I can never resist an opportunity to dress up, so the chance to make a video for the Jewish festival of Purim in a fancy dress shop was too good to miss.
28 December 2008
David Rubinger interview
Watch my interview with legendary Israeli photographer David Rubinger on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel.
Des Browne interview
Watch an interview I conducted for the Jewish News with Des Browne when he was Defence Secretary.
Sky's the limit!
Read my views below or on the Sky News website on the affect of bad weather on small businesses.
The summer was the seventh wettest since 1956, with a total of 317mm of rain falling between June and August.
This was well above the average of 226mm.
Marc Shoffman, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said extreme weather can prove extremely costly for small businesses. He explained: "Bad weather can cause damages to businesses totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.
"Small businesses rely on passing trade and without this are suffering as a result. The poor weather also presents a wider problem including the burden of paying for ever-increasing energy prices, increased congestion and in general coping with staff morale."
Those most affected are garden centres, stately homes and coastal resorts.
In Nottinghamshire, the White Post Farm was one of the hotspots to have been affected by the weather woes.
Site director at the farm, Simon Rouse, said: "We are losing 300-400 visitors a day with bad weather."
Andy Evans, from the Ruxley Manor Garden Centre in Kent, said the summer had been a struggle.
He explained: "It hasn't been the best year. August was horrendous. Our monthly figures show a loss of business and we have lost about £50,000."
He added: "All the hard work we have put in over the summer to make profits has now been eclipsed by this one dreadful month".
Many will be hoping a change in season brings a change in weather fortunes but forecasters say to expect much of the same.
Paul Knightley, from MeteoGroup, said: "With the particularly bad weather spell we had in August, it takes a lot to change it.
"For September we expect much of the same, remaining unsettled, with quite a lot of rain on the way but with a few sunny days expected."
The summer was the seventh wettest since 1956, with a total of 317mm of rain falling between June and August.
This was well above the average of 226mm.
Marc Shoffman, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said extreme weather can prove extremely costly for small businesses. He explained: "Bad weather can cause damages to businesses totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.
"Small businesses rely on passing trade and without this are suffering as a result. The poor weather also presents a wider problem including the burden of paying for ever-increasing energy prices, increased congestion and in general coping with staff morale."
Those most affected are garden centres, stately homes and coastal resorts.
In Nottinghamshire, the White Post Farm was one of the hotspots to have been affected by the weather woes.
Site director at the farm, Simon Rouse, said: "We are losing 300-400 visitors a day with bad weather."
Andy Evans, from the Ruxley Manor Garden Centre in Kent, said the summer had been a struggle.
He explained: "It hasn't been the best year. August was horrendous. Our monthly figures show a loss of business and we have lost about £50,000."
He added: "All the hard work we have put in over the summer to make profits has now been eclipsed by this one dreadful month".
Many will be hoping a change in season brings a change in weather fortunes but forecasters say to expect much of the same.
Paul Knightley, from MeteoGroup, said: "With the particularly bad weather spell we had in August, it takes a lot to change it.
"For September we expect much of the same, remaining unsettled, with quite a lot of rain on the way but with a few sunny days expected."
Director magazine
I was recently featured in the Institute of Directors' magazine on the issue of small businesses and energy efficiency. Read the article below or on the IoD website.
The government is keen to lead on climate change, but has discovered an unlikely ally in big business. Is this a cynical marketing ploy or a measured response to a global crisis?
October was a decisive month for Gordon Brown. Having led from the front during the bail-out of the world's financial system, he then put together a similarly bold strategy to bail out the planet. The government's plan, announced by Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, is now to reduce carbon emissions by a massive 80 per cent by 2050. It's a far more severe reduction than the previous target of 60 per cent. Referring to new competition for resources and an urgent need to reduce emissions, Miliband said the UK requires an energy market "that secures future supply, including investment in nuclear power, and carbon capture and storage... that incentivises cuts in emissions and does more to help homes and businesses."
Many small businesses say they could do with some of that extra help. They worry that cutting carbon emissions will add to fuel bills. And, as David Boomer, the IoD's head of energy efficiency and climate change, says, "it seems that these targets are put in place irrespective of the cost both to business and the consumer." But Brown and Miliband have unearthed some unlikely allies. A September 19 letter from UK business leaders to the prime minister called on him to beef up the speed and scope of the government's climate-change strategy. Do much more, the letter begged, and do it much faster. The request, which also went to leaders of the other main political parties, came from the Prince of Wales's UK Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (CLG), set up in 2005. It was signed by 18 business leaders, from companies as diverse as Anglian Water, Lloyds TSB, Sun Microsystems and Unilever.
