Bonnie Tyler Reveals The Secret To Her 41 Years Of Marriage

BONNIE Tyler spoke of her 41 years of marriage to husband Robert Sullivan in a revealing interview with ITV's Kate Garraway, today. 

The 62-year-old singer from Skewen, who is famous for hits such as "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Holding Out For A Hero" appeared on ITV's Lorraine show hosted by Kate Garraway. 

Bonnie Tyler on ITV's Lorraine Show

Kate asked Bonnie how she and her husband Robert Sullivan, a property investor, had managed to stick together through 41 years of marriage and whether it was still founded on love for one another.

Bonnie said: "Yes, of course. It gets deeper doesn't it. I suppose you get comfortable. He's not a bad looking guy and he's very pleasant on the eye. We have a great time. We've had our ups and downs in those years. You would be a liar if you said you didn't."

Bonnie Tyler with her husband Robert Sullivan

The star talked about her enduring love for singing her old hits but revealed she wasn't fond of making the music videos to go with them. 

She said: "I still love singing them. I do a lot of live shows with my band all over the world. When it gets to "Total Eclipse" or "Hero", I just love the atmosphere it causes."

"I'm not very fond of making videos, anyway, although "Total Eclipse" got nominated for a Grammy and I lost out to Michael Jackson, so it's not so bad."

When Kate asked her whether she enjoyed taking part in last year's Eurovision Song Contest, she said: "I did believe it or not. I just chucked myself in at the deep end and I really enjoyed it. It was great. Of course, we knew we wouldn't win. Although, I did think Molly did have a good chance this year because that song she wrote was great but like I keep saying we've only got Ireland to vote for us."

Bonnie told Kate her thoughts about this year's bearded Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst (pic below).

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Bonnie quipped:"Funny thing was, the next day [after the Eurovision song contest] one of my friends sent me a picture of myself with a beard and a moustache and said 'See, love, it could've been so different."

The singer also talked about her scheduled appearance in the Rewind South 80s Festival at Temple Island Meadows in Henley-On-Thames on August 17. A host of 80s bands and singers will be performing at the festival including UB40, The Boomtown Rats, Tony Hadley and Jimmy Somerville. 

Bonnie said: "I won't be with my band, I'll be with the house band. I'll be doing about four songs. It's going to be great."

For further information about the Rewind Festival, http://www.rewindfestival.com/

To keep up to date with all your celebrity and TV gossip from Wales, please follow the Weekly Clucker on Twitter @weeklyclucker. Thank you!

The Valleys Star Jenna Jonathan Set For Welsh Reality Show

JENNA Jonathan, star of MTV's The Valleys, will be leaving the hustle and bustle of life in Cardiff for the seclusion of a former quarrying village to take part in a Welsh reality show. 

Jenna, 23, from Tonyrefail, (pic below) will be joining seven fellow celebrities to take up the challenge of learning Welsh in a week in S4C's reality show Cariad@Iaith:love4language.
She will swap her partying lifestyle in Cardiff, as seen on The Valleys, for the solitude of the remote Nant Gwrtheyrn (or "the Nant" as it is often called), a residential Welsh language course centre located in a former quarrying village on the northern coast of the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales - 168 miles away and more than a four hour drive from the Welsh Capital.

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Jenna, who graduated with a law degree before becoming one of the stars of The Valleys, told her legion of Twitter followers she was "so excited" to be taking part in the show.

She will be challenged by seven fellow celebrities who were revealed this week as Ian "H" Watkins AKA "H" from Steps, Big Brother 14 winner Sam Evans, legendary Wales and Everton goalkeeper Neville Southall, weather presenter Behnaz Akhgar, Casualty star Suzanne Packer, ex-Emmerdale star Sian Reeves and John Owen-Jones, actor and singer.

Meanwhie "H" (pic below), 38, from Llywnypia, is no stranger to reality television, after finishing in fourth place in Celebrity Big Brother 2007 and being a contestant in Bargain Hunt Famous Finds in 2008.

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He told his Twitter followers that he would soon be filming for Cariad@Iaithand and that he couldn't wait to get started. 

The celebs will be staying at Nant Gwrtheyrn for a week where they will be given a daily intense Welsh lesson by Nia Parry and fellow tutor Ioan Talfryn before taking part in a host of activities in the medium of Welsh. 

Two programmes introducing the eight celebs will be broadcast on S4C on Wednesday 11 and Friday 13 June at 8.25pm. This Morning presenter Matt Johnson, 31, from Caerphilly, and Nia Parry will then bring the latest gossip to viewers from "the Nant" on Cariad@Iaith:Love4Language every night between Monday 16 June and Friday 20 June at 8.30pm and 9.25pm. The series winner will be crowned in the final which will take place on Saturday 21 June at 8pm. 

