The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Snogging Popstars in the 90s!: Terry Ronald

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Who got a cheeky kiss from a 90's boyband member? Is mates with the Minogues? AND worked on the X Factor? Author and songwriter Terry Ronald that's who! We chat on The Phonebox Podcast about his wonderful new musical Becoming Nancy, his love of Beverly Hills 90210 and how we both miss Top of the Pops.Be sure to listen to the Becoming Nancy soundtrack on Spotify here and grab tickets to Becoming Nancy at The Birmingham Rep from October 2nd to November 2nd 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!#90s #90smusic 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. FanDuel Casino Daily Jackpots. Guaranteed to hit by 11pm with your chance at the number one feeling, winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do.

Who wants this last parachute? I do. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the phone box podcast with me emma conway how the devil are you hope you okay i'm very excited today because i feel like this is going to be a celebrity packed episode and there's one thing that i know my listeners love just as much as me and it's a celebrity because Terry you've come on the podcast to shout all about your new play and also some of the amazing celebrities you worked with so first of all Terry Ronald welcome to the phone box podcast and thank you for having me and I'm very excited because it's a bit of a Birmingham based one because you're going to be opening a place it is it might even be open now called becoming nancy could you tell everybody

about it so it's opening it opens next week on the second and it runs from up at birmingham rep and it is it's based on my kind of youth uh experience as a young gay man in South East London. So it's a musical, it's full of joy, it's about a boy who gets the part of Nancy in the school production of Oliver, because he's got a fabulous voice. And during that, he obviously he gets bullied at school because of it, and it's how his family reacts, and what happens when he falls in love with one of the other boys in the cast so it's it's a story of how he finds his voice through doing that play and um and what happens to him and his friends best friends i'm going to see you next week really oh i'm so happy it's it's really it's really good we've been working for a long time we did it in America

in 2019 before Covid but this is the first UK production and also what's great about it for me is although I'm the original novelist that the musical was based on I because I'm a songwriter I've now also written quite a lot of the songs in the show as well so I've written about six or seven songs in the show so it's even more important to me now than it was before. Oh I can't wait I'm bringing my teenager and my sister we're going to come and see it next week what's the perfect age range for it do you think? Oh I mean when we did it in I mean I think anything from 11 upwards you know is is great and when we did it in Atlanta the young the student um audiences were brilliant they were absolutely brilliant but because there's that nostalgia thing to it older people are going to like it as well so because you know it's there's

lots of kind of quite disco-y music in it and quite sort of new wave electro pop kind of thing but it's also got some great musical songs in it so it's it's i think you know it's it's a really fun show i'm very proud of it i'm really looking forward to is it just in birmingham and then it's moving somewhere else or what's where well i mean at the moment we we waited we hung out for the rep because we wanted somewhere prestigious to do it and then i mean we really really wanted to take it into the west end but but the trouble is that since kovid all the theaters are really booked up so we've got to see how it does you know who picks it up you know but it's it's a big thing i mean it's directed by a guy called jerry mitchell who

directed things like kinky boots and hairspray and legally blonde and pretty woman which are all huge shows but this is his kind of passion project that he's, you know, he's worked with me on for years. So it's a big thing. It's a big production. Oh, I can't wait. Right, now you're just a tiny bit older than some of the people you might be listening.

So we're going to touch on kind of what year, if you don't mind saying, were you when you were 14? Well, in the year my claim was set in 1979 i mean dare i even i mean i mean i can't even believe i'm saying that one in in public but yes as you can see i look very very good you do okay so 1979 what kind of music were you into so i was really into as i said i was a huge disco fan so like in the year i was like in that year particularly like things like the vulevu album abba was released and i mean everybody knows that however old they are you know that album was released um things like dad girls and hot stuff

by johnna summer boogie wonderland by earth wind and fire you know heart of glass by blondie message in a bottle by the police they were all songs that kind of ever kind of all ages know and they all came out in that year it was a fantastic year for pop music have you been to see abba voyage i call it for some reason it's good isn't it i've only been four times though i was a massive abba fan and that thing, you know, I used to like really cool music. I was being blondie and Elvis Costello on the fleas, but I also loved ABBA. Oh, it's so good.

