Tag: The Sweet Escape

For Gwen Stefani, never a doubt

The singer-songwriter always knew No Doubt would rise again. No matter how long it took. By Randy Lewis

Gwen Stefani may be a superstar pop singer, hit songwriter, fashion maven and role model for millions of girls and young women, but on a brutally hot afternoon late last week, on a loading dock outside a largely empty sports arena in Ontario, she was just a mom, trying to keep her 3-year-old son entertained while she took on an impromptu decorating project.

“I don’t have time to do this, but you know me — once I get obsessed with something . . .,” Stefani said while splattering globs of sky blue, neon orange and electric pink paint across three large squares of white fabric. She and a couple of friends were creating tapestries that will hang in the backstage dressing rooms during the first full-scale concert tour in seven years by No Doubt, the once-scrappy ska-rock group that emerged from Anaheim to become one of the biggest-selling pop music acts of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Nearby, Kingston James McGregor Rossdale, the first of Stefani’s two kids with rock star hubby Gavin Rossdale, frolicked over a separate sheet of material reserved for him. Eager to include his 8-month-old brother, Zuma, in the fun, James (as Stefani usually calls him) plopped his hands on his young sibling’s head. Read the rest of this article »

Last week, I went to the hospital with my friend and while she had a doctor’s appointment I was sat in the waiting room. Guess who was staring up at me?! It was Gwen! That is, a Sweet Escape Gwen, from the cover of Observer Woman magazine from August, 2007.

I wrestled with myself about taking it from a waiting room but I decided to replace it with a new copy of Star magazine from the newsagent (which had no Gwen in it). Is that bad??

Anyway, so now I have this magazine that was only released for one day back in August 2007! You can read the full article which I have transcribed and see the scans in the No Doubt Scrapbook gallery.

If you like to read the articles, I have them in date order on the articles page and also a feed of the most recently transcribed articles is always in the footer so you can keep up with any updates!

Christina

No doubt Stefani’s coming to Stockton

Byline: Ian Hill

Aug. 22 – STOCKTON – Only about 50 people were in the crowd the last time Gwen Stefani performed here, in the early 1990s. The audience should be much larger when she comes back in November.

Stefani, now a pop star, will perform Nov. 1 at the Stockton Arena. Tickets are set to cost $37.50-$67.50 and go on sale Saturday, arena general manager Jacqui James said. Up-and-coming R&B singer Sean Kingston will open the show. Read the rest of this article »

I’m like every other woman. I’m super vain. I have issues.

She’s got style, she’s got songs and, in her leopard-print jumpsuit, she’s got balls. At 37, with a one-year-old baby, Gwen Stefani has finally found pop stardom. She tells Craig McLean about motherhood, self-obsession and her fashion label.

She might be wearing her sparkly leotard-cum-dungarees ensemble. Or a pair of sequined red hot pants. Or a tartan schoolgirl’s uniform. Maybe she’ll have slipped into one of her favourite outfits: armpit-length black leather gloves and monochrome horizontal stripes (imagine an escaped convict hiding out in a burlesque joint).

If you’re reading this on Sunday morning Gwen Renée Stefani will be on stage in Australia, performing her idiosyncratic version of disco funk in front of thousands of tweens, teens and twentysomething pop fans in the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. For 90 sweaty minutes there will be no let-up in the costume changes, choreography – part Broadway show, part cheerleader rally, part hip hop face-off – and belting pop songs. Read the rest of this article »

Gwen Stefani – The escape artist

New album? New tour? A possible No Doubt reunion in the near future? No problem. But this time around, Gwen Stefani’s got a baby on board.

Gwen Stefani wanted to be sure that her return from a between-albums hiatus was going to be, well, a wind-up. “I was thinking about how you disappear and come back, and I’m kind of coming back from being gone a minute,” Gwen hollas back over dinner at hip London eatery, Nobu. “The idea was to focus on the word ‘escape.’ I started thinking about the idea of Houdini. His whole gimmick was that his wife used to kiss him and pass the key through her mouth to him, and he would escape from his traps.”

