In the third extract from my memoir Hit Girl: My Bizarre Double Life in the Pop World of the Eighties, I tell the story of my first encounter with a bunch of young upstarts who would go on to conquer the globe with their aspirational videos, pretty-boy looks and pop-rock tunes. The resulting interview in Sounds, published in December 1980, was the band's first-ever mainstream press … [Read more...] about How I discovered Duran Duran. Or did they discover me?
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How I played my part in inventing the New Romantics
Here is the second extract from my memoir Hit Girl: My Bizarre Double Life in the Pop World of the Eighties. It is September 1980 and, under my pen name Betty Page, I have just been appointed a staff writer at the music paper Sounds after spending a year being the editor's secretary by day and secret music journalist by night. My first assignment is a tough one: to secure the first music press … [Read more...] about How I played my part in inventing the New Romantics
My bizarre double life in the pop world of the Eighties
After a small ripple of public demand, I'm going to start posting a series of extracts from my unpublished memoir Hit Girl: My Bizarre Double Life in the Pop World of the Eighties - which may be undergoing a title change to avoid confusion with the character Hit-Girl in the Kick-Ass movies. The first extract is from chapter three - Betty Page Is Born Again, which tells the story of my … [Read more...] about My bizarre double life in the pop world of the Eighties
Stories of a life less ordinary
I am a story archaeologist. I help people unearth the treasure buried in their life stories. I firmly believe that, no matter what anyone says about how boring they are, there is no such thing as an ordinary life. That’s why my favourite TV programmes are the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? and the documentary Long Lost Family, which reunites mothers parted from sons, brothers … [Read more...] about Stories of a life less ordinary
Don’t be seduced by stories that sell you lack of self-worth
As I walked along the station platform I spotted a young woman dressed in the sort of short shorts I could never have worn, even at her age. She was all long, coltish legs and porcelain skin, balancing on the edge of a cold metal seat while applying black eyeliner. When I boarded my train, there was another woman, barely into her 20s I would say, who was busy smothering foundation all over her … [Read more...] about Don’t be seduced by stories that sell you lack of self-worth
A little story about a beautiful day
One of my favourite story quotes is from an American poet called Muriel Rukeyser, who said: "The universe is made not of atoms but of stories." I can find meaning in this quote on many different levels but today it's telling me that the small stories are every bit as important as the big ones. So I have set myself a challenge: find a small story to write about in 15 minutes that will offer some … [Read more...] about A little story about a beautiful day