The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - New Kids, Cool Gangs & Disco Dancing: Melissa Murrell

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Who fancied Des O' Connor, loved New Kids On The Block and was part of the cool gang? Amazing stylist Melissa Murrell that's who! We go back to 1989 in this weeks episode of The Phonebox Podcast and chat about inappropriate dance wear, "scutters" and The Sound Of Music.For more of Melissa please go and follow her on instagram here and check out her YouTube channel here. 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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enjoy the number one feeling winning in an exciting live dealer studio exclusively on fan duel 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 hello and welcome back to some brand new episodes of the phone box podcast with me emma conway how the devil are you i've took a couple of weeks off i went to disneyland paris um if you like a bit of disney go and watch me over on youtube there will be some fun blogs i also popped to york with my daughter so i had a lovely half term and new, fresh, breaking news. The podcast is going to be changing. So basically when there's school holidays, I won't be on. When there's no school holidays, I'll be on. And during school

holiday time, I might put up an old episode or I might put up like the best of episode. So I'll be going strong now until Christmas and then I'll take a couple of weeks off. But I'm excited to say we have a lady of my generation. We've just been talking about perimenopause, which I think I've brought up on every episode, even if it's an episode with a 32-year-old gay man. I somehow squeeze it in. Welcome to the Phone Box podcast. Melissa, how the devil are you?

Thank you very much. I'm really good. Menopausal, as we've just heard. We're anxious, but we're thriving. We're anxious, but we're fine. We will cope with it. As I was saying, I can't believe I'm on a podcast where you're going to ask me about what I'm like when I'm 14.

I can't remember what I did yesterday. Oh, it's terrible. You might have to help me along with the memory things, particularly on the music front. Oh, don't you worry. I've got Google in my hand. oh it's terrible you might have to help me along with the memory things particularly on the music front oh don't you worry I've got google in my hand as long as there's google we'll be fine okay Melissa can you tell everybody where they can find you uh yes so they can find me mainly over on youtube where we dress women of all different shapes and sizes live on our youtube channel as part of our Body

Shape Masterclass series. So that's probably the main place. But then we also do work over on Instagram as well. So I think it's Melissa Morel Personal Styling on Instagram and it's MMPersonal Styling on YouTube. And then we've got a website by the same name where you can book us for online styling sessions and courses and things like that amazing i will leave all the links um in the description so you can go and check melissa and her fab workout but melissa what year were you 14 embarrassingly to say i was 14 in 1989 a very long time ago it's a great year 1989 so I like to ask my but you've done a bit of research so you might already know these answers but um I like to ask uh people on the podcast

about the singles that were released in 1989 so can you have a little bit of a guess oh she's looking through her notes this is very exciting I am some of the top ten singles in 1989. Oh, top ten. I haven't done that bit of the research, but I know who I was into when I was 14. But there was a bit of Jason Donovan in there. He's on the list here. Jason Donovan had six UK top ten hits in 1989. Too Many Broken Hearts, Sealed With A Kiss,

as well as his guest appearance with band-aid 2 which is my favorite of the band-aids do they know it's christmas with kylie and bros love it yes absolutely love it my favorite as well um yeah loved a bit of jason bit of phil collins i'm really showing my age here oh phil's phil's an icon actually do you know what you might be the first person to have mentioned Phil Collins on the podcast oh really I don't think I want to be known as that first person to mention change your bio my husband and I were on our honeymoon once and we were playing that there was a live band and we

were just between ourselves we were playing that um I'll name that tune in one, you know, where you have to be the first one to play. And there was that first beat of that famous Phil Collins song, so famous I can't remember its name, right? That's it. And I got it after that. I'm not a music person. I was so proud of myself. I can feel it coming in the end. Yeah, I know.

I'll name that tune in one. Done it. She is a Phil Collins fan. She really does. These change your handle. I'll name that. Can you remember that TV programme? Yeah.

