The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Snogging At School Discos: Giles Alexander (You The Daddy)

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

Who wore his pants hanging out of his jeans with a nice pair of Kickers and sent drawings to his first love's house? Gile's Alexander that's who! He joins The Phonebox Podcast to chat about awkward snogging at school discos and how he once found drug money. Kinda. Grab a book of Gile's brand new book You the Daddy: The Hands-On Dad’s Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and the Early Years of Fatherhood and be sure to go and follow You The Daddy 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!#90s #90smusic #nostalgia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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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 hello and welcome to another episode of the phone box podcast with me Emma Conway how's everyone are you hope you are well I like to do a weather check I don't know why I don't know if you care the person who was on the podcast today just said Birmingham always looks sunny

I don't quite understand because I'm often saying it's not. Today, I'd say it's a little bit grey and cloudy, but it's not cold. Welcome to the podcast, Giles. Hello. A.K.A. You the Daddy. Yeah, that's right. Hi, Emma. How are you doing? I'm good. I wanted to be like you the Daddy. i wanted to say it in like a cheesy way so you the daddy and i do two guns at you um you the daddy uh which you can find on instagram and also you've got exciting news because what is coming out well it's out now to order yeah i've written a book

uh it's called you the daddy the hands-on dad's guide to fatherhood and yeah it's a brand new parenting book for for new new dads it is brilliant i've read it from the beginning to the end and i loved it and i i chuckled i particularly like the section where you do a playlist um for when you're giving birth playlist that was my proper my cup of tea so highly recommend that if you are so like a new dad or if you're going to be a dad, who else you think should buy it? Maybe like mother-in-laws? Yeah, I think a big, big market will be the first time grandparents buying it for their kids. But also the new mums hoping that their partner might get up to speed a little bit quicker during the pregnancy. It's a really good book. It's out on Amazon now.

And also it will be in Sainsbury's. It's not in Sainsbury's this week it should be next week which is very exciting I just asked if you were going to go in and sign stuff and you've got to okay I'll follow your lead I know you've got to take a sharpie and go and sign stuff and feel like you are a pop stars in the 90s doing a sign in in Sainsbury's yeah we'll do yeah in Sainsbury's that's fine don't not you know Sainsbury's I'm excited lovely clothes okay so I asked you what year you were 14 and you kind of like crossed between two years so what year would you say you were mainly 14 in yeah so I was officially 14 at the end of 1998 so but you know most of my that year was 1999 so let's go for that 1999 okay can you guess the biggest selling single of 1999 well I mean I was trying to think about it because I'm pretty sure Britney came out um

right around that time I'm sure baby one more Time was like end of 1998. You win you win 10 points I don't know what the points I don't know what the point it's it's you're right you're absolutely right you win 10 points it was Hit Me Baby One More Time in 1999 um and you're the first person to guess it correctly so well done. I mean it was a very life-changing moment in my life when Britney came out. Did you buy it? No, but I remember someone at school recorded it on VHS and at break times we would watch the video over and over again

until break time finished and then we'd go back into class and then the next break time someone would put it on again we were just obsessed with her it is like looking back slightly inappropriate video oh yeah yeah because it's oh god the bubbles just came the bubble just came guys if you don't know i'm on zoom and ever so often bubbles come up and i don't, we don't know why. If you could direct message me, is it when I do a thumbs up and let me know? Oh my God. You do it. See if it happens to you, put your thumbs up. Oh, it only works for you.

Oh my God. That is absolutely terrifying. I will put that. No, that's just me. You've obviously got some special filter on him. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to have to put that. I'll put that on my Inst just me you've obviously got some special filter on him I don't know what it is but I'm gonna I'm gonna have to put that I'll put that on my insta story so you can see it because that's like that is one of the most terrifying things it's as if I was ascending to

heaven in that that was the end of it I dread to think what's like gonna happen next no we'll keep you posted okay so 1999 Britney Spears video. She was there rocking a school uniform, but I loved it. I had a, hit me baby one more time, lunchbox. Did you? Also,

I wasn't 14. I was at university. So it was a little bit, okay, we're going to do top films. If you get any, you can pick one from any of the top four. So if you get the correct answer,

you could then get, I might put my thumbs up and the world explode around me again. um I mean I was I was also a massive film buff at the time but I they all merge into one but I think the film I really remember around then was Cruel Intentions but I don't know now I wonder why you would remember that film. I can't imagine. Oh, it was so good, though, wasn't it? It was such a good film. Ryan Philley.