To keep up-to-date with the latest info about the series, you can follow @S4cariad on Twitter. For more info about Nant Gwrtheryn check out its website at http://www.nantgwrtheyrn.org/ 

If you enjoyed reading this blog, and you have an unquenchable thirst for Welsh showbiz gossip, you can follow us on Twitter @weeklyclucker. 

'Amazing' Grace Launches Her Bid For Singing Stardom

LATEYSHA: "PEOPLE THINK I SING NURSERY RHYMES FOR A LIVING BUT I DON'T - I'VE GOT SO MUCH MORE TO ME THAN THAT!"

 

  

The Weekly Clucker tuned into watch The Valleys star Lateysha Grace's brand new video of her debut single 'You Beautiful' premiere on music video channel MTV Music this week. And we can't get the catchy 'You Beautiful' chorus out of her heads! 

Lateysha, 21, from Port Talbot dubbed the Welsh Beyoncé has teamed up with US rapper D-Jukes to kick-start her bid to step up from reality television stardom to topping the charts worldwide.

Her steamy video sees her strutting her stuff in a nightclub, honing her boxing skills in the gym, and jacking up a car in a garage. 

If 'You Beautiful', written by D-Jukes and singer-songwriter Sophia May, takes off, it could lead to Lateysha releasing an album. 

Lateysha told MTV news: "I think it's, like, a really fun song. I can see it being played in clubs and people having a good dance to it and stuff. I'm going to see how well this goes. If it goes number one or top five then I will definitely make an album and I know everyone will love it."

She said that when she revealed her plan to launch a pop career, people doubted whether she had the talent to succeed including her fellow cast members on The Valleys. 

She said: "Do you know what, I've actually got a good voice. People don't even understand. They just think I sing nursery rhymes for a living but I don't. I've got so much more to me than that. People will know once they hear my song and they will be quite shocked. All of the people off The Valleys were like 'Oh, my God Teesh, it's actually good. We didn't even think you could actually sing,' and I was like 'see, told you!"

 D-Jukes added that despite Lateysha's doubters 'everything came out good' with the single after working together in the studio, along with Sophia May.He said: "I think it's going to shock the world!"

Lateysha said: "Nobody will expect it from me really." 

The Clucker wishes Lateysha all the best with her singing career, and we'll be keeping a close eye on the charts to see how well 'You Beautiful' gets on. 

The Weekly Clucker is your home of the latest celebrity and TV gossip from Wales. If you enjoyed this blog, please follow us on Twitter @weeklyclucker.

The Weekly Clucker TV review: Under Milk Wood

THE CREAM of Valleywood talent teamed up for a modern TV version of Under Milk Wood by Welsh literary great Dylan Thomas.

Legendary singer Tom Jones, operatic superstar Katherine Jenkins, "Voice of an Angel" Charlotte Church, Over The Rainbow star Sophie Evans and actors Michael Sheen, Matthew Rhys and Ioan Gruffudd  were among the star-studded line-up who took part in the hour-long TV adaptation of Dylan Thomas' famous 1954 radio drama. 

The stars signed up for the BBC Cymru Wales production to become part of Valleywood's centenary celebrations for the Swansea-born poet, marking 100 years since he was born. (Pic below is Sophie Evans. Please read on after pic. Thank you.)

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 The production crew overcame the logistical nightmare of assembling such a world-famous cast onto one stage by getting them to read their parts separately at different locations around the globe, and cutting them into a coherent narrative. The cast didn't wear any costumes or use any props to bring to life the colourful characters of the fictional fishing village Llareggub (Buggerall backwards). Clucker's just like Llareggub; there's bugger all here as well. The cast appeared as themselves in modern dress and simply acted their parts, linking up to each other through laptops and mobile phones.

Valleywood acting royalty, Michael Sheen, 45, born in Newport and raised in Port Talbot, kicked off the production as First Voice reading the famous lines:  "To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea."

Silver-haired Tom Jones,73, from Treforest, appeared as Captain Cat, the blind sea captain, who is tormented in his dreams by his drowned shipmates. Tom turned his hand to acting well, and recited his lines from a penthouse appartment in London while looking out of a window overlooking the Houses of Parliament.

Mr Fantastic Ioan Gruffudd, 40, from Llwydcoed near Aberdare, played Mr Mog Edwards, the draper enamoured wiith Myfanwy Price, played by 28-year-old Cranford star Kimberley Nixon from Pontypridd.

Charlotte Church, 28, from Llandaff, Cardiff, made a star turn as Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, who sat nagging her dead husbands through her laptop in a farmhouse kitchen. 

Katherine Jenkins, 33, from Neath, looked longingly out through a window as floor scrubber Polly Garter and sang hauntingly about her three lost loves.