Giving the message added spice, its signatories also included some pretty heavyweight carbon emitters, such as E.ON, Shell UK and—by association—BAA.Anyone who imagines the global economic downturn limits the UK's scope for dramatic initiatives is, it seems, mistaken. In fact, suggest the signatories, recession should be a spur, not a brake. "We believe that action cannot be delayed. Decisive action will stimulate economic activity and job creation in certain key sectors, as well as reducing costs in the medium to long term."
But for some the cry rings hollow. Environmental activist group Greenpeace was quick to describe the participation of E.ON and BAA as "hypocrisy of the purest strain"—the first because it wants to build coal-fired power stations and the second because of its airport expansion plans. So was the letter little more than a PR ploy? On the face of it, there is every reason for big corporates to prove their ecological credentials. For a year or more, their marketing consultants have assured them that UK consumers will punish any businesses not perceived to be green. But CLG co-director Craig Bennett says that green policies rest on a more fundamental realisation.
"Once you realise that it is inevitably going to happen, that the only future is a low-carbon future, then you want to get on with it sooner rather than later," he says.But companies can't do it on their own and need government to draw up a transformational plan for the economy as a whole. "The Government has to demonstrate leadership to match the rhetoric by providing incentives and support to encourage business to commercialise new green technologies and open up the green market," says Boomer."The worst thing would be for the government to do nothing or very little for a decade, and then completely change its policy—or for some future government to act in a draconian way," says Bennet.
The CLG is firmly behind the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, supporting the auction of allowances, and the inclusion of aviation from 2012 (aviation and shipping have been left out of the 80 per cent pledge). The CLG wants much bolder green specification in public procurement, which, it says, would boost future markets for low-carbon goods and services. The group thinks Britain could gain "huge competitive advantage" by being first to produce the kind of low-carbon goods and services the world will demand this century. Small businesses, on the other hand, are catching on to the savings that can be had from good green practice.
A recent survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that a quarter of SMEs are environmentally responsible because of the amount of money they can save. "Small businesses are already taking action on energy efficiency, such as investing in low-energy lighting and reducing the temperature in offices," says FSB spokesman Marc Shoffman.
The spiralling cost of fuel is having a positive effect, agrees the Forum of Private Business (FPB) . But it notes that, on environmental issues, the public sector is better at receiving than at giving. "Businesses have seen patchy performance from councils in waste management and recycling," says FPB research manager Thomas Parry. "In some areas, there is not the infrastructure for recycling cardboard or plastics, let alone electrical items or batteries.
"The environmental tax take has risen by nine per cent in 2008 to an estimated £29.2bn, according to accountants UHY Hacker Young. "That compares to just £607m spent on incentives," Parry says. "This highlights what many of our members have told us—that climate change seems to be more about stealth taxation than improving the environment."
Restaurant reviews
Another string to my bow is restaurant reviews. My most recent was for the Jewish News at a well-frequented Turkish establishment called Ozer.
FSB Podcast
Subscribe and listen to the latest Federation of Small Businesses Podcast including a package by me on the recent Pre-Budget Report
26 October 2008
Uri Geller
Another rather decent name drop is the time I went to Uri Geller's house to interview him the Jewish News. It turns out that my dad once saw him perform in Haifa about 30 years ago so they spent about half an hour on the phone talking about old times!
Geller is one of those rare celebrities who transcends generations. My father recalls
seeing one of his early shows on an Israeli navy base in Haifa in the 1970s and now, in 2007, I am standing beside a monument of a bent fork in Geller’s garden, while he phones my
dad to talk about the old days.
Over the last three decades, Geller has been a spoon-bender and a motivational
guru and, in his most recent incarnation, the Simon Cowell of Israel, hunting for a prodigy in reality show The Successor. With all this going on, the 60-year-old relishes coming home to
his Berkshire pad in Sonning-on-Thames to relax far from the public eye.
Geller opens his home up once a year to terminally-ill children including those from Jewish groups such as Camp Simcha. “We built a pyramid in the garden as part of psychological
aspects of health. I am not a healer but I talk to them about positive thinking and motivate them to think positively about their ailments so they can try to overcome it. Most doctors say a positive frame of mind can really help someone to heal faster.
“This village was a healing centre 1,000 years ago. It is registered in the Domesday Book. I only found this out after I moved here. That is synchronicity.”