Who else was it? Rhys Witherspoon. And who was her counterpart? Rhys Witherspoon. Sarah Michelle Gellar. Sarah Michelle Gellar. Yeah. Oh, thatellar. Yeah. Oh, that was a great film.

That, sadly, was not in the top four. The top four. Number four, it was Austin Powers' The Spire Shag Me. Oh, yeah. Great film. Number three, A Bug's Eye. FanDuel Casino Daily Jackpots. Guaranteed to hit by 11pm with your chance at the number one feeling.

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Details at fizz.ca I mean we've watched it quite a lot now with the kids but yeah number two Notting Hill love it Notting Hill is a great film when you say nothing at all and number one Star Wars episode one The Phantom Menace

I heard that one on the podcast the other day which one was that that was the one that was the one with jar jar binks that is the one oh look my my now because i cry cry laughing so much my makeup has smeared at my face oh my god you're making it worse yeah that was the one with jar jar binks that everybody hated yeah we at university still number one at university we got a bootleg copy and we watched that. Fuzzy and rubbish audio. Yeah, and we all got round and just... Round and round.

How did you get bootleg copies? I wonder where that came from. It was right in that time where you would get them on some dodgy website and then you'd watch them and there'd be a tiny little screen all fuzzy. Yeah, or maybe I reckon somebody would have bought it from a man because I went to university in Wolverhampton would have been in a man in a pub who was also trying to sell me beef at the same time beef or Star Wars which one do you want it's a toss-up

yeah they both go well with a bolognese okay where did you where did you grow up so I grew up around in Surrey uh around Guildford um the big city there um and yeah I mean it was um the thing is we everyone lived in little villages outside so if you wanted to see anyone you had to have a car which obviously at 14 I didn't or you'd have to get a bus into Guildford and there would only be one bus an hour and they wouldn't always come on time so there would be a lot of sitting at a bus stop waiting to get into Guildford yeah or somebody sitting at the other end waiting for you and you couldn't communicate you were going to be late you couldn't say I've missed the bus I'm going to be another hour you'd be like you're just going to have to hope everybody's just waiting somewhere for me yeah I know and

we were so good at doing that. I mean, the kids these days have no clue. I think I got my first mobile, like, towards the end of 1999. But before then, yeah, it was just, you know, wait the bus stop. Fingers crossed someone's going to still be there when you arrive. Yeah, we used to meet outside Marks and Spencer's uh in town which is in Birmingham that was the meeting place I wonder why we chose Marks and Spencer's maybe we're trying to be a bit classy Marks and Spencer's I think it's because it had steps so people used to just sit on it and

wait and then you'd be like oh sorry I'm a bit late and they're like yeah we've only been here for two and a half hours waiting for you don't worry about it okay what um was your bedroom like well my mum's like always really house proud so we weren't allowed posters up on the walls so um because she was worried about the blue tack like pulling off the paint so it was pretty um pretty uneventful if you could have had posters who would it have been oh I mean I know that um I mean Brittany obviously it was always Brittany um I think it was like kind of that time maybe it was a little bit after but where um yeah all the lads mags were becoming a big thing you know FHM and Loaded and all those those kind of magazines and I remember we were

all just so in love with Kelly Brook she was so gorgeous I did a panel with Kelly Brook. She was so gorgeous. I did a panel with Kelly Brook once and she's still gorgeous now. Yeah. Kelly Brook, and that was real Katie Price era as well, wasn't it? When she'd just come out, the Price thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All those magazines. When I, Stephen once had to have, I'm wondering, oh no, he won't mind me telling this story because I was talking about it the other day.

