THE JONATHAN ROSS SHOW
2nd December 2000

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You can hear this interview on the following link:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/jonathan_ross/jonathanr_replay.shtml

(Before Michael comes on, Jonathan and Andy are looking at the cover of 'This Time It's Personal', and Jonathan thinks that it's probably 'tampered' with (i.e. make-up, airbrushed afterwards, etc) and that Michael won't look anything like it 'in person'. So they decide to do a check and see what Michael really looks like when he comes on)

JR:  We've someone here who, I suspect, has never been embarrassed or self-conscious when it comes to shaking his bon-bon.

Michael: (laughs)

JR:  It's the poor man's Ricky Martin - it's Michael Ball! Michael thanks for coming in. You must be consumedly jealous, seeing that young Ricky out there shaking his bon-bon and you were the first.

Michael:  I was! Yeah, and I had the hair and the highlights and the whole lot - it's not fair. But you know if someone's got to live La Vida Loca.

JR:  He'll burn bright but burn fast and he'll be gone. How are you? It's great to see you again.

Michael:  I'm alright yeah, I've just come back from Dublin so I'm a little bit ... jaded.

JR:  Had a late night?

Michael: Very very late, more like an early morning.

JR:  Dublin's a party city ...

Michael:  Yes, and I know all the people who party. So a real worry.  Do you go there much?

JR:  You know, I haven't been there for years, but seeing as I've given up the booze, you see, and I've never been a Guiness fan ...

Michael:  That's right, oh God...

JR:  Do you drink Guiness?

Michael:  Yeah, Guiness and Champagne.

JR:  Can I ask you - does it make you very windy?

Michael: ... it DOES blow you out a bit, but it's like a meal you don't have anything to eat.

JR: Yeah but I bet you do as well.  Just look at that - you had a full four courses last night and eight pints.

Michael:  I've given up smoking, so...

JR: Yeah, that's ... always people put on weight...

Michael:  Tell me about it. I gave up in May and I used to smoke a LOT.

JR:  You haven't put on a lot, you've put on a little bit of weight.

Michael:  No, I have, I've put on a lot.

JR: ... what, about 4 stone, 5 stone??

Michael: (laughs) yeah, I'm gonna lose it quickly and have a leg removed.

Andy:  When he first came in I thought he was Buster Bloodvessel coming in.

JR:  I used to like Bad Manners - do you remember?

Michael:  He's got a hotel.  It's true.  I remember reading it in the paper.  He's got this hotel where everyone goes and .... I don't think I will be staying there.  You can imagine the sheets - nylon.

JR:  Congratulations.  We've just played a track from the new album earlier, it was a good version of Walking In Memphis, a song I love.

Michael: It's a great song, yeah. I like Marc Cohn.

RJ: I'm not that familiar with his stuff but that's good.  What you chose all the tracks yourself?

Michael:  I 'choosed' them!  I chose them. And I wrote a couple of them as well and Paul Carrack wrote one for me.  He's a fab talent - great singer, great songwriter.  So it's sort of a collection of songs that are personal to me.

JR: Well we're gonna play another one in a minute. First of all - before you came in I was talking about this video, you've got 'Michael Ball - This Time It's Personal', it's a one special night live gig. You were playing - is this a small audience you were playing?

Michael: Yeah, the last video I did was at the Albert Hall and I've been playing now the arena's and big theatres.

JR: ... and sometimes they're quite full aren't they? (laughs)

Michael: Twice we had actually! I was quite pleased. Well I've got a large family! But I thought I'd choose something different and I took the Cafe De Paris because it's a beautiful little venue. I just invited a hundred people, and probably more musicians than audience, just to get an intimate, live vibe. Just one off, no retakes. Nothing.

JR: Just incase you're worried - we weren't upset that you didn't invite us ... but thanks for not even inviting us!

Michael: ... did you not get the invite?  I'm SO sorry...

Andy: You know when the line is drawn and our names are underneath it.

JR: I bet you had three lists: I bet you had your A-list, your B-list ... I bet we were on the C-list of 'might do me some good

Michael: and there was the 'definitely NO WAY-list'

JR: (Laughs) there was me, Ricky Martin, Buster Blood Vessel ... (laughs)  Might need to stay there one time, it's worth keeping in with him.

Michael: (laughs)  It is a B&B - it's down in Brighton I'm sure.

JR: Let's have a boy's night out, you, me, Andy and Paul Carrack.  Let's invite Ronan as well - he likes a night out.