And Sophie Evans, 21, from Tonypandy, who is dating Cardiff Blues rugby star Ellis Jenkins, teamed up with Gavin & Stacey star Melanie Walters to give a bright performance of two gossiping neighbours. Incidentally, Sophie Evans, watched her boyfriend battle it out for Cardiff Blues against Scarlets at a wind-swept, chilly Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli yesterday. Sophie looked on the positive side of things when Ellis suffered a head injury. 

She told her Twitter followers: "Good outcome of my boy being knocked out in rugby - nice new scar to make him a bit better looking."

Ellis himself released pictures of his nasty head injuries on his Twitter account this morning. One photo showed a deep bleeding gash on the crown of his head while a second photo showed a cut on the side of his forehead. He told his followers: "Ended the season as I started it. Thanks for all the messages." His hashtag was headlikeapatchworkquilt. 

Anyway, back to Under Milk Wood. Bryn Terfel, bass-baritone opera singer, 48, from Pant Glas, also made an appearance as The Reverend Eli Jenkins.

The executive producer Bethan Jones told Wales Online: "We asked Tom Jones to do Captain Cat and we were really thrilled when he said yes, it was the icing on the cake. He’s fabulous and there’s a real humour. We also asked Bryn Terfel to do Eli Jenkins. The reverend delivers the beautiful Sunset Poem which I know Bryn has sung in the past so it was a no brainer to ask him to do it.”

She added: "It’s almost like a no frills version which is really concentrating on the text. There’s a real sense of love and enjoyment in the words. There are some beautiful performances. The cameras are very close up to the actors so they are delivering the words straight to you. You’re hearing sections of text you almost didn’t know existed.”

The Clucker watched Under Milk Wood on the BBC iplayer but it looks like there's only one day left to catch up on it, so you better ruddy hurry up if you want to see this team up of Valleywood superstars! Maybe it'll appear on Youtube before long. 

If you like what you read please follow the Weekly Clucker on Twitter @weeklyclucker. Thank you.

 

More Tea, Please Hayley....

THE WEEKLY Clucker caught up with the second series of The Call Centre on our Sky planner this week - a documentary about Swansea-based call centre Save Britain Money, led by larger-than-life boss Nev Wilshire.

The call centre is based in a cavernous open plan office where an army of telesales employees cold call members of the public, flogging stuff like cavity wall insulation. The phones never stop ringing and the phone operators barely stop to catch their breath between being cut off by a disinterested customer and dialling the next one, in the relentless pursuit of another sale. 

Meanwhile, the Clucker's office phone is caked in dust and hasn't rung for weeks. We haven't even received a telesales call from the likes of Save Britain Money. Maybe, our mission to go global, will attract at least one phone call to the office....

The Call Centre's success has not only transformed Nev Wilshire into a TV star and celebrity businessman but also spawned a host of fellow reality personalities. The shining light of Call Centre stars is arguably 24-year-old Hayley Pearce aka Hayley the Tea Lady (post continues after pic below).

Hayley the Tea Lady

We wished we had Hayley serving us tea and coffee at the Clucker's office; her bubbly personality and colourful language would certainly liven up the place. But she would probably find the pace of life in Clucker far too slow compared to the hubbub of the call centre....never mind. 

The Call Centre may not return for a third series, according to Nev. He revealed in an interview with Wales Online: "The BBC want to start series three, but I am not sure whether I will or not. I take my eye off the ball a bit. I said if they want to do series three, I will need at least two or three months to get the plates spinning and my fingers back on the pulse otherwise there won't be anything to film."

Nev's revelation means we could be in danger of losing Hayley from our TV screens for good, which would be a great shame. The Clucker thought perhaps MTV could give her a lifeline by signing her up for The Valleys to join Jenna Jonathan, Lateysha Grace and co? However, Hayley, who is also known as 'Hayley Fierce' to her friends, has ruled out being in The Valleys because she had to 'respect her parents'. She told ZOO magazine: "I'll be honest with you; the girls on The Valleys are wild. I'm not shy - I'm also pretty wild on a night out - but I wouldn't want to get followed and filmed for everyone to see exactly how I am on a night out! Talking filth like that is not nice for everyone to see!"

Hayley added she was surprised by the success of The Call Centre. She said: "Everyone is saying our show is hysterical and I'm thinking 'Well, it's not meant to be funny. That's just us!' It's mad because it was originally just a documentary on call centre life but now it's turned into this total legend of a funny programme, and that's mad. I never thought it was meant to be a comedy."

Hayley is keeping her feet on the ground despite her rising Valleywood stardom. She told Wales On Sunday: "I get recognised virtually wherever I go apart from where I live and I hope it stays like that. I was in my local surgery the other day, and someone whispered to her friend about me: 'Doesn't she look like that girl from The Call Centre.' " She added that she didn't 'class herself as celebrity.' She said: "I'm going to take up offers because you never know how long this will last."

