on um all the audio visual the light show kind of um films playing behind them while stuff was going on blew my mind to the point where even though I was, you know, I was a clever girl and I was going off to uni then, I can't remember, I was at uni, I wanted to be a singer, wanted to be a singer-songwriter, bought myself a keyboard, recorded my own little crazy little electronic songs, that's how much they affected me and I still got those cassettes somewhere of some crazy songs and some of my crazy songs are recorded with um a family friend called Ev he's like a composer a really good friend of my oldest

brothers and another guy called Patrick would come over to King's Heath, Patrick's house, a little studio, record songs. And I entered, do you remember this? BRMB. Do you remember they used to have a talent competition called Raw 94? No, but that sounds phenomenal. And if I had known about it, I'd have entered it. 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. I did enter to be, they were looking for a guest DJ once and I queued up and stood outside and did an audition for that. Didn't get picked I would

have been in that queue with you then I would have been in that queue with you did you win did you get were you the one that got picks because it wasn't me no but the chick behind me was Tony McDonald my mate Pet Shop Boys mate yeah so she got um she got the job and so did she was in the queue with her friend Margarita taylor margarita she was who is now the fam yeah classic fam tony and margarita are mates and they were behind me in the queue remember i remember margarita curly hair i feel like she was on the telly at one point did she not do like channel four yeah she's done channel four she's done itv and i think she does um one of the countries escape to the country or something likeV, and I think she does one of the countries,

Escape to the Country or something like that, BBC One, she does one of them now as well. Well, I was never going to beat a Margarita, not Emma,

Emma Whetton, just standing there. I did the same at Pebble Mill, they were looking for somebody at Pebble Mill, and I was like, hello, I'll be on Pebble Mill.

Wasn't it amazing that like, we had Pebble Mill, like a massive studio with loads of exciting telly like noel edmonds used to come in in his helicopter yeah ainsley harriet ainsley harriet so you can't cook woke or john leslie um used to do was it style council there was a fashion there's a big fashion show i think it was the clothes show wasn't there the clothes show was amazing she was a real inspiration to me you know

seeing on the telly who wasn't moira stewart right reading the news like another black yeah telly doing something completely different which was ace um proud to call her an associate of mine and a pal oh lovely but that whole like there was pebble mill and there was also um central hat studios as well do you remember yeah it's totally gone now i don't remember central pebble mill we used to get the bus up and they'd be like right jason donovan's on today and i'd be like right i'm going up pebble mill right and i'd stand that side and i'd be like all right jason donovan or whatever band i once went for kianni reefs are you serious i can't even we used to go all the time right right got my bus pass going up pebble mill exactly because it was just it was just there yeah and then it now it's not and when i take

the kids to cannon hill nature center i'm like oh do you remember when pebble mill was down there to steven remember what do you yeah it was it was great wasn't it it was an absolute boss i worked there as a secretary for a few years yeah um and it was just beautiful to be in that building and imagine that you know 10 years 15 years before it was so buzzing like alan titch marsh used to present pebble mill at one yes pebble mill at one and they'd be like take that around today you're like that's what got me interested in um in trying trying to get into the media i think i tried and failed abysmally no you did not fail what are you talking about you're always doing fun stuff so a couple of years after

i was 14 so yeah the summer of my 16th birthday i wrote loads of letters i wrote to ed doolan remember ed doolan god rest him um and they let me in they let me come and do work experience which is basically making the tea at wm makes tea for ed doula and his guests collect guests from the reception do some photocopying it was wild just being there and it was really at odds because I was very excited but I was so reserved I was like

you'll be doing things like make some tea and sit in the corner and be like totally totally scared and petrified of the whole situation but also inside buzzing. A lot of old men, radio WM, seemed to be quite a lot of older men, didn't it? They seemed to be a lot of the DJs.

It was, it was, it was. I'll tell you who else was on, though. With them, this is going to be so random, and you'll have to look her up. Gordon Astley was on air at WM. He was, I think he was married to Femi, okay? And okay and Femi in the 90s ended up going to America I think she still presents a program for Al Jazeera called The Stream so she kind of went from literally from WM going to America working in some super amazing journalism job abroad.

