Sex, Drugs, Fame And Money
Still in Cambridge and the last turn of the day at the was Russell Brand, in conversation with Jeremy Vine. It certainly produced some of the funniest lines from the festival as Brand talked candidly about his previous addictions to drugs, his current addiction to sex and a history of mental illness which he said went "on and on and on....like a personal Leningrad."
He also admitted that he liked the fame and the money. "Look I've got some here in my pocket and loads more down at the bank."
He told stories about his early career at MTV when he invited his drug dealer "gritty" for a tour of the studios and managed to introduce him to Kylie Minogue.
Funnily enough, that theme of sex, fame and money was one that had cropped up in an earlier session when the Â鶹Éç's Andy Parfitt took us through some research into the media habits of teenagers. He described the "pure teen spirit" as one that existed in somewhere between the ultra local neighbourhood of the average teenager and then the online universe which took them as far as Los Angeles.
He also reminded us that a teenager's life is very regimented....driven by class timetables and school bells and that it was no surprise they went a little crazy when released from that environment.
One interesting finding of the research centred on the technology available to teenagers. While we may imagine they live in bedrooms stuffed with digital gadgetry, the truth is that they often end up the the broken-down television sets that their parents no longer want, mobile phones and iPods that no longer work and radios that....well, simply don't exist.