I'll name that tune. So my dad used to use that phrase for if anybody farted in our house. So if somebody farted, he'd be like, I'll name that tune in one. That was Melissa. That's a classic dad joke, that is. Okay, other great singles. We've got Sonia, You'll Never Stop Me From Loving You, reached number one in the UK of July.

A little bit a bit a little bit i'd say like more cool at buffalo stance by nina cherry i wasn't cool though i wasn't cool with my music taste no i wasn't cool good life by inner city as well you want sorry new kids on the block would that have been on new kids in the block would have been around that time and that definitely wasn't cool did you like new kids on the block i think so sometimes like i when i was doing the research for this i recognized their names i can't actually did you like new kids on the block I think so sometimes like when I was doing the research for this I recognized their names I can't actually remember you know whether I did or not I remember at school there was a you know your talent shows yeah and there was a group of boys that did

new kids on the block and then everybody fancied like the type of thing um but that's about all that I remember from that but But yeah, I must have. Yeah, New Kids in the Block. It was either a brossette or you liked New Kids in the Block and I was a brossette. Where did you grow up? So I grew up probably not too far from you in a place called Park Hall in Walsall. Oh, where's your accent gone? Well, I tried to get rid of it.

Don't you offend the Midlanders. So I'm a fully, well, I'm not even a Brummie. I am a black country girl. Yeah. So, yeah, so my parents still live in Aldridge. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so I'm back there quite a lot. So I sort of grew up around that Sutton Coalfield, Aldridge, Litchfield, Walsall in the

early days type of area so yeah my mum and dad live in Warmly they just moved to Warmly so that's like inside a town as well okay what did you have on your um bedroom walls what was it decorated like do you know what I knew this type of question would come up because I've been listening to your podcasts which are brilliant by the way and I genuinely cannot remember what was on my walls. And I asked my mom and my mom said, your room was just full of dance stuff, because I went to a dance school. So we're talking dance medals, leotards on the floor, pink head bands, you know, all of that sort of stuff, rather than the posters. She said, the only poster I had I had up, well, there was a couple of posters. One, Des O'Connor.

What? I saw your face. He's never been mentioned on the podcast either, Des O'Connor. FanDuel Casino's 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, 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. 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. Yeah, I told my husband that my mum had told me that and James said, yeah, don't mention that. And I'm like, but why?

It's the truth. Okay. I wonder, in my head, I know you can't remember, but I bet he's in like some sort of like suit doing like a real cheesy like smile with a big tan. Yeah, he was tanned. He was a bit of a silver fox. I must have liked the old the older man. I don't know. And then Paul Young was probably, I can't remember it being on there, but I was quite a Paul Young fan. But dance stuff, my room was, I'd have probably had ballerinas here and there and all that.

Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, I did. My mum made me do like quite a lot of dancing growing up I think it was quite a thing to do like disco dancing classes ballet yeah we did I did not like ballet but we did um Latin American classes we did disco dancing and then mum signed us up for dirty dancing classes oh classic at 13 i think there's slightly something but i'm a bit i'm a bit younger than you so we're looking at like nine no a nine-year-old should not be thrusting her hips okay so if you could have had posters we've we know you had a thing for Des. Yes. Who else would you have had crushes on around that time if you could have put posters up?

So probably Jason Donovan. Again, Bon Jovi. Yeah. John Bon Jovi. I went to see him loads, so he would have probably been up there as well. Both still gorgeous. Yeah, yeah. They've aged all right. I think Des o'connor's dead though isn't it

i wasn't talking about des o'connor it's about jason donald oh yeah sorry there's me my brain um des r.i.p r.i.p sorry des um yeah who else would have been on there well i'd imagine people like from new kids on the block and yeah all the normal people like that um who else I just wasn't into cool music I remember always like Prince was really big when I was at school and because everybody else liked Prince I didn't want to like Prince I was a little bit sort of I want to go my way not way of everybody else um so yeah it was probably a bit of Jon Bon Jovi aha Morkit oh Morton Harkett oh he was nice wasn't he he's so handsome and the take on me video when they're in the black and the white oh god you uh didn't see that then guys but there was a marvelous dance routine

