The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Underage Drinking & Skirts Over Trousers: Clair Buckley

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

Who enjoyed wearing skirts over her trousers, heels with tracksuit bottoms and had the most CRINGE incident in a classroom? Clair Buckley that's who! The top podcaster joins The Phonebox Podcast to discuss her teenage years and what it was like growing up in the 00s. Check out Clair on instagram here and below for all the other fab places you can catch her podcast:In Sickness and In HealthSpotifyYouTubeFor 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!#00s #00smusic #nostalgia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Phone Box Club podcast with me Emma Conway. I hope you are well. The birds are tweeting, spring is on its way. It's a little bit drizzly outside but you know what that's not a problem. Now we have a wonderful guest today and it's not drizzling where you are is it Claire? 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 or visit connectsontario.ca please play responsibly it's not it's dry it's not very sunny but it's dry let's take and we've both got plants plant foliage in the background are Are yours real or fake?

Fake. I have children to keep alive, so I just concentrate on them. She's real. That one there's a real one. To be fair, you can tell that's real. Mine look really rubbish compared to yours. But notice it's kept in the bedroom so none of my children can actually destroy it. It's hidden away from little tiny fingers. So welcome to the podcast, Claire Buckley.ley now where can my listeners find you online online oh yeah quite a few places these days which I never um planned on but we me and my husband James have got a YouTube channel called at home with the Buckleys and we also have a podcast I'm not sure does that count as online the podcast online yeah yeah we've

got a podcast called in sickness and in health um which we do every week the youtube channel every week so yeah i guess we're online people these days i think you have to be yeah you gotta be you gotta be here i'm everywhere i'm even on pinterest you know whatever ever goes on pinterest wow that's dedication. Well, you know. OK, so before we start the podcast, I asked what year you were 14. So what year were you 14? 2002. OK, 2002. So what I am doing now is I'm asking people the year they were 14 to see if they can guess some of the top songs.

OK, so what do you think was the top song in 2002 i don't think you're gonna get it i'll send you a prize if you can have that plant if you do i honestly have no idea i'm gonna 2002 do you want a clue yeah okay. Okay. It was two male singers, a duo, not the Proclaimers. Should have been. Oh, God. See, I was going to go for like Kylie Minogue or something. Way off. It is. Who?

Are they British? Yeah. Yeah, they were British. A duo, a British duo. I don't know. Oh, hang on. No, I've got it wrong. I thought it was, what are the men, were those men from the army programme?

Oh. Do you know what? I've misread it. It wasn't Robson and Jerome. It was Will Young. Will Young. Evergreen. Why did i think robson and jerome sang evergreen cracking song it's a good song that it's a really good song although he did beat gareth gates which i think i was quite upset about at the time did you fancy gareth gates

i did a bit yeah was it the hair the spikes they got me was it when he when he had a big um he slept with Katie Price didn't it was all a big who are in the newspapers do you remember that right I do remember that that was a right old oh what a time to be alive so yeah it was um Will Green with Evergreen um also Unchained Melody which I think maybe was that robson and jerome and also no that was gareth gates he covered that yeah i remember that also crossroads blazing squad holly valance kiss kiss what happens well holly lovante she was great that was a tune as well that was okay so when you were 14 what was your bedroom like my bedroom was um covered in posters good um lots of music posters there was probably a cheeky little gareth gates picture up there actually if i'm gonna be honest i wish i'd make myself

sound too cool no we're not there's nobody called here don't worry about it um i did music was always my thing um I was never that's why I would have had no idea even though evergreen was actually a really good song but I was always listening to my dad's music I was always listening to my dad's records so my posters were I had this huge poster of The Who, who I just absolutely thought were the best thing in the world, and probably Beatles pictures. You do sound really cool. I wasn't cool. Well, see, I thought I was cool, but my friends didn't. No, no.

Looking back with hindsight, yeah, you probably, yeah, they would like, well, we like Gareth Gates. What boy bands were around then? Were five around then or was that before or was that they'd been gone? I don't know. I do remember, I do remember I liked Westlife. That's it, Westlife. Who was your favourite? Kean. Yeah, of course. I think I liked Nicky. Nicky was quite nice. He was the one with the sort of... Floppy hair.

Floppy hair, yeah. That was a killer for girls back in the day. Why? You saw a floppy hair and you were like, oh. But if my husband turned up with floppy hair, now I'd be like, it's not quite as nice on men in their 40s. No. I'd be like, oh, babble.