I think I told the kids the other day, he had to have an epidural because he had a a problem he had a slipped disc went in and i bought him magazines like fhm and loaded and all that lot because that's what boys that was just what boys read in them days wasn't it how old was he then like in his old he yeah no he was like 21 like he wasn't yeah he was he was actually i mean i he was actually buying those magazines in my 20s but anyway yeah anyway anyway yeah anyway uh the nurse took them off off him and said we don't allow porn in this hospital and he was just like oh it's not that kind of operation yeah absolutely you know he was like no they were they were took off him yeah that was a funny

old time those magazines they were super popular weren't they yeah I mean it was just that kind of lads culture at the time which is I'm quite glad this is over now but um yeah I mean as a 14 year old boy you know it's yeah they're definitely they're popular amongst and amongst the school kids yeah there was love there was that kind of lad culture and then the girls were also ladettes do you remember that yeah yeah girls are encouraged to be like lads which was just so you have like sarah cox and zoe ball and people getting their hair cut and getting drunk and being on the road i love that i still love sarah cox it's just my favorite yeah yeah the ladette culture was uh was was quite an interesting one okay so what kind of school did you go to and where were you in the hierarchy yeah I mean I went to an all boys school

and I think at 14 I was pretty low down the rung I I felt like I really peaked at about probably 12 13 because I was at this other school and I was all my mates and then I moved to a new school and didn't really know anyone and it was a much bigger school and I kind of sunk back into myself I became much more shy and I was a bit on the chubby side I was very academic did you know lots of music I played the flute you know these aren't um things that make you popular you know at an all boys school um so it was quite uh you know an awkward time I think for me yeah the flute that's reminded me a bit like of American Pie like that one time at band camp that feels like you were that yeah I mean I didn't I never shoved it anywhere but you know okay so what kind of music you into did you just listen to Britney Spears or did you like all sorts of types of music yeah I mean I never actually bought a Britney album you might be

surprised to hear although I did buy a couple of the singles but no I had a really uh kind of eclectic mix of music I think basically I'm the youngest of four in my family so um I originally used to steal all of my older brother and sisters cds and tapes and so I was big into like Beach Boys and Alanis Morissette you know Jagged Little Pill um uh Counting Crows uh I loved um and then would steal other things. Like I remember having the Addams Family, Valley's movie album and Sister Acts. I feel like the Addams Family, I feel like MC Hammer was to me. I feel like there was a good,

a bit of a banger song on that. What was it? I feel like there was some sort of. There was some kind of rap version of the Addams Family. I'm going with mc hammer you'd really listen to but the sister act album soundtrack oh that was great it's a classic but i guess when i started actually getting more involved in my own music and developing my own taste i think i was really into no doubt i remember uh yeah don't Speak was like one of the first singles I bought myself and god they

were so good they were so good and um Gwen Stefani is aging backwards I don't understand it she looks it's she it looks so phenomenal yeah how is that possible I presume with surgery and botox or magic yeah I'm gonna to do my thing again. Magic. Oh, no, it didn't work. Oh, it did. There we go. Yeah. I mean, I think the thing is the surgery and Botox works for some people

and then others you can just tell straight away. She's also obviously got a really healthy lifestyle and she's very rich. So all of these things combined yeah because she looks absolutely amazing okay fashion faux pas what were you wearing um so when I was 14 I mean it was real sort of baggy jeans time so I remember a lot of hoodies a lot of really baggy jeans that would come like right down underneath the bum so you'd have your pants on show all the time, which, you know, avoid white pants would be my tip. But, you know, everyone was like desperate to have that first pair of like Calvin Klein.

Yeah. So that you could show the waistband at the top of your jeans. And then, you know, but so I think that was obviously cool at the time, but looking back, I mean, and never again, I think it's the bag at the time but looking back I mean and never again I think it's the the baggy jeans things coming back isn't it I mean Rosie my wife is has suddenly got loads of baggy jeans and everyone seems to be wearing them I think 90s fashion in general I think with that that age now that it's all coming back around again it's very distressing yeah the 90s jeans are still good with carving

clients though i imagine that you would probably only have like one pair so did you just wear the pants continuously or was it a washer i don't understand how you save them for best okay so you're saving them for saturday around the shops yeah yeah but you'd probably buy the cheap like three pack pair okay there would be like a a black white and gray set that you get from tk maxx or or wherever or like costco or something i think my husband still get away with them to be honest the same pair not the same pair could you imagine his little holes in okay what kind of shoes are you wearing with those like just trainers no kickers this you know do you remember those like they were massive kind of big clunky sort of because um like mine were navy blue and

