In (Extra) Conversation with Mariella

For shits and giggles I decided to invest a fiver to see how their “in conversation” at the British Library in London would differ from the one in Glasgow. I bought the ticket on Tuesday afternoon but didn’t get to watch it until yesterday. I have to say that compared to the one at The Citz, this one really was something different! Mariella steered the conversation expertly – gave Charlie a good chunk of talk time – even when he did try and wriggle out of it and pass the ball onto Kerr.

She was endlessly putting Kerr in his place which was both hilarious and oh so sweet to watch. Lol. This also seemed to minimise the propensity for repetitive anecdotes from Kerr, which again made the whole event much more entertaining for the likes of the diehard Simple Minds fan who (for the most part) is pretty familiar with the whole back story of the band and Kerr himself – Charlie still retains a certain air of mystery. You can tell that he values his privacy much more than Mr Kerr (although he does keep quite a bit of his life private too, just not as much as Mr Burchill is able to).

The highlight? Mariella asking Charlie why he played his guitar so high up his body – the insinuation being that it was a way to “flash off” his best asset, so to speak. After Charlie’s brief response of “I have nothing to hide.” (Succinct and hilarious.) Kerr then says to Mariella, “Well, if you’re gonna ask Charlie about his, you should ask me about mine.” Mariella was constantly cutting him through the whole thing, but this was the piece de resistance. “We all know about your penis, Jim.” BOOM – I think if she could have dropped her mic there, she would have. Lol. It was delicious!

I wanted to be able to link to the British Library site to a purchase-to-view link but there doesn’t seem to be a way. My link seems unique to me and I don’t want to share that here and get myself barred from using the BL Player.

But if you bought a ticket to watch it online, you have until next Monday to view it. If you can still buy-to-view I highly recommend it. Not just because of the deliciously digging retorts from Mariella but because it was just in a much different class to the affair at the Citz. Different questions, fresher conversation. It’s not often these days that I wish I could still go to London for things, as it was always a pain in the arse to get in and out of, even as close as Luton. I rarely wish to attend anything there as Glasgow has so much and my ease of getting to and from the city is a breeze compared to attending London events. But on this occasion, I would have much preferred to have attended this one.

Thank God for technology and the interwebs, eh?