Simply Red are splitting up?

So Mick Hucknall has announced that Simply Red are to split up. But Mick, you’ve got me confused now, because who are Simply Red anyway? I’m sure I remember you telling me that Simply Red was basically you with some session musicians. And that on one album you tried to make it a more democratic process-like a real band- and that you were very unhappy with the result. So I thought that you had gone back to Simply Red basically being you. Am I wrong?

Anyway, Mick told me all this when he had invited me to his house for lunch one day. He had bought my best friend’s house, a magical country home called Southcroft, which was a place of many happy memories for me (I had always wanted to buy that home myself, but didn’t have the money), so I really wanted to see what he had done to the place. As a matter of fact, he hadn’t done much. Most the furniture was the stuff my friends had left behind, which was funny to see. Mick did make a wonderful games room, complete with old pinball machines (I love those) and tons of signed football shirts on the wall. And he had frescos painted around the indoor pool, making it look like an old Greek bathing house.

Mick made me a lovely lunch telling me that, if he hadn’t been a musician, he would have wanted to be a chef. I think he would have made a pretty good one. Especially his guacamole is phenomenal.

Now, unlike my other ‘old rocker’ friend Brian Adams who has always been a total gentleman & who I have had many lunches and dinners with (many at his house) and who never has hit on me in all the years that I've known him, Mick Hucknall did. He obviously had misread my intentions for coming to his house and when I was leaving he tried to kiss me. Nothing too uncomfortable though, just a normal guy ‘trying it on’ on the off chance. As soon as he realized that I wasn’t interested, he just laughed it off and that was that. I didn’t go back to his house after that though.

Anyway Mick, good luck with being ‘just Mick Hucknall’ now. Even though I have no idea what difference it will make.

Strange music, stranger man: Tricky

People often ask me if I ever had any famous boyfriends in my MTV days & generally I have to disappoint them as I always stayed clear of relationships with rock stars or other men who were in the limelight (too much ego and too many potential problems)

There was one exception though; I did have a relationship with Tricky for a while. Now, I’m sure that he seems like a strange choice to most people. Out of all the famous men out there, surely I could have picked someone better looking and appealing than Tricky? Yes, yes, yes, that’s surely true. Tricky does look like an alien and even after knowing him I sometimes wonder if he actually is one. He’s the strangest man I have ever met in my life & for a while he had me ‘hypnotized’ with his strangeness & I became quite besotted by him.

This is what happened. I had recently met Tricky as I interviewed him for the Partyzone. His album ‘Maxinquaye’ had just been released & was the breath of fresh air that I had been waiting for. I loved that album, as it had seemed to me that, at the time, no one was doing anything new in the dance music scene & this was finally something original. Up to that point I had been bored out of my skull with what was going on musically and was seriously considering packing in my job with MTV. So ‘Maxinquaye’ restored my faith in what was possible musically and re-ignited my passion for music.

A few months later I bumped into Tricky again. This time at a ‘Dazed and confused’ party. He pulled me aside from the dancefloor, sat me down and told me: ‘Listen, you’re not at all the way people think you are…’ And then went on telling me all about myself. He told me things that I had never shared with anyone, he told me about my fears, my hopes, my dreams…I mean, he knew everything, really weird specific stuff, like things that I did when I was a little girl. For instance, about how I used to pull the sheets up to right under my chin at night, so that I would wake up if a Vampire would try to bite me. And he knew that my wild confident persona was all just an act, that I was actually a lot more introvert and insecure than I pretended to be. And these were just two of the things he told me; the list went on and on. When I asked him how on earth he knew all of this, he just said ‘I’ve been observing you for a while’

I was in utter shock. On the one hand I felt flattered by the fact that someone bothered to look that deep into me and on the other hand I was just confused by it all. I didn’t quite know how to react when Tricky said: ‘Look, the real issue is this, you like me and I like you’
‘I do?’ was all I could answer. He really had me confused now. I had never even considered looking at him like that. ‘Yes’, he answered, ‘And so the question is, what are we going to do about that?’