Yeah, I love ABBA. Have you ever seen them actually live? Not as in like... Oh my God. Again, show my age. In 1979, I saw ABBA live. I saw them at Wembley. And yeah, when I was 14.

I'm not sure I was even 14 yet um but yeah I saw them oh how amazing yeah that they are just ABBA voyage if anybody's not been you should go go with your girlfriends or I actually me and my husband went and we were stood right at the front and it's just brilliant get the standing tickets the standing tickets are the best I took my mum as well for her atheist. She loved it. Yeah, it's a really, really fun show. And did you have posters on your walls? Yes, I did.

I mean, I did have the, you know, I loved Kate Bush. I loved Blondie and I loved the police. They were three of my favourite bands. And the funny thing is if you come to see the show, the posters in my bedroom are very big part of this and those pop stars are part of the show he's posted in the bedroom he kind of might talk to them and they might come to life uh yes it's a very big it's a very big part of the show the pop the posters i had in my bedroom wall. 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're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Yeah, I love having posters up. I have had some people on whose moms wouldn't let them put posters up. It's quite strict.

Yeah. Yeah, I know. I was OK with that. Yeah, I was all right with the posters. OK, what kind of tv shows you're watching them what back then yeah oh my god i mean they have tv by then um no i mean oh god when i was a kid i used to i was actually really big on 90s tv which i'm sure will come on in on too onto but I suppose when I was a kid I loved comedy shows like I loved The Good Life I don't know if any of your listeners remember that show called The Good Life which was a very good funny comedy show and obviously I loved Top of the Pops when I was a kid I was so pop mad Top of the Pops was my big thing it was you know I was obsessed obsessive about that anything to do with music and comedy like the good life and you know those

kind of shows were were my favorite thing comedies and but I you know I really love 90s tv as well so I really miss Top of the Pops I wish I know I think when I was a kid when you know when I was young it was really really like you had to watch it. And I used to have, I used to record it on a video, record my favourite songs on a video cassette. So I had a collection of my favourite Top of the Pops performances on one cassette. Yeah, I just miss it so much. No, we do that in the 90s as well. I really miss it. They do do an episode on Christmas Day, but it's just not the same.

They do. It's just not the same. It's not the same. No. My children will watch it, like YouTube, they'll watch pop videos or whatever, but there's not like a sit down. The only thing that my kids will all like is we all watch together is Saturday Night Takeaway. I mean, that's finished now, but they love that. kids will all like is we all watch together is saturday night takeaway i mean that's not even that's finished now but they love that with that yes that is a

real family right we'll all sit down yeah of course we'll all watch this family but you remember the chart show much later on the late 80s early 90s i loved that that was so good yeah it was like three hours long or something wasn't it was just like all of the charts it was long i just i just love it and now i suppose anything if everyone wants to watch taylor swift you'll just go on the phone and just press taylor swift we couldn't do that well yeah they just what no no okay certainly not on the phone oh god no could you imagine i would never would have left the house if i could have watched stuff on the phone all the time okay what problems in the 90s did you have? Because you did work, I've noticed.

Look, do you know what? I'm going to go through because I pulled up your bio and I nearly had a heart attack. Did you? I'm going to shut this door while I'm talking to you. You shut the door, don't worry. It's all busy. I'm shutting the door. It's in the theatre, so there's lots of stuff going on.

I'm in a theatre and the cars are very noisy. Oh, how dare they. You have worked with, right, literally, my followers will be like, okay, so we've got Danny Minogue, Jerry Halliwell, Kim Wilde, Sheena Easton, S Club Juniors, Kylie Minogue, Girls Alive, Bananarama. Then Elaine Page nearly fell off my chair. I love Elaine Page. We've got The Wanted.

Literally every single person that I love, have work oh really yeah i have done that was my yeah after i did my own music i i went into production writing for other people so i've i've i've worked a lot by the two people i work most with were with danny minogue and girls. I worked with them for a long time. I also worked on Kylie's stuff a lot. I mean, I produced, you know, with my friend Steve Anson, produced the vocals on Confided Me. That's one of my... It's just like...

