Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Singer who found fame with Yazoo in 1981, earning three Brit Awards and tens of millions in record sales over a 30-year career.
On the island
Eight records
Chan ChanFavourite
It's a song that just makes me feel incredibly happy, which is quite an unusual thing for me because that's not usually the purpose of music for me, you know. And what I love about this, for a start, it's not sung in the English, so I don't relate to the lyric.
I grew up with a French father who came from Cognac, and my mother was an au pair. I met him in France, and so the French culture is very, very strong in our house.
It was the very first record that we ever owned. And it came with the very first record player that my parents bought. And I remember being two years old and being completely overwhelmed even then.
This was really timely for me. It had come to that point in my life, you know, I was about 16 or so, where I really did understand that there's nothing I was going to do to really fit in.
I identified so well with punk. And then when I realised that the next fashion was coming along and all my mates were starting to become new romantics, like the Depeche Mode lot, I felt a bit let down, you know. I then moved towards Canvy and Southend, where I started listening to the blues. And then following that blues trajectory, it took me along to Janice Joplin and her wonderful male voice.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
In terms of being a fan and a completionist, he was mine. This song, I'm Your Toy, comes from his album, Blue. And what I love about him with this is that country music in those days was not a milieu that people would admit to, particularly.
This song is from Spirit of Edom from Talk Talk, and the song's called I Believe in You. And this very much is our album, mine and David's album.
This band for me, this album, has it in spades. It's intelligent, it's beautiful, and his voice is wonderful, and I just love this song.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:33Is it true that at one point you actually took a hammer to your gold discs and destroyed them along with all your diaries and your stage clothes?
Oh, absolutely, but that was very recently and had nothing to do with sort of like you know a fit of madness, more to do with the fact that I became really tired of possessing things, you know. For me, you know, gold discs have no more, they're not significant, they're just something you put on the wall to tell everyone that it comes in how much money you've earned. Do you know what I mean? And I'm not the sort of person that would want that around my house anyway. And it does come to a point where I think there's something not very healthy in seeing yourself as a collectible. And I really need to live in the real world.
Presenter asks
9:19How did your dad get on in Britain?
Badly. I mean, he got on really badly. I mean, this was a man that, you know, he came from Cognac, so, you know, he would be fishing and hunting and all that kind of stuff and living off the land. He did grow up in occupied France. He did have to shoot his dog because it was starving. Do you know what I mean? He never had any niceties around him, you know. So, yes, we felt protected. Yes, we felt loved, but just don't say the wrong thing at the wrong time, you know.
Presenter asks
12:03The keepsakes
The book
Philip Pullman
I love fantasy and sci-fi. The reason why I'd enjoy that so much is I'd be able to in my own head then develop the story and so that would continue the you know the its interest for me.
The luxury
I think I could sleep in it, I could collect rainwater, I could wash and I could also play tortoise.
Paint me a picture of your childhood holidays [in France].
It wasn't like that at all. I mean, we had no money for hotels or anything like that, but the alternative was so much more of an adventure. You know, we would drive and we'd wait till it was dusk, and my dad would find a field that had been, you know, harvested. And we would all go out in the dark and walk till we fell over, and we knew that was a big lump of hay. And we'd make a massive, great, big, like, 12-foot-square mattress of straw, and then we'd all get in our sleeping bags. My mum and dad would be on the outside, put us in the middle, and cover us with sheet plastic, you know, in case it rained. And so we'd sleep like that until dawn and have to get out before the combine harvester came. And we'd, you know, swim in the rivers, and we'd call our food in the river and clean our teeth there and wash.
Presenter asks
15:58When did you realize you had that voice?
It was never about having a voice really for me. It was it really was about having a front, that's what counted. I mean, I never thought about th singing as something as uh as intending to do as something beautiful or or as attractive. It was it was about a visceral yell, you know, so I became the front person because I had the most front. That's what I did, you know, and because I wrote the words, and so I that that preceded me ever thinking I could sing.
Presenter asks
24:22What is it like to have agoraphobia? Can you describe it to me?
Well, it's it feels very normal. It's like outside that feels odd. And there was, you know, years that I didn't go out beyond working. When I did have to go out, I felt literally around about seven feet tall and and everybody else did seem like pygmies. I felt like you know, Gulliver.
Presenter asks
27:52What sort of mother are you? How do you parent your kids?
I'm flawed. You know, I'm a flawed mother. You know, it's like I am too emotional and I offer myself up too much, I think, you know, as what I'm thinking when sometimes I should just not share. At the same time, you know, my girls would say that they can say anything to me, they can speak to me about anything, and I'm a very affectionate type. I'm I'm loving and affectionate and a bit unhinged.
“If you want to sing, you should sing regardless of whether you have an audience. So consequently, music for me is about doing it rather than listening. Art is about painting rather than watching. Whenever I'm interested in something, I want to participate.”
“I'm thinner now. I've been thinner for a few years, but I'm no cleverer, I'm no kinder. Do you know what I mean? I'm no wiser, and I don't feel any sexier, you know.”
“I always thought I was destined for greatness. Even as this young kid that couldn't get in school play and wasn't allowed to audition for the choir.”
“I'm not a tribute act. I don't do karaoke. I'm an artist. If people insist on calling me an AT singer, then there's nothing I can do about it other than say, Well, I can't change your preconceptions, but you're going to have to if you come to my show.”