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Metro
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
90s pop icons missed out on Glastonbury legends slot for devastating reason
The Glastonbury legends slot almost turned a deeper shade of blue, Ian 'H' Watkins has revealed. For almost 30 years, Ian has been affectionately known as 'H', an acronym for Hyperactive – his energetic character being an instrumental part of Steps' success when personalities in pop weren't just all the rage, they were essential. It's a moniker which is a lot to live up to, though, particularly when you're in a band as exposed as Steps were. If they weren't playing to a sell-out arena, they were rarely off television, almost on SM:TV as much as Ant and Dec. In 1997, 5,6,7,8 was unleashed on the world to moderate success in the charts, but ruled school discos. It was a steady rise to the top of the charts for Steps when their fourth single, a cover of The Bee Gees' hit Tragedy, and a B Side of ballad Heartbeat got to number one in such an extraordinary fashion. It's sold more than 1.2million copies in the UK alone, a remarkable feat for any pop act from the Smash Hits era, and almost got them a spot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury when it was saturated with nothing but guitar bands and 90s house DJs. 'The Bee Gees asked us to join them on stage,' Ian tells Metro. 'But it was a really late request, and we literally couldn't get it all together in time. Of course, some of them have passed away now, so that will never happen again. But that's another little jewel in the Steps crown.' With their own critically acclaimed musical, Here and Now, about to tour the UK and eventually make it to the West End, there are few things left on the Steps bucket list to tick off but they're not deterred from one day getting on that coveted Glastonbury bill, either in the Legends slot or the festival's first pop-friendly stage, Avalon. 'We're the only ones, really, from that era that have all the original members and are still going, so it feels like we've earned our stripes by now.' More than earning their stripes, Steps are still headlining festivals and breaking records. In 2022, they joined an exclusive club of bands to score a number one album across four decades. But now Watkins is on stage and topping charts as his true, authentic self. He has nothing to hide anymore – it's not the 90s when, if you were a good-looking male, the press was frothing to uncover secrets about your sex life. For Ian, there was always an underlying fear that they would discover he was gay when the press had a field day outing gay pop stars like Will Young and Stephen Gately. During one holiday with his then-boyfriend, Ian got the call he'd been dreading. 'They knew where I was, who I was with, and why I was there – I had a boyfriend. Immediately, I flew back from holiday, told my loved ones, told my family, told my parents, and then the next day, they didn't run the story, because I didn't give them quotes. 'But they threatened me for many years, and I felt like my coming out story was taken from me; my power was taken away, so it was a really emotional, dark time for me.' He wasn't alone, though. There were several pop stars gathered in the same closet, cautiously able to give solace to one another. Ian became particularly close with Lance Bass of N'SYNC and Boyzone's Gateley, but concedes: 'If the press knew you were gay, it was a really tricky thing to be seen together or to even admit that you were friends with another closeted gay person.' Instead, he clung to his closest straight women. His bandmate Lisa Scott-Lee, the girls from Liberty X and S Club… and Britney Spears. 'All of her dancers were gay anyway,' he says. 'People thought I was dating Brittany a long time ago, but that obviously wasn't the case – that was strange.' Ian is about to turn 50. Hyperactivity is no longer the personality he's defined by. His life is calmer, albeit busy with running his two children to school, walking the dogs, building a home, and organising his local annual Pride with his partner. 'Since having children, I've realised that education starts really early on, and it drowns out the bigotry,' he says. 'I go to all of the local schools and talk about how being different is something to be celebrated. My partner and I organise Cowbridge Pride, which is in its fifth year now. 