It's like an actual dream. And also you've worked on, like, X Factor and programmes like that as well, haven't you? So can you give us any kind of like, sort of like behind the scenes? Because was X Factor, would that be 90s or early noughties? No, when I worked on it, it was 2007 when I worked on it. Yeah, so it was like noughties kind of programme. Who was on it when you worked on it?

What was the finalist? Can you remember? It was just after Leona Lewis. There was a guy called Leon Jackson. There was Rydian, who was the opera singer we had alexander burke on around that time we had oh yeah all of those all of that i'm trying to think who else was on around that time who won in fact i was there at the when um what they're called one direction were on. So at the beginning of the year. So it was all around that time. Oh, my God.

Yeah. You've just did it. So what is, what's it like behind the scenes of The X Factor? Is it like real fast paced, busy? Yeah, it is quite, I mean, I found it, I found it hard to work on it. It's very fast. It's very, you know, in some's it's quite cutthroat because you've you've just got a you know you can be sort of you know flavor of the month one week and then

literally out the door the next yeah it's hard it's hard on those kids and the contestants it really is it's hard as well because in like the 70s and the 80s and the 90s when there was like talent shows people just went on, they did it. But now with social media, it just makes it so much more brutal. It's awful. Oh, God, yeah. I mean, social media was, I suppose, it was definitely going then, but it's gone even further now since I was on X Factor, for sure. Yeah, it is just so so it's so difficult um

what kind of tv shows did you like in the 90s then what were some of your faves okay I told you before we had we had like I was a massive fan of Beverly Hills 90210 oh my god I loved it so much who was your favorite mine was David Silva that's terrible my favorite and has always been my favorite i'm just doing something because it's making a noise uh my favorite was always with was kelly i absolutely loved jenny garth i love her so she i loved beverly hills and i watched it literally to the end and i was also a massive melrose place fan yeah did you ever watch melrose place do you know what because i was a bit younger that seemed a bit more grown up melrose place did and I was also a massive Melrose Place fan. Yeah. Did you ever watch Melrose Place?

Do you know what? Because I was a bit younger. That seemed a bit more grown up Melrose Place did. They lived in the little thing. It was slightly more. Yeah. I remember the little kind of like apartments they lived in. They had like a pool. But that was just a little bit more grown up than Beverly Hills.

Yeah, it was definitely more grown up. But then of course I was a bit more grown up. But I loved 90210. I absolutely loved it. I was, you know, and it's funny because I was much too old to watch it even then. grown up but then of course i was a bit more but i loved 90210 i absolutely loved it i was you know and and it's funny because i was much too old to watch it even then but i just loved it i i kind of followed it for 10 years i love things like will and grace yeah uh obviously friends everybody loved friends didn't they but there was a lot of really cool kind of sort of late night things on like the word and stuff in the 90s which i used to think was was

was really good what was the big breakfast oh yeah the big what was the french program euro ruro trash i i used to go on a night out and i'd come back and you'd watch like a woman with the boobs out on a bike yeah i know it's so good and my favorite thing getting ready to go out on it like on the front on a saturday when i used to go out my i would watch the brookside omnibus on a saturday and then i would watch blind date with cilla with cilla the brookside do you know what jackie corill followed me on Instagram the other day and I was really excited well it's funny because I'm friends

with Claire Sweeney who was Corkill she was Lindsay Corkill wasn't she Claire Sweeney yeah 90s telly was great you just I know you just said oh you know you're a bit too old see that's why I've got a teenage daughter I can pretend I'm watching it for her now, the programmes.

Yes. I'm just watching it for me. I didn't have that. Oh, I love it. But I've always loved it. The thing is, it's so weird. I've always loved, I don't know, those teen programmes. I loved Gossip Girl when it was on.

I loved One Tree Hill. I loved The O.C. I love all those shows. You know, it's a weird thing for... It's not. It's low-stake drama, isn't it? I mean, it's, like, nice and relaxing. We started two series, so we finished Gilmore Girls.