it was like morton was in the room with me yes he was definitely with me i wasn't thrusting okay so what kind of school did you go to where were you in the hierarchy so i just went to a normal comprehensive school but then I was attached to the dance school so I would be dancing uh pretty much every day from sort of halfway through the day to sort of in the in the every every evening um barbecon do you know barbecon yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so yeah that's where I used to go and I'm sorry what was the other part of the question where were you in the hierarchy embarrassingly to say I think in this day and age but yeah I I was in that cool gang Melissa you're the first person that said that you're the first person this is amazing

Phil dares and cool gang three points I I think I'm being too honest. I think it is embarrassing to say that these days because you want to be rather more than neat, you don't need the geek. There was actually two call gangs. Yeah. There was a bit of rivalry between them. Oh.

We were classed as, we lived in Park Hall, which anybody from Birmingham or the black country knows there are no posh areas, but we were the posher area. So we were the posh ones. They were the scutters. And scutters. Blimey.

Can I say that word these days? Yeah, that's fine. Scutters. I haven't heard it since like 1994, but you can bring it back. Bring it back. Chavs. I think you all probably know. yeah yeah so we were apparently the posh ones they were apparently the chavs two key um gangs really and yeah i was in i was in one of those um yeah very much leading and would go out with sort of the the nice blokes in my head

you're like a stephanie zicconi from corey uh from greece 2 from greece 2 well i love you so you've picked the right movie so greece 2 um do you remember it and it had michelle pfeiffer in it yes yeah that was you in my head dancing around school with the scutters fighting them like West End well not West side what's it West side story um okay so we've established you weren't too much into kind of like the cool music but what kind of TV shows did you like to watch oh god again so I was such a contradiction because on the one hand, I was in this cool gang. But then on the other hand, I was really academic. I love my musicals as well.

So I would come home from school and put on Grease, Sound of Music. I used to watch Sound of Music pretty much every single day, even like at 14 and 16 they come home from school get a packet of custard creams nice right in front of the sofa dip them in a cup of tea watch sound of music or grease and then my dad came in one day and he just lost his shit he said you know my mom's obviously in the back cleaning school uniforms making dinner And he was just so fed up of these lazy girls that would come in that he just pressed record and he recorded like ITV news over Sound of Music. God, it.

Sack religious. That was VHS. That was video. And like there was no way of downloading it again or anything like that. I was so angry. So, yeah. So that's what I used to watch. Zamo in Grain Chilp.

Yeah, just say no to drugs. Yeah, remember that? Yes, yeah. So I'd be watching that. Marmalade Atkinson has just popped into my head. Oh, Marmalade Atkinson. So this is a very niche. Maybe, you know, Sutton Park.

Sutton Park had like a big. Yeah, it's literally around the house, around the corner from Marmalade Atkinson. Yeah, Sutton Park. They used to have like, they had like this big, almost like a TV festival thing. And the Marmalade Atkins was there. Why was I not there? Yeah, my mum took us. We must have gone on the bus because I don't think we had a car at the time.

You know, you just have these like core memories from when you were little. And we met the Marmalade Atkins but she was she passed away didn't she really young she was in Four Weddings and a Funeral do you remember Four Weddings and a Funeral Hugh Grant had like the kind of daft sister that was Marmalade Atkins yes yes yeah I do remember that's a good program yeah really young yeah yeah yeah oh yeah she was quite naughty wasn't she yeah yeah it's a bit like yeah really i wanted to be her but i wasn't because i was too shit scared of ever getting in trouble oh yeah no i don't want to be in any trouble um so we've established where you fit in

that fit in the hierarchy we know that you fancied des o'connor can we talk first kiss please first kiss so god i my mum describes me as dull as dog shit to be honest with you and i think it's probably stums miss up i don't i have only ever kissed someone and then gone out with them for like three to four years so i was one of those people i mean that's probably one of my biggest adult regrets. Is not being a bit of a slapper. Yeah, not ending up behind the bike sheds. You know, my daughter's just started her A-levels and every day I'm like, have you got a boyfriend?

