tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-112770972024-03-13T19:49:27.415+00:00Fiona SturgesWriter and interviewerFiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comBlogger420125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-24246537352009257472013-12-29T22:25:00.000+00:002014-02-07T22:26:04.548+00:00Comment: Enough, detox bores. Why don't you get a liver?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the fun is almost over, folks. It's that time of year when heady excess gives way to needy self-flagellation. Because no sooner has the Advocaat been drained and the last Lindor unfurled that someone starts banging on loudly about their internal cleansing rituals – involving kale, wheatgrass, and similar middle-class foodstuffs – and entreating all within hectoring distance to join them in their annual detox.</span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-68592182149908560302013-12-19T22:24:00.000+00:002014-02-07T22:24:13.623+00:00Radio column: British Borgen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">"Why?" I howled at 30-second intervals during </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; outline: none;">Borgen: Outside the Castle</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">, this week's wholly pointless spin-off of the Danish television series on Radio 4. Three episodes in and I'm still at a loss.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/borgen-outside-the-castle--the-week-in-radio-appalled-by-a-british-borgen-thats-an-insult-to-women-9013894.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-6638416993779948952013-12-12T22:20:00.000+00:002014-02-07T22:21:24.256+00:00Radio column: Why World Service and Radio 4 led the field on Mandela<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">When a political giant and beacon of freedom dies, it is only natural that there will be a period of tribute and reminiscence. Late last week, sandwiched between the pre-prepared retrospectives across the world's media, there was no shortage of politicians, pundits and pop stars paying effusive tribute to the late Nelson Mandela, even when some of those selfsame politicians, pundits and pop stars had previously been on a jolly to South Africa paid for by an anti-sanctions lobby group; or voted against resolutions calling for Mandela's release; or broken the boycott of an apartheid regime for their own financial gain.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/why-world-service-and-radio-4-led-the-field-on-mandela-8998789.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-74146618849989159352013-12-05T22:18:00.000+00:002014-02-07T22:19:50.378+00:00Radio column: Tangled up in Dylan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Bob Dylan, I can take him or leave him. Sorry, but it's true. Oh I get that Bob is a big deal. You can bang on all you like about how he's a peerless songwriter and poet and maverick who changed popular culture for ever, and I will nod sagely in agreement.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-tangled-up-in-bob-dylan-but-times-need-to-change-on-radio-2-8983737.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-40930676693634728732013-11-21T22:16:00.000+00:002014-02-07T22:19:20.876+00:00Radio column: A Little Britten<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Let me begin with a disclaimer in the hope that it will absolve me from the daft, the ignorant, the downright imbecilic statements that are likely to follow. My knowledge of classical music is, to put it generously, sketchy. What I know about Benjamin Britten, the subject of Radio 3's latest season devoted to a single composer, wouldn't fill a Post-it note.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-a-little-britten-isnt-enough-to-get-hooked-on-classics-8968094.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-27016689416703000442013-11-14T22:14:00.000+00:002014-02-07T22:14:49.943+00:00Radio column: The child victims of war<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">"I must go to bed now as we have an early start in the morning," wrote 12-year-old Joyce Henderson in her diary on 31 Aug 1939. "Tomorrow, I become an evacuee and it's all because of something called war."</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-week-in-radio-home-truths-in-a-heartbreaking-tale-of-the-child-victims-of-war-8935592.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-13547946566694301132013-11-07T22:15:00.000+00:002014-02-07T22:21:54.774+00:00Radio column: Jewel in the BBC crown<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">I can't remember the first time I heard From Our Own Correspondent on the radio. What I do recall is that it was part of the background noise of my childhood alongside the Blue Peter theme tune, the sound of farmyard animals and the words: "You're not going out dressed like that."</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-from-our-own-correspondent-is-a-jewel-in-the-bbcs-crown-8952759.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-48845225661237010202013-11-07T22:12:00.000+00:002014-02-07T22:12:59.832+00:00Radio column: More torture than teenage kicks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">"It's kind of kicking off," said Radio 1's Matt Edmondson, half an hour into his preamble to the annual Teen Awards that had already seemed to last for three days. "This is amazing, there are pop stars literally everywhere," panted his co-presenter Jameela Jamil, as if she had just clapped eyes on the Virgin Mary and not Jade from Little Mix.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-more-torture-than-teenage-kicks-with-the-x-factor-alsorans-8925538.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-27222898774368271392013-11-03T22:32:00.000+00:002013-11-03T22:33:04.010+00:00'How can you get into trouble for saying what is true?' Joan Collins talks man troubles, twerking and the problem with society today<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I meet Joan Collins in Claridge's, because, let's face it, where else do you meet this long-serving star of stage and screen and epitome of old Hollywood glamour, who has more recently branched out into books and one-woman shows and – wait for it – her own brand of wigs?