So she was probably one of the few women of colour in, black women in WM. So again, it was exciting to go like, maybe I could be here one day. I think we, I don't usually chat about this in the podcast, but I think we need to talk, because I know a lot of Brummies are going to be listening. I think need to talk about birmingham nightlife because i think that's what we i usually talk about like fashion faux pas and stuff but i know the brummies will be like what about mr egg

you had to have you had to have a friday sandwich on the way back from the club i took her into the hippodrome the other day to see six and i was like that's where mr egg was and she's like what and i was like eat like a king for a pound exactly i mean i know it's still got the name but it didn't have it's not got what you have just people hanging out and a dirty big yeah plastic egg on the ceiling that was just like dripping in grit so what kind of clubs did you go to first of all when did you start clubbing because if your mom was a bit strict I was at 14 I was going up down you what mate you were lucky the girls in my class the girls in my chemistry class when we were doing O-level chemistry they used to go to the dome of a Wednesday night and chemistry class was Thursday

the next day and they would come in and they would they would be regaling us with tales of you know meeting boys chatting to boys and I'd be so jealous. So, no, my first club experience was mum allowed me to go to a friend's 18th birthday party. Yet I was still 17. Uh-oh, breaking the law. The original snobs. Snobs. Dirty, dirty, dirty snobs.

Really dirty, mucky, lots of dark rooms, interconnecting rooms. Sticky floors. Yeah, yeah yeah proper you know what i really liked about it though it was that you know you had like your pop room you had your like r&b soul room and you had your kind of real dance music kind of electronic dance room so you could move through i can't remember whose birthday it was but yeah someone's 18th birthday party that was my first time at club didn't really enjoy it I was like what's all fuss about let's think and then went to uni went to uni in Leicester in De Montfort and when I came

back when I came back from uni and I got my first job worked in a call centre and everyone who I worked with at this call centre and I think it's because we had headphones on all day, it was a really hardcore job. So everyone in the call centre were complete monsters. And we'd be like, right, we would go out Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. We would finish our shift, say, at five o'clock and we'd all be in the call centre going, right, OK, finish at five. How fast can you get home, shower, change, eat something, be back out? shift say at five o'clock and we'd all be in the call center going right okay finish at five how

fast can you get home shower change eat something be back out yeah right we're back in town we're gonna be back in town about seven literally insane and we would be out until literally two three in the morning then we'd be hanging uh the next day on the call centre desk, all of us. Yeah. Where we used to go, okay. There used to be a bar on the front of the Rep. It had various, the Rep Theatre, Centenary Square, wasn't it? Yeah. Can't remember the name of the bar.

We would start there. We'd meet there and then we'd go down Gaff Street. We'd go down to Arthur's Bar. Oh, yeah. So Arthur's was our pre-club. Get loaded up. And then there was an interconnecting door that you would go into Bobby Brown's.

Bobby Brown's. Bobby Brown's was my club. Was Bobby Brown named after Bobby Brown? Do you think? No, I don't think so. Or is Bobby Brown named after something else? Or is Bobby Brown named after the club in Birmingham? I don't know.

Yeah, he was probably, he probably named himself after the iconic Birmingham, England, UK nightclub. They're gay. We used to do Studi Bakers, Bakers. We used to do Studi Bakers. That Thursday night was a big night in Birmingham. That was like the proper it was very trendy

you were super trendy going there then because we never I mean I was I was 15 Studi Bakers Bakers Dome

Dome yes Aston Triangle did you ever do that the Aston Triangle do you know what that is no so the Aston Triangle was like

three grotty pubs and you used to just go for like was it the sack of potatoes and that I feel like maybe So the Ashton Triangle was like three grotty pubs. And you used to just go from like in the show. Was it the sack of potatoes and that? I feel like maybe. So we used to do the Ashton Triangle as well. And then when I was 17, 18, it was Dome, Exile, Dome 2.

