And now here they are, Nick and Sue on Chatterbox. When the stars talk, they talk to Nick and Sue. Welcome back to the Chatterbox Redux Podcast with Sue and Nick and today our special guest is Ben Westwood. And now on Chatterbox UK we're just lucky enough to welcome Ben Westwood. Ben, welcome to Chatterbox. How are you? Hello, Ben. I'm great, thanks. Yeah, thanks for having me.
You're welcome. Nice to meet you at last. Nice to meet you almost today because we're in St. Leonard's and you're on the Sunshine Coast just up the road. So yes, at Eastbourne. So nice to meet you. So as it's the first time we've had a chat, let's talk about you and how you got into music and writing music and that. What influences did you have as a kid? What was being played
at home and what was going on there? A lot of 60s music, a lot of Beatles, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and I remember listening to a radio program about the life of John Lennon and that really inspired me and I actually started writing songs soon after that when I was only 14. and have been doing so ever since. More in fits and starts in recent years, but I've returned to songwriting in the past year, which has been great. Cool, brilliant. Now, when it comes to... I mean, have
you ever done any sort of live music? I mean, when you were starting out, did you ever do any gigging around Eastbourne, around Sussex, or anywhere for that matter? Yes, yeah. I mean, I've always gigged. I studied music in London. I used to gig in London back in the... In the 90s, I had a band in Brighton in the early 2000s, but as a solo artist with a backing band. And recently, I haven't had a band recently, even though my recordings are with a full production.
I tend to gig these days solo, sometimes duo with my mate who plays harmonica and does percussion. Yeah, it's always fun to gig. Perfect. OK, you've got some lovely little anecdotes here, some facts. I like some of them. I mean, you should be an after -dinner speaker with some of this, I tell you. I like the first one. Probably better. I mean, I love the way you shook Tony Blair's hand before he was Prime Minister, and no matter how hard you try, it just won't wash off. Stuff like
that. I like it. Let's hear some more, because they're brilliant. They're better coming from you. Well, yeah, there's various, I mean, I've done stand -up comedy for a few years, which was fun. So I do like to see the funny side of life. Years ago in London, I was arrested on suspicion of robbery, even though I didn't remotely fit the description of the alleged assailant. He was about eight inches shorter than me with completely different hair. So that didn't really...
Fill me with confidence about the meth, but never mind. Really? I've sung at Prince Charles's house at Highgrove. I keep calling him Prince Charles. It's King Charles. But yeah, I mean, he'll always be Prince Charles to me. No, the same here. It would break my life. Yeah. And he's exactly as you would expect. He actually said, I say, while he was talking to me. Oh, I say. Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. But he was Prince Charles for a very long time. Yes, very long time. Maybe the longest.
I don't know if it was the longest serving. Possibly.
log is serving on it before him quite possibly and uh another local local guy here you went to the same school as comedian eddie isard who of course came from bexhill sidley uh but you've never worn high heels well that's up to you isn't it really but that's my story i'm sticking to it yeah i like that oh dear and once got paid by mistake for an article written by the other ben westwood erotic photographer and son of the fashion designer Vivian, yes, okay, that's good.
Yeah, yeah, it was quite embarrassing for a few years because he was quite vocal in the sadomasochistic scene and he was writing articles defending the rights of people and because we'd both written for the same newspaper they actually paid me for his article. It took me quite a few months to realize this but it was Quite funny. I did try and get in touch with him to tell him but I think he's so rich I don't think he would notice 200 cred here or there. Whatever it is Perla,
no he hadn't missed it now. And he once appeared on the BBC talk show Kilroy to discuss drunken Brits in Greece despite the fact you rarely drink these days. That's after reporting for the Telegraph
apparently. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was a I was a telegraph journalist for the Telegraph Are we going back quite a few years now as you can tell because a lot younger viewers wouldn't really even know who Kilroy is He was the main talk show man for quite a few years wasn't a not a very nice guy I have to say Didn't seem to me and and been a more political parties than the other one Yes, definitely. I do happen to subscribe to The Telegraph, so still a good paper. Still
a good paper. I like that pose. Let's talk about you. Let's talk about Step Into The Light. Well, we've been talking about you, but let's talk about the song. How did it come about? Yeah. Well, I actually wrote most of the music for Step Into The Light. a long, long time ago, but I was never quite happy with the lyrics and previous recordings I'd done of it. So I actually rewrote the song very recently and I started working
with a producer I'd never worked with. I hadn't really worked with producers before the last year. I'd really just worked with an engineer and kind of produced myself. But Mark Edwards, who plays piano for Katie Melua, has been brilliant and I would just go in and lay down the bare bones of the track and then he would come up with a full production as you've heard on this with piano and strings and guitars and we just deliberately went for a motile and pipe classic
sound. The other thing is that I'm definitely singing better than I was a few years ago, and that was really noticeable on this track. When I lay down the vocal, I, you know, often I'm sort of very critical of my own vocals, but I was very happy with the vocal on this song. So it's funny really, but a lot of men get stronger voices in their 40s. Oh dear, I've just dropped how old I am. Should we say I'm not quite there, but yes. But it's definitely happened with me.