You know, have you flogged anyone? She's like, no, that's so inappropriate. I'm like, just go and be wild and free and don't worry about the word slag. You know, that word was like really big in my time. So I was just, you kissed a boy, you went out with him. Okay. So that was me.

So that would have been a guy called Robert, I think, in the early days. Yeah. Yeah, and then I was probably snogging Des O'Connor on my wall. Yeah. Yeah. Probably. Robert is a good classic. I'd say 80s name, Robert. That's a good one, isn't it? Good. I had an Andrew after that. Oh, another good one. Robert, Andrew, Jason. They're all cracking. Oh, Orlando. That doesn't fall into that.

You had an Orlando? Orlando. Yeah. In the 80s and 90s? Oh, that would have been so exotic. No, later than the 80s and 90s. But he was just one of them in the mix at some point. My husband's James now. That's the 80s, isn't it? Yeah, James is a good 80s and 90s name.

Orlando would have been a very glamorous name, wouldn't it? Yeah, it would have been. I don't think I've ever even met an Orlando in ever yeah it's called it was called Ollie but yeah that was much later on you know well into my early adulthood so first kiss was successful because you ended up going out with them yes yes well I don't know how successful is the first kiss ever successful it was probably I think we've had I've done now I think I've done about 66 interviews I think we've had one I've done now, I think I've done about 66 interviews. I think we've had one that was a successful first kiss.

Everybody's just been like bleh. Yeah, exactly. Vomit inducing. And I'm not sure why I ever went back for more probably. For three years. Yeah. Okay, you're well known for your fashion advice, but I want to hear about your fashion faux pas. What did you wear then that was awful?

What did I wear then? Well, I spent my life in dancewear. So I probably had that thonged leotard, you know, right up my backside, very inappropriately. I used to wear tights sometimes, but I think I even went tightless, you know, and there would be me doing the splits and that's what I think your bum well yeah I was so yeah so god knows what was you know what no wonder all the boys used to be at the glass door looking in yeah she's got a thong

on she's got no tights on today lads and bearing in mind you know electrolysis and things like that didn't happen in those days so god knows actually what that looked like so i'm sure there was a huge fashion faux pas in there blimey you're giving olivia newton john now you're giving like let's get physical let's get physical but with hairy muff and just really not looking very nice down there. What fashionable Bill Stunt jeans? I don't know what that is. What is it? No. I thought you would have been the only person that did know.

No. You'd go to Walsall Market. Right. Get some Bill Stunt. That was the branded name. Okay. Really tight drainpipe jeans. But my legs were so skinny. My mom used to say I look like Max War

yeah so and because they weren't tight enough I used to put them on and then she would stitch them to my leg to be even tighter how would you get them off did you have to cut yourself out I'm probably sleeping I remember lying on the floor trying to get into some levi's and do you remember when you had to you're supposed to go in the bath in levi's to make them like shrink to your legs yes yes yeah no and then as you go walk down the street the zip would slowly come undone just like to pull them up or the button would give you like a little bit of a sore bit of skin because it's just been like digging in it could well if anybody if you remember this it's bill stunt jeans if anybody remembers me definitely direct message me if you

remember these jeans we talk a lot on our channel about fanny daggers you know when your travelers dig into your nether regions because they're too tight around that area yeah that was built bill stunt jeans the entire time you were wearing them. It was like Camel Poof City. Was it a Walsall thing, do you think? Or was it a Universal thing? Just a Scutter thing, I think. Very common girl thing. Just a Scutter thing.

