He may be well into his 70s, but old rocker Bill Wyman is showing no signs of slowing down.

This revealing interview with Meridian’s Richard Slee shows that the former Rolling Stone has been far from taking it easy since he “retired” from the Stones back in 1993.

Fed up with flying from stadium to stadium for mega-concerts, where the audience members are no more than specks in the distance, he’s gone back to his roots with the Rhythm Kings and now travels by band charabanc from club gig to club gig, all over Europe - and says he enjoys actually seeing a bit of the places he’s visiting. His enduring passion for music really comes across in the interview and you can tell he’s never regretted leaving the Stones’ rock ‘n’ roll circus behind him.

Apart from his music, Wyman keeps himself busy with his London restaurant Sticky Fingers, holds photography exhibitions all over the world and is a keen amateur archaeologist (insert lame joke about dinosaurs of rock here).

Although the idea of octogenerian rock stars is frankly quite horrifying, all the surviving Sixties swingers are now bus pass holders. This near 72-year old and his elderly bandmates seem to be having so much fun, it would seem that grandad rock is far from fading away…

It’s not every day you get to have your photo taken with Su Pollard and Claire Sweeney in 60s getup!

 

Su and Claire had just stepped off the stage after the first night of new musical SHOUT! at the Theatre Royal Brighton, and were looking to celebrate a successful opening performance. The pair were excited about performing in Brighton, and were delighted with the reception they received here. The high the performers were feeling after the show was pretty infectious, and I ended up staying for more than a couple of glasses of bubbly to help celebrate!

I have to admit I was slightly dubious about venturing to my first festival this weekend. I’d heard the horror stories about mud, mad rockers and worst of all, chemical toilets! But I packed my wellies, my ITV Local brolly, and a camera and hopped aboard the FastCat ready to face whatever the weekend threw at me.

As soon as I stepped through the festival entrance I knew I’d been anxious for nothing. The buzz in Seaclose park was incredible. The place was heaving, but it was packed with some of the most friendly, happy, welcoming people I’ve come across. From the headliners to the campers, everyone was there to have a good time. And most of them were willing to tell us
about it!

We met the Zutons, the Sugababes, the Cribs, Newton Faulker and many more – you can see all the interviews in full on our IOW festival page. We also met lots of groups promoting awareness of good causes - for example the sunflower-sellers raising money for the Earl Mountbatten hospice in local Newport; and the Taste of Wight team who are aiming to cater for the festival purely from Isle of Wight produce next year.

Going to the festival as press was a unique experience, as we were never quite sure whether we were really working – it seemed like too much fun! One minute we were inches away from the bands chatting to them about their own festival experiences and what we could expect from their sets, and the next they were tiny dots on a huge stage with a crowd of 50,000 between us and them. And yet I was still craning to see them and screaming when I got a glimpse!

The best part for me was soaring up above the park in the festival eye and seeing the Kooks step on stage just as we reached the pinnacle. And the food – fast yes, foul no! Delicious portions of almost every cuisine you could imagine, all ready in moments (once you’d battled the queues). I even coped with the notorious loos!

So I’ve become a festival convert. I’ve decided you just can’t beat the festival vibe and the solidarity you feel when surrounded by swarms of other unwashed and uninhibited revellers. I’ve already booked up for Bestival, the Isle of Wight’s other big music event, and may well camp out on the South Downs for the Beachdown festival. I’ve got the wellies now so I might as well use them!

See all our festival best bits here.
And see all the big stage highlights and full interviews on the dedicated IOW festival page.

This week has been full of more Hollywood exclusives – and it’s still only Wednesday!

Kate Blanchett’s new film Elizabeth the Golden Age premiered in London this week and as much of the film was filmed in Hampshire Meridian news was live on the red carpet. Click here to go behind the scenes of the film set and watch Helen James interview some of the film’s biggest stars.

We also have a very surreal interview with Tom Cruise who stopped to talk with us at the premier of Lions for Lambs. He covers everything from the Spice Girls to Iraq in just 3 minutes – check it out here!

Our What’s On channel is also full with other interviews with Kylie Minogue and Westlife so log on and stay up to date with the latest gossip.

British superstar Leona Lewis has taken time out of her busy schedule to talk exclusively to ITV Local.

After working with stars such as Neo and Mariah Carey her album is now ready to hit the airwaves. She tells us all about what influenced the album, her X-Factor win and her plan to conquer America. Watch the interview here and stay tuned to What’s On for more from the hottest music, movies and theatre.

Being given the opportunity to interview A-list celebrities is not to be taken lightly. Even more so when the only other interviews you have done are with local people about local issues; and to be honest they don’t really come under the same category.

So when you get an email cheerfully asking ‘do you want to interview Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner’ you do a double take and think for a few seconds while your brain fills with both excitement and worry. A cheeky smile crosses your face at the same time as you ask ‘what am I going to ask them?!’

Luckily the interviews were only confirmed two days before they were taking place. This meant there was less time for me to worry - I just had to get my head down and plan. It turned out that Jamie Foxx and co-stars Jennifer Garner and Ashraf Barhom were all in London promoting their new film The Kingdom: a fast paced and yet thought provoking action thriller set in Saudi Arabia.

After spending most of Tuesday and Wednesday planning I managed to rush to the cinema for an advanced screening the night before the interviews. The Kingdom is an interesting take on a now common theme – terrorism – and touches on many factors that Hollywood tends to ignore such as how the ‘enemy’ perceive things. It’s well worth a watch if you are stuck for what to see on Orange Wednesday’s.

So planning done I now had only a few hours to panic until judgement day. The interviews, or press junket, took place at the very plush Dorchester Hotel in London. Being my first junket I wasn’t sure of the general order of things went so it was nice to have an ITV Local colleague there for moral support. After being ushered in to the ‘waiting room’ we sat amongst the other journalists, ate free cakes and went over our notes. As we looked around and recognised people from Sky News and GMTV we realised just how big a deal it was. It didn’t help the nerves.

So a few blueberry muffins later and it was my turn. I was whisked away to first meet Ashraf Barhom; an Israeli actor who plays Colonel Faris Al Ghazi in The Kingdom. The interview went surprisingly well and I was very happy with the outcome. Although I only had five minuets with each actor (you have to struggle to understand the floor manager in the background as they hold up fingers indicating how long you have left) is was comfortable and a confidence boost.

What you don’t realise when you see this type of interview on the TV is the amount of other people that are standing in the room at the same time. Jennifer Garner, who plays FBI agent Janet Mayes, stood out perfectly in a bright yellow dress as she sat in a very dark room amongst six other people, two cameras and a multitude of lights and backdrops. She was sweet, polite and an enthusiastic interviewee.

Last of all was Jamie Foxx – the man himself. As much as you try and seem like you have been in that situation before you loose all composure when you walk in to a room and there is an Oscar winning actor/musician/stand-up comic in front of you. Having said that Jamie Foxx was softly spoken and friendly as he spoke about his character Ronald Fleury - it made the interview much easier.

The minutes had sped past and suddenly it was all over – and all before lunch! It was surreal, exciting and definitely the high point of a career that hadn’t started that long ago!

To watch all three interviews click here.

Plus there should be more exclusive interviews from the ITV Local team in the near future so keep logging on to our What’s On channel.