I do have a stronger voice. So it's been nice. I feel that the song after many years has finally got a recording that does it justice. And I've had a lot of good feedback from people. People are enjoying it. So that's the main thing. Sure, sure. Now, let's step into the light. There's a bit more of a story to it than that. There's
a great video out there. and basically the song's message is of hope and optimism and it features, now I'm going to make a probably a mess of this poor lady's surname, but it features a Ukrainian refugee who is also an Eastbourne resident now, Pilates instructor Olga Litvinova? Litvinova, yes. Yeah, so I met Olga about a year or so ago and she's a friend of mine and Yes, when I was thinking about how to present the song, I didn't want to just sing to the camera. I wanted a storyline.
I was very struck by Olga's story. You know, it really does beg a belief. You know, she had a... happy family life and very suddenly had to uproot. I think she went to Poland or another country in Europe initially and then after a couple of months the whole family ended up in Britain and then she ended up in Eastbourne. So she's here with her two more or less grown -up children, they're teenagers I think, and her mother. And yeah, I think it was a a good
sort of muse to build the song around. And we had a lot of luck. It was Eastbourne Seafront in December, and it had been really hammering down with rain the days before and the day after. But on the day we filmed it, it was beautiful sunshine and it all seemed to come together well.
And I think, you know, it certainly worked with the song, which when I rewrote it, I wanted to make it quite general about companionship and being with other people, making you feel better, which is certainly the case with Olga's family building a new life here. I think it's something we should be very proud of in Britain, of how we've handled that situation with Ukrainian refugees.
They contribute a lot to the the local area, you know, her daughter works full time in a cafe and she is giving Pilates classes and yeah, so yeah, it was nice. It felt like the right thing to do with the song and to give it a different kind of perspective. And Tutu present a radio show So here's Nick and Sue Your musical duo This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox Giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment Chatterbox Chatterbox Chatterbox And the single,
Step into the Light, that's not all, is it? Because that comes from an upcoming album, We Are Human. So tell us a bit more about the album, what else we can find on it. So, yeah, I was initially going to release the album next month and it is finished, but I've been advised by several people that it's much better to sort of drip
feed several singles. So I'm now thinking the whole album will probably come out in May and the actual song, We Are Human, is going to come out in March and then there'll probably be a further single before the whole album of 11 tracks
comes out in May. And yes, it is a mix of different types of songs, deliberately so, because my songwriting is quite diverse, and there are love songs in a similar vein to Step Into the Lie, but We Are Humour is a much more, a sort of deeper song in some ways, and it's looking at... the rise of AI and, you know, what humanity is doing at the moment. So I wanted to mix sort of deeper issues with the love songs and that's what I've done on the album. Brilliant, we look forward
to that. You did mention playing in Brighton, in London, but it's almost like you... undersold yourself, because we were talking about your band and things and so on in Brighton. But yeah, you have played Brighton Dome and also at Ronnie Scott's. Yes, I have. I mean, Brighton Dome was a festival thing. Yes, I mean, I wasn't headlining a gig at Brighton Dome. I was playing as part of the Brighton Festival. But yes, I was on stage there. And yes, I did a gig at Ronnie Scott's
a few years ago in London. Yeah, I've got a gig in Brighton on the 21st of March. I was part of a Leonard Cohen tribute in Brighton last weekend, and I was in London the weekend before. And I do sometimes gig in Hastings. It's a good music scene there. It is. Yeah, it is. Very lively. Yes, it's a lot different to what it was 30 and 40 years ago. It's certainly... Turned around. Definitely. It's a great place for film as well because we've got two independent arty cinemas