Michael:  He'll go for it yeah.

JR:  So it was a very small gig for you then. Is it different, working for a much smaller crowd? Do you find yourself in a different sort of space?

Michael: Yeah, you don't get so nervous, it's like being in your front room - you just feel really relaxed about it. Because it was a lot of new stuff, I was introducing new stuff to fans. Just to see if it worked, to see if the music would work in a live situation. It really did, I just loved it, really nice.

JR: I'm always curious, when a professional singer like yourself, you obviously hear tracks and think 'that might work, I could do something ... my voice would suit that, I could give it a different twist'. And how long does it take you from deciding that you want to do that track, to start working on it with the band, to then try it out in the gig before you put it in your concert?

Michael: Um ... it really ... I could do it in a day, that's happened before.

JR: But successfully how long would it take?

Michael:  I'm still working on that!

JR: Not Karaoke.  We're not talking Karaoke.

Michael: It depends - if you find a track that ... there was a song, a Joni Mitchell song called River, which I recorded. And I literally, in the morning, it's on my Christmas album, I thought 'this is really lovely, beautiful song'. And between there I got Pete Adams, the pianist in, just sat down - piano and voice and it was on the album in three hours.

JR: That's fantastic!

Michael: yeah it's nice to be able to do .. .if you do something big, with a full orchestra, you have to through a whole series of listening.

JR: And when you actually do a cover like that, do you ever get to hear back from the artists themselves, the original performer?

Michael: No, normally their lawyers. You don't hear directly from them.

Andy: 'Cease and desist'

Michael: And an abusive letter follows.

JR: We are going to do something afterwards.   Cos this is what I was building up to. We've got the video here, looks great, you look great on the cover. And I said to Andy before you came in 'I want you to evaluate Michael for me, I want you to look at him with unflinching honesty, compare the way he looks there 'knowing as we all do in this business, you've had stylists ... probably a bit of gauze over the lens.

Michael: Vaseline! (laughs)

JR: The Gloria Hunniford Touch, we call that. They put swarfega on the lens for her. You've had an early week before that.

Michael:  Cabbage soup diet for two weeks before it.

JR: Evaluate honestly everything from your outfit, skin tone, demeanour, coiffed hair, and so on and so forth. But first we're going to listen to a track from ...

Michael: You are going to rip me to bits basically.

JR: It's not me - this is Andy.  I obviously come from royality point of view, he speaks as the common man.  And they don't come much more common. From the Dorset West Country vibe. What's the album called?

Michael:  This Time ... It's Personal

JR:  It's out right now?

Michael:  Yes

JR: Great Christmas Present.

(Never Coming Back is played)

JR: I like that a lot. It's got a Van Morisson kinda feel about it ....

Michael: That's nice of you.

JR: It's good. Do you not play any instruments yourself?

Michael: No, no, I hum.

JR: You hum along.  And when you write a tune like that, what do you do? You come up with the vocal ...

Michael: I came up with the idea, with a story to start with. You come up with the sort of thing you're going for, the idea. There it was inspired by me seeing somebody sat at a station. I don't know if you're like me if you ... you don't even ride the Tube, do you, you wouldn't know.

JR: What's a Tube?

Michael: Exactly. You're not in touch with the common man!

JR: You don't ride the Tube! No way!

Michael: I DO!! Where's my season ticket ...

JR: We'll have a look after. We're going to evaluate.  Tell us the story after.  We've got to go to the News we're gonna give a full and frank evaluation of your physical state right now.

Michael: But I REALLY don't want that ...  (laughs)

(News)

JR: Okay so it's time for ...

Michael: Oh God ...

JR:  The full and frank Michael Ball evaluation. This I think should be a new part of the show, in which Andy Davies casts a stylist's eye upon the guests. We have here a picture of Michael Ball on video, looking fantastic, glowing with a radiant health that only a clean living youngster can really boast.  I suspect there's a bit of make-up on there ...

Michael: I'd just come back from Spain, in the summer.

JR: Well you look great there. You're in a nice comfy cardie.  Looks nice, should think that's quite expensive. No it's not it's a cable-knit jumper. But then you come here today and you're wearing .... let's describe it kindly as leisure wear ...

Michael: It is!

JR: It's leisure wear. There's a T-shirt that's seen better days. Oh no I shouldn't be doing the evaluation. Andy??