</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/how-can-you-get-into-trouble-for-saying-what-is-true-joan-collins-talks-man-troubles-twerking-and-the-problem-with-society-today-8914049.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-71823407914775277132013-10-31T22:35:00.000+00:002013-11-03T22:35:39.958+00:00Radio column: Medical marvel gets the right treatment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I'm still trying to work out how, this week, I came to be transfixed by a podcast on the subject of tumours. There are, I'm sure, cheerier ways to pass a weekend, such as shaking the crumbs out of the toaster or tying down one's dustbins in preparation for the not-quite storm of the century.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-tale-of-a-medical-marvel-gets-the-right-treatment-on-americas-radiolab-8913925.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-32903820753445214712013-10-27T09:04:00.004+00:002013-10-27T09:04:47.877+00:00Essay: Why Lady Gaga still deserves our applause<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">It’s a rite that has sustained the arts since time immemorial: the delirious hyping of bright new stars as they first emerge, only for them to be flayed alive for daring to reach the top.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/why-lady-gaga-still-deserves-our-applause-8904483.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-11002853238862169972013-10-27T09:03:00.002+00:002013-10-27T09:03:25.413+00:00Book review: Autobiography, By Morrissey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">“It’s time the tale were told,” sang Morrissey on The Smiths’ “Reel Around The Fountain”, and almost 30 years later he has finally done it in a mammoth memoir that, on account of appearing as a Penguin Classic, has caused a commotion well before publication. Few could really be surprised; this is typical Morrissey hubris, similar to the time that he insisted his solo records go out on EMI’s HMV imprint, which then dealt exclusively in classical music.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/book-review-autobiography-by-morrissey-8904536.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-2756068753757485872013-10-25T09:01:00.000+01:002013-10-27T09:01:34.870+00:00Music review: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Brighton Dome<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">There is a school of thought that says rock is a young person’s game, that when a musician reaches a certain age, their choice of career ceases to be either interesting or dignified. Nick Cave, along with his peerless supporting cast of Bad Seeds, blows such notions sky-high.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/review-nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds--magnetic-as-ever-8903842.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-19881184061104516092013-10-24T08:59:00.000+01:002013-10-27T08:59:37.271+00:00Radio column: Hitting the high notes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">In the early years of rock'n'roll, any young British musician hoping to make their mark on the world relied on radio to get them to the top. And when I say radio, of course I mean the BBC. Because, whether you were accustomed to playing to one man and his dog in a suburban boozer, or packing them in at the 100 Club, it was there that the "arbiters of musical propriety", as Pete Paphides called them in Radio 4's Auditioning for Auntie, got the final word as to whether your music would be heard by the masses.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-underground-classics-still-hit-the-high-notes-8899901.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-5291295300192875452013-10-17T08:57:00.000+01:002013-10-27T08:57:43.549+00:00Radio column: A lecture that is passionate and fun<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">"This must be the first time in the 65-year history of Reith," said Sue Lawley, introducing the Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry, "that a cross-dresser has been the lecturer."</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-proof-at-last-that-a-radio-lecture-can-be-passionate-and-fun-8884890.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-72376824922916797072013-10-10T08:53:00.000+01:002013-10-27T08:54:35.156+00:00Radio column: Insights in the dark of human nature<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">"I used to call her names, swear at her," recalled "Stuart", as he had consented to be called, about his relationship with his girlfriend. "I've hit her... and given her a black eye... I've punched her in the face a few times and kicked her in the legs." This was just one of the recollections of a man who had spent years terrorising his partner in The Abuser's Tale, a study of domestic abuse on BBC Five Live's Victoria Derbyshire.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-unique-insights-into-the-dark-side-of-human-nature-in-the-abusers-tale-8869815.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-55385778825242987942013-10-03T08:51:00.000+01:002013-10-27T08:51:53.535+00:00Radio column: A quest to define the indefinable<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Trying to explain the concept of irony can get you into hot water. When I recently told my six-year-old that it meant saying one thing and meaning the opposite, she replied, quite reasonably, "But why not say the thing you mean?"</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-radio-4s-a-brief-history-of-irony--a-quest-to-define-the-indefinable-8854489.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-23076860959125662802013-09-30T23:09:00.002+01:002013-09-30T23:09:40.614+01:00Comment: Stoptober, Movember, Mecember? Charitable fundraising has become a self-centred affair<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">You’ll have heard of </span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/268000-pledge-to-quit-smoking-for-stoptober-8229016.html" style="color: #009ab4; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Stoptober</a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">, a national health initiative in which smokers kick the habit during October and, in many cases, raise money for charity while doing so. You’re probably familiar with Movember too, since there’s no avoiding the goof in the office chortling about his “hilarious” new moustache that he hopes makes him look like a Mexican bandit, while pressing send on yet another “Please donate...” email.