Blog: Forced To Talk About Myself

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You always hear actors MOANING about having to do interviews as if it is somehow ARDUOUS. I don't know what they're complaining about - all right, I don't LIKE banging on about myself as anybody who knows we will tell you (and as this non-ME-mentioning blog is surely PROOF), but when it's with the right person it can even be FUN!

For instance, last night I met with Mr A Lawson in The Old Mitre, a LOVELY pub just off Chancery Lane which we'd picked as a (hopefully) QUIET place to do an interview for his podcast Desert Isolation Discs. I wandered around the pub's various rooms until I found one that looked PERFECT - "The Bishops Room" upstairs. As I stepped through I was disappointed to find that someone else was already there, but it turned out to be Alex so all was well! PHEW!

He got his laptop set up, bought me a pint (doing interviews is GRATE!) and then we kicked off with a LENGTHY chat. The idea of the podcast is that you choose the eight records and one luxury item that you'd want to have with you if you were stranded in the desert. JUST the desert, not an island - any similarity to any other programmes is pretty much definitely coincidental.

I'd had a good old THINK about the records I'd chosen, including discussing the issue with The Songs On My Playlist the night before. I wanted to make sure I'd not missed anything IMPORTANT, so she GUESSED what artistes I'd picked and got FIVE of them straight away, so clearly a) I had picked the right ones and b) she is an excellent judge of my musical tastes, POSSIBLY because of all these years of me BANGING ON about the same things!

Before we began Alex asked if I had any particular STORIES about the songs I'd chosen. I was AGHAST - they ALL had stories! I'd picked particular songs to try and tell a TALE of My Exciting Life In ROCK and I had a BLOODY LOVELY time TELLING them. Again, those familiar with me will know how I HATE to give opinions or tell stories, but with a little prompting I found I was able to YACK for about an HOUR!

We had a lovely time, and afterwards celebrated with a CHAT and further PINT. I've known Alex from when I used to do lots of gigs in Sheffield - I think he was doing the student radio station the first time we met, and he has done VERY well since then. He is one of a group of people that I think of as TEENAGE fanzine types who appear to have become High Powered Journalists while I wasn't looking - he claims to be Business News Editor at a national newspaper, but how can that be? He's only 19!

Anyway, I had a DELIGHTFUL time and was rather pleased with the range of songs what I chose. The room DID get a bit fuller as we went along but I think we TALKED louder to counter it, so hopefully it will all be clear enough when it comes out. Obviously the only thing I hate more than talking about myself is LISTENING to myself talking about myself, but I think I will make an exception for this one!

posted 1/6/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

My favourite pub in London!
posted 1/6/2016 by Gareth Williams

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