This past Tuesday (October 19th) Radio 1 broadcast from Lincoln’s Tower Bar as part of the Radio 1 Student Tour. Fearne Cotton brought her Live Lounge show to the university and recorded it live in front of 60 lucky students.
“I’ve had a lovely morning,” Cotton says, “it’s a beautiful student union I’m so impressed with this lovely bar area it’s gorgeous. Darwin Deez did a cracking set, and it all went rather well.”
Fearne Cotton has become well-known throughout the country for her radio show, Celebrity Juice, Fearne And.. and Must Be The Music. However for some she’ll always be remembered for her role in the 90s children’s TV show Diggit. She co-presented the show with Paul Ballard otherwise known as Des.
A Facebook group has been set up to try and find Des as after Diggit finished, he vanished into obscurity. But does Fearne know where Des is?
“I don’t know where Des has gone,” Cotton admitted. “We were like brother and sister, we worked together for years and years. We must’ve spoken on the phone about three years ago and then I haven’t heard from him since.
“He’s got a different number, I don’t know what he’s doing. I will join that group because I want to know where he is. It’s bizarre.”
Fearne Cotton left the show in 2000 to focus on different programmes. She has since transformed herself from being a children’s TV presenter to a prime time broadcaster, something which doesn’t come easy.
“It just takes time really. I’ve been doing this for 14 years now, so you kind of hope that as you grow older your audience grow with you, and then your programming matches that.
“Your demographic changes as you shift in age and it makes sense to grow with what you’re doing and challenge yourself continuously. It’s definitely difficult because people still assume you’re a kids TV presenter and it’s like ‘I’m nearly 30’, you have to try and lose that tag somewhat.”
With 14 years worth of broadcasting experience under her very fashionable belt, Cotton has been involved in a number of embarrassing moments on air and on screen.
“I once by mistake called the Cornish Angel – my little helper – my Cornish anal by mistake, a pretty embarrassing moment. I’ve tripped up a bunch of times on stage. When Will and Gareth were on Top Of The Pops I introduced them as Gill and Wareth, that was a bad one,” she reveals.
Cotton has been synonymous with music for years since presenting Top Of The Pops in 2004, from then on she’s worked with Live8, Eurovision, the BRIT awards and the Isle Of Wight Festival. However, there were perhaps bigger music fans outside the Engine Shed queuing for 30 Seconds To Mars since 4am.
“I’m not sure I’d stay over night for anyone these days. When I was younger maybe, but I’m far too old for all that.
“30 Seconds To Mars I’m well into and they’re so good live. Last time I saw them was in Germany this summer at Rock AM Ring festival, so that was a big scale. Seeing them tonight in an intimate venue will be really special.”
Like a lot of celebrities Fearne is an avid user of Twitter. Tweeting to over 1 million followers, she keeps her legions of fans informed of her latest goings on. But who does she enjoy to follow?
“I’m a tweetaholic. I love following Slash, he’s pretty entertaining — doesn’t tweet too much, but it’s really good when he does. My mum’s pretty good on Twitter, it’s just mad. She’s @mumatron, she’s got 10,000 lunatic followers following her now. She just tweets a load of old rubbish but I kind of love it, so she’s probably one of my favourites as well.”
The Radio 1 Student Tour has now come to an end, but you can listen to Lincoln’s Live Lounge again on BBC iPlayer as well as Zane Lowe’s live broadcast of 30 Seconds To Mars. Fearne Cotton’s new show Denise & Fearne’s Trek for Breast Cancer will be shown on ITV2 this Monday 25th October.
I think I started that group. For years as a Disney Club and DiGGiT fanatic, I wanted to know where he is. I have been pestering Fearne for a while on Twitter, asking her where he is and I have had no response from her and now I know why.