Feature Shoot: Tabby Farrar

Snakebite’s latest featured model is a Norwich native who apparently knows her way around a crocodile. She’s Tabby Farrar and she’s ace! After a recent humanitarian trip to Ghana, she’s back in the UK and back in front of the camera. Snakebite’s luckiest resident photographer Franc was the man behind the lens for what represents a massive coup to our plucky MEGAzine! If you can take your eyes off the pictures for a few second, this chortle inducing chat covers everything from Anchorman quotes and African laser shows, to slam poetry and selling Snakebite to the Inuit. She’s a funny bugger and sexy to boot. Please be upstanding, for Tabby Farrar (not in a trouser related way… well, actually…)

Greetings Tabby and welcome to Snakebite. A lot has happened since you and I last spoke, how are you doing today?

Thanks for having me! I’m pretty darn good thank you, dozing after a heavy night!

What do you know about the Snakebite project thus far Tabby? Have you checked out the website yet? Thoughts?

I’ve been perving on the website now and then since it appeared ha-ha, I love it! Music, film, cool stuff, babes. It’s wicked and I’m chuffed to have been asked to get involved!

You’ve just shot with Snakebite’s resident snapper Franc. How was the day, talk us through what went on?

Well I turned up fashionably late in true diva style, and good old franc catered to my every need (hula hoops, cheese and ham sandwiches… A peanut butter Kitkat chunky) while I pranced around in my pants for a few hours!

Did you come into the shoot with any particular ideas to try out, or were you looking forward to working with Franc and seeing what was produced spontaneously?

I’ve worked with Franc a couple of times before and it’s always really fun and easy, I just turned up ready to go and we went with our instincts!

What was your favourite part of the experience? Were there any props or costume you particularly enjoyed incorporating into the images? Did you get any decent freebies?

Playing with the skateboard was fun, although I don’t recommend getting grip tape too close to your nipples ladies!! Scratchy stuff right there ha-ha. I got me some lovely new undies and free nibbles out of the action (never say no to free nibbles!) and I did rather enjoy cavorting around the kitchen counters like a lost ham ha-ha.

What was it like working with Franc again? It sounds like a hoot and a half!

Franc is always a joy to work with, we’ve never gotten through a shoot without a couple of fits of giggles and some sort of nonsensical chatter distracting me into pulling funny faces! Ahhh my little seeeth eeefrican amigo

Have you seen the results yet? If so, are you happy with what you guys came up with?

I’ve seen a bunch of samples and they’re all looking top notch so far! I almost look like a real model

It’s very exciting to feature such a well known model, and while I know you’ll be modest, you are a pretty big deal. How has the work been going since your return from Africa?

The temptation to start chucking Anchorman quotes in right now is overwhelming ha-ha! I’ve only been home just under two weeks and I’m in the middle of moving house right now so I’ve only had a couple of shoots so far, but there’s many more boobalicious plans coming up soon!

Speaking of Africa, you visited Ghana with some friends this year and it looked like you had a wonderful time. How was it?

Ghana was amazing, it was like entering a whole other universe. You can’t prepare yourself for the culture shock until you’re immersed in the country; it really was the trip of a lifetime.

From looking through your holiday snaps I see you managed to find a steady supply of booze, and even a laser show! It looks like the nightlife was pretty sweet over there. Care to elaborate?

Ha-ha, don’t get too excited, Ghana isn’t exactly big on nightlife! And I feel like I should point out to people reading this that I actually went there to work with orphans and disadvantaged children for a month… The boozing was only on weekends off!!

That said, when we did find a club, we went mental ha-ha. It was 30p for a double shot of most things and when we had a few days off in the Cape Coast I got a bit carried away on the flaming shots… They knew tourist types were coming! It was weird finding a place that could stretch to Lasers but still had hole-in-the-mud toilets though. Well prioritised there Ghana!

You also indulged in a bit of crocodile wrangling by the looks, what was that like, and what else did Africa teach you?

Yeah I pulled that little shits tail without realising it wasn’t sedated! That was a heart stopping moment!! Amazing to be so close with wild animals though, same with shaking hands with the Mona monkeys… just amazing to do. Africa made me appreciate how lucky I am to have the life I do, it sounds cliché but until you really experience how the other half live you don’t realise just how privileged we are or how much we take for granted here in the UK. Sure we found alcohol and Lasers, but we also worked in mud hut villages with children dressed in rags, and heard how they walked miles in the hot sun every day to get water. It was emotional but I would urge anyone reading this to do something similar in their lifetime.

