Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Latest Episodes:

Episode 31: Melanie C Jun 07, 2021

Show notes

Woo! It’s a new episode of my podcast Spinning Plates. I’m so excited to be back with new episodes for you. Kicking off series 4 is the wonderful, warm and wise Melanie C. She tells me about the challenges and joy of being a solo artist and about facing the worst nerves she's ever had before going on stage for Blood Brothers on the West End. We also talk about her lovely relationship with her 12 year old daughter and how much fun they had together on the Spice Girls tour in 2019. Big thanks to Melanie for speaking so openly with me and thank you to you for lending me your ears when you listen! Enjoy 😘❤️

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Episode 30: Tina Crawford Apr 26, 2021

Show notes

It’s the final episode in this series of Spinning Plates! Wow what a lovely group of guests and my 30th is no exception. Meet Tina Crawford, who is an artist who I got to know through her

embroidery. She used the Kitchen Disco as a subject for part of a huge piece she started working on as lockdown began. Its an incredible piece and talks about how we are all connected - hasn’t so much about this last year been about the importance of connection? The work is about to start life in its new home at the Science Museum. Tina has a 13-year-old son and she claims to have the best

husband in the world. We talked about having a child through IVF,

being a disabled parent and how people lie about being happy in

postnatal classes. Turns out we met once when I was a teenager and Tina found me aloof, but hopefully my superb tea making skills have changed her mind now. 😊

We also had the additional excitement of my cat Titus that kept jumping on the

table where we were talking! He’s a bit annoying that way, but I love him none the less. 🐈

Xxxxxxx

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Episode 29: Anna Whitehouse Apr 19, 2021

Show notes

Anna Whitehouse is a journalist, author and radio presenter and the

founder of Mother Pukka, 'a platform for people who happen to be

parents'. She is a long-term campaigner in the fight for flexible

working for everyone.

We talked about the concept of family and how you can get trapped into

believing that 2.4 children and a white picket fence equals happiness;

we discussed flexible working hours and how other countries do it

better (yes I'm talking about the Netherlands and Sweden again!) and

we agreed that it is time to end the 1950s hapless dad trope - or as

she put it, "men don't want to just spunk and leave, they want to

parent!"

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Episode 28: Rebecca Vincent Apr 12, 2021

Show notes

I have been following tattoo artist Rebecca Vincent on instagram since I saw a beautiful tattoo which she did for one of my earlier SP interviewees, Sali Hughes. Rebecca's style is usually botanical-inspired pure black ink. She reinvented herself as a tattoo artist when she felt her previous job as a pub landlady didn't fit well with becoming a mum. Her child is now ten and has recently started identifying as non-binary - a decision which Rebecca and husband Lee have welcomed and embraced. She's a lovely woman with a particularly gentle and kind aura for someone who can inflict so much pain - and I'm seriously considering having a second tattoo now!

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Episode 27: Giovanna Fletcher Mar 29, 2021

Show notes

Giovanna Fletcher is a writer, presenter and blogger who has a hugely

successful podcast Happy Mum Happy Baby. When we chatted I asked about

the course which took her to marrying her childhood sweetheart, Tom

Fletcher, she also told me how her three boys loved watching her on

I'm a Celebrity and we compared notes on how many people ask her, as

the mum of sons, whether she really wanted a girl! Aaaaghhh!

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Episode 26: Ellie Taylor Mar 22, 2021

Show notes

This week I talk to stand up and soon-to be-published writer Ellie

Taylor. She went from being completely disinterested in children to,

now that she has a little girl herself, finding new mums 'like catnip'

and striking up conversations with them whenever she can. We talked

about having a baby when you're not really maternal, performing on

stage when heavily pregnant, and writing in a pandemic. Her first book

'My Child and other Mistakes' is out in July.

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Episode 25: Mim and Liv NERVO Mar 15, 2021

Show notes

I first met Australian DJ twin sisters Mim and Liv (aka @nervomusic) over 10 years ago when we wrote a song called Not Giving Up On Love together. It was the most fun writing week. I immediately adored them both. Such smart, talented and gorgeous women - and so much positive energy! When they both became pregnant around the same time it seemed the fates were smiling on them. They both have gorgeous baby daughters now but for Liv, she has had to face a very different beginning to motherhood than the one she had envisaged - one as a single mum and the road to that has been traumatic for her. This podcast episode features lots of tears.. but also life lessons and laughs. Some of the themes might be upsetting to listen to but there is still lots of optimism in there, too.. and tons of sisterly love.

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Episode 24: Cariad Lloyd Mar 08, 2021

Show notes

This week I'm talking to Cariad Lloyd, actor, comedian, writer, podcaster and mum of two. I hope you'll agree that this is a really positive and uplifting chat, even though we are talking about death. Cariad lost her Dad when she was 16 and we talk about how that has affected her through her life, including when she became a mum. In the last 4 years she has spoken to over a hundred people about their own experiences of losing loved ones, in her popular podcast, Griefcast, which she launched just as she became a mum herself.

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Episode 23: Rosa Bloom Mar 01, 2021

Show notes

This week I meet Rosa Bloom, designer of the sequinned capes and cat suits that have brightened so many festivals. They've been described by one of her customers as 'wearable happiness' and I love the superhero feeling I get when I wear her clothes on stage. In our chat I hear about growing up in a household shared by three families, and about how she and her husband chose a new family name when they had their little boy. She also tells me about how her husband offered to take over as primary carer of their little boy Otto when he was a few months old, helping her continue with her company but resulting in him being diagnosed with post natal depression. We talk about adapting to life in a pandemic and how we can't wait for festivals to be back on!

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Episode 22: Jess Phillips Feb 22, 2021

Show notes

I really wanted to meet Jess Phillips. We are just about the same age and I have followed her career with interest and affection. I was very glad to say that I liked her just as much in real life as I have done from afar. Jess is the Labour MP for Yardley in Birmingham, serving the same area she grew up in. It's also where she has brought up her 2 sons with her husband Tom, who has always done the lion's share of the childcare and cooking. Jess jokes that she sometimes feels like a 1950s househusband asking Tom why dinner isn't on the table, when she's finshed work. She is pleasingly happy in her own skin and has a turn of phrase that really tickles me. She talked to me proudly about her mum and dad's political activism, and happy memories of watching Prime Minister's Questions after school with her nan every week. She talked about how every woman should be able to choose to have or not have a baby. And she described how she sometimes deals with aggression by fighting back with humour. She revealed that having two children made her feel she could do anything. And she also has one of the best stories I have ever heard invoving paving slabs. Though I realise the bar for that may not be very high.

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