Only Clare Grogan knows how it feels to burst onstage from a giant birthday cake

Clare Grogan, a regular on our podcasts and rarely off the cover when we were at Smash Hits, is on tour again with Altered Images and playing festivals in the summer - indeed her fabulous description of the bus ferrying her, Midge Ure, Nik Kershaw, Kim Wilde and Living in A Box to the stage at Rewind sounds like an old Smash Hits cartoon come to life. As she points out, “the ‘80s revival has gone on longer than the decade itself.” We don’t know anyone who enjoys and appreciates being a pop star more and talk here about the first gigs she ever went to and played herself, which involves …
… what she wore (aged 13) to see the Bay City Rollers at the Glasgow Apollo (includes “cork platform clogs”).
… winning the Alternative school beauty pageant dressed as Debbie Harry in a bin bag.
… her sister Margaret’s re-enactments of David Bowie, Leo Sayer and Roxy Music.
… why the furniture at the Middlesbrough Rock Garden was screwed to the floor.
… memories of 2-Tone, the Banshees, Madness, the Stranglers and the Blockheads.
… the riot at a Scottish festival when they ran out of alcohol.
… violence at early ‘80s gigs when your only security was “Ginge the Roadie”.
… Echo & the Bunnymen and the Psychedelic Furs at the Bungalow Bar in Paisley.
… do you focus on the people in the crowd who are enjoying it or the ones that need winning over?
… horizontal rain when wearing a ballet dress and playing to “a sea of cagoules”.
… the best way to tell the audience you’re about to play a new song.
… David Hepworth’s Altered Images album review in Smash Hits: ouch!
… and her daughter watching old Altered Images clips on KZbin.
Altered Images autumn tour dates and tickets here:
alteredimages.band/
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[@NigelKing]

❤ Clare

[@kennethtaylor541]

What a fantastic episode. Had me smiling and chuckling the whole way through.

[@Bambloozled]

Laugh out loud funny. Everyone is in top form. Clare is always wonderful.

[@NigelKing]

Mascara Streakz is a great album!

[@joeglenn-hf5he]

Claire Grogan, still has the exuberance today that made so attractive all those years ago, such a joy to hear her again

[@linara21]

She really is wonderful. Always comes across as being great fun.

[@The.Last.Guitar.Hero.]

I think a lot of us middle aged men had a crush!

[@ivanconnolly7332]

Altered images and the current requirement for photographic proof.

[@SamLowryDZ-015]

Still takes me back to school where we would sing along ' I could be happy, this song's so crappy'

[@patrickcrowther9195]

You mean Pearl Jam don't do that?

[@MrBrindleStyle]

Do what?

[@patrickcrowther9195]

@@MrBrindleStyle. Jump out of birthday cakes.