Just a Scutter thing. Put that on a mug. Okay. Is there anything you wore then that you'd wear now? Yes. Paper bag jeans. It's all coming back, actually the things coming back um well i don't wear them now but my daughter's wearing the ra ra skirt and things like that um what else one one i was about to say wonder bras but no

i definitely don't wear those i need to wear those these days yeah I used to I used to wear like I used to wear like three at the same time to really get like the proper like real like oh just just to make my boobs look bigger I'd add on a couple at the same time yeah you'd have it on or you'd shove loads of like the little pads in um to be like what was her name Eva Longa Longa Voria or something like that I can't remember but hello boys yeah I thought that was me hello boys yeah yeah yeah that definitely wasn't me I was trying to look like that but it wasn't me I was never well endowed in the bus department at all um what else faux pas everything becomes a faux pas when you look back at it doesn't it you know when you look back at the photographs my mum actually? You know, when you look back at the photographs.

My mum actually sent me some photos. Yeah. As I couldn't remember. Yeah. And it was a lot of denim shorts and denim cut-off waistcoats and things like that. But the worst thing was my hairdo. Why?

What was it like? Oh, my God. Well, Whitney Houston was really big. And and you know that uh dance with me um so I got my mum's male hairdresser to look at that video and I was like that's what I want I want that one in terms of her hair honest to god I need to google it so was it short or is it long really really long and really tight curl oh corkscrew perm i ended up looking like a cross between kevin keegan and deirdre barlow that's probably the only way i can describe it and so when my mum sent these photos through the other day trying to show me the fashion I was like what the fuck was going on with my hair and that's what I used to be like in school I used to go into

the um the the where everybody used to smoke where do you want toilets toilets yeah the toilets yeah and I wouldn't be a smoker or anything like that but I'd be in there wetting my hair yeah of course make it look better because it was so old-fashioned what he did so i think actually this podcast has triggered me therapy afterwards did you put mousse on it and like really scrunch it like and i used a hairspray that quiff up oh lovely yeah so i had that literally i know the viewers can't see it but yeah was there something about mary quiff yeah and then what was meant to be tight curls which weren't as we've established behind so yeah i look like a granny from behind yeah like something from mary at the

front so i don't think i was looking my best up for how long did you keep the perm for did you just wait for it to drop out or did you have it several times? Yeah, I think so. I had a shaggy perm and, again, that was a lot of scrunching and like real cheap mousse that you get like that you can even smell and it was all sticky on your fingers. Yeah, and I didn't have – I'm not a natural blonde. I don't know if you can tell.

I am, I am, I am. And so it was like dishwater brow yeah mostly oh and i and i had polycystic ovaries so i was hairy so i had a mustache as well you're getting like it feels like a bit like lionel richie with curly hair and a mustache i think being 14 i really wish you'd picked maybe 16 or 17 when i started to flop with a moustache with a thong up a bum yeah and you said you were in the call group i don't know how that happened maybe i wasn't and i made it all up in my head you keep telling yourself that you can't exactly okay what was your greatest teenage success greatest teenage success oh I haven't revised

that one um god do you have many successes when it could be anything we've had people just pulling somebody they really fancied we've had people going I've got a being drama it could be anything do you know what maybe the fact that in my era I didn't smoke I didn't do drugs I didn't get pregnant and I was pretty academic and maintained sort of my own path and not embarrassed by the fact that I wasn't joining in with the crowds or anything like that so maybe that was you didn't cave into peer pressure you just kind of like kind of did your own thing um did you have any teenage flops that you look back and go apart from the hair apart from the hair teenage flops um I had, so this would have been before the perm time. I had my, again, it was hair.