Well, that was it. It was the start of our relationship. I fell for him in quite a bad way, probably because the guy was just so endlessly fascinating. His mind didn’t work like anyone else’s. Whatever was going on in the world, Tricky would see the issue from a completely different angle. I didn’t always agree with him, but I liked the fact that he made me question things that other people would take for granted. Being with Tricky was never dull as it really felt like being on a different planet. His life was utter chaos though. People would actually have to wake him, get him out of bed, drive him to the studio and stay with him until he started to get into the music, otherwise he would just walk back out again. And I remember packing his bag for him as he was walking out the door to go Norway or something, without even his passport on him. People were always looking for him & there was just this general sense of disorganization and the feeling of this dark past hanging over him. Still, in the midst of it all, there was always his inspiring creativity.

But what I didn’t know was that he was seeing Björk whilst he was also seeing me. They were already together when I first met him. When I finally did find out things had already gotten quite messy. Björk had apparently shouted out during a performance ‘Why won’t he love me?’ and was fuming with me and with Tricky. I never spoke to her about it, but it was obvious from that moment on that she hated me. And I can’t blame her. And things continued to get messy as Björk started to go out with Goldie who, at the time, wanted to kill Keith from the Prodigy, who I was hanging out with a lot, etc. It was all a bit of a crazy time. Tricky laughed it all off & didn’t see what the fuss was all about. He suggested that we would have an open relationship; free to see whomever we wanted. But that just wasn’t something I would ever be comfortable with. So that’s when I bailed out.

We did stay friends though and many months later he told me that he had not wanted to commit to me, as I had been too much of a stable influence on him. He was worried that without drama in his life he would not be able to create. He said that he needed to feed of this drama and that I was simply too ‘together’ for him. It reminded me of the time as a teenager when I got dumped by a guy for being too ‘proper’ & decided to see it as a compliment.

Now, looking back, I know that it was all the truth. I am too ‘together’ for a crazy, drama filled, rock & roll lifestyle. I opened the door, looked in, smiled at the interesting chaos and walked away. I’m just happy to be normal.

How many millions does one need to be happy?

Sir Paul McCartney and lady Heather Mills McCartney are back in court today trying to reach a divorce settlement. Isn't it funny how they have the very royal titles of 'Sir' and 'Lady', yet they are behaving in a less than royal way? Fighting over money...like beggars scrapping over some loose change that has fallen on the floor. I find it all rather distasteful, to be honest with you.

Especially when you see the kind of numbers we're talking about. The former Beatle's fortune is estimated at £825 million & this may become the most costly divorce in British legal history.
Press speculation has suggested that the settlement could reach £60m (exceeding the record £48m businessman John Charman was told to pay his former wife).

And apparently Heather Mills has already turned down a financial settlement worth £32 million.

What I don't get is how much money do these people think they need? I mean, would Paul McCartney even notice the difference between having 800 million or 700 million? And does Heather Mills really think that her life would be lacking in any way if she was awarded 'only' 32 million Pounds? What's up with these people?

My respect goes out to all the single parents out there who manage to make ends meet without any financial support of their former spouses, especially if they refuse to share any of their burdens with their children.

As a child of divorced parents myself I know that it much more important to a child that his or her parents can stay 'friends' than to live in a huge mansion whilst your parents hate each other. Nothing is more heartbreaking to a child than to have to celebrate each birthday party without the presence of one or the other parent and to always have to split their life apart, unable to choose who to love more, yet always feeling forced to have to do so.

And what example are Heather and Paul giving to their daughter? That money is more important than trying to get on with each other for her sake? That they battled each other to the last million? And for what? How many houses does someone need? How many flash cars can you need?

Oh, it's all so sad. These stupid celebs have their priorities all screwed up. I should send my mother over to teach them a thing or two about the value of love, which is worth so much more than money.

