The man who flew Concorde with Phil Collins, dated Kate Bush and saw it all — now lifts the lid in his no‐holds‐barred memoir.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Live Aid — you were right there at the heart of it, flying Concorde with Phil Collins and fronting the BBC’s coverage. With all the retrospectives and specials happening this summer, how does it feel to see your role in that day being remembered four decades on?
I was picked for that job as I had a TV show in the USA that was going great guns, so the management thought I'd fit the bill as I was a known quantity. To be honest it was just like any other interview I'd done except it was at the speed of sound.
Phil being the consummate professional took it all in his stride and the conversation on board was mainly about Tony Hancock who we shared a great love of – and normal stuff, Unfortunately, the cockpit chat suffered from tech probs and it all came out a bit crackly. In fact – a few weeks later when I walked into the BBC Bar, the entire place stood up and made that crackly sound!
It's so weird to think that's forty years ago – it does indeed feel like yesterday. My favourite part of the whole experience was calling my mum. ''Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?'' I asked excitedly. ''Well mum, I'm going to Heathrow Airport and getting on Concorde with that Phil Collins – the one you like ...then we get to New York and get a helicopter to Philadelphia!''
There was a short pause before I heard her say ..''How are you for underpants?'' Never, ever, try to impress your mother!
You’ve done everything from introducing New Order on BBC2 to hosting MTV in the States for millions. Looking back from 2025, with your memoir now out, what moment in that rollercoaster life finally made you stop and say, “OK… this might be getting out of hand”?
Back then I just never stopped. I was a millionaire a few times over – and everywhere I looked there was money - stacks of it. I was earning from MTV USA, the BBC, everywhere, and of course silly people like me thought it would never end. I looked kind of weird with my funny shirts, excessive make up and red spiked hair but I loved it. So many people thought I was gay, but I was far from it - and the girls adored the look.
I had a few kids shows like Knock Your Block Off etc, but I was quite aware that I was now mid-thirties – and running about on a stage in front of screaming teenagers with a glove puppet hanging out of my belt was not really doing it for me – so I decided that was that. Jonathan Ross' first quote when he got his first TV gig was ''I don't want to be another Steve Blacknell'' which he managed not to – wearing the suits while I danced around like an idiot on crack. He managed to keep his money while I snorted and drank mine. I got a call from a producer mate – it was a new children's show called What’s All This Then? and the money was great ...''OK'' I said – I'll do it. The next day I realised what I'd done. Money bloody money ! The series came and went but I was not a happy bunny and decided I needed a change. Three months later I was on a plane to Hollywood, California – tingling at the thoughts of what might be.
Your memoir, Tales from the Bedroom Wall, is out this July – what was the most emotionally difficult chapter for you to write, and why?
To be honest – the book could have been titled How To Be An Arsehole And Get Away With It. It's really a chain of events that entailed losing all my money, fucking up in Hollywood because I refused to take acting class and a plethora of daft decisions that cost me dearly. Therefore, I didn't get very emotional whilst writing it – I just had a wry grin on my face as I put in print what a chump I'd been. I must admit though I did shed tears writing about my dearly departed mum and dad who I worshipped and miss to this very day.
You dated Kate Bush before the world knew she was a genius – what do you remember most vividly about that early chapter in both your lives?
I was walking down the hill in groovy downtown Dartford in Kent and saw the back of a mate of mine with his arm around this girl. I shouted and they both turned around. Her eyes hit me like a thunderbolt and that was it.
I knew she sang a bit but it was all just rumours about town. I was desperate to get into the business and found myself getting jealous of all the attention she seemed to be getting, so I told her the moment I got a job in ‘the biz’ I'd listen to her songs. Looking back that's a pretty crappy attitude to the first love in my life – but I was young and stupid. I eventually got my job – with Decca Records as a marketing assistant and rolled up to her place that very same night. Sitting at her piano she whispered ''Turn Away'' which I did .. then two of the most beautiful songs I'd ever heard reached my ears. As she finished, she asked me to turn around .. ''Was that YOU?'' I blurted. Then and there I knew I was in the presence of someone who one day would amaze the world.
From bulimia to drug addiction, you’ve been brutally honest about your personal battles. How do you think the entertainment industry of the '70s and '80s contributed to — or ignored — those struggles?
From horse jockeys to ballerinas – it's so so tough when someone enters a world where thin is king. The same goes for the music business. As an ex rugby player I had a fair amount of flab around my middle (which appears to have returned damn it!), and I'd been told by a girl a few years before that I was lovely but the fattest guy she'd ever known. The seed was planted. Although the cocaine years were yet to materialise it was all alcohol and long lunches – and I could feel the weight coming on. As if by magic it suddenly occurred to me that I could eat .. throw it up and feel marvellous… a few brandies and hey ho!
It developed into full blown Anorexia Bulimia where I'd starve for days upon end then eat a supermarket. I was lucky in that I came through but to this day I lecture on male bulimia and that men get it too. It's tough enough for a chap to talk about his feelings let alone this bitch of a disease – and most suffer in silence.
You were MTV’s first Video Jockey in Europe and later hosted London Calling for 23 million viewers in the US. What did America misunderstand — or get totally right — about British pop culture back then?
Considering that America is so far ahead in so many phases of life – I always found them a bit behind the times with 80's music, and I remember The Cars being hailed as ''punk'' over there … where they were AOR at most. So when London Calling hit the MTV screens it was a bit of a wakeup call with so many British acts stirring things up a bit in the much heralded ''Brit Invasion''.
The New Romantic looks of Duran, Kajagoogoo et al (let alone yours truly) were now giving the Bruce Springsteens and Barry Manilows a run for their money – and the times they were a changin'.