'Cowbridge used to be the most conservative, laidback town, but now we have 2000 people marching every year, and we raise money for all of the schools to have LGBT resources in all of their libraries.' Ian is exactly where he's meant to be in life, and with Steps on a hiatus, he's finally managed to turn his passion project into a reality – a children's book, Pride and The Rainbow Warriors, educating children (and some parents) about LGBTQ+ history. All of the main characters represent a different colour in the original Pride flag, and all have traits corresponding to the original meaning. More importantly, Ian is finally cool to his children. 'Two of them are named after my kids – it's lush,' he grins. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video For those of us old enough to remember sneakily watching Queer As Folk with the volume turned down to one and one eye on the bedroom door in case anyone walked in, a children's book about LGBTQ+ was inconceivable. More Trending Now, with shows like Heartstopper becoming so hugely popular and a plethora of openly LGBTQ+ popstars ruling the charts, the world feels unrecognisable compared to just a few years ago. How children look at and look up to LGBTQ+ people is completely different today. 'It's something that I felt we needed, because there's a real lack of resources for children of all ages, also parents to be educated too,' he says. 'It's all about celebrating your superpower, and being different is an amazing thing. 'I was bullied terribly growing up because I was different, and I didn't know at that time what that different was. Luckily, I had an amazing art teacher, Mr. Owen, who is still one of my dear friends today, but if it wasn't for that man, who knows where I would have ended up.' Pride and The Rainbow Warriors is available in paperback now . Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: I went to Glastonbury and discovered it's just really overrated MORE: Heartbreaking reason Glastonbury nearly ended in the late 90s MORE: Glastonbury mystery performer 'gives away' appearance with arrival in the UK
Spectator
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The death of celebrity gossip
When I was in hospital for almost half a year, learning how to face life as a 'Halfling' – a person in a wheelchair, patronised and petted – the thing I looked forward to most was a normal, some would say banal, event. I longed to be in my local Pizza Express, in Hove, reading Heat magazine to my husband as he 'savoured' his American Hot. To put it mildly, I am a far faster eater than Mr Raven, and rather than chatter to him and expect an answer, thus hindering his progress still further, I read to him. To add to the fun, I framed the problems of the Beckhams or the Sussexes as those of people we actually know, doing the appropriate voices, which rendered it delightfully bitchy. But when we went searching for Heat on my homecoming, it took half an hour and six shops to find it; we finally located one in W.H. Smith. None of the shops with 'newsagent' above their door had it – indeed, only a couple of them even had newspapers. And how long is Smiths going to exist? After a whopping 233 years, the truly iconic blue and white sign will not be seen for much longer, with the brand having been sold for £76 million to Modella Capital, which will change its name on the high street to T.G. Jones. A Modella spokesperson said: 'T.G. Jones feels like a worthy successor to the W.H. Smith brand. Jones carries the same sense of family and reflects these stores being at the heart of everyone's high street.' Really? To me it feels like yet another step towards the death of that gorgeous invention, the magazine. Though the sales figures of The Spectator have long been a cause of celebration round these parts, it is the exception that proves the rule. Very few magazines – like newspapers – are in a healthy state and when I opened my longed-for copy of Heat, I wondered whether it had been worth the search. For example, the old Heat would have found the concept of gender-fluid-nepo-babies hilarious; the new Heat is a humourless 'ally'. Heat was always different from other celebrity gossip magazines. It was neither slavish nor sleazy; it was knowing, and cheeky, and very much the brainchild of its editor Mark Frith. A boy from a Sheffield comp, he attended the University of East London, editing the college magazine but failing to graduate. He didn't need to – at 20 he joined Smash Hits, becoming editor three years later. Smash Hits was a wonderful thing; on the surface an excitable chronicler of the teen idols of the 1980s and 90s, it was sarky and playful, written