Andy: Well I was gonna say - the album cover ... what Michael's got the knitted bit on, he's got that look of 'I'm a naughty school boy', and finger in mouth sort of don't look at ...

JR:  Slightly coy - you know what he's doing, he's doing what we call a 'coy but knowing' look at the camera, which is like saying 'hello ladies, do you find me attractive? Oooh I do!'

Michael: (laughs)

JR: That's what you're thinking isn't it!

Andy: And also it says "This Time ... It's Personal".  You know what I need to get the evaluation - I need a bit of light on it.

JR:  Shine the light in every crack.  But you're rising manfully to the challenge Michael.  I'd have backed away by now.  I'm like a mole - I see a bit of light and I go under.

Andy: I think he's the same person.

JR: You're being too kind, I'll tell you what's going on here. You're wearing that T-shirt - I think that T-shirt, you've worn it several times in a row, you haven't even washed it, you've picked it off the floor and put it straight back on.

Michael: Yeah...

JR: Right. You're wearing a sweat top, like you think you're Rocky Balboa.

Michael: Yeah. "Mahareeshy" trousers!

JR: But those trousers they're for a young star!

Michael: I AM young, I'm a juvenile lead!

JR: How old are you now Michael?

Michael: I can't remember ...

JR: You are 45 if you are a day.

Michael:  I'm 72.

JR:  He's wearing pants which really a younger man should wear.  And also you notice they've got an elasticated waist.

Andy:  He's a bit of a label king though.

JR:  And also, lets have a look, you've got some spots coming on there, I'm sure. it's a blotchy face ....

Michael:  I've just come back from Dublin, what d'you expect?

JR: Let's send out for some of those little pads you put over your nose to get rid of the blackheads.

Michael: (laughs)

JR: We are the saddest blokes in the world.

Andy:  David Essex and you were doing the same thing comparing skin tones.  But you look better than David.

Michael:  Well, that's nice.

JR:  Yeah, but you've got all your own hair.  David is losing his.

Michael:  That will never go.

JR:  But you tint your hair, put a bit of dye on it? The yellow lemon juice on there or something?

Michael:  Yeah lemon juice.

JR: We'll be talking some more on beauty tips for the old man after this - we are like the worst couple of old queens in the business.

Michael: Terrible!

JR: I remember once we got together in a dressing room, I like that, isn't it a bit Gucci, Prada, Socks from Yves Saint Laurent

Michael: 'Whatever happened to Terry Mugler ....' (laughs)

JR + Andy: (laughing)

(punk song)

JR: Were you doing the whole punk thing, the post-punk thing, were you into that at all Michael?

Michael: No, I really wasn't. Actually I had a razor blade round my neck, and my ear pierced, and that was as far as it went.

JR: But that's more of a kind of David Essex look there! The pirate gypsy boy look.

Michael: (laughs) No I wasn't into it at all. I lived for a while in South Africa, you see, and we weren't allowed television in those days. So the music I was listening to was kind of like the Frank Sinatra, Count Basie stuff. And I just didn't get it, I just didn't like it. I listened to Motown.

JR: When you choose a track for yourself now, what do you look for? Do you think 'I think the audience will love that' or do you look for something that you think 'I can do something different with that' ...

Michael: Not necessarily do something different with it, I can actually put something of myself into it. I mean ... we're talking seriously now, the emotional content of a song is really important. If you're listening, you want to empathise with what you're hearing. I know there are certain songs that suit me and some that don't. But I try sort of to do as broad a spectrum of music as possible. But as long as I really care about it, as long as I know what I'm singing about.

JR: And do you look for a song with a certain sort of structure you can belt out?

Michael: No. I used to, I used to think 'if I don't have a money note, then it's not good' ... you know the Love Changes Everything, where your veins start popping.

JR: I do a good version of I Will Always Love You

Michael: Do you? Do you do it acapella at the beginning?

JR: ('singing') 'Iiiiiiii ....'

Michael: ... I've got to go now ...

JR: (continues 'singing') 'will alwahahaways love *deep breath now* youhouououou' Join in Michael!

Michael: ('singing') 'and I will always lohohohohove yuouououou'

JR: You've spoilt it now, you've ruined it! I was singing over and above the actual note. YOU did that mundane thing and actually sang the note!

Michael: I did a wobble in there! (laughs)

JR: I do love a sing, but I just can't sing, Michael.

Michael: Oh that's not true - anyone can sing.

