Cultural life, the radio four podcast, she reveals her formative influences and experiences, and how her passion for playing was there from the start. I knew very young there was no question i wanted to play the violin. There was no question that that was what i must do and had to do and wanted to do. Have you played here much, nicky . They chuckle nicola benedetti, welcome to this cultural life. Thank you so much for having me. Its an absolute pleasure. You were born and brought up in north ayrshire. What are your earliest musical memories at home . What memories do you have of music being played at home . The bee gees and abba. Later on, good dose of shania twain. That was all my dads taste. My mum definitely had a kenny g record. Um. She laughs saxophone . Theyll kill me for saying all of this quite like this, but its the truth both of your parents were born in italy, werent they . Yes. Was it an italian household culturally growing up . Its a good question. I would say both parents
But its the truth both of your parents were born in italy, werent they . Yes. Was it an italian household culturally growing up . Its a good question. I would say both parents assimilated very concretely and quite deliberately with scottishness and scottish culture, but they also came over very young. My mum was three years old. An italian speaking three year old with an italian mother and scottish father. Um. Came over to scotland and, er. Was sort of banned from speaking italian quite quickly. It was considered to be detrimental to her education and all sorts of things. We know better now. So my mum lost most of her italian, um. And it was a very scottish upbringing from that moment forward. And my dad, he came over when he was kind of ten or ii. Came over without his parents. Had a rough time, you know, adjusting to such a different culture. It was a good, healthy mix. But as far as mealtimes go and food, we were italian all the way. You mentioned you started playing the violin at t
My, how times have changed. I see hustling, i see killing. Thats what i rap about. Its a tough time to grow up in, and nirvana and kurt cobain in particular reflect that angst. I learned how to write for myself, and its pretty ironic that most people relate to it. That is a platinum record. Country music has taken over the airwaves and the record charts. The honeymoon is over. Now were getting down to real commerce. Arent these girls just crazy . Yeah, they are. You may think of it as the channel that rattles your china , occasionally her teeth, and hypnotizes your children. But what you may want to note is that mtv is responsible for a complete revolution in the Music Business in this country. Mtv makes the hits. Its as if there were just one National Radio station for new songs. Ending the 80s, in terms of rock music, youre getting a lot of hairbands. Youve got poison, rat, warrants. A lot of hairspray going on. There was a lot of sexually suggestive lyrics. Its not really deep music
this week on the travel show. ..mont saint michel marks its millennium. that view is pretty amazing. there s the shadow of mont saint michel on the sand. oh, yeah! the parps and toots that make this port one of a kind. horns blaring. one, two, three, four, five. and saving these bundles of fluff from extinction. twittering and squawking. yeah, he s thinking about it. all right. we ll give him some time. here he comes. i m beginning this week in northern france on a journey that 2.5 million people take each year. i m kind of getting an idea of how popular this place must be because it s off season, it s super cold, but this bus is packed. you can see it. i ve just got a glimpse of the abbey. it does look pretty special. this is mont saint michel, one of france s most visited sites. it s an island off the coast of brittany in normandy, connected to the mainland by a half a mile long bridge that opened back in 2014. and this year, the island celebrates a very special anniversary