by clever journalists who loved pop music while understanding how sublimely silly it was. Frith was perfectly placed to spread this sensibility to entertainment generally, developing and becoming editor of Heat, launching in 1999 and going on to sell half a million copies every week with a readership of around two million. Heat was such an insider that it became the medium through which the squabble between Elton John and George Michael was conducted after it published the former snarking at his friend to 'get out more'. It was such a force that when with the porcelain-pale member of Girls Aloud Nicola Roberts it conducted a campaign calling for the banning of sunbeds for under-18s, a bill was passed in parliament. The old Heat would have found the concept of gender-fluid-nepo-babies hilarious; the new Heat is a humourless 'ally' Heat wasn't perfect; in 2007 it gave away a sheet of stickers, one of which bore a photograph of Katie Price's severely disabled son with the words 'HARVEY WANTS TO EAT ME!'. No matter how much one believes in freedom of speech, it was hard to disagree with Janice Turner in the Times that 'if a sticker mocking a blind and profoundly disabled boy doesn't mark some new low, what possibly could?'. Mind you, it was hard not to feel a flare of defensiveness when Turner also revealed: 'Recently at a magazine industry dinner Alastair Campbell told me he'd forbidden his teenagers from bringing Heat into his home. 'It poisons the minds of women and children.'' It was also described as a 'dirty, filthy piece of shit' by Ewan McGregor, which very much implies that it was doing its job properly. The year before the sticker business, at 35, Mark Frith won the most prestigious award in magazines, the Mark Boxer Trophy, having already taken PPA Editor of the Year twice. The year after the Harvey Price debacle he left to write an excellent book, The Celeb Diaries: The Sensational Inside Story of the Celebrity Decade, in which he showcased himself as a sometimes sensitive soul, refusing to publish snaps of Amy Winehouse where she bore the marks of self-harming. Perhaps understandably, so much having happened so young, he now seems rather publicity-shy, with a LinkedIn page simply saying 'Editorial Director at Bauer Media'. The NME in the 1970s, Smash Hits in the 80s, the Modern Review in the 90s, Heat in the Noughties: what they all had in common was the ability to create a cool club which the nerdiest of kids could join if they had the cover price. Magazines are ruddy expensive these days; I came out of Smiths with four of them, costing me nearly 20 quid. No wonder so many people stand around reading them from cover to cover in the shop. But there's still a lovely feeling about sitting outside a watering hole having a drink with a mate and an armful of mags on a sunny day and exclaiming over scandal together that staring slack-jawed at one's phone can never recreate – a feeling of transcendent frivolity and ease. Such moments are increasingly rare. Many things have led to this: the internet, the rise of PR, cancel culture – as G.V. Chappell wrote here recently: 'Sadly, because everything's now so carefully choreographed, there's no danger of anything spontaneous and, therefore, interesting happening. This isn't a rallying cry for bad behaviour for its own sake – or an argument against common courtesy, which is already in decline – but rather a call to loosen the fetters that mean, in today's world, it's easier and safer to say nothing at all.' Even Popbitch, the online gossip hounds, once so eye-wateringly frank, have lost their bite. A recent item ran: 'Eamonn Holmes fell off his chair live on air on GB News a couple weeks back. Spookily this exact same thing on the exact same chair happened to Christopher Biggins a while back, off camera, we think. After a short inquest – and to head off the threat of future C-list legal claims no doubt – GB News have dumped the slippy studio chairs and ordered new ones.' The nearest that remains to the spirit of Heat is the Mail Online 'Sidebar of Shame'; but crucially, without the wit, and seemingly written by AI – 'a busty display' is used more times than seems reasonable any time a female celeb shows a hint of cleavage. In Pizza Express, I finally admitted defeat, put down Heat (there's only so much pure molten excitement about Danny Dyer's daughter I can muster) and switched to regaling Mr Raven with gossip about my actual friends. Because these days, they seem far more scandalous and fascinating than celebrities.
