And now here they are, Nick and Sue on Chatterbox.
When the stars talk, they talk to Nick and Sue.
Welcome back to the Chatterbox Redux Podcast
with Sue and Nick and today our special guest
is Ben Westwood. And now on Chatterbox UK we're
just lucky enough to welcome Ben Westwood. Ben,
welcome to Chatterbox. How are you? Hello, Ben.
I'm great, thanks. Yeah, thanks for having me.
You're welcome. Nice to meet you at last. Nice
to meet you almost today because we're in St.
Leonard's and you're on the Sunshine Coast just
up the road. So yes, at Eastbourne. So nice to
meet you. So as it's the first time we've had
a chat, let's talk about you and how you got
into music and writing music and that. What influences
did you have as a kid? What was being played
at home and what was going on there? A lot of
60s music, a lot of Beatles, Bob Dylan, Paul
Simon and I remember listening to a radio program
about the life of John Lennon and that really
inspired me and I actually started writing songs
soon after that when I was only 14. and have
been doing so ever since. More in fits and starts
in recent years, but I've returned to songwriting
in the past year, which has been great. Cool,
brilliant. Now, when it comes to... I mean, have
you ever done any sort of live music? I mean,
when you were starting out, did you ever do any
gigging around Eastbourne, around Sussex, or
anywhere for that matter? Yes, yeah. I mean,
I've always gigged. I studied music in London.
I used to gig in London back in the... In the
90s, I had a band in Brighton in the early 2000s,
but as a solo artist with a backing band. And
recently, I haven't had a band recently, even
though my recordings are with a full production.
I tend to gig these days solo, sometimes duo
with my mate who plays harmonica and does percussion.
Yeah, it's always fun to gig. Perfect. OK, you've
got some lovely little anecdotes here, some facts.
I like some of them. I mean, you should be an
after -dinner speaker with some of this, I tell
you. I like the first one. Probably better. I
mean, I love the way you shook Tony Blair's hand
before he was Prime Minister, and no matter how
hard you try, it just won't wash off. Stuff like
that. I like it. Let's hear some more, because
they're brilliant. They're better coming from
you. Well, yeah, there's various, I mean, I've
done stand -up comedy for a few years, which
was fun. So I do like to see the funny side of
life. Years ago in London, I was arrested on
suspicion of robbery, even though I didn't remotely
fit the description of the alleged assailant.
He was about eight inches shorter than me with
completely different hair. So that didn't really...
Fill me with confidence about the meth, but never
mind. Really? I've sung at Prince Charles's house
at Highgrove. I keep calling him Prince Charles.
It's King Charles. But yeah, I mean, he'll always
be Prince Charles to me. No, the same here. It
would break my life. Yeah. And he's exactly as
you would expect. He actually said, I say, while
he was talking to me. Oh, I say. Oh, wonderful.
Wonderful. But he was Prince Charles for a very
long time. Yes, very long time. Maybe the longest.
I don't know if it was the longest serving. Possibly.
log is serving on it before him quite possibly
and uh another local local guy here you went
to the same school as comedian eddie isard who
of course came from bexhill sidley uh but you've
never worn high heels well that's up to you isn't
it really but that's my story i'm sticking to
it yeah i like that oh dear and once got paid
by mistake for an article written by the other
ben westwood erotic photographer and son of the
fashion designer Vivian, yes, okay, that's good.
Yeah, yeah, it was quite embarrassing for a few
years because he was quite vocal in the sadomasochistic
scene and he was writing articles defending the
rights of people and because we'd both written
for the same newspaper they actually paid me
for his article. It took me quite a few months
to realize this but it was Quite funny. I did
try and get in touch with him to tell him but
I think he's so rich I don't think he would notice
200 cred here or there. Whatever it is Perla,
no he hadn't missed it now. And he once appeared
on the BBC talk show Kilroy to discuss drunken
Brits in Greece despite the fact you rarely drink
these days. That's after reporting for the Telegraph
apparently. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was a I was a
telegraph journalist for the Telegraph Are we
going back quite a few years now as you can tell
because a lot younger viewers wouldn't really
even know who Kilroy is He was the main talk
show man for quite a few years wasn't a not a
very nice guy I have to say Didn't seem to me
and and been a more political parties than the
other one Yes, definitely. I do happen to subscribe
to The Telegraph, so still a good paper. Still
a good paper. I like that pose. Let's talk about
you. Let's talk about Step Into The Light. Well,
we've been talking about you, but let's talk
about the song. How did it come about? Yeah.