Oh, my God. That's literally the best thing that's ever been on. Yeah. Well, me and my daughter went to Stars Hollow. You know, you can go in America. You can go and visit Stars Hollow. Wow. So we went there.

So we finished Gilmore Girls. Then we started Dawson's Creek and I gave up because the teacher is shagging Pacey and I was like, that's a weird plot. So we stopped Dawson's Creek and I started Gilmore Girl, started Gossip Girl and the first few episodes

of that are very, very dodgy. You wouldn't get away with it today. It's funny, isn't it, how times have changed so quickly really quickly it is i once opened a toilet door while pacey was going to the toilet what's his name joshua oh he's so cool what did you say did you say pacey i mean it was in a rush i'll never forget it I opened the door it was like when I was there was only one Lou and I just opened the door and there he was like and he just looked up oh my god he's so good he's having a bit of a revival at the moment on TikTok all the girls are liking him on TikTok because he's like a silver-haired fox now yeah the

programs that we used to you know i used to watch as a child on a sunday morning on tv now i just like wouldn't wouldn't cut it at nine o'clock on a thursday night they're really dodgy um so we did so i'm gonna wait a little bit longer for um for gossip girl and dawson's creep but gilmore girls is just yeah i watch it i just watch it every single autumn so brilliantly written yeah so that i suppose that was my 90s my busiest time of you know late especially the late 90s i was just working you know with um and i heard you talking about some people i know like matthew pateman i know oh my god he's so nice yeah he's a lovely boy oh he's so lovely I had him and

um Let Loose because they've kind of like merged together haven't they oh that's right yeah so he's in Let Loose now so I loved all the kind of boy bands did you work with any boy bands or was it mainly just female artists no I did work with boys I was on top of the pops of boys zone which was hilarious, doing backing vocals. It was crazy. What were they singing? What song was it? They were singing A Different Drum. It was number one.

I bet if I heard it, I'd remember it. It was the one with, yeah, yeah. I didn't like it. I worked with Westlife, but very briefly. Yeah. Obviously, I mean, The Wanted, I was in the panel that helped put them together. No way. Yeah. So, and although I haven't worked with Take That, I have had, I was working with one of them on a book idea and i've snogged one of them i knew you'd love this story because i heard you talking about robbie williams oh my god and my witness to the snogging was danny

minogue do you know what as soon as i get off it that's not a select story that's the best story that is like a story made in smash it that should have been right i need to know what era robbie williams was it i, like, what was he? Mid-90s. Take that. Take that time. So hot. So not when he left Take That and he went mad and lost his teeth. Take that hysteria time. Pray, you know, all that era. So we went to see them.

Danny and I went to, Danny said, do you want to come see Take That with me? I mean, I couldn't hear it because it was just, I mean, I don't know if you've ever been to see Take That, especially in those days. A million times. A million times. A bank of screaming. A million times, yeah. A bank of screaming. So we went backstage after, and my friend, my friend's behind me, I've lost touch with him now,

but he, Max was the percussionist, who's an actor now. Max Beasley Jr. Max Beasley. Sorry, I nearly forgot his name. Take that from us now then, yeah. Yeah, Max, so Max was there, and I said hello to him. And then Robbie came in, and we were all max was there and i said hello to him and then robbie came in and we were all standing chatting and he said we i kind of said a couple of you know flirtatious things

like i do and he said i think you're a bit naughty aren't you and i said yes and then he just showing off obviously but just grabbed me and kissed me on the mouth and i remember uh just joking she was just showing off really and knowing I was kind of a you know obviously up for it and then we just laughed and I remember Danny I was just looking at Danny and Danny going chill out chill out oh my god and that was my biggest story for like the next year I kissed Robbie Williams that'll be my biggest story for my whole life that'll be literally my I'd start every oh yeah by the way Robbie Williams kissed me and the great thing is i've got that i've got the perfect witness i've got like you know you've got a reliable source daniel minogue it's