Metro
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
I won't risk my safety by seeing Charli XCX at Glastonbury 2025
Having been eight times, I'd never felt unsafe at Glastonbury. Murmurs of crowds becoming claustrophobic and even potentially dangerous felt like a myth or unfortunate chaos that belonged in the past. That was until I was in the crush to get to Sugababes. In 2022, they were performing at the Avalon stage, a pop-friendly area with my name written all over it. It has seen some of the greatest artists from the Smash Hits era finally make it to Worthy Farm, when it would have been unthinkable to see them on the bill 20 years ago. The Avalon stage has a capacity of around 3,000 people and Sugababes were playing in the early evening. They've had six number one singles, four platinum albums and headlined the 02 Arena this year – clearly a 3,000 capacity stage wasn't going to accommodate one of the most successful artists on the Glastonbury bill. But somehow we managed to make it into the stage. I couldn't see Mutya, Keisha or Siobhan at any point but we made it in when thousands of others didn't, and endured the fresh hell of being part of the stampede trying to get into the tent. The Astroworld crush, which killed 10 people during rapper Travis Scott's gig, was just the year before and while Glastonbury would never let anything like that happen, it was still suffocating enough to cling onto friends and begin to panic. It was the first time I've ever been genuinely quite scared at Glastonbury and was sure I would never find myself in the same precarious situation again. Jump two years and Sugababes were back at Glastonbury, this time bumped up to the West Holts Stage – a significant upgrade with a 30,000 capacity, but still, it was obviously going to be another health and safety nightmare. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Stewards were trying to enforce a one-way system but there's only so much a handful of volunteers in high-vis jackets can do when there are thousands of fans with tunnel vision slipping through the net. They played on a Friday afternoon, clashing with Paul Heaton who was on The Pyramid, and once again it was an unnerving crush to see Push The Button live at Worthy Farm. I've spoken with friends and, after our previous experiences, many of us are concerned about this year. Subsequently, I've made the decision to avoid seeing the artist I was most excited to see. Charli XCX has by far been the most colossally important artist of the last 12 months. It was impossible not to get swept away by the Brat summer of 2024, whether you were a party girl functioning on Golden Virginia and Smirnoff Ice or you were just a spectator enjoying the ride from afar. She is the moment and I don't have a doubt she'll bring in the biggest crowd of the entire festival. Last year, she played a DJ set at Silver Hayes and thousands of people turned up just to watch her spin decks. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Huge crowds were turned away disappointed and it became one of the most celebrated moments of the weekend. It wasn't even a full Charli XCX show and the crowd was determined, engrossed and, more importantly, humongous. It is unthinkable, then, that she isn't topping off her Brat era on The Pyramid Stage where almost the entire festival could – and would – descend as one 170,000-strong army. Instead, she is on at The Other Stage, which has under half the capacity of the Pyramid, and sadly where I wouldn't dare try to see her. Last year Avril Lavigne performed on The Other Stage, her last hit single now 14 years old, and crowds complained they felt crushed as the swarm of fans expanded into camping areas. The thought of Charli on The Other Stage is genuinely terrifying and while every single person I know is dead set on watching her set, reluctantly I just can't face it. Glastonbury offers assurances every year that it always has a 'robust, dynamic crowd management plan in place', which I don't doubt, and Emily Eavis has admitted they've sold fewer tickets this year in an attempt to avert crushes. But logistically, I don't see how they can possibly keep the enormous Brat army confined to the limited space surrounding The Other Stage. At best it will be unbearable, at the very worst, potentially dangerous. There is a clash which might thin the crowd ever so slightly with rapper Doechi performing at the same time, but I can't see that being much of a deterrent for fiercely loyal Charli fans. More Trending It's sad that Glastonbury seems to specifically treat its pop artists this way, sidelining them to smaller stages, undermining their enormous fanbases and essentially losing grasp on its evolving identity. Granted, Olivia Rodrigo is closing the Pyramid Stage, but would it have been too much to have two humongous popstars headlining the same weekend? Glastonbury needs to realise what it is and who it's for before someone gets hurt. Yes, I am very lucky to be able to be in the field come the last weekend of June, but I can't deny I'm absolutely gutted that seeing Charli just feels like a dangerous option, which could so easily have been avoided. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: How to find Glastonbury's secret spots according to people who've been before MORE: I've applied for 38 jobs and got nowhere – I blame ageism MORE: Glastonbury organiser reveals drastic measure taken after crowd-crush fears