Well, I actually wrote most of the music for
Step Into The Light. a long, long time ago, but
I was never quite happy with the lyrics and previous
recordings I'd done of it. So I actually rewrote
the song very recently and I started working
with a producer I'd never worked with. I hadn't
really worked with producers before the last
year. I'd really just worked with an engineer
and kind of produced myself. But Mark Edwards,
who plays piano for Katie Melua, has been brilliant
and I would just go in and lay down the bare
bones of the track and then he would come up
with a full production as you've heard on this
with piano and strings and guitars and we just
deliberately went for a motile and pipe classic
sound. The other thing is that I'm definitely
singing better than I was a few years ago, and
that was really noticeable on this track. When
I lay down the vocal, I, you know, often I'm
sort of very critical of my own vocals, but I
was very happy with the vocal on this song. So
it's funny really, but a lot of men get stronger
voices in their 40s. Oh dear, I've just dropped
how old I am. Should we say I'm not quite there,
but yes. But it's definitely happened with me.
I do have a stronger voice. So it's been nice.
I feel that the song after many years has finally
got a recording that does it justice. And I've
had a lot of good feedback from people. People
are enjoying it. So that's the main thing. Sure,
sure. Now, let's step into the light. There's
a bit more of a story to it than that. There's
a great video out there. and basically the song's
message is of hope and optimism and it features,
now I'm going to make a probably a mess of this
poor lady's surname, but it features a Ukrainian
refugee who is also an Eastbourne resident now,
Pilates instructor Olga Litvinova? Litvinova,
yes. Yeah, so I met Olga about a year or so ago
and she's a friend of mine and Yes, when I was
thinking about how to present the song, I didn't
want to just sing to the camera. I wanted a storyline.
I was very struck by Olga's story. You know,
it really does beg a belief. You know, she had
a... happy family life and very suddenly had
to uproot. I think she went to Poland or another
country in Europe initially and then after a
couple of months the whole family ended up in
Britain and then she ended up in Eastbourne.
So she's here with her two more or less grown
-up children, they're teenagers I think, and
her mother. And yeah, I think it was a a good
sort of muse to build the song around. And we
had a lot of luck. It was Eastbourne Seafront
in December, and it had been really hammering
down with rain the days before and the day after.
But on the day we filmed it, it was beautiful
sunshine and it all seemed to come together well.
And I think, you know, it certainly worked with
the song, which when I rewrote it, I wanted to
make it quite general about companionship and
being with other people, making you feel better,
which is certainly the case with Olga's family
building a new life here. I think it's something
we should be very proud of in Britain, of how
we've handled that situation with Ukrainian refugees.
They contribute a lot to the the local area,
you know, her daughter works full time in a cafe
and she is giving Pilates classes and yeah, so
yeah, it was nice. It felt like the right thing
to do with the song and to give it a different
kind of perspective. And Tutu present a radio
show So here's Nick and Sue Your musical duo
This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox Giving you
all you need to know about musical entertainment
Chatterbox Chatterbox Chatterbox And the single,
Step into the Light, that's not all, is it? Because
that comes from an upcoming album, We Are Human.
So tell us a bit more about the album, what else
we can find on it. So, yeah, I was initially
going to release the album next month and it
is finished, but I've been advised by several
people that it's much better to sort of drip
feed several singles. So I'm now thinking the
whole album will probably come out in May and
the actual song, We Are Human, is going to come
out in March and then there'll probably be a
further single before the whole album of 11 tracks
comes out in May. And yes, it is a mix of different
types of songs, deliberately so, because my songwriting
is quite diverse, and there are love songs in
a similar vein to Step Into the Lie, but We Are
Humour is a much more, a sort of deeper song
in some ways, and it's looking at... the rise
of AI and, you know, what humanity is doing at
the moment. So I wanted to mix sort of deeper
issues with the love songs and that's what I've
done on the album. Brilliant, we look forward
to that. You did mention playing in Brighton,
in London, but it's almost like you... undersold
yourself, because we were talking about your
band and things and so on in Brighton. But yeah,
you have played Brighton Dome and also at Ronnie
Scott's. Yes, I have. I mean, Brighton Dome was
a festival thing. Yes, I mean, I wasn't headlining
a gig at Brighton Dome. I was playing as part
of the Brighton Festival. But yes, I was on stage
there. And yes, I did a gig at Ronnie Scott's
a few years ago in London. Yeah, I've got a gig
in Brighton on the 21st of March. I was part
of a Leonard Cohen tribute in Brighton last weekend,
and I was in London the weekend before. And I
do sometimes gig in Hastings. It's a good music
scene there. It is. Yeah, it is. Very lively.