Geller’s home is a tribute to his eccentricity. A giant crystal has been left by the door, a gift too heavy for anyone to move, and inside he displays his collection of art, thousands of
crystals and a shrine to John Lennon.
He explains that most of the items in his house are gifts while picking up a tiny golden egg and dropping it in my hand. “This was a gift from John Lennon. It is heavier than it looks,” he
says as the item weighs down on my palm. “John told me that he was lying
in bed in New York and he was woken by a light in his bedroom. A force made him go towards the light, then a hand stretched out and this was dropped into the palm of his hand.
“Of course, I suggested he must have been using some sort of substance at the time, but he insisted it really did happen. He described it as an extraterrestrial encounter. I have built him
a John Lennon corner in my house, a shrine, I really want to believe this is an object not from our earth.” Geller admits to having had a paranormal experience as a child which led him onto his chosen career path. “I was in a garden as a little boy in Israel when I saw a light which
knocked me over like a laser beam. Of course, no one believed me but while I was in Israel filming The Successor I had the most extraordinary validation.
I told this story on television and then got an email from a man who said he once saw a little boy in a white shirt, which my mother always dressed me in, running from a white light. I was so
amazed that I’d found someone to validate a story for which I was ridiculed for decades.”
From that early experience, he launched a career based on the power of the mind.
He went from stopping Big Ben to bending countless spoons, thousands of which are displayed on a 1976 Cadillac, “I have bent spoons belonging to David Ben Gurion, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, John Lennon and Elvis Presley. I was offered a million dollars for the car by a Japanese collector but I couldn’t part with it.
“My mother wanted me to be a piano tuner out of all professions and trades, but she believed in me and knew I was special just like any Jewish mother would think about their child.”
While he still obliges when asked to bend a spoon, Geller has also moved into motivational coaching for businesses and football teams including the Israeli national side.
“I predicted he would end up at Chelsea, he is a great player, a fantastic positive thinker and that is so important for a footballer.”
But Geller says his main focus now is The Successor. “I am amazed how many
countries want to buy it, I will be presenting versions in America and Germany and it will be made in Russia, Holland, Hungary and Japan.
With so many strings to his bow, it seems Uri Geller has plenty on his plate – which is already covered in bent cutlery – to keep him busy for another few decades at least.
Geller is one of those rare celebrities who transcends generations. My father recalls
seeing one of his early shows on an Israeli navy base in Haifa in the 1970s and now, in 2007, I am standing beside a monument of a bent fork in Geller’s garden, while he phones my
dad to talk about the old days.
Over the last three decades, Geller has been a spoon-bender and a motivational
guru and, in his most recent incarnation, the Simon Cowell of Israel, hunting for a prodigy in reality show The Successor. With all this going on, the 60-year-old relishes coming home to
his Berkshire pad in Sonning-on-Thames to relax far from the public eye.
“My house is private,” Geller explains. “I don’t give parties. Once I am here, it is privacy I look for. In Israel after The Successor I couldn’t walk in the street. Last Purim most children wanted to be Uri Geller.”
The Israeli-born entertainer has lived in Japan, New York, London and, for the last 23 years, in Berkshire with his wife Hanna and his two children until they flew the nest to follow their own
careers last year.
careers last year.
“We looked at around 30 houses. We almost gave up and stayed in London until we saw this last one. What impressed me about the house is the privacy, once you are through the gates
no one one can see you. When we were decorating we found mezuzah nails in the doors. It turned out that the Arab man we purchased the house from had obtained the property from a Jew. He had removed the mezuzahs but kept the nails on the panels.”
no one one can see you. When we were decorating we found mezuzah nails in the doors. It turned out that the Arab man we purchased the house from had obtained the property from a Jew. He had removed the mezuzahs but kept the nails on the panels.”
Geller opens his home up once a year to terminally-ill children including those from Jewish groups such as Camp Simcha. “We built a pyramid in the garden as part of psychological
aspects of health. I am not a healer but I talk to them about positive thinking and motivate them to think positively about their ailments so they can try to overcome it. Most doctors say a positive frame of mind can really help someone to heal faster.
“This village was a healing centre 1,000 years ago. It is registered in the Domesday Book. I only found this out after I moved here. That is synchronicity.”
Geller’s home is a tribute to his eccentricity. A giant crystal has been left by the door, a gift too heavy for anyone to move, and inside he displays his collection of art, thousands of
crystals and a shrine to John Lennon.