bringing you know bringing down and she'll be like oh that's so exciting have you got any other stories like i love i love a celebrity story oh god not all of them i could tell i mean i mean i've no no not all of them i could tell really not on not on that level no yes i think i've been really lucky i think that thing is working with people i've been lucky that the people i've worked with have always been you know it's very rarely that i've come across people that i've thought oh i, I, you know, I'm not keen on working with you. There has been a couple, obviously, that I'm not going to name, but generally, I've been really lucky with the people I've worked with, and interestingly,

because I write books now, I write autobiographies for celebrities, that's my day job, so a lot of the people I worked with as pop stars I've then gone on to write their books with I've just like I've just worked with Rachel Stevens on her book I work with I'm working with the Sugar Babe at the moment I am and and I did a couple of the Girls Aloud books I did Sarah Harding's book Bless Her so it's so. So I kind of got to work with them on two different levels, which is nice. That's so fun. So do you kind of immerse yourself in their life? Do you go to their house? Is it over Zoom?

Yeah. How do you do it? I just, it's their story. It's their voice. It's nothing to do with me. I'm just kind of really the vessel through which they, because lots of people have got a story, but they're not necessarily a writer.

So they come through, you know they they tell me their story and I I write it as best I can in their voice and then they'll sell me stuff that I've written and I'll edit it and you know it works in many different ways some people do a lot of writing themselves some don't you know so yeah it's been that's another yeah that's really good because you have a story but as you say if you're not a writer it's all higgledy-piggledy you need somebody to kind of like streamline it so people yes absolutely you know can see it a bit a bit a bit easier that's absolutely fascinating um what is your most um proudest thing you've ever done with regards to like you know 90s with the 90s apart from kissing robert williams like is there a song you worked on

that you're just like oh my gosh that's just the best thing or a book or well I wasn't doing books then I suppose I would say um and it's probably not as interesting for you know because I did my own album which I recorded in New York with very big producers and you know and I was a bit of a pop star in this country I'm one of those big in Japan big in Spain as my friends better not being big anywhere I was very proud of that because I had like hits in Europe and I and I did all that that was what I was I was very proud of having done that and other than that I guess like when I when I did the first stuff with Kylie and Danny I really enjoyed doing that because you know when Kylie she was with Stockett and Waterman obviously and she'd been with that stable for a long time and when she left that stable I

think she was quite nervous about singing with new producers because she'd only worked with them and so Danny had said well I work with this guy um you should you should use him in the studio he's really good with vocals and so I worked on that album with Confide in Me that Kylie had and I was really proud of being the person that kind of helped her go from from that from that to what you know to to the next stage i i really enjoyed that and and the stuff i did with danny as well i i really you know we did this is it together that was the first song oh my god my sister we still did the dance routine to this is it that is an absolute all the backing vocals you hear on that you smiled smiled at me and said, that's me.

So, yeah, all those things I'm really proud of. Because that was when I, you know, I kind of was a bit of a failed pop star, really. I did my bit. And then I, but the reason I'm proud of it is because I kind of thought, right, I need to do something else now. And I kind of picked myself up with Danny's help, actually, because she said, come and work with me. And sort of, you know, changed to to another career which really changed my life yeah yeah and I've always done that uh and I think that's a that's a lesson for everyone it's not how old you are you know it's like I'm the age I am now 39 and um and I've just opened a play and it's great. I just don't think you're ever, you're never too old to learn something and do something different.

I think it's an important thing to still be inspired and keep, you know, I still listen to a lot of new music. I'm not one of those people who think, only like this music you know so I think that's important as well to not not trying to stay young but just there is great stuff out there still to be heard and still to be had you know so yeah the moment is such there's so many amazing female pop stars that I listen to with my daughter I love Sabrina Carpenter yeah I've got tickets I'm going to see Sabrina Carpenter I tried to see sabrina carpenter i tried to get tickets with my daughter tried to get tickets for chapel rune she's brilliant i love chapel run yeah so we just like put the music on and we're like just doing stuff in the house and it kind of gives you like a little lease of life you feel like i don't know it's just and now i've got adult