I used to have really, really long hair. And I went to my mom's best friend to have it cut. And I came back and it was like a pixie cut. Really, really short. And I swear to God, I didn't go out to play on the street. You know how we all used to play on the street. Of course, yeah. I reckon I didn't go out to play on the street for about a year after that so uh but that was a little bit earlier

um what did you what was the inspiration for the pixie cut did you see somebody with it or were you just like lovely i'm just thinking when remember yaz the singer yeah she had like a yeah yeah yeah yeah was that was i copying her or was that maybe that would have been like 87 perhaps or something so probably no i guess it was yeah so it's been then then so maybe something like that oh god my mom she went mental did she it was like my mom was really into her clothes and a dress it always make us look really nice my sister and i would be like dressed pretty much the same even though there was two years apart she put rags in our hair for school photos and so she used to take a lot of time over our appearance and there's me come back and it was like went from blonde to being brown with my

little mustache she probably thought a little transition from going to when I came back so yeah that was probably a bit I too got my hair cut very short because it was around the time of the ladette do you remember the ladette in the 90s there was a lot of short haircuts I think Cameron Diaz had a haircut short and maybe Zoe Ball I went pretty much in the same week I went full short hair and I got a tattoo on my shoulder like Mel from the Spice Girls and my dad was like is there anything you want to check like what's he was just like this is all too much my heart's take it's like do you like my tattoo yeah started farting at the dinner table it was all of that

sort of ladette theme that was all or really such a weird time isn't it the ladette the ladette culture like we want to be like lads but like not like the good bits of lads like equal pay and stuff like that we want to drink beer and and and fight it was almost like the vault it was more like the stereotypical extreme vulgar yeah we were trying to follow weren't we yeah it was and I don't know why was it just that freedom that we felt that you know women could you know fart or they could be themselves or they could do that it was kind of like a rebellious stage wasn't it yeah well I don't think we talk about ladettes enough I don't think it's get Zoe Ball on here she's yeah oh god you made it Zoe Ball there was Sarah Cox wasn't there there was there was like a big, yeah, there was a big gang of them.

But yeah, so I rocked her short hair. I didn't mind it too much, but it was, growing out, it looked ugly. When you grow out short hair. Yeah, really. I was definitely not one of those girls that could take short hair. Like I think I need the hair to create a look for me. Yeah. When I scrape it back you know

yeah like Sinead kind of look beautiful with no hair didn't you and people take that I would not look like that I'd look like a potato okay um if you could go back in time what would you say to yourself what would I say to myself um It's okay to have small boobs. You'll appreciate them when you are older. And for me, dressing women that have large boobs all the time and the trauma, and I don't even use that word lightly because it is often for them, the trauma it creates for them in terms of clothes not fitting them well

and all that sort of stuff. And then feeling incredibly conscious that, yeah, small boobs will become an asset when you're older. And you know what? You wouldn't have believed you. You would have put on another Wonderbra and you'd have gone sod off your scutter. Yes, totally. My daughter's at that stage now going, sure, I've got small boobs. I mean, I've got absolutely massive boobs.

I did have small boobs when I was younger and now I've just got, and now I would never wear, I don't wear any wire. I just want nothing. I want. You just want t-shirt bras from Arsene Spencers now, don't you?

All of them. I wear the same bra as my mom and she's 70 and I'm happy with that. I saw your pants thing. Oh, I love a pair of pants but i am gonna say the quality has gone down somewhat and it's not just me who thinks that i don't know what has happened in the big pant industry but they're not quite as um they don't wear as long anymore oh they don't wear as long as i'm, they don't wear as long. I was going to say, they're not fit as right, because we get a lot of, obviously, complaints about pants

and the digging in and things like that. No, oh, no. I always go, this size is bigger. Oh, no, my pants fit perfect. But they do wear out quite quick. But I've heard the Marks & Spencers ones are the way to go. The Marks & Spencers big brief. So maybe I might invest, but I like my £6.50 pants.

Yeah. Marks & Spencers are quite expensive now for pants. I pants I think so I think so but you're probably paying for the quality aren't you it used to be five pound for a pack of five in Asda now it's six pound fifty and that's quite frankly outrageous yeah it is outrageous but if you're going I don't know what are you doing to go through them so much though oh I'm just sitting on my big bum watching telly. That's part of the reason. Need to be a bit more active. No, I think it's, do you know what the problem is?