He explains that most of the items in his house are gifts while picking up a tiny golden egg and dropping it in my hand. “This was a gift from John Lennon. It is heavier than it looks,” he
says as the item weighs down on my palm. “John told me that he was lying
in bed in New York and he was woken by a light in his bedroom. A force made him go towards the light, then a hand stretched out and this was dropped into the palm of his hand.
“Of course, I suggested he must have been using some sort of substance at the time, but he insisted it really did happen. He described it as an extraterrestrial encounter. I have built him
a John Lennon corner in my house, a shrine, I really want to believe this is an object not from our earth.” Geller admits to having had a paranormal experience as a child which led him onto his chosen career path. “I was in a garden as a little boy in Israel when I saw a light which
knocked me over like a laser beam. Of course, no one believed me but while I was in Israel filming The Successor I had the most extraordinary validation.
I told this story on television and then got an email from a man who said he once saw a little boy in a white shirt, which my mother always dressed me in, running from a white light. I was so
amazed that I’d found someone to validate a story for which I was ridiculed for decades.”
From that early experience, he launched a career based on the power of the mind.
He went from stopping Big Ben to bending countless spoons, thousands of which are displayed on a 1976 Cadillac, “I have bent spoons belonging to David Ben Gurion, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, John Lennon and Elvis Presley. I was offered a million dollars for the car by a Japanese collector but I couldn’t part with it.
“My mother wanted me to be a piano tuner out of all professions and trades, but she believed in me and knew I was special just like any Jewish mother would think about their child.”
While he still obliges when asked to bend a spoon, Geller has also moved into motivational coaching for businesses and football teams including the Israeli national side.
He claims credit for helping the development of midfielder Tal Ben Haim who moved from Bolton to Chelsea this year,
“I predicted he would end up at Chelsea, he is a great player, a fantastic positive thinker and that is so important for a footballer.”
But Geller says his main focus now is The Successor. “I am amazed how many
countries want to buy it, I will be presenting versions in America and Germany and it will be made in Russia, Holland, Hungary and Japan.
“There has been mass hysteria on buying the format. I never thought that at this age, after 40 years, that suddenly I would have a hit show.”
With so many strings to his bow, it seems Uri Geller has plenty on his plate – which is already covered in bent cutlery – to keep him busy for another few decades at least.
Total Eclipse of the Heart
In my journalism training and career I have been lucky enough to meet and interview many interesting people. One of my favourites was talking to Bonnie Tyler, of Total Eclipse of the Heart Fame, for PinkNews.
Or read the article below...
Welsh singing legend Bonnie Tyler is planning a return to the UK charts next month with a new version of Total Eclipse of the Heart, but as she explains to PinkNews.co.uk, she has never been away from the music scene.
Love is love, Bonnie Tyler declares when asked on her view on gay equality.
Tyler's discography reads like a biopic of the last 30 years of gay life; heartbreak, tension, and striving against all odds.
Her booming voice, her style and passion make her a definitive gay icon. The Welsh-born singer's best known hits, including Holding Out For A Hero, Total Eclipse of the Heart and It's a Heartache, can be found in most gay men's record collections.
She even boast to having two gay family members, Tyler told PinkNews.co.uk: "My niece married her girlfriend on the same day as Elton John had a civil partnership with David Furnish.
"I also have a gay nephew but him and his partner are not planning on getting married yet. Love is love, a heart is a heart."
At 55, Tyler is still going strong, and it's the gay appeal of camp videos and passion-filled hits which seems to have kept her in the minds of the gay community.
She is one of a long list of successful Welsh vocal artists, among them Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, and more recently Charlotte Church.
But Tyler warns that these talents don't apply to the whole country, "People like Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones are ultra talented, people always say all Welsh people can sing, but you haven't heard my sister in law."
The young Bonnie, at that stage plain Gaynor Hopkins, started singing aged nine, and at 16 she was spotted in a talent contest in a local pub. She came second and won £1, a bit different to modern day reality music shows like X-Factor.
"It's bad that they are chewed up and spat out and left to deal with the consequences," comments Tyler, lamenting for the many forgotten stars of reality pop shows.
But she heaps praise on current X-Factor contestant Leona, "She's amazing, these people are really singing live!
"I think she will win, but maybe coming second would be better."
Tyler recently appeared on a US reality show Celebrity Duets , where she performed Total Eclipse of the Heart with Xena actress Lucy Lawless.
Once again, she didn't win. "That show was amazing, Gladys Knight won, Lucy was not the strongest singer, but it was great to see all these stars from the 70s and 80s," she says.