Oh, and whilst we're still on the divorce subject...any news on Britney? Has she finally sorted her life out? I'm telling you, if that girl is still out clubbing then even I will have to give up hope for her.

Poor Britney

Oh, I do feel for Britney Spears. She's just getting one blow after another. Yes, many of these 'blows' are of her own making, but even so, it's sad. And of course the biggest blow must have been the fact that her children were taken away from her and that Kevin Federline has been given custody.

I actually think that one of the reasons that she's been flying of the rail so much has been the crippling fear of losing her children to K-Fed. Of course, with all this erratic behaviour she has actually ended up creating that what she feared most.

For instance, why did she shave all her hair off? I still believe that the most plausible explanation for that drastic action was her fear of her hair getting tested in the custody battle. That it is possible to conclude whether or not a woman used cocaine during pregnancy by testing her hair.

If that was the reason why she shaved off her hair then we'd have to conclude that yes, she probably did use whilst pregnant. Still, I know of women who used cocaine during early pregnancy as they were unaware of being pregnant. These women all lived in fear throughout their pregnancies, petrified that they may have hurt their baby in some way. As far as I am aware these children were all fine and the women have become good mothers (I'm not condoning this, I am just trying to explain that people do make mistakes)

I do also know of a celebrity who consciously continued to use throughout her pregnancies and the image of her walking around in a nightclub with a huge belly, begging people to please sell her some cocaine is edged on my brain forever (I won't mention any names, she's been through enough already and actually has been clean for years now). I do hope that this is not what Britney was up to.

But what I am trying to say is that maybe Britney took some drugs in the early stages of her pregnancy. And in that case, it wouldn't actually say anything about her capabilities as a mother. Yet K-Fed may have used that knowledge against her and freaked her out about it to the level that she shaved all her hair off.

Anyway, the girl does have some major issues and does not seem to be able to be a steady parent right now. But since when is K-Fed such a great dad?

The consensus seems to be that Britney was initially bringing up the boys mainly by herself whilst her hubby was out partying and spending her money (And who knows? K-Fed may have even have been the person who introduced Britney to drugs in the first place?)

K-Fed left his pregnant wife to get off with Britney (a better catch) and has the air about him of being a complete and utter user. That's my feeling anyway. He gives me the creeps. Britney seems to have been the fool to fallen for his tricks. It all reminds me of Mel B's story with that user of an ex of hers, that Jimmy Culzar. He milked her for all she was worth (But didn't we all see that coming when she announced that they were not going to have a pre-nup?)

Then of course there was the story of another female superstar falling from grace: Whitney Houston. Boy did that Bobby Brown mess her up. From style and grace and success to being a total cokehead. So successful women, be aware of scroungers and drug-users! Don't let them be your downfall.

So anyway, Britney Spears is down low right now. And was K-Fed what made her fall? My guess is that he was. Still, she has no one but herself to blame for going out without any knickers on, for hanging out with Paris Hilton, for crashing into another car without even having a license, etc.

But what do I think should have happened in this custody battle? I think that the kids should either have gone to their grandparents until Britney can sort her act out, or that she should be monitored more closely, with help from a good nanny, plus her mom living with her for a while. On top of that, visits from a social worker and education on how to become a better mom. Whilst we're at it, you could even throw in some regular drug testing. But I don't believe that the boys should have gone to K-Fed.

Britney never seems to have failed in loving her boys, she just is too lost right now to truly be there for them. The girl needs help. And where is her mom in all this? She doesn't seem to be in the picture too much. I find that rather strange.

Anyway, I do hope this story will have a happy ending somehow. And I just hope that Britney doesn't end up hurting herself in her desperation.

So let's stop giving the girl a hard time and give her the benefit of the doubt. And anyway, if Michael Jackson is deemed to be a fit parent, there must be hope for poor Britney.

Good luck girl!