I wear these pants for two years. So I'm like, they've worn through. How long you had them? Three and a half years. They were six pound 50, Emma. Okay. That's the problem I've been known it's a big joke in my family because I take anything back if something doesn't wear wear well you know I will take it back and I've been known to take back a lace pant to

Martin Spencer's before because sometimes you put your fingers through them at the side did they say because you're famously not supposed to return pants and stuff. Yeah, no, they took them back. Yeah, they took them back. My fingers went through my thumb. My fingers went through my lace. Sort it out. Okay, are you glad you grew up then or do you wish you were growing up now? Oh, definitely back then.

Definitely. I think I hate social media. I know I'm on it. I wasn't on it for 20 years. It was only because of lockdown I went on social media because I wasn't on it for 20 years. It was only because of lockdown. I went on social media because I couldn't get out to my clients. But I know it's got huge benefits. But from a young child's perspective right now, I'm quite lucky that my daughter hasn't really bought into it at all. She doesn't post and things like that. She keeps everything private. But I do have friends, daughters who have been incredibly affected by it and keeping up with the Joneses and things like that.

So, no, I loved growing back up there. We used to go out playing every day. We used to go to the park, climb trees. I was a tomboy. I didn't give two shits really about clothes. I like to always, I think I think I well I think that's a bit wrong actually I like to always look nice but it wouldn't have stopped me going out or anything on those lines where I feel these days they're so conscious about what they look like that it stops

stop certain things so no I liked growing up back then yeah I think on the whole a lot of people preferred I mean there's definitely benefits now um about you but you know be able to find you try which you often say but yeah I preferred growing up back then yeah it was just more free wasn't it you know you you'd give your mom three rings and and that's all you do to tell her that you'd arrived at your mate's house and then she wouldn't hear from you she's been been great actually being a parent. You'd send them off with a jam sandwich. Oh, yeah. Hours later, none of this like having to entertain them and take them to trampoline parks.

Oh, my gosh. Or worrying. I've got Life 360 and I'm like just watching it all. It's like a documentary. I just watch my kids and what they're doing and where they're going. And oh, my gosh, I can't. I went travelling off around the world by myself. My friend pulled out three days before i went and bearing in mind i was what 21 or something like

that so i was definitely a young adult but no phone email only just come out on like dial up so you would be in a queue for three hours and then the whole email would take like five days to get to them so worry but it because it was the norm maybe it wasn't so worrying i don't know or maybe it did worry just as much i suppose as parents you would but oh god no remember the internet cafes internet oh god what happened we never knew when it was the last time we were going to an internet cafe we never we never we never we never thought well she'll never come in an internet cafe again. I used to go in them all the time.

Yeah, yeah. That is strange. It's somewhere like when you do go travelling in sort of more remote areas, you do get the odd one. Yeah. But now I think they're just used

for people who are doing dodgy stuff, aren't they? Yeah. Who don't want to be on their own computer. Yeah, probably that'll just be like, in the internet cafe.

Well, Melissa, thanks so much for joining us on the Phone Box podcast. I will leave all of her details below. We like to do a poll on Spotify. So I think the poll on Spotify is... Should I just pick the best songs in 1989 and they can choose who they think was the best song? Yeah, definitely.

Yeah. And what should we do on my Insta stories? If you go and follow me on the phone box podcast on instagram i put loads of um we usually do like a like a poll every week i think i'll do a call to action what should we say maybe should we say favorite programs of the 80s yeah that'd be a nice one he said you've had a lot of younger people on so you've probably done a lot more on the 90s rather than the 80s. We've had some people from the noughties.

Oh, have you? Yeah, can't relate. Can't relate. Right, guys, I will see you back next week for another wonderful episode. Thanks, Melissa, for coming on and I will speak to you soon. Goodbye. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Bye. Bye. a super brief survey we'd like you to fill out. Complete it and we'll give you a chance to win

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