The Birthday Game: Charlie
Charlie turned 39 and had three young children.
His birthday evening would depend on getting them into bed on time so he could watch television with a whisky.
Charlie held two black belts and liked cheerful pop, disco and guilty pleasures.
His first spin was Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved, which had spent seven weeks at number one in 2019.
Charlie rejected it because it did not meet the cheerful brief.
The second was Art Garfunkel’s Bright Eyes from Watership Down. Charlie regarded it as even sadder and gambled again.
His compulsory final selection was Bucks Fizz’s Making Your Mind Up, the UK’s winning Eurovision song from 1981.
Charlie was delighted finally to receive the upbeat record he had requested.
B*Witched return
Adele and Sinéad from B*Witched joined Scott wearing double denim.
They discussed their new song Birthday, which was about emerging from a toxic relationship, choosing positivity and moving forward.
The group had reunited and were preparing to perform together again.
The Same Interview
Scott found questions from interviews B*Witched had given to pop magazines in 1999 and 2000.
He asked the same questions again before revealing their original answers.
Sinéad was asked what she would do if a date had spinach in his teeth.
Her modern answer was to tell him directly.
In the earlier interview, she had joked that she would kiss him before saying she would point it out in a humorous way. Scott judged the substance of the answer to be almost unchanged.
She was also asked where she would take aliens demanding to meet Earth’s leader.
In 2023, Sinéad chose Adele.
Her younger self had chosen her parents’ home because her mother could cook dinner while everybody sat down for a proper conversation.
Jump Down and growing up
Adele revisited an interview from the release of Jump Down.
The original article had framed the video as a more adult image and joked that their chart positions had fallen as their necklines dropped.
Adele said the group had simply needed to grow up eventually.
Her younger answer focused on it being the first B*Witched video in which they danced with boys.
She remembered the director repeatedly asking the band and dancers to move apart because the scene was meant to look like a party rather than an attempt at provocative dancing.
Nights at the Met Bar
Adele was asked why the group were not regularly photographed staggering out of the celebrity-heavy Met Bar.
She recalled spending her 23rd birthday there with Bono.
When the group could not find transport, Bono lent them his car.
Adele had arrived directly from a BRIT Awards ABBA medley, still wearing the wig and platform shoes from the performance.
The group also met Will Smith there.
In the original interview, Adele claimed B*Witched wore disguises when they went out.
She admitted in 2023 that this was not true and had probably been an attempt to sound more interesting. The more accurate explanation was that the band were usually well behaved or working the following day.
Top of the Pops memories
BWitched remembered meeting major artists in the corridors at Top of the Pops*, including Céline Dion, the Bee Gees, Mariah Carey and Stevie Wonder.
Because the bar was shared with EastEnders, pop stars could end up drinking alongside familiar soap characters.
Scott discovered that BWitched had appeared on one of the first editions of Top of the Pops* he hosted.
He was horrified by archive clips of his early links and particularly remembered a difficult interview with Eminem.
Adele and Sinéad chose Blame It on the Weatherman to end the interview.
Handover
Scott handed over to Sara Cox after the extended B*Witched reunion and Same Interview.
COMMENTS