you didn't tie them up you like kind of did the laces so you just slip them on and they were very cool and they were giving marky mark vibes oh yeah i mean marky mark he was the he was probably the calvin klein inspiration wasn't he that was his whole era was that 98 late 90s i'd say i would wonder if that's maybe a bit earlier marky mark and the funky bunch yeah but why are you they were like right marky mark we got we really got to add something to it i know the funky bunch and they're like yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that's really cool okay so kickers with your bum hanging out um was there any fashion faux pas and was that the main fashion faux pas or was there other or one outfit that sticks out as terrible I remember having this this shirt that I thought was really cool and it was like a kind of it wasn't vintage but it was obviously a vintage

design bowling shirt you know the ones that sort of like slightly oversized collar like quite a funny fit like really rank if I was looking at it now but I thought it was just the coolest and with my baggy jeans and bum hanging out um I just remember wearing that all the time and um thank god I don't own it anymore I think it sounds kind of cool I'm gonna I'm gonna say I might have liked that a bit of vintage yeah at the time at the time but now maybe we'll bring back the bowling shirt bring back the was it bowling as in like yeah like 10 pin ball not bowls not like an old bad shirt yeah because i'm thinking getting grease two vibes have you ever seen grease two yeah yeah which one do you prefer grease two or grease one discuss oh well the thing is everyone's

seen grease one so much whereas two kind of still has a bit of a mystery about it yeah it's got yeah yeah oh my god do you even know who was that who was the actor i mean he was quite big at the time he i don't know his i feel like his name was max what was his name he hasn't got the same legacy he was or is married to um hay. She's an old actress. She was in Pollyanna. Have you ever seen Pollyanna? Yeah. He was married to her.

Yeah, he was married to somebody who was like considerably. Now I'm wondering if I'm lying to you. I don't think I'm lying to you, but that doesn't sound like it's true. I feel like she's like at least 20, 30. Maybe that's just. There was a big age gap. There was a big age gap. There was definitely age gap there's definitely you may well be i feel like he was in um empire records did you ever watch that

with renee zellweger and what happened to live tyler oh i just watched something with her the other day i'm empire records oh god that film's so big. No, this thing called The Gunpowder Plot, which is like a three-part series with Kit Harington from Dungeons and Dragons. And she plays this kind of, you know, Catholic, very religious, pious lady back in the medieval times. Oh, Liv.

With an amazing English accent. Liv, if you're listening congratulations on continuing your career i'm sure and i'm sure you are listening okay apart from britney who else was your first crush um well i think i was thinking back about this and there are probably two that i would that i that really stick out one Melissa Joan Hart do you remember her um um Clarissa explains it all and then Sabrina the other day I was on my explore page and I thought it was me but it wasn't and I was so shocked but it wasn't it was Melissa Joan Hart but on her worst day she put up a picture of like oh a picture put up a picture like, oh, look what a mess I am.

And I was like, and then people messaged me because they all thought it was me. So her on her worst day is me on my best day. So that means, so there's some link there between the girls I fancy and you. Oh my gosh. Maybe. Actually, yeah, this is actually a proposal.

Stephen, pack your bags. No, Melissa Joan Hart, actually a proposal. Stephen, pack your bags. No, Melissa Joan Hart, she was great. Sabrina was a great programme. I don't think I've watched Sabrina Explains All. Clarissa Explains All. Clarissa Explains All, no, I didn't watch that. What was she explaining? Everything.

Oh, oh. She was just, it was just, she like would talk to the camera and like, you know, it was like, no, there was no internal monologue. She would just talk, say what she was thinking to the camera and then act out some annoying thing with her little brother. But yeah, she, she was great in that. And I remember, and then she also was then in a film with Britney, the crazy, what's it called?

