Growing up on a Peckham council estate with his musician mother and a ‘Lizzie-Anne the transvestite’ childcarer led to Pete Bennett’s own love of quirk and music Now an actor, director, voice over artist and of course musician (with his band Lovedogz), he first came to public attention in 2006’s Big Brother and really opened up the conversation about Tourette’s Syndrome. Pete tells hilarious stories about the crazy acid trip at a psychedelic rave which gave him a vision that he would win Big Brother, being suckered in by a stoned agent with nefarious intentions in Hollywood, surviving a forest fire on a weed farm in Santa Cruz, witnessing a chicken sacrifice in a Mexican church, narrowly avoiding eating a Golden Retriever in Vietnam and much more. A real treat of an episode with lots and lots of laughter. And LOTS of swearing! You have been warned.
On this episode we talk:
Growing up on a council estate in Peckham
His musician mum touring with the Cure, Communards and Marc Almond
Being brought up by a transvestite called Lizzie-Anne
Being threatened by ‘Fred the stick’
Not many serial killers called Bob
Enjoying his Tourette’s
Swearing makes him happy
Dressing up in drag from a young age
Martinique being like ‘Peckham on Sea’
Downtrodden and burnt out cars
A natural progression for him to become a musician
The crazy acid trip on which he predicted he would go on and win Big Brother
(hold on for this one, it’s quite a ride!)
How his friend’s tragic death changed him
Running around naked in a psychedelic trance rave
His beautiful experience spiralling to a vision of heaven
Seeing Jim Carrey and Billy Idol in heaven
Hitting rock bottom after the trip
Getting a vision of the Big Brother house and realising what he needed to do
The recent tragic loss of his former girlfriend and friend Nikki Grahame
Being invited to Hollywood by an agent
Who turned out to be a stoner with no contacts
Finding Hollywood a dump
His job cutting weed on a farm in Santa Cruz
Suddenly being engulfed by the snoke of a forest fire
Thinking he was going to die in the fire
Escaping in a truck over the top of the mountain
Mexico being the most beautiful place he has ever been
‘Bright colours, midgets and everyone off their nut on tequila’
Dancing in the parades on the Mexican Day of the Dead
Watching a rather unusual chicken sacrifice in a church
Lisa’s brother doing gigs in cock-fighting rings in Mexico
Lisa and Pete not really knowing what a cock is (!)
Golden Retrievers in cages in Vietnam
Eating a chilli burger and ending up in hospital
Being born because of an Indian curry
Wanting to go to India and eat all the chilli
Munching on cockroaches, duck’s head and jellified chicken feet
Singing us out to the Vietnamese ding dang dong song
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