as well, which are great. One just down the road from us. So we've got that side of it as well. So it's getting quite artistic and cultured in many ways. So yeah, the art gallery scene as well. Independent art galleries at that. You know, just little things like that. It really is quite something. Proud to live in St. Louis, let's be honest with you, these days. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah well actually I forgot to mention I teach at Hastings College part -time actually yeah I teach tourism there so I'm there three days a week so yeah I know Hastings quite well. Yes quite well it is only just a little bit. If the road's not a nightmare, it's less than half hour, isn't it, really, if you have a good run, so yeah. No, I take the train because the college is right next to the station, yeah. Well, it is, isn't it? Yes, quite, quite. So, have you
got any questions for Ben? Yes, Ben. I'd like you to pick one of your songs and tell me why you'd pick this song to be played in a film. Oh, OK. I think I would actually pick We Are Human because I think it is the centrepiece of the album and I wanted to write a song that was both rousing and thought provoking and I could see it being in a, maybe a science fiction movie or something like that. That would be great. Nice, okay. I'll have to manifest that. OK, brilliant.
Let's do some social media. Hang on. Sorry. It's a very rude word. I do apologize. We'll edit that out. We'll probably leave it in. Could I ask you about the lovely picture? I can't do the pose of you. You've got a suit on and you've got this pressure. I love that. Because you look completely different from seeing you on the Zoom meeting to that picture. No glasses. No glasses. That's me all glowed up and makeup done and everything in a professional photo shoot. So they polished
me up as much as they could. But it's only six months ago, so it is the same guy. Yeah, I was pleased with that pic. What have you got planned for the rest of the year? I mean we got up to May with the album and stuff so if you were to come back in say six months time or so and we asked you well what would you like to be telling us that you've achieved in that time? Well, I mean, the song has already achieved more than I have with previous songs. So I'm already pretty
pleased. I mean, we've already had 6 ,000 streams. We've had about 70 ,000 video views. It's been on quite a lot of bigger radio stations. It's been on boom radio playlisted. And yeah, and obviously I want to keep going with that. But as I said, I've been advised to bring out lots of singles. So I've definitely got at least another two singles in the pipeline. But actually, I'm already thinking about getting back in the studio and doing further singles for perhaps the autumn,
because I do have a lot of songs. And in particular, in a similar vein to Step into the Light, I have songs that I... I want to work with a producer to really do them justice and to sing them better. And I think I can do that. So, yeah, there'll be more music coming out. Looking forward to it. Right, let's do some social media. We've got a website here of www .benwestwoodmusic .com. Now, if we click on that, we've got... The first thing we see is a nice little link to the video
of Step Into The Light. However, we scroll down, nice and easy, because in the bottom left -hand corner there, we've got direct links to all your other social media. So nice and easy if they literally just go to benwestwoodmusic .com and right down there you've got to just click on your Facebook, on your Instagram, on your YouTube. Basically... Yeah, iTunes. It's basically... Yeah, and they're all Bed Westwood music, pretty much the handle of them. Well, apart from Spotify,
but yeah, so it's quite easy. All just a direct click on there. And also in that bottom right hand corner, we've got X as well. So, yeah, there you go. It's all there. So run and read it all out. It's just all there. Brilliant. And a nice
little gallery as well. there we go it's a great little website actually Ben so there we go thank you thank you it's important these days isn't it isn't it absolutely yeah Ben it's been great meeting you and I hope we do get to chat again so let's know what's going on please and uh every success of course with the single and the albums uh singles and the album and um yeah hopefully we can do it again sometime soon and just every success for 2026 great meeting you thanks a lot
okay You've been listening to the Chatterbox Redux podcast with Sue and Nick and today our special guest was Ben Westwood. If you're interested in becoming a future guest on the Chatterbox Redux podcast or the radio show Chatterbox UK, you're welcome to submit songs, books or whatever it is you do and send us a CV, synopsis or press release. However, we receive several thousand such press releases every week and it's impossible
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we catch you then. Bye bye. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about music