Andy: No, he can't, no. At his wife's birthday party he sang 'let's get it on'...

Michael: ... and she didn't! (laughs)

Andy:  And Marvin Gaye did turn in that grave.

JR: I tell you what - what I don't have on the lips, I make up for on the hips.

Michael: ... am I imagining it - didn't I see you sing ... no it wasn't you ... no, it was Lenny Henry on Comic Relief singing with Tom Jones.

JR: Yea, a lot of people mix the two of us up, it's commonly done! You DID have a late night last night!

Michael: Oh God - the cold sweat starting now ...

JR:  You'll be mixing me up with people from the Crazy Gang next.

Michael:  Or Peter Glaze from Crackerjack.  Or wasn't it Don Estelle?

JR:  Blimey the names are really coming out now.

Andy:  Don's still going.

Michael:  I saw him on "After They Were Famous". Bless.

JR:  That's waiting for all of us you know.

Michael:  We'll be on that show.

JR: Let's make a pact, I'll only go on it when you go on it.

Michael:  OK - see you Thursday.

JR:  Let's have another track, cos you've selected this.  Michael is wearing his designer gear, and this song mentions it and also he's called Michael Ball and these are the Light Funky Ones, so he could be called the light funky one.

Michael:  Yeah ... I could do this.

A song by the Light Funky Ones is played.

JR:  So Michael.  You still here?

Michael: In body if not in spirit.

JR:  So we get on quite well don't we?  Why don't we become friends.  Well I don't meet anyone else outside here and I need some.

Michael:  I'll be your mate.

JR:  Cos I'm gonna phase Andy out this year.  That's my New Year's Resolution.

Andy:  You never phased me in!

JR:  This is as close as anyone gets.  So what are you doing for next year? Have you got anything planned for after Christmas, any gigs coming up?

Michael: I've finished the tour and er ...  actually I'm knackered.

JR:  You look tired.

Michael:  Well actually I do.  I think a couple of weeks in the Priory ... sort me out

JR:  A hotel in the Bahamas.  And next year, I know you're beginning to get known in the States now, you're beginning to get a following over there now. Is that going to be your plan for 2001?

Michael: Yeah, America and I think we're going to Australia as well, I think we're sort of doing that journey, 'heading East' and coming back round into the West.  We're releasing the album and the video over there in February so I'm going to do promotion for that.

JR: And is it weird for you? Cause you're so well established over here now, you know your live shows sell out, you've got TV if you want it, whenever you want it. But in America presumably you're starting ... well not exactly at the bottom, but pretty near the bottom.

Michael: Well what happened with the station, PBS, I did a couple of really high-profile shows - the 10th anniversary of Les Mis, ALW's 50th birthday 'do' and Hey Mr Producer about Cameron Mackintosh. So people who hadn't heard of me before were watching for the American stars on it, saw me and liked what I was doing and got to know through the internet and so on.

JR: And how have you found the internet - is that a useful tool for you for like spreading the word?

Michael:  Absolutely.

JR:  Especially for those late nights when you are on your own and your date doesn't turn up.  Obviously there's that side to it.  www.michaelball.com

Michael:  It's there.  Have your visa card ready!

JR:  Live, nude Ball.  Is there a Ballcam!  Michael in the bath stuffing Bounties in his mouth.

Michael:  I was watching.  The crumbliest, flakiest chocolate ...

JR: I love a bar of chocolate me.

Michael:  In the bath?

JR: Anywhere.

Michael:  You can't go wrong can you?

JR:  A few days ago I pigged out completely. I ate about 12 mince pies in a row.

Michael:  Are you like me, are you a binger?

JR:  I binge. I crack, I crumble, I see a mince pie and next thing I know there is nothing but sugar around my lips.

Michael: I once said I've got bulimia without the vomiting!  I can never bring myself to bring it back.  That was a nice image wasn't it?

JR:  Beautiful thought.  All available on www.michaelballeating.com.  So we are going to say goodbye to you Michael.  Thank you so much for coming once again.

Michael:  That's my pleasure.

JR:  The video is out and there's Michael Ball - This Time ... It's Personal.  You've got a CD as well.  We've played two tracks from it, and there's a single out after Christmas.

Michael:  Yes the single that Paul Carrack wrote for me.  You Bring The Best Out Of Me.

JR:  And the CD has a nice picture of Michael on the cover - don't be fooled - he doesn't look like that.
He's better !! Much better looking.