money to spend on it music yeah it's brilliant music yeah and it hasn't you know some of sabrina stuff could have been released when you were younger or when i was younger it's great pop music yeah and it hasn't you know summer sabrina stuff could have been released when you were younger or when i was younger it's got a real great pop sensibility and and i i also love the fact that the stuff that we listened to when we were young from like seven like late 70s 80s and 90s has so influenced what's happening now um you know that music was was great you know that we all grew up with yeah I I do I do love listening I do love being with my daughter and just singing in the car and now I've got adult money so I can buy buy the merch and get the ticket however I'm not happy at the ticket prices how much do you reckon your ABBA ticket was in wembley oh my god it's i reckon i'm not

being funny i think i think it was like it might have been like a tenner yeah or 20 quid or something could you imagine how much they were now oh my it would be a great voyage well that's all right but 10 you wouldn't get a ticket for 10 pound for anything now it's it's in absolute and how do you reckon you got the ticket did you go to Wembley or did you get it on the phone I think we must have got it on the phone I think there was a whole thing that it was a struggle to get them because um but but I yeah and I mean we're miles away but I remember it's it's the concert that that there's a filmed concert of ABBA that they often show on television it's it's that one that I was at um uh it's yeah it was it was amazing it's just nowadays to try and get a ticket is physically it is it's a demanding thing to do we got our tickets yeah we got Oasis tickets um my husband managed to get one of the uh ballot of thing codes. But it took me six hours to get Harry Styles.

It took me six hours to get Taylor Swift. It's just so stressful. But you got them though. Oh, God, I did get them. And they cost a bazillion pounds. And it's just such hard work. It just wasn't like that. I wanted to take that ticket and just go to the Wolverhampton Civic Hall,

pay £14, and I'd be like, oh, there you go. wanted to take that ticket and just go to the wall ramps and civic hall pay 14 pounds and i'll be like there you go go to take that yeah god and how brilliant i know and how brilliant is harry styles as well while we're on the subject so fantastic i just absolutely i went with my sister once and then i went with my daughter um because she's 13 she's too young to be in the standing area but I do like to be in the standing area so when she went next year we'll be able to go to concerts because you can dance a bit more can't you like in the seat I like to be sitting down with the gin truth be told I have to say like people keep trying to get me to go to festivals and I'm like oh no no a festival's not my cup of tea no thank, thank you very much.

Blast and Groot makes me feel sick. I was, no way. Some people say that. I'm like, where am I going to plug in my hair dryer? Yeah, what am I going to do? It's just the toilet situation. It's just all of it. It's just an absolute.

No, no. Okay, so is there anything that was like a bit of a fluff from the 90s that you still cringe about and you're like, oh. What I did. Yeah. Anything really, anything that you think just, oh, that was a bit of a flop and that's really cringing. Well, I, yes, that is cringy because I, once I finished with my solo, I started, I started a band and I, I i was kind of it was a kind of like an indie type

pop band and we were just like and this is quite funny we did a demo and of course it was fabulous all the record companies loved it and they all came to see us one by one but we were just too old oh no we weren't that old we were already like you know like 20 everyone was like 16 17 or 21 22 so it was just that was a bit cringy oh that kind of yeah and that's when we were quite you know that's god knows what we think now but yeah it was quite bad and and everyone had loved the music but we were just and i just thought that's a real bummer isn't it when you you know you're so too old to be in a band at like 20-something. I can't remember how old I was, late 20s or whatever.

But yeah. It's absolutely brutal, isn't it? It's just absolutely brutal, these things. I don't know how, like celebrities and stuff now, it must be so difficult because you have to start so young. And it's just, I don't, I couldn't, I couldn't cope with it it'd be too hard um are you glad you grew up then or do you wish you were growing up now no I don't wish I was growing up now I think kids have it really hard now um I think the pressure's on them I think in some ways they have it a lot easier

because they've got so much more at their fingertips than we had but you know I think I loved the idea I had to save up to buy a record or a CD and you know I couldn't just watch and download something in an instant or watch something in minutes and I had to go to the cinema I had to wait for it or save up or you know so those kind of things I I think made me appreciate stuff more um and I think I just have a lot of freedom as a kid you know playing outside and doing the things I did I think it's hard I think it's harder now with social media with kids you know you can be attacked on so many levels um but I think you know okay as far as being a gay man is concerned my plays is about what what someone of that age goes through um at that time which was a lot