You Drive Me Crazy, where they used that Britney song. I don't know if Britney was in it, but she was in the video. I don't think I've ever... Oh, she was. She was... Yeah, like a waitress. She was a waitress, wasn't she? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't think I've seen that film. I've seen Crossroads with Britney, which is a brilliant film. And she sings I Love Rock and Roll. Yeah. But what was she... I don't understand. She didn't explain everything. So she'd be like, look at the camera and go, Pythagoras theorem,

and then explain it no no it was like a it was more it was like a funny thing it's just about a crazy kooky girl and her best boy best friend and they would get into like trouble and uh she was a bit naughty but and she had an annoying little brother um but it it was more that she was like a know-it-all i think um and that she would explain what was going on what like in a monologue during the show it was more that she was like a know-it-all, I think. Okay. And that she would explain what was going on, like in a monologue during the show. It was very, I mean, I don't really remember huge amounts, as you could tell by my description,

but I just remember falling in love with her from that and then being obsessed with her as Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Yeah, Sabrina. Have you seen the new Sabrina? No. Oh, on like Netflixflix yeah yeah it's terrifying yeah yeah yeah it's well it's not like old sabrina we need the the aunts rocking up because they look they still look great today um it sounds clarissa sounds a bit like blossom which

might have been a bit before your time do you remember no no my sisters got definitely were massively into blossom so remember blossom and Blossom and Joey um yeah Joey Lawrence oh my god I love Joey Lawrence yeah my sister's did too yeah yeah I've got his single and it came with a big poster I've still got it upstairs not on my wall frames yeah still got it in the living room yeah above the TV the other one was Kirsten Dunst I was like I just and I've always loved Kirsten Dunst it was it was really that sort of prime Jumanji time um it was like a bit after interviews of the vampire and um well hopefully she was like a 10 year old vampire and that that would have been a strange crush have you seen elizabethtown uh yes yes

with orlando bling yeah that's a great she did some absolutely great films yeah did you ever see drop dead gorgeous yes of course i've seen drop dead gorgeous that is also a great film that's a real i wonder if i could watch that with my daughter now she's 13 do we think or is she maybe a bit yeah no totally yeah because that's quite funny if you if you how old are your children again so seven five and then nearly two so when they get to like teen years you start to re-watch stuff so you're like mean girls legally blonde and some of the stuff has not held up some of the stuff you're like we don't say we don't say that anymore we don't say that anymore we

don't say that anymore we what we're re-watching Dawson's well I'm re-watching Dawson's Creek with her oh yeah the first season the whole plot is Pacey um hooking up with the teacher and not in like a god she should be in jail in a wow you're hooking up with the teacher it's like no mate she's she needs to go to jail this is deeply inappropriate but the stuff that passed in the 90s I bet if you watch Clarissa Explains all now you'd be like oh yeah yeah I know yeah no she'd get cancelled definitely yeah no she was good okay first snog how old were you so I don't know if I was like early or late but I was definitely 13 and it was at a school disco and because it was an all boys school they would ship in girls from

another school we'd get shipped into another school yeah we'd be shipped in yeah yeah so it was a full cut full-on kind of really awkward, early teenage kind of meat fest. And it would basically, for the first, I can't remember the exact times, but the disco would run from like 7 until 9.30 or something. And there would be food and drink, and everyone would, the boys would stand on one side of the room, the girls would stand on the other.

Eventually, a few girls would kind of congregate into a little circle on the dance floor and dance around themselves and then you'd sort of slowly see like a boy kind of like going in to the circle and tapping someone on the shoulder and being like do you want to dance and then they'd be like nah and then just carry on dancing with their friends and it's kind of like a you know like a the sperm and an egg you know it's like the egg and then they'd like come in and it bashed off bashed off but eventually one would get in and connect with one and then people would start splitting out but it would all happen in the last sort of half an hour before everyone went home before that everyone was sort of too nervous to I used to hang out it's just to stay in the toilets because I was so terrified of the boys I just my mom was like did you have a nice time I'd be like

yeah but literally two hours I've just been sat in the toilets like that I can't talk to any of these boys because going to a single-sex school is a very strange thing isn't it it's kind of a weird environment yeah um and I do still think now it still impacts me now negatively just I suppose if I was in say if I went to a work meeting and it was loads of men I'd probably be a bit like still now and I'm 46 it's very strange so who was your snog with and did you continue dating or was it just to like get it over with? No, I can't even remember getting the name. But that was that was the time. That was the thing. It was so such a short, you know, it was such a brief encounter.

