The lovely Samuel Bennett wrote a transcript of Melanie of The Jo Whiley Show. As it was broadcast on an encrypted channel, we don’t know yet if we will be able to post it. For those who are interested, you can read here what it was all about.

About twitter
Rizzle (A guest) said he tweets like mad and sometimes does pictures of him just in his speedos. Melanie found it very funny and said something like she’s gonna start tweeting him or something

Then Rizzle was saying to Shaun Ryder that he’ll help him out with twitter (because he just signed up) and Melanie said “have you got any speedos?” and laughed a lot..

They were on about hacking and Melanie said “just blame it on hacking *laughs a lot*”

She really is laughing a lot in this, very cute…

About Punk (music)
Jo asked Melanie something like “it’s well documented that Vivienne Westwood and Malcom Mclaren had a concept largely based on the shop they’ve got and the fashion, do you think it was more of a manufactured movement”

Melanie: “I think that when something is such a phenomena like that I think they’ve kind of captured a feeling and ran with it, there’s no doubt that you know that Vivienne Westwood and Malcom Mclaren are extremely creative people but erm, for something to take hold like that it absolutely was to do with the time and the music and anti establishment and just the feeling that was in the country at the time”

Shaun: “kids in the street”

Melanie: ‘cos it was speaking to them wannit so that was where the reaction came from

Jo: “so do you think it was about the fashion or the music?”

Melanie: I think music and fashion go hand in hand don’t they? I think.. it’s.. in the culture we live in now it’s kinda anything goes, you know but my memories of music growing up and learning about music you know before I was around is that it was kinda very structured. If you listened to that music you wore those clothes, and there was all these different things whereas now everything crosses over doesn’t it. I mean I know you’ve worked with *points to Rizzle* Gallows, the ruts. (Rizzle carries on)

Jo: You covered Arnachy didn’t you..
Melanie: haha I did
Jo: Talk us through this
Melanie: ok
Jo: Can I just say Noel Gallagher was in the audience (Melanie: No way *surprised*) cuz he was on the show a couple of weeks ago and he was like “I was there when Melanie did it and I need to know how it came about” he was like I can’t believe what I’m seeing”

Melanie: Well I met Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols and we just got on really well and he invited me to go onstage at the Viper Room and yeah I did Arnachy In The UK and God Save The Queen erm.. (Jo: oh my god a lot right! Melanie: Yeah) I did, Pretty Vacant I did as well, and erm I think I did a couple of Billy Idol songs as well but I think cuz I was so young I was just like yeah bring it on, so naive just go for it, loving it, and everyone was like spitting at me and everything, but when I got off they were like “no that means they really liked it” *laughs*

Shaun was then on about the difference between Grime (not being bothered about making money) and saying Punk is all like “we don’t wanna make money and have advertisements on TV” then Jo said about his (man from Sex Pistols) butter advert on tv. Then Melanie pipes up

Melanie: Well..you.. I… John did the butter advert to finance going back out on the road with pill(??) so you know, you can kinda forgive him

About Shaun in I’m A Celeb Get Me Out Of Here
Jo to Shaun: you’ve got the lifetime ban on Channel 4 from going on tv
Shaun: that’s actually up now
Melanie: why? is your life over?? (LOL she’s really funny in this)

About Politics
Jo: do you think political issues give a band longevity? (Shaun speak saying he doesn’t mix music and politics) then Jo said “What about when Geri started spouting about Thatcher being this role model, how did you feel about that?”

Melanie: Yeah you know the whole femist thing it was like ok you know we were there for the girls we were strong women we wanted to prove that. When it came to being political, we were interviewed by Spectator magazine and thats when she came up with the classic line “Thatcher was the first Spice Girl”… I grew up on the outskirts of Liverpool in the 80′s, it was a very difficult time, and from a working class background and erm… *pulls face* that didn’t sit well with me

Jo: Do you think politicians can learn from artists. (Rizzle talks, then Shaun, goes onto the Riots. Shaun says about LSD)
Melanie: *laugh* is that a euphemism for travelling the world?

About indie record labels
Jo: You were signed to a major label obviously with Spice Girls that was Emi and Virgin, how was that for you?
Melanie: well, it’s funny you know the whole Spice Girls thing is, I think it’s a little missunderstood because you know obviously it was *lost for words*
(Rizzle smiling “It was amazing”)
Melanie: ARRHHHHH it was amazing
Rizzle “I wanna know everything about the Spice Girls man like what happened?”)
Jo: Hang on what did you think of the Spice Girls?
Rizzle: I was a fan like everybody else, who wasn’t a fan of the Spice Girls?
Jo: Did you have a particular favourite Spice Girl
Melanie looks at Shaun and laughs and says “Shaun loved us” he said he did and Melanie says “did ya? awww”
Rizzle: I did actually yeah. My favourite was Mel B I’m not gonna lie, (Melanie laughs) but Mel C was my second, I’m not gonna lie I’m not gonna lie.

then it went into this bit

About Reinvention
Jo: So Tori (Amos) talks about reinvention, and I guess Mel it makes you wonder where it’s the key to being a successful person in the music industry if you’re able to reinvent yourself all the time and keep people entertained
Melanie: Yeah you know I think it varies from artist to artist but I’ve always just felt different in myself and wanted to express myself differently, you know through my time with the Spice Girls and then starting as a solo artist

Jo: I guess you had to do a big gear change from being Sporty Spice and then trying to go wooooo that was then this is now, how was that? living in that label?

Melanie: Well I think it was a bit of an issue for me at the time because I was very very frustrated because I wanted to be seen as someone else, I wasn’t JUST Sporty Spice you know and when I look back now and you know, cutting all my hair off and you know the tattoos which I had in the band but I suppose, you know doing a bit of the rock thing you know within my pop world it was kinda my way of rebelling and trying to be seen in a different light. But I suppose as times moved on I just have tried to be comfortable in my skin at that moment in time

Jo: Do you feel like there’s extra pressure as a woman in the music industry in terms of your image?

Melanie: Yeah in my time with the Spice Girls yeah it was a difficult time, I wasn’t eating properly, I was erm, was going to the gym..

Jo: how obsessively.. were you doing that?

Melanie: Obsessively I mean, you’re talking everyday and I think my fear, which was driving me was that, you know the media can be so cruel and I was just terrified that “the pictures” and the comments and she’s put on weight and this and that and then when I stopped working with the girls and I started doing my own thing and I kind of went the other way and I did put on you know, not a huge amount of weight but I put on a couple of stone and I did look quite different, of course the tabloid media god stuck in there and you know, called me all the cruel names, erm but it’s all character building

Thanks to Samuel Bennett for the hard work!