more difficult than it would be now. There wasn't the acceptance, you know, in fact, it was legal to have a gay relationship at the age I was. So that has changed massively. But I still think it's still coming out as hard, whether you're, you know, you're gay or trans or whatever,'s it's still a hard thing so things change but things stay the same but I think in answer your question no I'm happy with the time I grew up what about you are you happy with the time you grew up yeah I'm happy with the time I grew up with regards to playing outside and I and most people have said playing outside was just a really big thing we did that I don't let my kids do but there must have still been crazy murderers around we just perhaps didn't know about them

yeah I know I think we I think the thing is we have all been become a bit more hypersensitive to everything because we have we are constantly fed bad news yeah and so we're constantly seeing that you know we're constantly seeing that bad news and it reinforces the fear in us um you know and of course though you remember when we kids used to have the adverts for like don't get into strange cars yeah yeah you know terrifying those adverts i know i mean so i did i left getting into strange cars until I was a good 18. Then I was all for it. There was don't get into strange cars. Don't climb up pylons to get a kite.

Oh, my God. They were terrifying, those things. Yeah, it was quite traumatic. Yeah, the safety efforts. But, yeah, there's got to have been murderers around. We just didn't know about the murderers. I don't know which is better, knowing about the murderers or not knowing about the safety efforts. But yeah, there's got to have been murderers around. We just didn't know about the murderers. I don't know which is better, knowing about the murderers or not knowing about the murderers. Not sure.

Yeah. But now I have Life360. Have you seen that with my children? No, what's that? So Life360 is an app on your phone. And I could look at my phone now and I can see exactly where they are. I can see when they leave a building, when they come back from a building, how far away they are, when they drive it, like, you know,

how fast the car is going. Yeah. But you are a little bit, my mum didn't care. She'd be like, bye. See you in 10 hours. No, exactly. I mean, my mum and dad used to go, I remember my mum and dad going around the social club to have a drink and I was left with my sister.

I must have been about nine, ten. They're like, have fun then. I know. See you later. It was a different time. They weren't doing anything bad. It was just, that's just what people did in those days. It just wasn't even thought of.

Okay, if you could go back in time and meet a younger your younger you what would you say to them i'd give myself the uh winning euro millions lottery ticket numbers for a certain that would definitely be um i would say um i would really tell myself to trust my instinct and my gut, because that's something I have only learned to do, you know, not even very in the last five, ten, not even ten years, to trust my instinct and to be kind to myself and to have more confidence, because I think that's something I I didn't have believe it or not I always felt like an imposter and whatever I did I always felt like oh you know should I be here do

I deserve to be here do I deserve to be having this you know this life I'm having and so I think there were times when I didn't enjoy it as much as I could because I was in my head too much worrying about whether I deserved to be there and um so I would have told uh my young self to enjoy what's happening right now not worry about the future and and trust that if something's happening you deserve it yeah how did you get over the imposter syndrome because that's I struggle with that and a lot of content creators it's quite a a hard thing to overcome I don't I don't think I have got over it so and because I changed to different things so when I started doing the production for people um I I thought am I good enough to be a record producer and you know same when I was being a pop star I always felt like I shouldn't be there and then when I went into sort of working with theatre staff I the theatre was new and exciting thing for me so again even when I started doing this project I kind of felt like I should you

know stay in my lane and you know it's it's interesting and being a writer again all those things every time I try something new I will always try it and usually you know it something happens from it if I really believe in it but I still I still have it so the the thing I've learned recently is I've I've witnessed some let's just say bad behavior from people that I've been working with around me at different times and I think to myself I don't behave like that I always try and be respectful and nice to other people and that has given me a bit more self-confidence in who I am because there's people that I've sort of looked up to that I've seen not behave very well and I I thought, you know what? I don't want to be you.

If I'm an imposter, I'd rather be me. So I think that helps. That helps. How do you combat it? Oh, I just cry a lot. Well, do that as well. I struggle because I am in social media, but I am older.

