Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Theatre director and artistic director of Gray Eye, a Deaf and Disabled-led company; co-created the 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony.
On the island
Eight records
Hallelujah Chorus (from Messiah)Favourite
I can't hear my voice. I mean, Jonah, my son, sometimes says, Mummy, please don't sing, please don't. But I love it. So I went up to the teacher afterwards and said, Look, can I still be in the choir as long as I don't make a sound? I can lip-sync all the words. So I was there, I was in the choir as long as I didn't say a word. But it meant I could be with my friends, and that was the most important thing.
It is Yesterday by the Beatles and because when they finally started doing a song lyrics with the LPs, Vicky and my sister Jackie, but mainly Vick would sit with me and play a song that I liked the tune of to death and she would sit there with her finger pointing to every word so I got the sense of the rhythm. I got to know the words so that I, like him people, could sing along to the sound.
This is Teenage Kicks by The Undertones, and it's because it's proud of mum time. It's because Jonah, my son, who when he was 13 or 14, played this on the guitar and sang it with his best friend Sebastian Bassey on the drums. Part of Hoxton Hall's music evenings. And oh, watching your child perform live, there's nothing beats it, and he was good.
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
And this song has a bit of a journey. A lovely, lovely deaf man called Tony died. He was one of the first people to die of HIV-related illnesses. And he wasn't out to his family, neither was his boyfriend. But he asked our friend Iona Fletcher to sign this song for his boyfriend David to say how much I loved you. So this is at a funeral. You know, half the audience congregation knew Tony and David were in a relationship, half of them his family didn't. And Iona signed it. It was breathtaking and emotionally blah. We wept and it became the inspiration and the starting point for a play that I went on to create called Signs of a Diva.
It's Middlesex Holidays Because the Night by Patrick Smith and it was our getting ready on a Friday night. We'd have a bottle of wine or some cans in my friend Jude, Jude Taker's bedroom. She had the biggest bedroom and the messiest bedroom and we'd all crowd in there doing our hair back combing, putting on various different outfits and this was before I knew anything about Sign Song. Jude would sort of gesture but we made up our own signs for this song and then we would go into the night filled with joy and energy and they'd get hammered.
It is Spasticus Autisticus. And the blockers now will only do that with John Kelly, who was the lead frontman, a wheelchair user, activist. And he was a big part of Reasons to be Cheerful and Spasticus Autisticus.
If It Can't Be Right, It Must Be Wrong
John Kelly, Chas Jankle and the Blockheads
It's a song that probably not a lot of people know and we commissioned it for John Kelly, who was part of Reasons, and Charles Jankle and the blockheads to write it. And it came out of all of us absolute devastation. That after the euphoria of 2012, the opening ceremony, you know, being displayed was sexy. We were up there with the gods, we were equal. Suddenly everything was stripped away from us. The independent living fund was gone. They put a cap on access to work, so I'm only allowed as many hours with Jen or my other interpreters. You know, they are there on months when I can't have access because we haven't got the money. So it was about, come on, please, please. We are a lot of charity. Give us equality. It's the second anthem that Ian Jury, had he been alive, would have worked with us on. If it can't be right, it must be wrong. It's about the stripping of our human rights.
This song is Days by Kirsty McCull for many reasons. Danny bought me my first iPod connected to these things called Covenants which you put behind your ear, put your hearing aid on T-Switch and the first song that came up was Days by Kirsty McCull and I shoved my head under the pillow and bawled my eyes out. He's given me 40 song lyrics, 40 of my favourite songs, put them on an iPod and finally I was like hearing people, I had an iPod, yes, at the age of 40. But it's one of those songs that without wanting to sound worthy, but I do seriously thank the universe every day for my family, my friends and my work. I have had a blessed life. For every day there was always something to say thank you for. So thank you for the days. Absolutely.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:41You at Graeae would usually start with an audio description of yourself. Why is that and how would you describe yourself today?
Audio description is rooted in and make sure that things are accessible to blind or visually impaired people and it's also part of a creative currency as far as I'm concerned as artistic directive grey eye and always with me is I have messy hair, I have sunglasses on my hair that always match what I'm wearing. Today I'm wearing orange and blue so my sunglasses to orange. I have a hearing aid in my left ear. I always have my signature curly birdie necklace.
Presenter asks
3:32Tell me a bit about your relationship to music.
It's ridiculous, my relationship with music. It's s so ad hoc. You know, if I hear something uh on television or the radio and I go, Oh, ooh, that's a noise. I mean I don't genuinely like the radio'cause I can't actually really hear it. But if it's n music, that's fine of us. So I'm a sucker for the topsy because that I can hear that. I will like a piece of music even if I could only hear the first line.
Presenter asks
10:15Tell me about your dad Bob. He was the lone man in a household of five women.
My dad was incredibly quiet, really was a man of few words and quite horrified that he had these four daughters and this loud, very glamorous woman in his life. He would sit behind the newspaper. But he was also a good fun. If push comes to the shabby, especially when we were on a holiday or on the beach, he would play. But for a lot of the time he worked really, really hard.
The keepsakes
The luxury
camera and photographic developing kit
it might be an opportunity for to hone my skill in as a photographer … The smell of photographic development fluid, it's my childhood.
Presenter asks
13:55Your hearing was fine until you had an accident at school when you were seven. What actually happened?
I was messing about after school with my best friend. We were waiting for his mum, who's a school cleaner, to come in. We were going to jump out behind the bookshelves. Not a very good idea actually, but anyway, so we were practicing our jumping out and he pushed me and I banged my head and bam and it really hurt. And I got home and when my mum was talking to me I couldn't hear. … So for a lot of my little life, when teachers talked about me being hard of hearing, I thought it was my fault that I wasn't trying hard enough to hear.
Presenter asks
20:58How did the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony come together and what were your favourite moments?
I have a about a million memories. There were so many things, you know, having Lizzie Amma, who's sadly now left us, but you know, a lonely disabled woman of colour with Beverly Knight singing I Am What I Am with Caroline Parker signing it. There are so many memories. Meeting Stephen Hawking and praying today, God, He didn't ask me anything about the brief history of time because I don't understand it like at all. But he was the most twinkless man, the most generous man, who said absolutely, I'm there with you and for you.
Presenter asks
26:00Has your own experience of surviving abuse been a motivating force behind your work to get justice for other people?
Oh, I mean, I think it really is this whole thing about violation and disregarding and disrespect and all of that dirty, horrible lass stuff.
“It's radical, it's political, it's hot, it's revolutionary, it's just good theatre.”
“I can't hear my voice. I mean, Jonah, my son, sometimes says, Mummy, please don't sing, please don't. But I love it.”
“I just remember sitting after the funeral, and somewhere from the gut of my stomach, this question bubbled through me, up into my mouth, and it came out. I just said, Mum, was Dad my real dad?”
“I want the full cake and I want more.”
“He is my best production.”