I mean, obviously, you know, that half an hour, it was like we were very connected. Yeah. And like didn't come up for air but then the lights go on it's like bye lovely to meet you the light the shock of the lights and your bums hanging out your jeans you're tripping over your kickers yeah and you're trying and the music i wonder what music it was great it was good music it was all like wasn't it kind of Venga Boys and all that kind of stuff, you know, and like, I'm horny. Turn me on. Yeah, exactly. A bit of moose tea and also Sex Bomb by Tom Jones.

Yeah. I mean, there was a lot, lot going on there. A lot of things that are probably very inappropriate for 13 year olds. But, you know, we did it. I love the school disco. They don't do that anymore. That's not a thing anymore. What do they do? God knows, my they don't don't they don't do that anymore that's not a thing anymore what do they do god knows but they don't do school because i'm always like to my daughter i'm like when's your school disco and she's like what the hell are you talking about i'm like

but every month we used to go to the boys school and we used to like she's like no but i suppose it's kind of weird to just throw children together once a month it is a bit of a yeah no yeah it was definitely a hangover from our parents generation maybe where they would go to you know dances yeah yeah yeah yeah so it was a strange and I don't recall teachers being there but there must have been teachers and there was a tuck shop oh yeah yeah no the teachers would always be like hanging around in the corners just you know I bet they were drinking as well in them days. Yeah, yeah. And driving because no one cared, did they?

No, everybody was just doing anything. I wonder if like she often thinks of you and she's like, my first kiss was with Giles and there's you just going, I didn't even know her name. Well, actually, I mean, I did have my first, actually, I lie. I did have a girlfriend very young at about seven years old yeah who had an older sister she I remember her name she was called Emily um she had an older sister who obviously taught her all about snogging and so she would come over to

me and just snog my face off when I was seven and everyone was like oh god but um that was yeah that was officially my first kiss I mean that doesn't sound like a consensual kiss so we'll go we'll go we'll go we'll go for the disco we'll go for the mystery lady in the disco okay what is your one of your biggest successes from being a teenager oh I mean I really I really struggled thinking about this because I was you know quite a geek and very musical so you know I my natural go-to was like you know getting great GCSEs and um getting my grade eight singing passing my grade eight singing exam but so boring I think some of the more kind of things that really I remember was finding 40 quid in a telephone box on the floor became like my personality for years around that

um because everyone was like it's drug money you're gonna get the drug the drug when you said it I literally immediately went to well that's drug money you're gonna get the drug the drug when you said it i literally immediately went to well that was drug money yeah and and then but then and so for quite a while i was sort of worried about being um chased by you know uh the drug runners and someone was going to come and get me but then i became like the money guy that would find money every time we went out I would always be like oh there's a tenner there's a fiver and I just collect money from the floor at clubs and bars and um obviously not not when I was a teenager but you know it's outside Sainsbury's or outside Woolworths and I was just became this sort of magpie and so um everyone sort of knew me for

that all my friends did anyway um but there was that one and the other that kind of sprung to mind was um I just became the karaoke king and I discovered a love for karaoke um and it was because we used to go to um Tenerife every Christmas. Did you call it Tenerough? Because that's what we call it. No, we didn't. But yeah, we had some family friends that had retired out in Tenerife. So they would invite us for Christmas. And every year we went during my later teenage years. And there was nothing to do for teenage kids, really. There's not like great beaches or anything in Tenerife.

So every night we would start off the night at the karaoke bar and then normally spend the entire time there. And I just discovered, you know, that that was my stage. That was my calling. What was your song? What was your, what was your go, I need to know your go-to three tracks well um my at the time it was definitely there was um when i saw her face yeah i'm a believer from the monkeys and you know what you're getting that you're getting the mom's loving that you're

getting the nans loving that that is one everybody's up i believe and like and then it was like obviously redone with um vick reeves you're getting everybody's everybody I believe and like and then it was like obviously redone with um Vic Reeves you're getting everybody's everybody loved that yeah um and then I was a big kind of pop idol fan and so I used to do a great rendition of um Light My Fire you know like because I sort of thought I sounded like Will Young um so that was another one and then later on and this is my go-to today it's um Feeling Good Buble version which is a crowd pleaser oh my god I can just imagine I'm out with my friends and then you get up and I'm like oh what's he's gonna say And then I'm feeling good. And we're like, ba-bum, ba-bum.