Pry as we might, we can’t exactly confirm whether Gwen and husband Gavin Rossdale [Ed: Swoon!] are well-practiced in such techniques themselves, but we do know one thing she can’t escape from: her status as the coolest California Girl in popular music. Read the rest of this article »

Last word: Gwen Stefani

All hail the platinum blonde that made pop ace and Akon cool. I sat down with the Californian Grammy winner, who claims this is her last solo album… by Maddy Maspero

Last time you realized you’re an OG in this music game?
[Laughs] Yeah, it’s been a lot of years! I started in No Doubt when I was 17 and we were together for nine years before Tragic Kingdom came out. I’ve had this really long, slow career and I’ve experienced so many different sides to it. At the same time, it’s kind of like, “Oh man, I’m not at the beginning anymore.” But I’ve had such an incredible ride. It’s unbelievable. Read the rest of this article »

‘I just want to make music and babies’

How can you balance 42 gigs in 70 days, a clothing label, a nine-month-old baby and a spot of yodelling? Gwen Stefani gives Chris Salmon some tips

La! Gur-la! Ah!” Gwen Stefani’s ninth-month-old son Kingston is making so much noise that his immaculately-dressed mother stops mid-sentence to look across the exclusive London members’ club to where he’s sitting with his nanny. “He’s OK,” says the singer brightly, “he’s just in a talking mood.” Read the rest of this article »

Hey, Baby

California dreamer Gwen Stefani has proven that she’s much more than “just a girl in the world.” Here the pop icon, new mom, and fashionista gets real about her baby, her band, and living in a bubble.

It’s Friday night in N.Y.C. when Gwen Stefani enters the conference room at the Ritz-Carlton, where I’ve been waiting for over an hour. There aren’t fireworks or rounds of applause or any big fanfare – actually, it’s not much different than when I entered the room, except that she’s Gwen Stefani and, well, I’m me. Her platinum hair is perfectly coiffed; her eyelashes are thick with mascara. She’s wrapped up in a long black coat that she seems to be getting lost in, and she’s holding her seven-month-old son, Kingston, who is decked out in a L.A.M.B onesie. It’s exactly what I imagined that scene would be like. Read the rest of this article »

Blonde ambition

From pop-punk queen to fashion icon, Gwen Stefani has forged a one-woman empire. She exclusively tells ELLE’s Kerry Potter about her rock-star marriage, being a beauty junkie and how hard she’s worked for that body.

Four hours in hair and make-up and Gwen Stefani, 37-year-old multimillion-selling rock star and fashion icon, finally takes centre stage at the ELLE photoshoot. She’s immaculately painted, cartoonishly flawless and Amazonian in stature. White-blonde hair fiercely straightened, wearing a tiny pair of shorts with giant heels, she glares at the camera as her entourage (stylist, hairdresser, make-up artist, US record company execs, nanny) look on silently. So far, so intimidating, until we’re introduced and she immediately breaks into a broad, sunshiney smile. ‘Hey there!’ she says in a girlish all-American drawl and takes my hand. A few days later, we meet again, at a hotel, and this time I remember not to judge a book by its cover. Gwen turns out remarkably unassuming, chatty, free of pretentious pronouncements about her ‘art’, and strangely honest about everything – from how hard she works to stay trim to the problems with a long-distance love affair (she’s married to Brit Gavin Rossdale, former singer in Rock band Bush). Read the rest of this article »

No doubting Gwen’s return to musical form

Facing the critics, working with Keane, recording with No Doubt again and Britney’s meltdown… We talk exclusively with superhot singer Gwen Stefani.

No Doubt about it
I had lunch with my band yesterday and we were just talking about the weird journey we’ve been on.

I made the last record not to intentionally go solo, it wasn’t like there was any problems in the band, it was just a fun album to make.

Then it got kinda drawn out because it was more successful than I thought. Then I wanted to tour, and I got pregnant, and I couldn’t see me doing a No Doubt record.

It didn’t seem like the right time. Creatively I wasn’t inspired by it, but the moment I finished recording this last record, I was like: “I think I know I want to record with No Doubt now.” It was so obvious that’s what I wanted. Read the rest of this article »