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/stoptober-movember-mecember-charitable-fundraising-has-become-a-selfcentred-affair-8849240.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-92193516637189993522013-09-29T17:49:00.004+01:002013-09-29T17:49:35.018+01:00Book review: Wild Tales, by Graham Nash<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Graham Nash’s book is as much a lesson in pop history as it is a warts-and-all memoir. The co-founder of The Hollies, he made it out of post-war poverty in Manchester with a series of hits including “Carrie Anne”, “Simple Man” and “Marrakesh Express”, before becoming a leading light in the Laurel Canyon folk scene alongside collaborators David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, and his then lover, Joni Mitchell.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/book-review-wild-tales-by-graham-nash-8844874.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-34443891501727969222013-09-29T17:40:00.004+01:002013-09-29T17:40:42.226+01:00Comment: Mumford & Sons make the case for being not seen and not heard<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">There has been much whooping over the announcement that banjo-loving folkies Mumford & Sons have reached an “indefinite hiatus”. Mumford-bashing has, of course, become something of a national sport. Look at them with their private educations and their Wurzels’ waistcoats, the daft chumps!</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/mumford--sons-make-the-case-for-being-not-seen-and-not-heard-8844658.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-75789787089938772392013-09-29T17:38:00.000+01:002013-09-29T17:38:02.426+01:00Comment: Sandwich blog has surprising aftertaste<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">On reading about Stephanie Smith, the blogger and New York Post reporter who pledged to make 300 sandwiches for her boyfriend, Eric, in exchange for a marriage proposal, I felt a little surge of smugness. Thank God, I thought to myself, my bloke is suitably evolved that he knows that if he wants a sandwich he has to go to the fridge. He also knows that if he wants the fridge to contain sandwich-making material he needs to visit a supermarket first. These are concepts that have never had to be explained. Ain't life grand?</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sandwich-blog-has-surprising-aftertaste-8846463.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-37740467050254587102013-09-26T17:36:00.000+01:002013-09-29T17:36:37.370+01:00Radio column: Magic mix of music and movies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I love music and I love film. You might say they are my main passions in life if you don't count disco nail varnish and the pulled-pork sandwiches served in the pub opposite my house. So several weeks ago when the BBC announced a season of programmes called Sound of Cinema to be rolled out across both TV and radio, I let out a little cheer and blocked out a large chunk of my September diary with the reminders: "comfy clothes", "snacks" and "Radio 3".</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-a-magic-mix-of-music-and-movies-in-the-bbcs-sound-of-cinema-8839732.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-54954417610834718852013-09-22T17:34:00.000+01:002013-09-29T17:34:51.337+01:00It’s not just a rumour: Fleetwood Mac are back<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Fleetwood Mac may have had their ups and downs but they sure know a thing or two about timing. Last year singer Stevie Nicks told Rolling Stone that 2013 would be “the year of Fleetwood Mac”. And so it has proved. Thirty-six years on from their 40 million-selling album Rumours, a languid, harmony-laden work about heartbreak which now resides in one in six US households, the Mac are back on top.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/its-not-just-a-rumour-fleetwood-mac-are-back-8830035.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-84109081968498395542013-09-19T17:31:00.000+01:002013-09-29T17:31:54.008+01:00Radio column: Watts's royal appointment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">It's possible that when the actress Naomi Watts, ensconced in a suite at Claridge's, donned a set of headphones to speak to Radio 5 Live's Simon Mayo for an interview, she had already read the abominable reviews for the film, Diana, that she was supposed to be promoting and thought to herself: "Why bother?" Or it could be that room service had arrived earlier than expected – and given the choice between Simon Mayo and a plate of macaroons, well, it's a tough one even for the most committed self-publicist.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-waffling-wattss-royal-appointment-is-a-real-windup-8825018.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11277097.post-55207290180126385692013-09-12T17:29:00.000+01:002013-09-29T17:29:47.902+01:00Radio column: Broadcasting from the cancer ward<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">"Hear the inspiring story of the man with terminal cancer who achieved his goal as a magician and comedian," went the blurb for Richard Bacon's show on BBC Radio 5 Live. Oh God, I thought. Must we? You see, I had imagined, in a cynical moment, a kind of queasy Bucket List-style scenario in which a pale-faced man in surgical gowns and smothered in tubing is wheeled on to a stage in order to pull a rabbit out of a hat for the last time as the audience howl in tear-stained approval, possibly with choirs of angels looking on.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-week-in-radio-richard-bacons-uplifting-broadcast-from-the-cancer-ward-8810145.html">Read more...</a></span></div>
Fiona Sturgeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08205955510881534303noreply@blogger.com