And we're all like waving. We've got our phones on. The lights are out. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God, I love it. I love it. I feel like you need to have like a big book launch party. You shouldn't have.

Now you've revealed your secret. You kept it quiet and then just got up. And you bring michael boob like on the stage with oh yeah me and boobs and you go ladies and gentlemen introduce my good friend the boobs sorted do it yeah yeah from la or if i oh i i love that my sister has got a good voice she now does lulu shout And that's a good one. I don't know what that is. Oh, my God, you need to get off the podcast. You don't know what a shout is?

No. Where? Oh, sorry. So I thought you were talking about some kind of app or, like, karaoke bar. You make me want a shout. Come on. I want a shout. Because that's a good one.

Because you're all having a drink, and then you look, because this girl's screaming and you're like and she really goes for it but then she does need like two to three days recovery after it because it takes every ounce when we were little and we used to go on holiday mom would pay her like pesetas to sing crazy for you by madonna she'd be like have have you know i don't know two pound fifty crazy for you, Madonna. And everybody would just be like, oh, with this little girl singing. So, yeah, maybe together you two should be in band.

Bring her together, you know, the karaoke. Absolutely love a karaoke. What's your biggest flop? I think the thing that makes me cringe most is some of my kind of how desperate I was to have a girlfriend and all that. And the dating faux pas throughout that time. There was this one girl who I just was totally in love with called Amy. And she wasn't really in love with me, but she was cripplingly shy and so I remember going to like great lengths to to try and you know build up a friendship and then relationship with her

you know to the point where I was like I because she didn't offer anything because she was so shy I remember writing down questions to ask her before we'd have a phone call because I was like I'm going to need some ammunition here because she's going to give me one word answers and and I remember once drawing a picture of her and sending it to her at school and just thinking back it was like a A4 sheet of paper all her face and I was just just very cringe. In pencil, in biro, in in felt in wax crayon oh pencil and crayon I think um yeah I was I was not quite a good drawer yeah quite could do quite like real to life but yeah I dread to think that that's sitting in a drawer somewhere or you know did you give it did you post it to her house did you pass it in oh no she went to a boys school so you had to post it yeah I posted it to her house? Did you pass it in? Oh, no, because you went to a boys' school, so you had to post it to her house.

Yeah, I posted it to her, yeah. Hand-delivered? No, no, in the post. Yeah, I wasn't turning up at her door uninvited. I'm trying to think what is scarier, a hand-delivered portrait? No, it was with, like, a kind of love letter, you know. Oh, and did she reply? Well, she came as my date to our, like, lever's ball ball okay so but I don't think we ever kissed or

anything they ever got past the kind of just phone calls and and writing to each other stage yeah yeah it fills me with quite a lot of cringe just thinking about it do you think then it's a good job you didn't have social media then because what the hell would you have been doing to this girl? No, I'm very responsible. No, I am. Yeah, I'm so grateful that I grew up before social media. I just and before like not having to go through the whole dating apps thing as well in my 20s. I just think we had the best of both worlds when we were growing up like you know we were

starting to have computers and the internet but and maybe had our first mobile phone at the end of the 90s but we got through most of that really awkward stage and you know the 90s was so rich with fun things for kids i mean like i still just you know all the different crazes that we'd have every week you know like the tamagotchis and the diabolos and the yo-yos and the pogs i never understood how to play with pogs but i used to want to collect them collect a pug um i threw you there with hacky sacks yeah hacky so i could never do it i I mean, I had loads. I had a Sprite, like a Sprite yo-yo, some sort of like, I don't know, Fanta hacky sack. Yes, please.

Yeah. And it was just, it was a simpler time. And I think kids could be kids for longer. And yeah, I just, I would love to not give my kids a mobile phone ever, but I don't think that's never going to happen yeah we we i waited till the last term of year six because i feel like they need i feel like they need time before they get to secondary school to kind of get it out of their system and learn how to use it and not use it and not lose it and not smash it like because it's like so you've got it's like you've got to look after this like this is quite an expensive thing yeah um but i was literally like this when i gave it to them i was like oh no i

mean they've got all the privacy settings on it yeah i can monitor everything you know i can see where they're going on like the little map thing like a a weird stalker, like where they're walking and stuff. But yeah, I wasn't a huge fan. They don't have, my son has no social media whatsoever. My girl kind of has like the kids only TikTok, which she just looks at people like refilling things full of sweets and stuff. She has Pinterest actually. Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, like kind of wholesome.