Well, the Clucker hopes you stay on our screens for a long time to come and continue to keep us entertained, Hayley Pearce!

You can catch The Call Centre on BBC3 every Tuesday at 9pm. You can also find out more about Hayley at her website www.hayleytealady.com

If you enjoyed this blog, please follow The Weekly Clucker on Twitter @weeklyclucker! You know you ruddy well want to! 

The Weekly Clucker Album Review - One Day Like This by Rhydian Roberts

THE CLUCKER ordered X-Factor runner-up Rhydian Roberts' new album One Day Like This two weeks ago but it still hasn’t turned up. 

In fact, we haven’t seen our postman for ages. We’re wondering whether his van broke down on the way up Clucker Mountain towards the village and he got stranded. You can’t get any mobile phone signal up on Clucker Mountain. He wouldn’t have been able to call out the AA to rescue him. And, even if he had succeeded to get through, the AA would’ve probably got completely lost in the myriad of single track lanes in the rugged Welsh countryside surrounding Clucker. So, our postman is probably camping out in his van, surviving on wild berries and rainwater, and lighting fires to send out help signals to aeroplanes flying overhead. 

Anyway, back to the album review. The Clucker found out about Rhydian's new album when we saw the poster hanging from the wall in the tunnel at Cardiff Central railway station (pic below).

The Clucker didn’t give up hope of getting listening to 31-year-old Rhydian’s fifth studio album and discovered a music-streaming site called Spotify on the internet. We just punched Rhydian into the searchbox and ‘Hey Presto!’, his album appeared, available to listen for free. We didn’t have to spend a ruddy penny! Incredible! We wondered how this classic crossover popera maestro makes any money if he’s just giving away his album for free on the internet?

We had a look at the Official UK charts, and his album had been number one in the classical hit parade for two weeks. And the Clucker still hadn’t yet listened to the white-haired ex-X-Factor contestant’s new album. We clicked on  the play button for the first song – a cover of the 1967 chart hit Nights In White Satin by The Moody Blues. This string-drenched curtain raiser – a tale of unrequited love - is bursting with super-charged raw emotion.

We checked out Rhydian’s official website while we listened to Miserere – a brooding duet with Skewen-born husky voiced power vocalist Bonnie Tyler, who is most famous for her global smash hits Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out For A Hero. 

On his website, Rhydian from Sennybridge near Brecon said: "This album has an epic feel. I wanted it to have that wide screen quality you get with the best movie soundtracks. I wanted it to be mesmerising and inspiring, full of passion and exciting all your emotions. Love, romance, hope,despair, faith, and the joy of being alive are all in there."

He continued: "For a while now I've been looking for a signature tune, a song that defines me. I think there are a few contenders on this album. Nights In White Satin is one of them. I've changed the song to make it my own." 

Well, this album is definitely epic. The title track is a cover of One Day Like This by a band called Elbow (strange to call your band after a section of human anatomy). Rhydian's version was the first time the Clucker had ever heard this song. We ruddy well-enjoyed this uplifting and soaring anthem. 

And then there's that old gem Danny Boy.....Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling...We love this song at the Clucker, and Rhydian stirs up the emotions in his version. 

Rhydian said: "My passion is classical crossover singing and I would like to make it to the top of that world! I love popera, it's fun and it's a great art form. Despite my classical training it was never my ambition to become an opera star. Don't get me wrong, I want to train technically like the best opera singers train because I regard the technique as the optimum singing art-form. I want to base my career on being flexible, and I think I've done that." 

"I take my music seriously. I would like to be respected as a hard worker and a great singer and somebody who leads a clean life."

Rhydians's rousing finale to his album is one of the best known tenor arias in all opera, Nessun Dorma. This aria has been performed countless times by countless artists but the Clucker never gets fed up of it, and Rhydian belts it out. 

Well, the Clucker is still crossing its fingers that we get our copy of One Day Like This if the postman makes it out of the wilderness on top of Clucker Mountain, as it's an album we'll never tire of playing on our CD player, to inspire us on our mission to go global. 

One Day Like This Track Listing: 

1. Nights In White Satin
2. Ave Maria
3. Miserere (feat. Bonnie Tyler)
4. One Day Like This
5. The Blower's Daughter
6. Vivo per lei (feat. Kerry Ellis)
7. Pearl Fishers duet
8. Danny Boy
9. Panis Angelicus
10. Vergin, tutto amor
11. Litanei
12. Sleep
13. Nella Fantasia
14. Suo Gan
15. Ombra mai fu
16. Nessun dorma

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