The Daily Tonic: Like A Hairdryer

The people behind York Gin are Popbitch readers, so now they’ve had to close their shop and stop selling to bars, there’s only one place they thought to advertise their boutique, brilliant gins. They’re made in York, but they’ll send to readers anywhere in UK without charging postage, just use code popbitch. 18s and over only. Minimum order £18. Offer ends 31st May. [See and buy at York Gin]

A quick dose of gossip, smut and silliness Subscribe

* Private jets and potato peels!

* Maxing out MJ’s card!

* PLUS: Audio Round No.60…

>> Naughty Nolan <<

Too much for Lemmy

Last week we asked you for stories of stars who behaved completely out of keeping with their public persona, but completely forgot that we had a tale of it to share ourselves. Back in the early days of the Popbitch messageboard, Lemmy from Motorhead did a Q&A with readers – and this is what he told us.
Lemmy wrote:
“We were in the bar at Top of the Pops with the Nolans, and Douglas our manager dropped his lighter on the floor. As he bent down to pick it up, Linda said, ‘While you’re down there…’
“You don’t expect that from the Nolans, really.”

Lyle Lovett’s uncle is called Calvin Klein.

>> Finders keepers <<

Question of the day

Thanks for all your stories of celeb cash-splashing. We’ve included some of them below and there’ll be more of them to come. Today though we want to know about items of lost celebrity property.
Today’s Question: Have you ever recovered a celebrity’s misplaced possessions? What were they? Where did you find them? Did you manage to return it was?
Send your stories of found showbiz treasures to hello@popbitch.com and we’ll send some digital PB goodies to our favourites.

At a Ross Noble gig in Manchester a few years ago, Ross spotted a woman on the front row having to leave early to catch her last train home. So he dug his wallet out on stage and gave her £30 so she could get a taxi and stay for the last half hour.

>> Pure motive <<

Shedding the pounds

TA writes:

“After Mr Motivator (aka Derek Evans) made it big on GMTV he decided to hire out the Mayfair club Motcombs for a jolly and a thank you to all the staff – from the lowest runner to the director of programmes. He’d only been famous for a year at this point.
“I turned up at about 10pm and everyone was splattered. Drinks were being ordered and used as ashtrays. It was that level of free bar. At midnight the club was opened to its usual clientele and the free bar ended. We had a blast, until we went to the bar and found a bottle of Becks was 12 quid.
“Derek still paid for a few rounds. Very generous man.”

M writes: “At one of Mark Watson’s long shows for charity, lots of celebs dropped some serious cash for Comic Relief, but Joanna Lumley bought packets of M&S ladies knickers in a few different sizes which she handed out, declaring that ‘clean pants make everyone feel better’.”

>> Jamiro-kind <<

A vaycay with Jay Kay

Jonah writes:

“I was once having drinks with Jay Kay of Jamiroquai when he took a call for an upcoming gig in Portugal. Midway through the call he asks me if I’ve ever been on a private jet. I told him I hadn’t, at which point he asks his tour manager to reserve a seat for me and a hotel room.
“Sure enough, two days later I’m on the jet with Jay, girlfriend and stylist. Not only did he organise the flights, a massive hotel room, transfers and all food and beverages, on the return he also asked me to stay with my girlfriend at his house for the weekend. Generous to a fault, he even cooked Sunday lunch (admittedly I had to peel the veg).
“He also told me to walk on stage behind him so I could feel the roar of the crowd. It was like a hairdryer.”

It’s not unusual for crews on Hollywood movie sets to have on-set lotteries where everyone puts $5 in a bucket and whoever gets theirs pulled out wins the pot. But M. Night Shyamalan is supposedly incredibly generous and buys proper prizes for his crews. Trips to Jamaica, iPhones, etc.

>> Toy story <<

MJ: always spoiling kids

JJ writes:

“One day, shortly after Jarvis Cocker stormed the stage during Michael Jackson’s performance at the Brits, loads of kids turned up on a coach at the main Hamley’s store. It turned out they were the same kids that had been on the stage performing with MJ at the time of the Jarvis incident.
“They were told they could choose any toy they wanted, all on Jacko’s credit card, which resulted in them buying so much stuff the items took up over three flights of staff stairs at the back of the building.
“Instead of buying just one item, individual kids were like flies to shit, grabbing everything they could. Subsequently Michael Jackson’s credit card bounced and Sony had to send a cheque to cover the costs.”

When Michael Jackson used to visit Hamleys himself, he would spend ages perusing the miniature toy soldiers.

>> Quarantunes <<

Your 60th audio round

Sixty daily quizzes. Two full months of this nonsense. That amounts to about two and a half hours’ worth of ten second song snippets that we’ve made you listen to.
Not something we expected for 2020, but we are where we are. Here’s today’s round. Ten songs, twenty points.
[Get to it]

POPBITCH POPQUIZ: You don’t need the hard sell, do you? Basically, if you want to host a pub quiz for friends or family but don’t know what to do for it, we have loads of ready-to-play quiz sets available to download.

[Take a look at the range]

>> Hmmms <<

A couple of quick things

An oral history of Sisqo’s The Thong Song

[Read on Def Jam]
Hamsters in masks spread far less Covid-19 than hamsters without masks

[Read on SCMP]
AI finally being used for populist endeavours

[High-end robot sex dolls]

Thanks to: JD, JH, monstris , JJ, KL, TA, MA, jonah

Old Jokes Home

What’s the difference between an oral thermometer and the rectal thermometer?

The taste.

Fancy Another?