You were once chauffeured around London from your Holland Park mansion. A few years later, you were broke. What did losing millions teach you about the people around you?
As I've mentioned the 80's were money, money, money. I'd think nothing of hiring a helicopter.. plane or a boat for a jolly with mates but it was the dreaded white powder that took most of my hard-earned loot. Weirdly back then if you didn't partake you were a bit weird, but it was a sign of the times. Money attracts money and I'm ashamed to say I only really mixed with the rich and nearly famous. The book chronicles my ridiculous and sometimes OTT dreadful behaviour.
You were in a speedboat explosion and ended up in a wheelchair for six months. Did that brush with death change your perspective — or just feed the thrill-seeker in you?
Great question. The honest answer is a big fat YES! Although I was lucky to get away with just third-degree burns – it did hit a trigger within. It's said that all addicts of one sort or another have these – indeed if that’s the case I should have opened up a fucking rifle store. Any excuse to drink .. and traumas give addicts like what I am – just that. So that fateful day ended with me smashed on Vicodin opiates and Jack Daniels – a wonderful mess of a man – enjoying near death to the max. Weird.
The book reveals a 50-year romance with Maggie that somehow survived marriages, madness and international moves. What kept that flame alive, even during the chaos?
I say in the book that just four months parting with Kate I saw a pair of similar eyes in a doorway in North London one bleak Monday morning. I was delivering some tapes to a musician client and there they were over his right shoulder. The same dusky eyes – staring at me. Within weeks were an item – and the love was once more sooooo intense. Heaven. We would split as lovers then live as friends. When I was married in the USA she was always in great touch – and when I came back to the UK I waited four years for her to get of this twit she was seeing.
Maggie herself is very rock and roll – having been a record exec and enjoyed relationships with Bill Wyman and Tom Petty no less. We were wed in 2002. She has recently got over breast cancer and we live happily on the South Coast of England over the sea with a cat and some sunflowers.
From hosting Riverside to being Frank Bough’s student at BBC Breakfast, you witnessed a golden age of British broadcasting. What’s missing from TV now that was abundant then?
That's a toughie.. but mainly – and can only guess is that budgets are down and everyone is out to make the best show possible on two and sixpence. Cheap TV reigns! Considering the fact that British comedy has been known throughout the world as pure class -it's just plain embarrassing with the current bombardment of panel shows – and if I see one more 'house restoration' programme I'll go fucking bonkers.
You met your first wife Catherine James in LA – who was Clapton’s piano muse and Jagger’s former partner. How do you even begin to process a relationship with someone whose past includes Hendrix and Morrison?
Well the fact is I never knew any of that stuff... I bumped into her with a mutual friend on a lot just off Hollywood Boulevard and she seemed quite lovely. The attraction like always was instant. In 1969 I was at a pop festival as an apprentice hippy trying to learn the ropes! On stage were Ginger Baker's Airforce with Cream drumming genius Ginger at the kit – a a certain Denny Laine (later of Wings) and a stunning blonde backing singer to his right. I could not take my eyes off her – she had a mini skirt on and these amazing silver boots. I never forgot her and when years later David Soul had a hit with Silver Lady it set me off again. I could never get that vision out of my thoughts. It was only after a few months with Catherine that she revealed she WAS that lady..then married to Denny Laine. My mouth fell open and so it did at regular intervals when she'd mention one superstar friend or lover from the ''A'' list of rock and roll. I honestly think that 'Serendipity'' is around us all of the time – and we only recognise it when we stumble on it.
Bill Wyman’s written the foreword to your memoir, and your friendship has spanned four decades of surreal in-jokes and music history. What’s the biggest impact Bill’s had on your life — personally or professionally — that you’ve never really spoken about before?
Nothing really except that he's one of nature’s true gentlemen and a true scholar of British comedy. One of my favourite interviews was with Bill for MTV USA. We were playing table tennis and every time I'd ask a question I'd fire the ping pong ball at him. We laughed till we couldn't anymore. I am honoured that he wrote the forward for the book.
You’re now the UK’s most qualified TV teacher. What drives you to keep teaching and mentoring after a life so full of extremes?
Well as a presenter of some forty plus years I've fucked up more times than I can remember – so I teach people what NOT to do. When you've done that - you can then concentrate on peoples individual talents. I love my work and have my own autocue system that has been a smash all over the world. If anyone walks away and says, ''I've had so much fun and I've learned a lot'' I'm exceptionally happy.
With the 40th anniversary of Live Aid upon us, do you think the spirit of that event — artists uniting for a cause — could ever be replicated today? Or was that truly a one-off?
To be honest I'd be very surprised if there was another one. Live Aid in a sense captured the style and mood of the day. Today it does all appear to be a bit of a mish mash of so many factors. We had the 50's – Rock and Roll … the 60's The Flowers Went Pop … the 70's Glam and Punk .. the 80's The New Romantics .. then it's hard to pin a tag on what was happening.
Mind you this is a seventy two year old ex hippie talking so what the fuck do I know. Also you'd have to find another Geldof and Ure and they are a very difficult act to follow. Midge should have been a Sir too. I, like so many, just can't understand it.
Finally, your story is packed with music, madness, and miracles — but what’s the one lesson you’d give to the 20-year-old Steve Blacknell staring at those bedroom wall posters
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I'd say always be nice to your neighbour and those around you.
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I’d say always go for the adventure.
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I'd say never sit on the fence- fall off it if you will…but don't just sit there ..it's boring.
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And I'd say don't go out with dirty underpants.
Steve Blacknell’s memoir, 'Tales From The Bedroom Wall - The Life & Times of a Serial Thrill Seeker’ is available now from Amazon.
https://www.steveblacknell.com