I'm from Birmingham. I am plus size. You know, I'm not traditionally what you see on social media. So my day in, day out, I'm on social media seeing all these different people who look nothing like me. So it does become quite difficult. But the reason that people like me is because I don't look like the other people so I have to like focus on that if I look like the other people I'd just be with all the other people so I have to kind of like think right I'm on my path and

this is what I'm doing but it is you know it's lovely that you're doing this play in Birmingham because Birmingham is such a an underrated city and um oh I've been loving my time in Birmingham yeah it's fun yeah i've been up i was here for five weeks and i went back and i'm back again now and then i'm going home and then i'm coming back for the for the run uh not all of it but for the first couple of weeks and i'm loving it and we really wanted to do it at the rep we held that we waited two years so we could do it at the rep yeah because you know there was only a few a few uh theaters we wanted to open somewhere that was prestigious and that would really support us as a new musical and there were they're not there are not that many and the rep is one of those so we kind of held out to do it here yeah birmingham's anybody listening come and visit

birmingham it's it was the international day of birmingham. I don't know if you... Oh, I missed it. You missed it. Joe Lycett was up in Uptown putting up a flag for the International Day of Birmingham. Okay, well, before we go, I just want you to give me your top five artists of the 90s. It doesn't have to be people you work with, just five who are your faves. Right, oh, God, you you put me on the spot now

i've got to think about 90s artists well i mean she she's all encompassing but i've got to say madonna because oh my god did you see it did you see your hair i've seen madonna yeah i've seen her i went to blonde's ambition in 1990. so i'm so jealous and every madonna definitely okay janet janet jackson yeah i'm a massive janet jackson fan um who else will i say from the 90s uh i'm trying to think of the 90s i love blur i really was a big fan so were you blur or you Blur or Oasis? I was Blur. You're only the second person who's on this podcast who's been Blur, you know. I think it's because

you know, I think Oasis were always a bit macho for me. So I really liked Blur. Damon was pretty wasn't he? Oh my God, and I met him once. He made me a cup of tea in a studio. Oh lovely. And i was just like thank you so pretty okay so we've got blurt janet madge we need two more oh my god i'm trying it's

so on the spot i'm trying to think of 90s artists we've got to have kylie should we put kylie we've got kylie oh we can definitely put we can definitely put kylie and and you know who and you know who else I absolutely loved? The early stuff. I was a massive Britney fan as well on the pop stuff. I know it's very late 90s, but what baby one was. Erin and I sat down and watched Crossroads at the weekend with Britney in. That is a phenomenal film.

Is it really good? Oh, my. She sings. I love rock and roll in it. She sings, oh God, there was another one that she sang. Oh,

it was just, and the outfits look like it could be filmed now. Cause 90s is all back in fashion. It looked like it's really the test of time. And she looked happy. I hope she was happy when she filmed it. You don't know now, do you?

She might've just been forced. No. But it was a good film i've never seen it i need to check it out it's cheesy cardigans the sundays i loved all that indie stuff as well the cardigans the sundays i loved all those kind of bands yeah as well it was a fab era well thanks so much for coming on the podcast i'm going to leave a link in the description for tickets for the show i'm going to be going to see it and I'll put that on my Insta stories. If people want to see it.

I'm coming Saturday, a Saturday matinee. Saturday. Is it the third? The fifth. Saturday matinee. The fifth. I will be there.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm coming with my kids and my sister. Oh, and I'll tell my sister all about Dan Minogue and Robbie Williams williams and she'll be absolutely thrilled right i will see you hopefully i'll see you at the show and guys tune in next week for another episode um over on my instagram we do a poll so what should i do a poll of this week just some of the 90s artists you

mentioned and we'll pick who the best one was yeah perfect yeah we'll put all of those in and also go and check out spotify because there'll be a poll over there and give us a review only nice ones though i don't want to mean with you just nice ones and five stars please oh and if you want to listen to the music from becoming nazi to get a taste of it there's a there's a cast ep on spotify it's is there? I'll leave that. It's a brilliant, yes. And with songs that we wrote. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Loads of people love this. I'll leave a link to that in the description as well. Thanks very much. And I will see you soon. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye. Take care.

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