this interview - Lynn Barber on Marianne Faithfull - is the sort of brilliant, bonkers thing nobody writes anymore. It reads like a meeting of fabulous monsters www.theguardian.com/film/2001/ju... - ThreadSky

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social • 28 days ago

this interview - Lynn Barber on Marianne Faithfull - is the sort of brilliant, bonkers thing nobody writes anymore. It reads like a meeting of fabulous monsters

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/jul/15/features.magazine

Comments

loureviewsblog.bsky.social•28 days ago

I remember reading this before. I know who comes off worse. Clue: it isn't MF.

janinegibson.ft.com•28 days ago

Exactly exactly right. A sort of competitive brilliant roué chaos that doesn't really exist anymore

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

yes! Roués doing sexy moues

petercampbell13001.bsky.social•28 days ago

That article was the first thing that came to mind when heard the news. Monsters, yeah. Fabulous? Not for me.

fridarey.bsky.social•28 days ago

Fucking hell that was incredible! I miss all that

Thanks so much

judeabb.bsky.social•28 days ago

Excellent stuff - thank you!

awatsoncnadida.bsky.social•28 days ago

Barber was not a woman to be trifled with.

annetteg.bsky.social•28 days ago

So true.
Everything is now bland.

robinknox.bsky.social•28 days ago

I thought she was great, up there with Nina Simone.

manchesterphoto.bsky.social•28 days ago

Remember when The Grauniad wasn’t shit, eh. The infamous typo of its name is now even recognised by spellcheck.

ingyingram.bsky.social•28 days ago

It's up there with Capote's profile of Brando

glitterninja.bsky.social•28 days ago

Thank you for mentioning this, reading it now, absolutely psychotic and I'm not even a fully paragraph in

chrismordue.bsky.social•28 days ago

📌

jasonpfinch.bsky.social•28 days ago

Wild -- thanks.

tynegal.bsky.social•27 days ago

Demon Barber

spinninghugo.bsky.social•28 days ago

Wonderful. Thank you.

roundsquarehouse.bsky.social•28 days ago

I remember reading this at the time and thinking what a mad, chaotic, bitchy article it was. Neither Faithfull nor Barber comes off well in it but it's massively entertaining reading.

simonescal.bsky.social•28 days ago

Superb

timwrite.net•28 days ago

Thanks M. I have learnt a new word from this Barber phrase: "doing sex kitten moues" so my day is now complete and I can go back to bed.

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•28 days ago

Lynn Barber was the queen of "why is this person being rude to little old me when I am so nice and polite?"

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

hah! I interviewed HER once. Now that was an education

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•28 days ago

Less scary than expected?

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

No pretty scary. I would up having my first fag in ten years

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•28 days ago

Amazing

suzycorrigan.bsky.social•28 days ago

She took a shine to me at a friend’s book launch and next thing I knew, I was carousing with her and Deborah Orr. So fun, such hangover!

gmcgiv.bsky.social•28 days ago

would that be available to read?

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

Honestly no idea!

foxglove1977.bsky.social•28 days ago

Well, Barber's got a snarky agenda, hasn't she? How mean-spirited.

benschu.bsky.social•28 days ago

This is amazing, thank you for sharing. I realized that I know basically nothing about Marianne Faithfull except that Mick Jagger wrote “Wild Horses” about her after she ODed.

bsky.heenan.net•28 days ago

I did laugh at the article, but it's typical Barber; self indulgence trumps journalism. Of course Barber first excelled at the Independent (amazing then!), then moved to the Observer (she contracted Guardian Columnist disease) before ending at the Telegraph. The sad story almost beats Marianne's.

jamesrball.com•28 days ago

Francois has stressed me out *so* much.

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

the nightmare!

jennycolgan.bsky.social•28 days ago

It's nuts eh?

kateallen.ft.com•28 days ago

Spectacular

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

ain't it just

topofthefield.bsky.social•28 days ago

Lynne Barber was one of my favourite columnists back in the day. Brilliant!

susanxf.bsky.social•28 days ago

She was fabulous, I loved everything she wrote

angepowers.bsky.social•27 days ago

Me too. Her features were my weekly coffee and cake treat.

vlkvlkvlk.bsky.social•28 days ago

Blimey, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore! Thank you for posting it

cattygran.bsky.social•28 days ago

What a fantastic interview!

bookishwgc.bsky.social•26 days ago

Bitchy, indiscreet and wonderful. A great antidote to the fawning obits of recent days.

jondennis.bsky.social•28 days ago

An amazing read. But Francois is the real villain. And Barber flouncing out and stamping her foot ... I mean, who's behaving like a diva here?

johntonks.bsky.social•28 days ago

I watched her play Ophelia at, I think, ‘twas a while ago 😂, the Round House.

rogermccarthy.bsky.social•26 days ago

Reminds me why I loathed Lynn Barber - whatever happened to her?

sarahrichards.bsky.social•28 days ago

And not a Bailey shot in sight for the finished piece. Hilarious.

operacreep.bsky.social•28 days ago

A friend of mine knew Faithfull as she stayed at the family hotel from time to time and despite her devotion to her as an artist couldn't stand her as a guest.

