The nation’s sweetheart, Gareth Malone, is treating me to my own personal world premiere of the official, newly unveiled Diamond Jubilee song – called Sing – by Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber. We are endeavouring to talk (and sing) over a booming reggae beat in a crowded café, which is a local of Malone’s …
Ray Davies repeats something that Ned Sherrin, the late broadcaster and writer, told him: “Ned, who understood me, said, ‘Ray, you remind me of someone who’s got an open wound on the top of their head and nobody can see it’.” This image was a response to me asking one of our best-loved songwriters about …
Beth Ditto is wasted. She’s been on tour around Europe for the past eight weeks with her band the Gossip, and she’s barely had two hours’ sleep a night. So has the self-professed grandma of rock’n’roll – with her love of crocheting, baking and fixing her girlfriends’ hairdos – finally succumbed to its more grungy …
His daughter Nina tells Ginny Dougary about the joys and traumas of life with one of music’s greats. Had you been fortunate enough to be in the company of the most charismatic American conductor-composer- teacher-broadcaster of all time for long enough, it is likely that you would have heard this explosion at regular intervals in …
As a sequel to the Phantom opens, he talks about his new ‘almost cool’ status, his father’s roving eye — and the joy of a dirty joke Andrew Lloyd Webber has his kind face on and is looking straight into my eyes as I sing: “Your looks are laughable, unphoto-graphable, but you’re my favourite work …
What must it be like to watch your child’s life spiral into drug-addicted chaos, reported daily by a rapacious press? Mitch Winehouse on the torment of Amy’s self-destruction, its impact on the Winehouse clan, and why he believes she’s finally getting better. Photo – Phil Fisk. So, let’s get the great big elephant out of …
Raised amid violence, fostered at the age of 3, addicted to cocaine… Goldie has had his fair share of demons. Which makes it all the more extraordinary that, in his forties, the drum ’n’ bass pioneer enthralled the nation as he took up the baton in Maestro, the television conducting competition. As he prepares to …
Ginny Dougary and teenage sons take a guided tour of Harlem and the Bronx to find the roots of hip-hop. So there I am with my solid crew, two teenage sons and me in Kangol berets, dripping in bling, on loan from our hosts Grandmaster Caz and Reggie Reg, the grandaddies of hip-hop, manoeuvring our …
It’s taken a year, but Ginny Dougary’s latest song is about to be unveiled in public. It’s been a steep learning curve. (Scroll to the bottom of this article to listen to the songs) This time next week, 150 singers will be on a stage crooning a song that has taken a year to write. …
Ginny Dougary on the pleasures of writing dirty songs for the Brighton City Singers. Artists, even those who are not fortunate enough to be represented by a gallery, can show their work in art fairs, restaurants and shops. Writers get to see their words in books and magazines. But what of poor composers, many of …