I'd be like a bald patch at the back and just two little flops flopping down. Okay, so you like kind of core music. You had a few cushions. Now, the 2000s, I have spoken to a few people. Did you have inflatable stuff? I did. Yes. I did.

I had a big yellow inflatable chair that my big brother actually bought me for my birthday because for some reason, I would have killed for an inflatable chair in my room. People love it. People, an inflatable bag, so that seems to be very popular as well. Yeah, I didn't have an inflatable bag, but I had an inflatable chair. The lava lamps were back.

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 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. I had a lava lamp. I think I got through quite a few of them. Do you remember Groovy Chick? Groovid Cotsadoo't i didn't really have that but i remember my best friend um sort of during primary and just after primary her room was covered in groovy chick groovy chick is forever iconic and i think she's kind of come back again as well wow it's all coming back isn't it oh my daughter oh my gosh

she's a teenager she's 13 so she's heavily into all the 90s and naughty stuff now it's all coming it's all coming back again okay so what kind of school did you go to uh just a normal school um it was called St Joseph's and um they actually, the year I left, they actually knocked it down and rebuilt it because... They were so sad you left. They were like, we can't. That was it. Nobody should have.

That was it. That was the peak. We're going to have to start from scratch. No, it was literally falling down. So it had been there for a while. But yeah, no, just a normal, I can't really describe a while but yeah no just a normal I don't I can't really describe it any other way just a normal second yeah like a normal comp where were you in the um hierarchy were you like with the cool kids were you what kind of who did you hang out with

again I thought I was cool um I'm not sure anybody else did um but I would I think if I had to sort of put myself somewhere I would very boring but I would say just kind of normal I wasn't I wasn't with the popular girls um but you know I wasn't smart enough to be way I don't know the geeks or whatever but um yeah I was a bit of a tomboy I would say so I was yeah I think I just kind of floated around I had my little group of mates we were probably just sort of in between the cool and the not so cool I guess do you know what that's all I want for my kids keep your head down yeah have a nice time survive yeah let's get on with life don't don't don't don't poke up your head out too much just keep i was a little bit i probably was a bit too chatty at school um so that's not oh yeah i definitely got in trouble a little bit because yeah i thought what i had to

say was maybe a bit more important than what I actually was 100% I also thought I was hilarious and the teachers like no no you're not hilarious just just yeah just just stop okay so we've talked about what kind of music you're into apart from Gareth Gates who was your first crush do you think well George Harrison has always been my number one biggest crush I've ever had. I think I discovered that he was really handsome when I was about 13 or 14. However, there was one other person who just took over my life. Who?

The cool way to say this would be Orlando Bloom. Right, yeah. the cool way to say this would be Orlando Bloom right yeah the truth is it was actually Legolas from Lord of the Rings that's fine do you know what you're the first person to mention Orlando Bloom really he's a handsome man he's handsome but I don't know what it was about that character yeah obsessed like scarily obsessed how did the obsession manifest itself did you have posters you wrote his name on pencil cases oh I had posters there was Legolas was on all the covers in my books like there was like my friends were always like Orlando Bloom we get and I was like Orlando Bloom's cute it's fine but Legolas you you were just like okay so there's a little knock at the door now and you open it and it's Legolas what would you do I'd forget myself

so your heart would still flutter even if you watch it now you're still like oh so I'm I love Lord of the Rings I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan and yeah it just even and my husband always always takes the piss at me because he's like what is it is it like the long blonde hair is it the pointy ears and I'm like I don't know I cannot describe it but I just love them there's just a vibe off them point ears and you're just like well do you know what I think that's that's an admirable crush thank you it's not the worst we had somebody who had a poster for Roald Dahl right okay that was an interesting one so I think it's not quite as strange as that one. Okay, what kind of fashion were you wearing? Were you trendy?

Were you fashion faux pas? What were you wearing? I think, well, so 14. Well, when did Girls Aloud come around? I feel like that was around about that time. Yeah, maybe a little bit like was girls allowed before or after will young i feel like maybe a little bit after but yeah around that time but they i remember they um wore quite often they wore like these sort of combat

joggers nice but with like strappy heels um and that was like a thing like that's what everybody wore to like the school discos and stuff um and that always comes to mind because sometimes when I think about it I'm like basically joggers and strappy shoes like it was it was a mental look but what was on the top I feel like you might have wore like a belly top that might have been like it was like or like a vest yeah it was like a it there was always vest tops but quite often there'd be like layer there was there was lots of layering you know and then it was obviously the the trousers with the skirt over it I was watching I feel like me and my daughter's been watching Gilmore Girls and I think that the day somebody walked in with a dress and jeans on and she was like what are they doing