Tyler's musical partnership with Jim Steinham, which began in 1983, is generally seen as the turning point in her career. It has gave her worldwide success with songs such as Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out for a Hero.
But she is keen to point out that she is still busy with other projects.
This year she released her first DVD as well as an album, and she is currently touring, with two dates in London, where she will appear alongside I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here star David Gest.
She also has a new single out in March 2007.
"I'm working constantly, I have two bands, a British and French one, that is how busy I am.
"People in the UK can be forgiven for thinking that I don't sing that often, I am always in some country with my band."
Her songs are guaranteed to fill the dancefloor in gay bars and clubs across the land.
Crowds have been known to go silent in gay venues when that strange video for Total Eclipse of the Heart begins to play, with people asking, "What is this video about??"
It features Bonnie in some sort of haunted school where the pupils have glaringly bright eyes.
Even she doesn't know what it is about, "Don't ask me what it means," Tyler says.
"Jim Steinman wrote the storyboards, it must have been good as it was nominated for a Grammy Award."
She will be back the public eye in her native country next year when a punk rock version of Total Eclipse of the Heart is released by upcoming band BabyPinkStar.
This new version, released on January 29 2007, uses Tyler's unique vocals, but adds guitar riffs and disco beats, ensuring it is club classic in the making.
Tyler even appears at the beginning of the video in an acting performance which will not win her any Oscars, but at least shows her support for the song.
"When I first heard it I thought, are you serious?
"I kind of liked it, I sent it to Jim Steinman, he loved it and suggested they crank up the guitars."
The new video begins with Tyler stuck in an airport, which looks more like her front room. She phones the BabyPinkStar manager to tell him she cannot make the shoot, leaving a poor assistant with the task of starring in the video.
Whereas the original video has all the hallmarks of the 1980s, slow motion fades, crazy hair, costumes and a mini storyline, this new video is very much made for the MySpace generation.
The video looks like it was planned in a pub and the choreography was the last item on the agenda. The band perform a Macarena type dance while the disco riffs and beats of the song are played on top. It all looks a bit amateur, but this only adds to the humour of the song, and after all, how can anyone beat the original video.
This isn't the strangest scenario that the song has featured in, as Tyler has performed the song at solar eclipses and at the opening of the Welsh Assembly in 1999.
Tyler explains that it has also been used in an advert for yoghurt in Germany. It features members of the public turning around as they go about their daily business, in synchronicity with the infamous Turn Around" lyrics.
"This is the strangest place I have seen the song used, I wonder if we should have been paid for it?" Tyler says.
The future continues to be bright for Tyler, with this new cover and her current tour. She commutes with her husband of 33 years between the Algarve in Portugal and their beachfront home in Swansea.
"I am trying to get a tour together in this country, I do want to slow down and concentrate on live shows. I'm working all the time because of my past work, I will never get tired of singing Total Eclipse of the Heart.
"I do want to slow down and concentrate on live shows."
The beauty of her career is that Tyler already has a legacy set up, she will always be remembered for her hits, whether it's her or someone else singing them, leaving her to concentrate on doing what she loves best.
Not bad for a talent contest runner-up.
For more information on Bonnie Tyler, her releases or latest tour visit http://www.bonnietyler.com/
More information on BabyPinkStar can be found at http://www.babypinkstar.com/
Or read the article below...
Welsh singing legend Bonnie Tyler is planning a return to the UK charts next month with a new version of Total Eclipse of the Heart, but as she explains to PinkNews.co.uk, she has never been away from the music scene.
Love is love, Bonnie Tyler declares when asked on her view on gay equality.
Tyler's discography reads like a biopic of the last 30 years of gay life; heartbreak, tension, and striving against all odds.
Her booming voice, her style and passion make her a definitive gay icon. The Welsh-born singer's best known hits, including Holding Out For A Hero, Total Eclipse of the Heart and It's a Heartache, can be found in most gay men's record collections.
She even boast to having two gay family members, Tyler told PinkNews.co.uk: "My niece married her girlfriend on the same day as Elton John had a civil partnership with David Furnish.
"I also have a gay nephew but him and his partner are not planning on getting married yet. Love is love, a heart is a heart."
At 55, Tyler is still going strong, and it's the gay appeal of camp videos and passion-filled hits which seems to have kept her in the minds of the gay community.
She is one of a long list of successful Welsh vocal artists, among them Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, and more recently Charlotte Church.
