Red Carpet Roll Call

*Health and safety warning: be careful not to trip over the amount of names I drop in this column

They say the bigger the celebrity, the nicer the person. I don’t know, I hear Irish glove puppet Bosco is a right wee diva. They also say you should never meet your heroes because they’ll more than likely fail to live up to your expectations.

Well this weekend I decided to take that risk and head to Dublin to interview some of the biggest names in pop and rock.

The Stereophonics, Scissor Sisters, The Saturdays, Joshua Radin, Paolo Nutini, Labyrinth, Aloe Blacc and my old gal pal Paloma Faith were just some of the acts who performed at the 2011 Arthur’s day celebrations. And I managed to get up close and personal with them all to talk everything from number one albums to fruit and veg stalls.

After arriving in Dublin my first port of call was a plush hotel in the city centre where all the bands and musicians were holed up in hotel rooms ready to face a barrage of questions from interviewers from NME to National Geographic. It seems everyone was willing to take the ‘meet your heroes risk’ I was.

My first interview of the day was in the perfectly formed shape of The Saturdays. And yes they are every bit as immaculate and lovely in the flesh.

We talked music, fashion, babies, icons, first jobs and their upcoming tour. Apparently Mollie takes the longest to get ready and they’d most like to work with Stevie Wonder.

First interview done and I was ushered into another hotel room and there before me were The Scissor Sisters. Ana Matronic’s surname is Lynch would you believe and her family are from Cork. We bonded over matching names and the guys revealed that it was a double celebration for them not only was it Arthur’s day but also the tenth anniversary that the group first got together.

Next it was time to take up our spot on the red carpet where I interviewed the lovely Ed Sheeran of ‘A team’ fame, the song that is, not the crime fighting TV stars. He told me just before his career took off he was spotted in a LA club by Hollywood actor Jamie Foxx who then invited him to stay with him.

The red carpet was also a good opportunity to get photos and sound bites from famous folk. It was fun because you stand in one place and the lovely PR folk bring them to you, so it’s almost a conveyor belt of celebrities.

Aloe Blacc is inspired by Ray Charles. A set of matching towels. Joshua Radin was a painter before he was a singer. A cuddly toy.

 My favourite interview of the day however was saved for last. Just as the last of the stars had sashayed down the carpet the Stereophonics appeared in all their pint sized prettiness. I had interviewed lead singer Kelly Jones before, but that was on the phone, so this time I had to work overtime suppress the major fan within and channel all my excitable giggles into being a reporter and actually getting a few questions out.

They’re currently putting the finishing touches to their new album, the most obscure place they’ve ever played a gig was a public toilet in shepherds bush and Kelly Jones used to work on a fruit and veg stall.

Arthur’s day takes place every year to mark the anniversary of when Arthur Guinness signed on the 9000 year lease for the now world famous brewery.

So there's still around 8749 years  of  celebrations, I should have the whole celeb interview thing down to a tee by then.

Tantrums and Tiaras

Remember when you were six and went to New York fashion week and threw an almighty tantrum because you couldn’t get your teeth whitened? No? Me neither, because we aren’t Eden Wood and the star of a reality TV show about Middle America beauty pageants.

The mini model went into meltdown this week after the she was told she couldn’t try Glo brilliant teeth whitening kit because she didn’t have ‘her big girl teeth’.

While the rest of us would plead guilty to throwing tantrums on a similar scale at her age, they were more than likely because we weren’t tall enough to get on the ladybird ride at Redcastle amusements, or because the hair on our 'Girl’s World' head got all tangled, not because we wanted our gnashers to be visible from the moon.

Eden from Arkansas has ‘retired’ from the US beauty pageant scene after winning over 300 trophies and the pint sized premadonna has now set her sights on world domination. She’s currently cutting her (milk) teeth in the fashion industry and spends her time doing fun childhood things like attending catwalk shows with her mum and her agent (!)
 
Her not remotely mental mother Micki Wood says she hopes to build an 'Eden empire' because she wants to become rich and famous through her child, ahem, because that is ‘the child’s destiny’.  
Mother of the year Micki said the empire will include music, merchandise and an action figure. An action figure? Of a six year old beauty queen? What will her special powers be, grinning her enemies into submission?  

Now I have to tread carefully here for fear that a gang of Derry Feis mums picket the newsroom and threaten to have their daughters execute a four hand heavy jig on my car bonnet.
The Derry feis is an institution and was the first stepping stone to stardom for many North West singers, dancers and actors. There’s a strong Irish dancing community in Derry alone and the dedication and time they put in has to be applauded.