Dome was weird, man. Pulse. Pulse, don't remember the Pulse. Yeah, Pulse. I did a lot of clubbing when I was single. And we were always going out as a single girl. So basically, we were always on the pool. Always on the pool.

So unashamedly, always out. The mission was smallest outfit you could wear, the tightest top. No coat. No coat, because you suffered for your fashion. Forget it. Even when it was snowing, man, you were just like, yeah, forget it. Mini skirt. No coat. Stay or stay at somebody's house house i used to love a bit of faux leather where'd you get your clothes did you get clothes you ever go to go bananas do you remember go bananas in

i remember go bananas yeah so i used to get my outfits with the palisades yeah the palisades was absolutely amazing and oasis oasis market oh i've talked about oasis market before my mum said don't go in there they'll put drugs in your bag oh that's a surefire way to brighten you into not going oh it's simply a surefire way to make them go they're like get you there well they did a lot had a lot of great leather stalls in the Oasis market. And I remember having a leather miniskirt. I remember having one of the best tops. You know, it was really weird.

When you were younger, well, when I was younger, I was always overweight. In my 20s, I thought I was massive. I felt I was really, really fat. I just found some pictures of me clubbing, yeah. I thought, my shoulders and my arms really live. I had a flat stomach. No wonder I was wearing a mini skirt and like a leather halter neck top with buckles on the side and stuff.

I wore some really racy stuff. But I looked good. I'm telling you. It's because we had to contend with heroin chic, wasn't it? Heroin chic made us all think we were huge. I used to be doing sit ups every night. I was like tiny. And at the time I thought, oh, I thought I was absolutely massive.

I wish I could go back and go, you need to be walking around in a bikini. You look phenomenal. It's so sad. It really was sad. It makes, just to look back and go Marv you looked really good but um no I used to wear some really racy outfits it was all about so it was me Miranda Tracy Louise Sarah there was a whole bunch of us yeah and it was always Arthur's and it was always Kay Cider was my drink because it looked good.

I don't know why. It was a black bottle. Were you pre-alco-pops, do you think? No, there was Hooch. Hooch was the first alco-pops that we remember seeing out on the streets. And there was Hooch and Bacardi Breezers, Reef. Ooh, Reef. Yeah.

I loved Kay, but it made me quite ill in the morning. I'd have terrible stomach ache. Oh. But that would be me having four or five of them in a night yeah yeah yeah yeah it was always just trying to get a conversation with a hot guy and done I mean yeah just living your best life and it could you imagine could you imagine if you could just just for like one night go back and just relive that kind of like crazy carefree staying out all night i used to go to the q club i'd go to all nighter at the q club and then i did you go to wobble wobble and slag did you ever go to slag as well no never went to slag what about miss money pennies oh my

god you're making me so happy you're making me so happy. You're making me so happy. There was Miss Money Pennies. There was Slag at the steering wheel. There was Wobble. What's a Wobble? Yeah, and just to go back bra-less. Could you imagine with a little skirt? And we would, oh my God, I'd take so many. I want my phone. Go back in time and have my phone

so I can take so many little pictures of myself. Yeah. Birmingham gets a bad rep, but you know what? I love it. I just, I just love it. It was brilliant. And if you had, at that time, when you were in your clubbing zone, that was all that mattered.

You were, but it was work to play, literally call centre or whatever you'd be working for when you get paid to buy a new outfit makeup uh to get your drinks to get your taxi home it was for me it was all about my thursday friday saturday nights and then sometimes i go to an aldea on a sunday at sunday central you were literally in the upper echelons of clubbing that's what that's how i saw all of those i never went to those i don't know but me and my friends we didn't feel like we were um we could dress enough or dress in the right way the the best way to get into those so we never tried isn't that weird isn't that weird yeah that is weird because i don't imagine that i looked great but you look

i just absolutely amazing i just went and all and all and all day, a Sunday, oh, it was full of some, right. Some, right, right. And all I used to do was to Pro Plus. I used to buy loads of Pro Plus. Do you remember Pro Plus with all the caffeine in? I was like, what? It was just the, yeah, happy, happy days. I hope some Brummies are listening to this and if you are