Am I’m allowed to tell you what to do, because I’m “kind of a big deal”? (I have many leather-bound books)

Seriously though, you went out there for a very worthy cause indeed. Would you share with us the motivation behind the trip, and what you took from the experience?

I’ve always wanted to travel outside of Europe and America, and I decided after a lot of thinking that I wanted to do something more useful than a wreck up tour of Thailand (though that’s still gotta happen one day). People always say the same old things after travelling, but it really has changed me. I thought my eyes were pretty open to the world but I just had no idea. Watching the world through your TV gives you as good an idea of how people live, as watching Wimbledon might make you play like Andy Murray. You get the idea, but you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about until you’ve tried!

So now you’re back in the UK, what have you been up to? Did you miss anything in particular while you were off adventuring?

I have caught up on some serious Norwich party antics ha-ha, but I did get homesick while I was away. I’ve got a group of friends who I love like family here who I see every day, and it was really hard leaving them behind. One of the boys is particularly special to me right now and had to put up with a very expensive phone bill while I was gone! Poor sod ha-ha. I also missed hot showers, cups of tea, and any food involving potatoes or cheese!!

I remember you telling me you were studying creative writing a while back, what’s going on with that? Working on any tomes you care to tell us about?

I finished my course and will now be starting uni in Brighton aged 21, in about 2 weeks time I mostly write slam poetry and spoken word stuff so keep your eyes peeled for me out and about telling tales of sex and drugs and rock and roll

Having had a pretty sturdy summer here in the UK we’re all battening down the hatches for the rain and the cold now. Are you clinging to summer at all, or itching to get out your warm woollens and massive hats? Are you feeling the chill already after Arica?

God England is ICY after Saharan heat! I’m making summer last as long as I can. I love woolly jumpers and wood fires and all those shenanigans, but the end of summer marks the end of an era in my little world and scary new beginnings on the other side!! I intend on ignoring all serious matters in favour of continuing my work as a professional pants-party-goer.

I always enjoy talking tattoos with you Tabby, and you have some beauts on your body. What are your newest additions, and have you got your eyes on future pieces?

The latest are a magpie on the back of my left thigh and the words “wolfpack” and “dragonettes” written in the handwriting of all of my best friends I keep telling myself I’m done getting tattoos but I just can’t help myself… Maybe these are the last… But probably not! 

What else has been going on in Tabby’s world? What are you listening to, watching or reading of late?

I’m having a real dubstep phase right now, the delta heavy remix of Nero’s “must be the feeling” is getting seriously overplayed in my house! I don’t own a telly but at the wolfpack house I watch a lot of South Park and American Dad, and I’m currently trawling through my uni reading list on iBooks!

Is there any craze/trend about at the moment that is particularly doing your head in?

The continued existence of chavs.

Quickfire Round

What would be your last meal on death row?
Tuna pasta bake with garlic bread. I actually had a dream about that meal last night; I’m not even kidding you. I love it so much I dream about it. I got pissed off in my dream cos they took ages to serve me.

What time do you get up in the morning?
You think I get up in the MORNING?! You crazy.

Who is the last person you bought a drink for?
My man-pet Dave and his lovely friend Ellie, I got a round of Zombies in at Lola lo

Have you ever drunk Snakebite?
I love snakebite! Some of the pubs here refuse to serve them though

(There’s no non-pervy way of asking this) What are you wearing?
Ha-ha! A green H&M minidress with little leopards on it.

Where would you most like to visit in the whole wide world?
Too many places! Reykjavik, Los Angeles, Chang Mai, amongst hundreds of others.

Who is your all time favourite celebrity animal?
The Cheshire Cat

Do you have a nickname you’d care to share?
Tabby actually is a nickname, I do have another but I can’t share it with the world!

Ask the nearest person to you to describe you in one word. Who did you ask and what did they say?
Ha-ha, I just asked Dave and he said “Crazy… No… Insane… Anything that means mental”

What’s the last thing you paid money for?
Other than booze, it was buying me and Dave Kigu suits for a fancy dress party this weekend (mine is a tabby cat, his is a wolf)!

Who is the most talented person you know?
My friend Bex can sing, dance and act and she’s mad hot, so she basically wins at life. And my friend Matt is the best cocktail bartender mankind has ever seen.

Are you better at drawing or cooking?
Drawing. Unless by cooking you mean heating up frozen stuff?

How would you sell Snakebite magazine to an Eskimo?
“Are you cold? This is fucking hot. Buy it now. Right now.”

Have you got a message for Snakebite readers at all before you go Tabby?
Live for the moment; the hangover is always worth it!

Words: Rich Saunders Images: Franc B (See more from Franc here)