The Guardian
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Barry McIlheney obituary
Barry McIlheney, who has died aged 67, presided over many late 20th-century media success stories. In 1989 he launched the monthly film magazine Empire as editor, and in 1999 the celebrity weekly Heat as publisher. In his first job as editor, at the pop music fortnightly Smash Hits, he had more than doubled the magazine's sales in just over two years (it sold 400,000 copies when he took the job in October 1986; in November 1988, its Poll Winners' Party special sold over a million). As editor, he honed Smash Hits' quirky style and headlines ('Corky O'Riley, It's Kylie!' ran the cover line for a 1988 interview with Kylie Minogue) and led a team of writers that included the future Observer columnist Miranda Sawyer, biographer Chris Heath and novelist William Shaw. He also commissioned memorable features, including Tom Hibbert's 1987 interview with Margaret Thatcher, in which she was asked if she watched Spitting Image, and when she was going to knight Cliff Richard. McIlheney's personality was welcoming and irreverent, and he was referred to by various nicknames by his staff. These included Big Man, Barry Mac and Barney Tabasco, a name by which he was once announced by an American receptionist (in the 2000s, he adopted it as a writing pseudonym for Word magazine). While editing Empire, from 1989 to 1993, he also reviewed films, in an unpretentious, lively style. 'Nothing really happens except for a lot of guys sitting around talking shite,' he wrote of 1992 drama Glengarry Glen Ross. 'But what wonderful guys, what memorable shite.' Made managing editor of Empire and its sister title Premiere in 1992, he ran the entirety of the Emap Metro publishing group from 1995, then the merged company Emap Elan from 2000 to 2007, with Q, Mojo, Elle, Red, the Face, FHM and Zoo all in his roster. The younger son of Muriel (nee Wilson), an office administrator at the Kennedy and Morrison steel company, and David McIlheney, a production manager in the shirt-making and textiles industries, Barry was born in Belfast and grew up in the north of the city near what became the Oldpark Road and Cliftonville peace line. A pupil at the Belfast Royal Academy, he became a fan of the NME at 14. 'I'm sure a therapist would have a field day on the escape that this new world offered me from the very grim reality of everyday life in north Belfast,' he said in a 2013 interview with the MagCulture website. At 18, he went to Trinity College Dublin to read history, often returning home to sing and write lyrics for the North Belfast Boogie Band, who in 1978 changed their style to punk, and their name to Shock Treatment. They were played on the John Peel Show, supported the Skids and U2, and released three tracks before McIlheney's departure in 1982: the first of these, Belfast Telegraph, about local news, appeared on the 1980 Room To Move EP, and a double A-side single, Big Check Shirts/Mr Mystery Man, was released in 1981. His father had died in 1979 and, living with his mother after leaving university, McIlheney worked behind the counter at the Kennedy and Morrison steelyard, then as a library assistant at Skegoneill Library. He found work in local newspapers and freelanced as Belfast correspondent for the Irish music magazine Hot Press. Around 1983, he moved to London for postgraduate study at City University Journalism School and freelanced for Melody Maker, becoming a staff writer then the magazine's reviews editor. His report of Live Aid in 1985 won him the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA)'s Young Journalist award. Recommended to Smash Hits by a colleague, he was hired soon afterwards as its new editor. McIlheney left magazines in 2008 to become Sport Media Group's editor-in-chief, a position he held for a year. In 2010, he became chief executive of the PPA; he described the role to MagCulture as 'the perfect chance to have a meaningful and useful second act'. After semi-retiring in 2020, he became a part-time board member of the press regulator