definitely direct message me with some some of your wobble has like unlocked a memory like right at the back of my head I'm just like oh it was just so so much fun okay so do you wish you were a teenager now or are you happy you're a teenager then that's what I've kind of been asking everybody well I was definitely happier as a teenager then I don't think I would be able to cope with the information overload yeah goes to any well everyone's phones right I don't think I'd be able to compete with with the kind of obsession the real obsession of how you look with Instagram and Snapchat and TikTok and, you know, these kind of the role models, the influences that are out there now and the way that they are kind of. It's all about being wealthy and ultra beautiful. And and that seems to be a big aspiration for a lot of young girls.

And I would not have been able to cope with that very well at all. No, especially if you thought you were bigger and you're actually slim. And then, yeah, the comparison would have been quite difficult. I will say that I think social media also has some positives. So, for example, it's easy to find your tribe. It's easy to find, like it's easier to like you you could have followed um go west yeah right yeah i follow them instagram and got the behind the scenes photos of them and stuff do you follow them on instagram now are they are they on instagram

peter cox is on twitter and um bless him whenever i tweet him he does tweet back and it's really sweet and i'm like yeah he does what do you tweet him just like occasionally i tweet i respond like if he's something about you know he's got a concert he's got a new music or whatever it just so happens i'll i'll see that and i'll just jump on and go oh it's great can't wait to see you you know kind of thing and he'll reply and I just think that's really cute yeah that's really exciting well you know what what you're going to do is you've got to rev it down you've got to rev it down I'm a big history yeah can't wait Gary Barlow does not offer me the same. I think Gary Barlow's possibly got me blocked. Super successful singer, songwriter.

Okay, I need to play hard to get. You know what? Actually, I don't even like Gary Barlow. Who even is he? It's been amazing. Yeah, perhaps I'm not playing it cool enough. I actually prefer Robbie. You know robbie williams is more like um it's been so lovely to talk to you it's just as i said loads of people wanted a brummie loads of people will be like yes it's such a great city and you

know we've decided to this is where i'm living like this is where i'm gonna stay you know yeah yeah totally i mean this is me you know i've never wanted to leave I've worked in London for the best part of you know well over 10 years and I've always gone back and forth or you know I've had a flat down there I've never wanted to move lock stock and barrel to London because why would you Birmingham is the best city in the entire world yeah literally in the multiverse right it's just like why would anybody want to be anywhere else we get a bad rep but it's i just love it and i love and especially when you've grown up somewhere i love walking around the corner i like going oh that's where pebble mill was or that's where that was or that's where i had my first kiss or like i just it's just so so many

memories well i'll say that about the icc that's where i had my first kiss in the international convention center in it or outside it in it a party yeah some um i think it was a call center's christmas party or something oh that i see that's quite as my i was at cars lane 96 bus stop that's not quite as glamorous are you fresh You're fresh. I was lying by Marks and Spencers. You were fresh by Marks. Oh, the back of M&M's. Okay. All right, then. It's been so lovely,

lovely to speak to you. I really enjoyed this little trip down Birmingham's back passage, I was going to say. Might as well be. Might as well be, mightn't it? Oh, gosh.

Thanks so much. And I will speak to you soon. Thanks for having me. Bye. It was so amazing to chat with Marverine she's such a delight and I can't wait to bump into her again in sunny Brum I do love my Birmingham if you can think of any other Brummies you would love to hear on the podcast please do let me know and also it would be amazing if you enjoy the podcast if you could give it five stars

if you leave me a little review it really helps the podcast to be seen and be sent out to other places other places other than Birmingham that would be just an absolute delight you are all wonderful and as I said definitely go and follow the phone box podcast on Instagram for just fun it's a smaller community but it's a flipping lovely one so i hope you enjoyed this week's podcast and i will see you next week for the very special bonus boy band edition we've got talks about take that pen pals scrapbooks who we fancied the lengths you would go to see those floppy haired men. So I love you lots. Whatever you're doing for the rest of the day,

have a great day and a wonderful week. And I will see you soon. 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.

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