Yes, it's a lot different to what it was 30 and
40 years ago. It's certainly... Turned around.
Definitely. It's a great place for film as well
because we've got two independent arty cinemas
as well, which are great. One just down the road
from us. So we've got that side of it as well.
So it's getting quite artistic and cultured in
many ways. So yeah, the art gallery scene as
well. Independent art galleries at that. You
know, just little things like that. It really
is quite something. Proud to live in St. Louis,
let's be honest with you, these days. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah well actually I forgot to mention I teach
at Hastings College part -time actually yeah
I teach tourism there so I'm there three days
a week so yeah I know Hastings quite well. Yes
quite well it is only just a little bit. If the
road's not a nightmare, it's less than half hour,
isn't it, really, if you have a good run, so
yeah. No, I take the train because the college
is right next to the station, yeah. Well, it
is, isn't it? Yes, quite, quite. So, have you
got any questions for Ben? Yes, Ben. I'd like
you to pick one of your songs and tell me why
you'd pick this song to be played in a film.
Oh, OK. I think I would actually pick We Are
Human because I think it is the centrepiece of
the album and I wanted to write a song that was
both rousing and thought provoking and I could
see it being in a, maybe a science fiction movie
or something like that. That would be great.
Nice, okay. I'll have to manifest that. OK, brilliant.
Let's do some social media. Hang on. Sorry. It's
a very rude word. I do apologize. We'll edit
that out. We'll probably leave it in. Could I
ask you about the lovely picture? I can't do
the pose of you. You've got a suit on and you've
got this pressure. I love that. Because you look
completely different from seeing you on the Zoom
meeting to that picture. No glasses. No glasses.
That's me all glowed up and makeup done and everything
in a professional photo shoot. So they polished
me up as much as they could. But it's only six
months ago, so it is the same guy. Yeah, I was
pleased with that pic. What have you got planned
for the rest of the year? I mean we got up to
May with the album and stuff so if you were to
come back in say six months time or so and we
asked you well what would you like to be telling
us that you've achieved in that time? Well, I
mean, the song has already achieved more than
I have with previous songs. So I'm already pretty
pleased. I mean, we've already had 6 ,000 streams.
We've had about 70 ,000 video views. It's been
on quite a lot of bigger radio stations. It's
been on boom radio playlisted. And yeah, and
obviously I want to keep going with that. But
as I said, I've been advised to bring out lots
of singles. So I've definitely got at least another
two singles in the pipeline. But actually, I'm
already thinking about getting back in the studio
and doing further singles for perhaps the autumn,
because I do have a lot of songs. And in particular,
in a similar vein to Step into the Light, I have
songs that I... I want to work with a producer
to really do them justice and to sing them better.
And I think I can do that. So, yeah, there'll
be more music coming out. Looking forward to
it. Right, let's do some social media. We've
got a website here of www .benwestwoodmusic .com.
Now, if we click on that, we've got... The first
thing we see is a nice little link to the video
of Step Into The Light. However, we scroll down,
nice and easy, because in the bottom left -hand
corner there, we've got direct links to all your
other social media. So nice and easy if they
literally just go to benwestwoodmusic .com and
right down there you've got to just click on
your Facebook, on your Instagram, on your YouTube.
Basically... Yeah, iTunes. It's basically...
Yeah, and they're all Bed Westwood music, pretty
much the handle of them. Well, apart from Spotify,
but yeah, so it's quite easy. All just a direct
click on there. And also in that bottom right
hand corner, we've got X as well. So, yeah, there
you go. It's all there. So run and read it all
out. It's just all there. Brilliant. And a nice
little gallery as well. there we go it's a great
little website actually Ben so there we go thank
you thank you it's important these days isn't
it isn't it absolutely yeah Ben it's been great
meeting you and I hope we do get to chat again
so let's know what's going on please and uh every
success of course with the single and the albums
uh singles and the album and um yeah hopefully
we can do it again sometime soon and just every
success for 2026 great meeting you thanks a lot
okay You've been listening to the Chatterbox
Redux podcast with Sue and Nick and today our
special guest was Ben Westwood. If you're interested
in becoming a future guest on the Chatterbox
Redux podcast or the radio show Chatterbox UK,
you're welcome to submit songs, books or whatever
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Sue, myself Nick and Twinkle the tuxedo cat.
Thank you very much for your company and we look
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another Chatterbox Redux podcast. In the meantime,
take care, we thank you for your company and
we catch you then. Bye bye. This is Nick and
Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to
know about music