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

a pal of mine knew her too. Said she was incredible, clever, funny, generous, lovely - and awful

nicmiller.bsky.social•28 days ago

I am friends with someone who worked with MF and gave her a right dressing down when she behaved like this. MF was putty in their hands for the rest of the day

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

always face up to bullies. Even charming ones

nicmiller.bsky.social•28 days ago

exactly.

operacreep.bsky.social•28 days ago

My friend's take was she's a poet and she's damaged, leave her alone. She left lots of unpaid bills and got banned eventually. Sometimes people like her need someone to confront them especially if they are equally respected for their creative work.

nicmiller.bsky.social•28 days ago

I'm not really into the 'damaged poet, let them behave like assholes because of it' thing because people like MF manipulate this. But power imbalance plays a part in who gets to bite back and when. My friend was quite low in the pecking order but believes no job/salary is worth being shat on

operacreep.bsky.social•28 days ago

Yep all of that, and it's behaviour that continues because of the love of their artistic work engenders. But hey it's over, may she rest in peace.

nigelleach.com•28 days ago

and she was Mick Jaggers girlfriend

operacreep.bsky.social•28 days ago

Hope that when he dies you'll mention she was his girlfriend...so over women's lives being defined by the men they were associated with.

tynegal.bsky.social•27 days ago

Didn’t get the joke, eh?

thomholbrook.bsky.social•28 days ago

Wow!

marynovakovich.bsky.social•28 days ago

God knows how I managed to miss this the first time round. Extraordinary stuff.

chscumbria.bsky.social•27 days ago

I loved reading her interviews - this one stands out. See also Rafa...

helenbarrett.bsky.social•28 days ago

It's a great read, but it's weirdly ageist in parts. And a lot of what Barber complains about - the shoot overrunning, overbearing PRs and managers - is is not unusual in celebrity interviews.

peterwatts.bsky.social•28 days ago

I was terrified interviewing Marianne because of this article, but she couldn't have been any nicer. One of the loveliest women, and she absolutely detested this piece as a total hatchet job.

bsky.heenan.net•28 days ago

If you fall out with Barber, she gets her revenge. And then some.

peterwatts.bsky.social•28 days ago

The funny thing is, when you read it carefully Marianne Faithfull doesn't actually do anything particularly dreadful. Yet somehow she is presented as a monster.

helenbarrett.bsky.social•28 days ago

It's entertaining, but typically Barber in that there's way too much Barber in it. Who cares that she had to cancel her own plans?

carlgardner.bsky.social•28 days ago

I do. Assuming it's true it shows how inconsiderate they all were to the journalist.

peterwatts.bsky.social•28 days ago

Really? The interview began late but they called the writer well in advance to warn her, and she got to watch a photo shoot with David Bailey. This is really not a big deal unless you are so self-obsessed you choose to make it so.

helenbarrett.bsky.social•28 days ago

Well, maybe. But OTOH if every time I had to rearrange my after-work plans because an interview overran for one reason or another, it would be in pretty much every story I have written. There's nothing special or unusual about it.

carlgardner.bsky.social•28 days ago

Maybe it depends on what the one reason or another is, what the people whose reason it is are like about it, and whether you think it'll interest readers to know these things.

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

Agreed. But we're all so de-fanged these days, its unabashedness is... bracing

helenbarrett.bsky.social•28 days ago

Yes, still reread A Curious Career, every now and again, even though it's a dispatch from another era.

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

Her 'On Men' is UHMAZING

helenbarrett.bsky.social•28 days ago

Oh great, thanks - added to list.

stephencollins.bsky.social•28 days ago

Oh my god this reads like a Toast of London episode but instead of Toast vs Ray Purchase it's Alien vs Predator or something. I LOVED it thank you marina

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

Hugest pleasure, S

dianajs.bsky.social•28 days ago

This is fab, she sounds like a tyrant! Silly me had always pictured her as a delicate girl who lost her way.

hassinator.bsky.social•28 days ago

lynn barber faintly terrifying.

marinaoloughlin.bsky.social•28 days ago

'faintly' 😁

hassinator.bsky.social•28 days ago

maybe 'fainty' would be more appropriate? #LightsOut

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