I was like it's what we did. Yeah in fact I remember a pair of my school trousers I think I think a lot of trousers had that but I remember these grey trousers I had and they had the skirt already built on. Of course attached. And it was like sometimes when you really think about it too much you were like why were we all wearing trousers and skirts like what was that we need to do a deep dive in the psychological reasons why we're like which I know I feel like Steps started it I'm gonna blame Steps because I think they did a lot of lot of skirts over trousers right yeah this in Gilmore Girls it was a full long flower dress did a lot of lot of skirts over trousers right yeah this in Gilmore Girls it was a full long flowery dress with a pair of flare jeans underneath it and you're like

that's got to be hot it's too much it's just too much but and I don't think I've got any evident photo I had a lot of I used to call them wonky tops so one side of the top would be slightly longer than the other side there's quite a lot of long skirt trousers long just covering us all up would you go out in jogging bottoms and high heels now well you know what I think um what's her name old uh Kim Kardashian brought that back for a while didn't she she was wearing joggers with like high-heeled boots and I don't think I would no but listen I'm all for it a bit of comfort and a bit of glam at the bottom yeah I'm just all comfort I'd be like with my slippers yeah sure with the little old slippers I'll bop out

in them was there anything you wore and you're like oh oh my God, I can't believe I wore that. That was horrific. I had this T-shirt, literally just popped in my mind. I had this T-shirt and it said, it was really tight and short. And it said, ooh, ah, just a little bit. Now, who was that? was that Gina G that was Gina G yeah and that just came to my mind but the only reason it's came to it wasn't that bad no but I remember just loving it and just thinking I look fucking incredible and the boys are gonna go well yeah I want just a little bit and you're like oh you're very inappropriate oh the slogan t-shirts were horrifically inappropriate if my daughter went came in with an ooh i just a little bit i'll be like

put it on now get out um i like that as a year i am a big eurovision fan you were representing england right um i don't I don't even know that. But yeah, I was there representing. I wonder where you got it from. Do you think you got it from one of those really cheap shops? Because I used to get a lot from our cheap shops called Go Bananas. Right. Yeah, there was a cheap shop.

What was it called? Oh, I don't remember. But so my mum's sister, her youngest sister was quite still quite young so she would take me out a lot and buy me stuff like I remember she bought me my first pair of wedgies oh nice yeah and I just oh I just thought this is it I've got heels I've made it and every time you walk your uncle yeah I've got to balance myself again no one saw no one saw you yeah my mum was always furious I think with the stuff I had but oh she sounds cool my um go bananas and it's the kind of shop that if you lit a match in it the whole

thing would just explode because it was just so flammable and absolutely cheap. Okay, so is there anything that you wore then that you would definitely wear now? Yes, I did wear, when I got a little bit older, 14, 15 into 16, I definitely started discovering like Fred Perry. I had this jacket, this sort of khaki military style jacket. And I got my mum to sew badges on it, like the Who and the Jam and Vespas and all that. And although, again, nobody my age,

everybody was like, what are you wearing? I just knew. I was like, one day you're going to look back and be like, shit, Claire was actually cool. I was like, one day you're going to look back and be like, shit, Claire was actually cool. She was quite cool, yeah. But they didn't appreciate it then, but I would definitely wear that again.

In fact, I've still got it. Oh, you should. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, go out and rock in that with you all just a little bit T-shirt. Yeah, just a little bit of fun underneath. I'm here, boys. Okay, can we talk, if you don't mind, first snogs? You don't have to mention names, but I want't mind first snogs you don't have to mention names but I want to hear first snogs was it nice was it a disaster um I was quite a late bloomer

I don't think I had my first snog until I was a bit 15 yeah I was 18 I'm yet to find anybody who's later bloomer than me no so everyone's I was late bloom I'm like yep I was 18 I think I was 15 which was quite late and well from what I knew that's the thing because you look back now and you're like they were talking rubbish yeah the stuff that I thought my friends were doing I'm like no way oh god some of the tales the boys they'd be like I went on holiday with my mum and dad yeah it was always on holiday I met I met this older woman and we went back to her her tent and then I slept with her and you're like yeah um but I don't remember it was with a boy that I really fancied? So I think I was quite nervous. And obviously you just have no idea what you're doing.

