Straight Up

This week, Kathleen and Eleanor put themselves in the hot seat, and talk all about what it’s really like to chat to celebrities for a living and becoming best friends while working at British GQ. Expect hilarious and juicy gossip about everyone from Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid to Stormzy and Tom Jones. We don’t hold anything back! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tanya Burr, who first found fame uploading makeup tutorials to YouTube in 2009 that reached millions of views and made her one of the UK’s very first “influencers”, comes on Straight Up to talk to Kathleen and Eleanor all about her pivot to acting and the launch of her lifestyle brand Authored. As well as recommending her favourite beauty products and explaining their sustainability, Tanya also re...

What's it like to quit a seven-year medicine degree to chance it on a music career? Over some spicy margaritas, the lead singer, writer and producer of psych-pop band Glass Animals tells Straight Up all about how he swapped a career as a neuroscientist to launch a No1 band with a record-breaking one billion streams for their 2020 single Heat Waves. Also in this episode, Dave busts some myths aroun...

What do you do when you're about to embark on a world tour but are suffering from burnout? London Grammar frontwoman Hannah Reid sat down with Kathleen and Eleanor to trace her journey from the band forming at Nottingham University to coping with a chronic illness and industry misogyny all the while going to No1.  Hannah spoke powerfully about her experiences of sexism in the music business (...

How do you keep your privacy when you're one of the most famous YouTubers in the entire world, and have shared your entire life online? One of the first YouTubers to make his name on the platform (where he has 23 million subscribers) KSI spoke to Kathleen and Eleanor about the pressures of being in the public eye from such a young age.  Over Bacardi rum cocktails, KSI also talked through the...

Should women pay on the first date? Should men date women with more money than them? In this very juicy episode, South London RnB musician Ray BLK chats to Kathleen and Eleanor all about dating do's and don'ts ahead of her debut album Access Denied. Ray also shared hilarious anecdotes around first paycheques, her very first experiences of success and her craziest moments from the last few years (i...

One of the world’s most adored film directors Zack Snyder comes on the brand-new second series of Straight Up to talk all about the music that made him: from the songs that soundtracked his childhood and his first romance to the song that always makes him cry. Zack also chats to Kathleen and Eleanor all about his favourite songs from across his films, as well as getting stuck into topics around be...

No one puts the UK's biggest musicians in their place like Amelia Dimoldenberg, CEO of Chicken Shop Date , the cult YouTube series in which the comedian and broadcaster takes stars to their favourite chicken shop, and grills them about everything from their love lives to their most embarrassing moments. Both deliciously awkward and completely hilarious, Chicken Shop Date has become a massive v...

What's it like to tour the world with Harry Styles, capturing some of the most intimate and symbolic moments of his life and career? Paris-based photographer Hélène Pambrun talks to Kathleen and Eleanor all about how she first met Harry, and why her interest in his fans is the reason she was hired by his team. Also in this episode, Straight Up and Hélène talk all about the power of seduction in ph...

Chic co-founder and super producer Nile Rodgers, along with his longtime manager Merck Mercuriadis, joins Straight Up to chat about how they’ve made a decades-long professional partnership work, what they love most about each other and why they’ve never had an argument (except a small one in this episode). They also told us all about their new business venture, Hipgnosis, which is essential to any...

How did Drake build his floating yellow ferrari and who owns it now? What inspires Gaga's theatric performances or JAY Z's political visuals? And what's it like to edit Kanye West's wardrobe? Willo Perron, creative director to the stars and co-founder of Los Angeles based architect studio Perron–Roettinger , talks to Straight Up about all of this and more. Also in this episode, we chat about how t...

How do you bag the only interview with Drake, and get Kanye to open up to you? DJ Semtex’s interviews are the stuff of legend, so over a bottle of Semtex’s favourite drink – Ruinart champagne – Straight Up quizzed him on how he gets the biggest names in music to open up to him and nobody else, his most amazing behind-the-scenes anecdotes with everyone from Travis Scott to J Cole, and his surprisin...

What do you do when you're at your first-ever Grammys, sitting next to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, but too high to speak? In this eye-opening chat with Straight Up, the Grammy and Oscar-winning collaborator to Sam Smith, Taylor Swift, Stormzy and Dave reveals some of the most unforgettable moments of his career, from his hilarious Grammys blunder to penning the Oscar-winning Bond song Writing's on t...