But Tyler warns that these talents don't apply to the whole country, "People like Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones are ultra talented, people always say all Welsh people can sing, but you haven't heard my sister in law."
The young Bonnie, at that stage plain Gaynor Hopkins, started singing aged nine, and at 16 she was spotted in a talent contest in a local pub. She came second and won £1, a bit different to modern day reality music shows like X-Factor.
"It's bad that they are chewed up and spat out and left to deal with the consequences," comments Tyler, lamenting for the many forgotten stars of reality pop shows.
But she heaps praise on current X-Factor contestant Leona, "She's amazing, these people are really singing live!
"I think she will win, but maybe coming second would be better."
Tyler recently appeared on a US reality show Celebrity Duets , where she performed Total Eclipse of the Heart with Xena actress Lucy Lawless.
Once again, she didn't win. "That show was amazing, Gladys Knight won, Lucy was not the strongest singer, but it was great to see all these stars from the 70s and 80s," she says.
Tyler's musical partnership with Jim Steinham, which began in 1983, is generally seen as the turning point in her career. It has gave her worldwide success with songs such as Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out for a Hero.
But she is keen to point out that she is still busy with other projects.
This year she released her first DVD as well as an album, and she is currently touring, with two dates in London, where she will appear alongside I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here star David Gest.
She also has a new single out in March 2007.
"I'm working constantly, I have two bands, a British and French one, that is how busy I am.
"People in the UK can be forgiven for thinking that I don't sing that often, I am always in some country with my band."
Her songs are guaranteed to fill the dancefloor in gay bars and clubs across the land.
Crowds have been known to go silent in gay venues when that strange video for Total Eclipse of the Heart begins to play, with people asking, "What is this video about??"
It features Bonnie in some sort of haunted school where the pupils have glaringly bright eyes.
Even she doesn't know what it is about, "Don't ask me what it means," Tyler says.
"Jim Steinman wrote the storyboards, it must have been good as it was nominated for a Grammy Award."
She will be back the public eye in her native country next year when a punk rock version of Total Eclipse of the Heart is released by upcoming band BabyPinkStar.
This new version, released on January 29 2007, uses Tyler's unique vocals, but adds guitar riffs and disco beats, ensuring it is club classic in the making.
Tyler even appears at the beginning of the video in an acting performance which will not win her any Oscars, but at least shows her support for the song.
"When I first heard it I thought, are you serious?
"I kind of liked it, I sent it to Jim Steinman, he loved it and suggested they crank up the guitars."
The new video begins with Tyler stuck in an airport, which looks more like her front room. She phones the BabyPinkStar manager to tell him she cannot make the shoot, leaving a poor assistant with the task of starring in the video.
Whereas the original video has all the hallmarks of the 1980s, slow motion fades, crazy hair, costumes and a mini storyline, this new video is very much made for the MySpace generation.
The video looks like it was planned in a pub and the choreography was the last item on the agenda. The band perform a Macarena type dance while the disco riffs and beats of the song are played on top. It all looks a bit amateur, but this only adds to the humour of the song, and after all, how can anyone beat the original video.
This isn't the strangest scenario that the song has featured in, as Tyler has performed the song at solar eclipses and at the opening of the Welsh Assembly in 1999.
Tyler explains that it has also been used in an advert for yoghurt in Germany. It features members of the public turning around as they go about their daily business, in synchronicity with the infamous Turn Around" lyrics.
"This is the strangest place I have seen the song used, I wonder if we should have been paid for it?" Tyler says.
The future continues to be bright for Tyler, with this new cover and her current tour. She commutes with her husband of 33 years between the Algarve in Portugal and their beachfront home in Swansea.
"I am trying to get a tour together in this country, I do want to slow down and concentrate on live shows. I'm working all the time because of my past work, I will never get tired of singing Total Eclipse of the Heart.
"I do want to slow down and concentrate on live shows."
The beauty of her career is that Tyler already has a legacy set up, she will always be remembered for her hits, whether it's her or someone else singing them, leaving her to concentrate on doing what she loves best.
Not bad for a talent contest runner-up.
For more information on Bonnie Tyler, her releases or latest tour visit http://www.bonnietyler.com/
More information on BabyPinkStar can be found at http://www.babypinkstar.com/
Stonewall award
Here is a video of me collecting a publication of the year award for PinkNews.co.uk back in 2006. The site was created by my brother-in-law and he helped me break into the crazy world of journalism. It was presented by actor Sir Ian McKellen which I guess for Lord of the Rings fans and Shakesperean theatre fans is a pretty big deal.
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