Ipso, ran events for the Integrated Education Fund, a charitable foundation supporting integrated schooling in Northern Ireland, and spent more time at his home in Spain. In 2020 he wrote about his punk past for the Northern Irish culture fanzine Dig With It ('Everybody looks so young, everybody looks so thin'), and in 2024 he returned to sing vocals with the reunited Shock Treatment, including on three tracks for the album Exclusive Photos. He was due to perform with them again in Belfast this month. He married his Smash Hits colleague Lola Borg, now a writer and psychotherapist, in 1991. She survives him, as do their son, Francis, and daughter, Mary, and his older brother, Colin. Barry Wilson McIlheney, journalist, born 13 May 1958; died 25 May 2025
Daily Record
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
90s pop star warns celebs to be 'very afraid' ahead of autobiography release
Celebrity Big Brother contestant Kavana says he was 'broken by addiction' as he opens up in his upcoming book. The pop star of the nineties, Anthony Kavanagh, is warning celebs to be 'very afraid' ahead of the release of his autobiography. More well known by his stage name Kavana, the 47-year-old became a pop sensation with hits such as I Can Make You Feel Good, MFEO and Crazy Chance. Anthony is set to release his explosive memoir - Pop Scars - in July, in which he has promised to tell all about his experiences in the limelight. While talking about his battles with addiction, the singer is also said to lift the lid on the supposedly 'innocent' 90s pop scene. Nearly three decades ago, Anthony graced the covers of teen pop magazines, including Smash Hits, as a bright-eyed 20-year old. However, since then, he has been candid about his addiction problems over the years, reports the Mirror. For example, last year he shared a post on Instagram that included before and after photos of his recovery battle, along with the caption: "Recovery is possible." He has also spoken about his drastic change in appearance compared to how he looked a year and half prior, when he was in one of his lowest states, and what steps he had taken to get help. In the comments, he wrote: "On #addictionawarenessweek I want to make anyone struggling aware that recovery is possible. 20 months ago I was lost, broken and hopeless. Ask for help, I'm so glad I did." Many of his celebrity pals flooded the comments with encouraging messages, including former Bad Boys Inc singer Matthew Pateman who said: "Proud of you." Steps' H Watkins also added a heartfelt "Proud friend", while 911's Lee Brennan wrote: "Superstar". While he has many friends who support him, with the upcoming release of his 'explosive' book, some of his friends and acquaintances may be in for a surprise. Speaking to Attitude magazine back in 2017, Anthony promised that he would write an exposing memoir about his experience in the music industry. He said: "I am very excited about it. It's more of a memoir, I'll save the autobiography for when I'm older. It'll be warts [and all] and recalls what was happening back in the pop industry back in the 90s and when I went to live in Hollywood. "There are some really outrageous stories that most people wouldn't know about. Yes, people should be afraid…very afraid." The former star has since promoted his book on his Instagram, claiming that it is "for the underdog". Posting a picture of the front cover that shows an image of Kavana back in the 90s, he said: "Can't believe I'm saying this but I actually wrote a book. "Like by myself, like those grown ups do. POP SCARS covers all things 90s pop but more importantly what happens AFTER fame." He continued: "It's about teenage fame, loss, addiction and hope, and how not to iron a white Kappa tracksuit. It's been described as 'Laugh out loud, jaw dropping, and heartfelt' but you can decide that. Come join the ride with me. More news to come. This is for the underdog." Kavana didn't disappear after his pop career ended, as he remained in the spotlight through a variety of television appearances. This includes starring in Hollyoaks: In the City in 2006, being a finalist on TV competition Grease Is the Word in 2007, auditioning for The Voice in 2014 and coming seventh in Celebrity Big Brother in 2015. In 2014, the star came out as gay as he revealed a past secret romance with Boyzone's Stephen Gately. However, his battle with addiction followed as he confessed to feeling "guilty and sick" about his relapse. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. He said: "Ok. I think it's important for me to be transparent about my recovery. I relapsed after 100 days of sobriety. I feel guilty and sick and I hate myself after letting the people I love down. I thought I knew better. I have to start again."