Songwriter, producer and singer KAMILLE is one of the most in-demand collaborators in pop, having crafted four number one hits for the likes of Mabel, Little Mix and The Saturdays, as well as working with everyone from Headie One and AJ Tracey (yes, that's her on the hook to Ain't it Different) to Clean Bandit. Here, over some bottled cocktails, KAMILLE talks to Straight Up all about how she went...

What do you do when your entire life's work gets deleted from the internet? Koby 'Posty' Hagan founded GRM Daily while studying law at university in 2009, and it went on to become the most successful youth platform in the UK, hosting thousands of rap and grime videos from a generation of black British talent and playing a part in the careers of everyone from Giggs to Stormzy. But in 2011, YouTube...

How to find yourself a mentor that could change your life? How can women take charge in male dominated spaces? And how can we ensure black female executives are getting top level jobs?  In a special live record from women's members club The AllBright in Mayfair, Straight Up speaks to two of the most important women working in music today, Taponeswa Mavunga, Head of Publicity at Columbia Recor...

What strange clauses does Ed Sheeran insist are in his management contract? What is the one unexpected item he asks for on his rider? And what really happened at Russell Crowe's house in Australia? (Clue: it involves a field of snakes.) Stuart Camp, longterm manager to the world's most successful male recording artist, talks to Straight Up about what it's like to be Ed Sheeran's right-hand man. St...

What's it like to dance with Dua Lipa? How does Billie Eilish think up her lyrics? And what is the book Stormzy's reading in Sounds of the Skeng? Henry Scholfield , one of the world's most sought after music video directors, spills his creative secrets to Kathleen and Eleanor, from why Wiley didn't turn up to the Boasty shoot to the story behind Stormzy's Vossi Bop uber.  Henry also chatted t...

What's it like to spend weeks on the road with Drake (with your nans in tow)? How to react when Fredo buys you a gas mask as a present? And what is it really like to DJ for the King and Queen themselves, Beyonce and JAY Z?  Most importantly, how does it feel to be one of the most in-demand and respected DJs in the world? Tiffany Calver, the 25-year-old, Shropshire-born host of Radio 1Xtra's R...

Why is touring like a drug to artists and what happens when they get off stage? Is all press good press? And can the tabloids still break a celebrity ? For this episode, over a dry bottle of rose, Eleanor and Kathleen spoke to publicity legend and former music critic Barbara Charone about working with some of the world’s biggest artists, from Madonna and The Rolling Stones to Mark Ronson and the F...

How do musicians deal with fame and is there such a thing as an overnight success story? What's the story behind Ed Sheeran getting signed? (It involves a Bruno Mars gig and a tonne of beer). This week Kathleen and Eleanor speak to one of the music business's most influential players, Ed Howard, who was promoted to co-President of Atlantic (alongside Briony Turner, who is on maternity leave), in J...

What's it like to meet Taylor Swift in her Nashville home and chat politics and Kanye? Guardian Deputy Music Editor Laura Snapes is one of the best critics in the country and on this episode of Straight Up talks about profiling Taylor Swift and the difficulties of interviewing Avril Lavigne , why she convinced Matty Healy from The 1975 to pledge only playing festival line-ups with enough women on...

What's it like to get celebrities naked for work every day? Carlotta Constant, the super stylist who has dressed everyone from Rihanna, Stormzy and Loyle Carner to Krept and Konan , Hrvy and The Arctic Monkeys, lifts the lid on what it's really like to work so up close and personal with some of the music industry's biggest names.  Over a couple of glasses of Tattinger champagne, Carlotta chat...

Fraser T Smith witnessed Stormzy's tug of war between the light and dark while the rapper recorded Gang Signs and Prayer, went with Dave to meet his brother in prison while recording Psychodrama, and was a shoulder to cry on for Adele while she recorded Set Fire to the Rain. Having been at the side of the UK's most successful musicians during their most vulnerable moments, Fraser shares them with...

What's it like to photograph everyone from Kano to Jeremy Corbyn, and direct J Cole and Skepta's music videos? Olivia Rose, grime's most trusted photographer, spills her secrets, from how she got Slowthai naked and chased Tempa T through Milton Keynes for her perfect shot, to making her biggest mistake on a shoot with JME and leaning on D Double E as an agony aunt. It's a fun one, enjoy! You can a...