But I do think I didn't want him to have a phone but yeah well i mean i was talking i've got lots of um nephews and nieces who are older than my kids and actually talking to my older siblings about it recently and they were saying that when they get to the sort of late teens when you go to the park or um you know it's the summer holidays yeah when we were younger everyone would like hang out in the graveyard and like be smoking and drinking now they're all just in the park like in a row making tiktok videos yeah in a way there's sort of something better than i think you're right my husband says that when we look uh when i look on tiktok now and I look at like people in their twenties,

they seem to be doing a lot of self-care and drinking water. And when, where there's, I was just going out and getting absolutely hammered, vomiting down myself, being scraped off the floor. But I don't, I mean,

I could be wrong. Let me, don't message me if I am wrong, but I feel like people now are like, are a lot, they like self-care. My little boy is like a self-care king. He'll be like, I'm having a bath. I'm having a bath. But real, like, you know what?

I'm going to have a little bit of time relaxing watching a box set. I was just out either Graveyard, Pigeon Park, which is in Birmingham, Normal Park, or in a club. and that was at 14 yeah i know i i mean so yeah there's it's swings and roundabouts um yeah i think that all of them not younger generation they're you know much more focused on the environment they're they're not drinking you know that's yeah there's they're doing loads of very good things that we never did so um but the social media side is is scary but maybe that's just for us we don't fully get it yeah and these kids have obviously been on tablets from quite a young i mean as in like electrical tablets not actual tablets so they're a little

bit more used to it so i presume you are glad you grew up then and not yeah yeah definitely i i i just yeah i think it was the the prime time that year 90s 90s great yeah i did i had a right good time um if you could go back and tell little jiles what would it be i think it would be like just have be like have more fun like don't like I work too much and I think and was too focused on exams and getting good results when I was in my teenage years that I ended up kind of saving all my teenage rebellion for for my early 20s and university when i just completely went crazy and i think just have more fun yeah um and don't don't waste your money on a pager was that with your drug money yeah well yeah it wasn't a drug money that i found on the in the car box if i was seeing somebody with a pager, I was like, well, they're a drug dealer.

Even if it was like a 14-year-old boy on a bus, I'd be like, well, he's clearly a drug dealer. I honestly don't know why. I think it was just, it was like the new Tamagotchi, right? For when we were a bit older. I never had a pager. I had a boyfriend who had a pager and I think I was a bit like, I don't remember.

How would I have contacted him on a pager? Did I have to phone a number and somebody would send him a message what happened to phone a number and then give a message but it can only be like 10 letters long or like really short and then and then it would they'd get a bleep and then they'd have to call you back um but it was it was I had one before I had a mobile phone so it was sort of like the only alert system you could have. So I guess, you know, that meeting of friends outside M&S on the steps, you know, at least someone could page you. Yeah. And then you'd have to wait for the person to phone you.

And then you'd, yeah, it's very, very complicated. Well, Giles, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. Again, tell us where people can find you and maybe where they can get your book. Ah, well, yeah. So you can find you and maybe where they can get your book oh well yeah so you can find me on my website which is youthedaddy.co.uk or on all the socials at you the daddy and my new book is out now to buy on amazon water stains all the bookshops uh and sainsbury's um so please buy it now it'd be amazing for kids and is it in other countries yet or are we waiting yeah you can get it online

um from different different countries but uh i think that all comes later apparently it's so exciting well jars congratulations your book thanks for coming on the podcast guys thanks so much for listening to another episode of the phone box podcast hop over to my instagram account we will be doing some sort of poll i don't know what it is yet maybe we'll do a poll about tamagotchis and like trends of the night that'd be quite a fun one to do also I'm on

Mummy of Two where I'll just be talking rubbish most days I will see you next week for another episode and Giles thanks so much for coming on

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