Lunch with Gary Barlow’s gang

I’ve had a fantastic week. I’ve been working hard but playing hard too, as my mate Gary Barlow is here doing some recording.

And guess who he’s brought with him? His lovely wee mum Marge.

We all went out and had a nice long lunch. Marge is just like any mum, very proud of her son it just so happens he’s regarded as a national treasure! I said to her I am the friend who says the only word to Gary that he’ll never hear from any of his other friends no! Obviously his mum is never scared to give him a wee telling off if he needs it. She gave him a talking to when he had a strop on the last series of The X Factor. And she hilariously told off Robbie Williams for swearing too much when he was on tour with Take That. Quite right too, Mrs B!

It’s weird the way the world works. Just before we left the house, my fiancee Brianna was looking at my memorabilia collection which she never really looks at and asked what the black plastic thing was.

It was an acetate (a sort of master recording) of Do They Know It’s Christmas. I got Midge Ure and Bob Geldof to sign it and it’s probably worth a bob or two. I also explained to Brianna I have drumstick from when I saw Midge at the Glasgow Apollo. It got thrown into the crowd and, being the lucky sort, it hit me in the eye. When I interviewed Midge years later, I told him to have it back and threw it at him! He signed it, added “One in the eye”, and gave it back

to me.

Midge is an old friend and the last time I saw him, he was at Gary’s 40th birthday Gary sampled Vienna on Take That’s song Eight Letters and they know each other well. And while I was out with Gary and Marge, Midge sent me a message, just saying hi and that we’ll have to catch up one of these days. Come on, that’s all a bit spooky! Then I got a call to say my old pal Lulu was going to be on Daybreak and remember she’s a pal of Gary’s, too. We had a laugh as I told him when I first met Lulu, I asked when she started her car on a cold day did it go “Weeeeeeelllllllll!” like the start of Shout. She just looked at me!

I’ll be interested to see if Gary comes back to X Factor. He was a great judge, but he didn’t give anything away. After lunch, I was off to see another of Simon’s judges, Demi Lovato. She’s a massive star over here and was a judge on X Factor USA.

Demi came into showbiz through Disney, seems to have been around forever.

I said it was hard to believe she was 20 and she replied she feels like she’s 33! She’s one of the few people who gets away with being cheeky to Simon Cowell. She has great banter with him and goes on about him being old.

She’s says the first thing that pops into her head hugely refreshing in this town. She gets away with being cheeky to Simon where others wouldn’t dare!

One last thing about Gary. One of the things Marge is proudest of is the fact her boy modelled for M&S. How cute is that?