The Daily Tonic: Viva Scarborough!

We always knew Hugh Grant enjoyed his privacy, but it doesn’t just extend to the press.

A bartender working at a star-studded charity event at the The Sanderson hotel was serving Grant, just as the celebrity karaoke session (MC’d by Will off Will and Grace) started up. The bloke stood next to Hugh at the bar asked him what karaoke classic he had up his sleeve.

Hugh’s choice? A little known number entitled “Fuck Off”.

What with it being Donald Trump’s birthday today, we’re curious to know how the rich, famous and powerful like to celebrate their big days.

Today’s Question: Have you ever been to a celebrity’s birthday party? How did they celebrate? What gifts did they get? Who else was there?

Send your stories of famous people’s parties to us at hello@popbitch.com and we’ll dish out some digital treats to the best of them.

catbox writes:
“I was at a party where Barney from Blue Peter, Ortis Deley from the Gadget Show and Steve Wilson from ITV’s This Morning sang the whole of Boom! Shake The Room. Although the delivery was at times overenthusiastic (partly due to the huge amount of free cider available) they were faultless and, so far as I could see, there were no screens or lyric sheets.”

T writes:
“I worked on the film Little Voice which involved several weeks filming on location in Scarborough. Ewan McGregor had a small part in the film but wasn’t required on set very much. Instead he roamed the streets of Scarborough finding seedy clubs and casinos which he would persuade younger members of the crew to join him at.

“One night he took us all to a bar on the seafront that boasted a very bad Elvis impersonator. He proceeded to clamber up on stage and belt out a few Elvis tunes. He wasn’t very good.”

SH writes:
“Andy Cunningham (Bodger of Bodger & Badger) was one of my best friend’s cousins so consequently I met him at a couple of family weddings. On the first occasion in 2000, he entertained all the children (sans Badger), popped outside for a massive doobie and then treated us all to Agadoo on the karaoke.

“The second time in 2010, he turned up to the reception with his own carrier bag of cans. He’s sadly missed.”

Today’s audio round is a little bit different. In keeping with all the karaoke chat, we thought we’d put together a round made up of famous (and not so famous) duets.

There’s ten songs and you get a point for each one you correctly identify. However, for this round, you get a point for naming each of the artists performing, which means there’s twenty points on offer for that rather than the usual ten. So thirty points in total.

[Play it here]

An all-time great Nick Cave moment – when he raised £70,000 for charity by singing Bootylicious with a fan
[No recording, but a photo]

A homemade, low-budget reshoot of Alien
[Watch on YouTube]

Haddaway, arranged for lute
[Another medieval cover]