In that sense it is a million miles away from the looks orientated childhood robbing wrongness of a beauty pageant but the wigs, the tan and the makeup is getting more extreme every year and is in some cases a hair spray can short of pageant like behaviour.

I’m all for nurturing a child’s interests and talents but cashing in on their looks, making them aware of their flaws and plunging them into the beauty industry, a world so unforgiving that grown women struggle to deal with let alone someone who still has to sleep with the light on is anything but pretty

Simply Tantastic!

 I’m from Essex, it’s very, erm, Orange. The words of reality TV ‘star’ Amy Childs. She’s known to spend two  hours a day applying self tanning lotions and potions and she’s not alone.

 

A visitor on a night out in the North West these days would be forgiven for thinking we experience a Mediterranean climate.  Most gals, and a growing number of guys, regularly sport a deep bronze shimmery glow and (thankfully) it’s now more likely to come from a bottle than a sunbed.

The burning ball in the sky isn't an option because, aside from the health risks, you have a better chance of cooking a steak under the heat of a street light than getting a tan during Irish summers.

We’re not alone in our bid to be slightly leather looking 24/7. Three bottles of St Tropez tanning mousse are bought every minute around the world and retail boffins estimate Britons spend 35 million pounds a year on fake tan products. That doesn’t include the salon spray tans we get for weddings/birthdays/ just because it’s Tuesdays.

A line up of a group of us Derry girls on a night out could be used as a Dulux colour chart with tans ranging from mocha, chocolate, beige, orange and even the unfortunate polka dot –which occurs when the tan’ee opts for a instant tan only to be caught in a downpour, rookie mistake!

It does seem that dark hued tones are the look de jour and pale skin has become for the large part obsolete.  But in Victorian times it was very much the opposite. Pale skin was sign of beauty, wealth and social standing and dark skin was a sign of toiling in the fields. In those days rich folk were pale to indicate they were above and beyond work while a tan signified that you were a grafter.

Fast forward a few centuries and it’s the opposite. A tan, apparently, signifies luxury and opulence whereas pale skinned people are workaholics who never see the light of day, unless you’re one of those superwoman who manage to look glam while juggling work, kids, home and husband. As I fall into the 'pale verging on transparent category' I'm looking into the idea of  donning a burka. Pale problem solved.

Despite the female population loving the tan look it seems our male counterparts for the large part are bronzed off with the idea, seemingly the natural look is one they favour.

It’s a hard one to call, English rose porcelain skin versus sun kissed beach glow. The sun tan gets my vote and I’ll be looking forward to catching a few rays in the North West next summer, I hear its on a Wednesday.

How Much? Wheelie!!

It emerged this week that insurance premiums for drivers here are almost double than elsewhere in the UK. That won’t come as a surprise to any drivers here. Some Insurance quotes I’ve been given  read more like telephone numbers than reasonable prices.

Those mathematician types have calculated that drivers here are forking out an eye watering average of £920 pounds a year.

And it’s not just first time drivers that are paying a hefty price for the pleasure of burning rubber.

I carried out a *highly scientific  series of vox pops with drivers in the north west last week to get a clearer picture of what people in the BT48 area are handing over.

A 60 year old man was quoted  £800 but that was nearly halved when he gave an address from across the pond. As expected young male drivers topped the list of pricey premiums with one 19 year old quoted £1100, while a forty year old women was quoted £650.

The Consumer Council has cottoned on and is now calling on the Office of Fair Trading to get involved and put the breaks on the rapidly growing costs.

The insurance industry argues that the main reason for higher premiums here is the higher number of personal injury claims. There are people who are now even setting up companies which encourage people to make a claim. No win. No Fee. You win. We get all your money.

All this talk of  personal injury claims got me thinking, not about registering one of course, but of the type of excuses people have given. Some are so out there I would not rule out that they had been sniffing petrol while filling out the claim application form. Here’s some of the best

A Norwich Union customer collided with a cow. The questions and answers on the claim form were:
Q: What warning was given by you?
A: Horn
Q: What warning was given by the other party?
A: Moo

There was also,
"I had one eye on a parked car, another on approaching lorries, and another on the woman behind."
How about "I didn't think the speed limit applied after midnight" Or ''The car in front hit the pedestrian but he got up so I hit him again" And my personal favourite "In an attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole." Well that’s what you get for engaging in animal cruelty.
 
 
That’s all for this week happy motoring!

*Not highly scientific