And he didn't know what he was doing. And it just, I think it was just a little bit messy. It was fine. It didn't scar me. So I think it was all right. But again, it was at the school disco and you eventually get split up from teachers and then it's just really embarrassing it's just one of those things we all have to do it out of all the podcasts I've only had one that's like been oh yeah no it was quite nice

it's just wet teeth are clashing yeah tongues are going a lot of times people are watching yeah there's like a crowd run you to hide you they're just making it more obvious that something's happening also I think I had braces nice I think I had braces which I remember being quite nervous about but did you did you continue to like date him or was it just one and done that was it no I think uh I think I wanted to I really fancied him but I don't think he was it maybe it was maybe it was me maybe I was a terrible kisser maybe he's on a podcast somewhere else going well I did this I did and it was horrendous she had braces and everyone was watching no it never happened for me floppy snogs are horrible but you know what I think we just

want to take it off, don't we? We're like, we're done now. We've done that. Yeah. We can all move on with our lives. Everything's okay. Right. So what was your greatest teenage success, do you think?

Do you know? I'm not even sure I had a teenage success. I think actually sort of looking back in my son, my oldest son's 12. Yeah. So he's sort of going to be coming into this soon. And I think what I always tell him is, because he's quite similar to me in that he, I mean, he's obsessed with the Beatles. He's an even bigger Beatles fan than me.

And he loves his music and all that sort of stuff. And I do remember a point where I just thought I'm not gonna pretend that I like this dance music or this or want to go here like when you sort of find your people which I did you know the people that you can be like oh let's try and go to go see a band or let's go here or whatever I think once you and it's a little bit cliche but I think once I sort I was like right this is who I am I'm not like this girly beautiful you know high heels whatever like this is what I want to do this is who I am then I think you're just a bit like oh okay I'm fine yeah you just embrace who you are and it just yeah yeah that's good that's a

good lesson to learn early young as well sometimes it can take decades I mean I probably still struggled but and then of course I don't know then you go through your sort of just getting to 18 you become a bit of a i don't know getting get into a little bit of trouble do some well i don't know i feel like everybody did like a little bit of oh let's try and sneak a drink oh 18 oh my god in the 90s we were down the park with mad dog 2020 from like 14 getting in clubs and all sorts okay good right yeah it's fine we're all on the same page it's fine but what did i was like oh no is this supposed to be like a really nice podcast and i'm talking about underage no we we had um fake ids mine said i belong to a gun club and they used to let me in i was 14 it's like they're like yep coming in it's just right that's

what birmingham was like yeah well yeah outside of Glasgow was a bit similar okay so that sounds like a great success but is there anything you look back and you think well that was a bit of a flop you have a bit of a regret um this is really it's not very profound like I didn't ever really do I mean I did I got into trouble and stuff and but that was when I was a little bit older thinking more sort of 14 um I mean there was one time you know when something just really sticks with you yeah and it still haunts you trauma yeah like some nights I will think about this there was a boy in my class who I really fancied and um he was sitting behind me we were in maths and I stood up and this fart just came up like

really really loud right and I was sitting next to my friend and because I knew he was behind me I tried to like blame it on her and she was like she was like no uh-uh I'm not taking that that was obviously you and it just it like for months I was just mortified and every time I saw him and he was a really nice boy him and his mate were laughing though. And I just, sometimes I still think about it. Sometimes I'm still like, how did you not like feel that coming? How did you not know that was going to happen? Like I just stood up.

There must have been the combination of fast standing up, bit of air, maybe, I don't know. It was just the skirt over the trouser was keeping all all the air in It was horrendously loud as well It was like a cartoon Oh no Sometimes now you're lying away In the shower and it just goes Yeah sometimes it just hits me

Randomly and I'm still like Oh Claire In the scheme of flops It's not too bad Yeah I've scheme of flops, it's not too bad. Yeah, I've only had many flops at 14, but yeah, that was just a big old trump.

So, if you could go back and tell Claire then something, what would it be? Not to worry so much. I think that age I think everybody did worry you worried about everything um but yeah I think that would be it don't worry too much you will you know you'll find your mates that you're comfortable with you'll find boys who do think you're cool um and that that stuff doesn't really matter like you I think at that age you spend a lot of time worrying about what the boys in your class think or what they're saying about you or what that girl's told that girl

and all that sort of stuff and yeah just trying to worry about it because it really my god it doesn't matter it doesn't it's you the world seems like it's so small when you're in that classroom and you've seen all these people and then when you leave you're like oh my god like these those most of these people are idiots to be honest the the tiniest thing could and I do remember being really affected by you know tiny little things or daft things or things that I would worry about that you know and then you knew oh if I tell my mum this or if I talk to my gran about this they're gonna be like it's fine like but but for you at that age it's just it's the whole world and you just I do remember worrying a lot I think so if I had to go back if I could see 14 year old Claire I'd just be like don't worry like it'll be fine it really doesn't matter with my daughter if she

comes to me with a problem I do have to kind of like think oh like in the scheme of the world it's not but in her little world exactly so like we talk about it and I try and get because I think like back in the day like moms and things are just like oh god don't worry about you know you know forget about it but now I do try and go you know well let's think of all this that and the other and it kind of calms it down a bit are you glad you grew up without social media absolutely yeah why just I mean the obvious stuff like you know the pressures and how people look or how we think people look um especially well not especially for girls actually for boys and girls but um also just on sort of you know when I'm thinking being a little bit older 15 16 just the fear of somebody having a camera phone with the stuff we get up to oh god you know I would never get a job again. That would be it. Exactly. So that scares me a lot as well. And I'm always talking to my oldest, especially,

like just sort of, you know, you've just got to be so aware and you've got to be so prepared to make sure that you're doing the right thing and that you're you know you're not because kids are stupid we were all stupid you know and the thought of like you see stuff you know on social media and things like that and you just think oh god like it's so hard I'm so I just wouldn't have been able to cope with that back then I don't think our brains are meant to handle so much social media and interaction I don't think what's happening and people messaging and two o'clock in the morning I couldn't have coped and yeah

the thing as well as like especially when I think like when I was at secondary maybe you were having sort of a hard time you know and I'd been there you know people say stuff and oh I'm gonna get you after school and all that and you think oh my god but you knew as soon as you got home you shut that door and you know you were fine for the next you know that whole the rest of the day and that evening and you were in your own little safe space and now I just feel like kids are so much more opened up now where it's like you say you know there's messages on Instagram or messages on WhatsApp and it's just which is it can be a good thing but I think that young you know my son said oh can I have an Instagram and I'm like

absolutely not no no way we just got him a phone just when he started secondary school and I'm just like no you don't the the more you can hold off the easier your life will be yeah it's when I got my daughter when she started secondary school her first phone and I was like handing it to her was like no this is the end I know yeah but you know hopefully they'll be a bit more resilient you know they'll they're a bit more used to aren, aren't they? Having tablets and all this, that and the other. Yeah, and I think as well, like me and my husband have spoken about this quite a lot. And he did say, he was like, listen, yeah, it can be, social media can be, you know, a scary place.

And it can be not very nice and all that sort of stuff. But he's like got this incredible faith and sort of like our children's generation where there's so much more understanding of things and the way the world works and you know how you should treat people and how you might see that but it's not real like don't worry about that everybody knows that's fake don't judge yourself on that like he's got this thing where he's like I think you know when that generation grow up they'll sort of be a lot better than yeah I think so and I also think it's much easier to find your tribe so you know when you were 14 you might have been able to find other kids that were into the same music that you were in and it just opens your world a little bit more it does make them a lot more tolerant you know the conversations that I have with my kids are a lot more kind of open to stuff that we I never

used to talk about stuff like that in the 90s absolutely there's definitely pros and cons definitely pros and cons I think just the pressures um of you know what people are doing and what they look like and where they're going you think oh I'm boring and ugly yeah the foam the FOMO is and I have had to say that to to my girl like like she'll be like well so-and-so's there with so-and-so and obviously we never used to know where and I never knew when no one was doing nothing I got a clue so that it the FOMO is is is real I think um so you glad you grew up as a teen then rather than now a hundred percent a hundred percent I mean I could have went I still could

have went back 30 years before that you know I think I would have been yeah you'd have been happy then yeah yeah I'd have been happy I've grown up in the 60s and 70s to be honest but yeah no I definitely I would definitely have preferred to do it then yeah it's uh it is the world has and it's funny to think that in the 90s 30 year before was the 60s that which seemed a hundred years before when when I was a little girl I was like oh my gosh just time goes so quick well thanks so much for coming on the podcast Claire um definitely everybody go and check out Claire's podcast in cynics and tell it's on everything isn't it Spotify YouTube yeah just put it on YouTube yeah it. It's everywhere. Yeah. Lovely.

Thanks again, guys. Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of the phone box podcast. Be sure to go and follow me on Instagram. Also direct message me. We'd love to hear you. And of course we take loads of polls over on the Instagram page. So go and join in with those.

I think we've just done best nineties program, like heartbeat and stuff like that. All the hard, all the hard hitting all the hard hitting content i've produced god that theme music absolutely killed your soul didn't it because you're like yes it's monday tomorrow right guys see you later thanks a lot for coming Bye-bye. Studio, exclusively on FanDuel 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.