Thank you so much for visiting my blog and giving it such awesome page views in just two days. Just to update you... this blog essentially remains about eating, exploring and shopping, but while working on these topics, I realised that entertainment too has been a huge part of my life. Being an entertainment writer for as many as five years back in India, I guess, I just can't do without writing on and about entertainment. For me, it is equally important and interesting as the other three, so I've decided to add entertainment as a fourth dimension to my blog. Under this keyword, you will find some scribbles and squabbles about films, TV series, music and games (Xbox). I have already posted two articles under the keyword entertainment - one on my favourite series Game of Thrones and the other on one of my favourite musician and singer Edwyn Collins. Do check these out and if you like then please share or leave a comment.
Edwyn Collins. Pic credit: julia dresch via flickr
I
had the good fortune of speaking with Edwyn Collins when I was freelancing with
the London-based online newspaper The Positive. In my teens, I must have listened to
his song A girl like you more than
hundred times if not less, and even today, I listen to this song when I feel
like moving to the music. So when I got the opportunity, I lapped it up. This
is the article that I wrote for The Positive... have a read, share your
views...
Listen to Edwyn Collins speak and the first thing that
you will notice about him is his laugh. The free flowing, distinctive and
hearty laugh. It is this laughter, and the will to keep going, that has made
54-year-old singer Edwyn Collins the man that he is today.
Edwyn first found fame as a 20-year-old with the
short-lived Glasgow band, Orange Juice, in 1979. As a solo artist, he went on
to achieve worldwide fame with the hit single A Girl like You from his album Gorgeous
George. However, musical success is only one aspect of this Scottish
alternative rock musician’s remarkable story.
In 2005 he had two cerebral hemorrhages that paralyzed
his right side and rendered him to a limited vocabulary of words such as yes,
Grace Maxwell (his wife’s name) and, an interesting phrase, “the possibilities
are endless”. Those two massive strokes left him unable to walk, talk, or read
let alone play the guitar and sing. However, with the endless support of his
wife Grace, within two years of the stroke, Edwyn had begun relearning to speak
and sing, and released the first of his post-recovery albums – with songs he
had written before the hemorrhages.
As the stroke had rendered Edwyn wholly incapacitated to
writing, singing, and performing, Grace used this opportunity to make her
husband relearn everything, right down to relearning all his lyrics. What is
interesting here is to note how the two kept each other motivated. Both Edwyn
and Grace say that it was their attitude and the belief that things will get
better. “You might think that this would have been unbearable, coupled with the
fact he was unable to play guitar any more. However, we saw it always as
regaining things. Even in the darkest times when he was so incapacitated, every
day I would get glimmers of Edwyn coming through. I had the sense that Edwyn
trusted me to get on with things,” Grace said. To this Edwyn adds, “There’s a
1% chance of surviving something like this, so I suppose I am very lucky. So
what? I had my stroke, nevertheless, I’m over that stage.”
Embracing his second life as God’s gift, Edwyn looks at
his stroke as something that has made him a better songwriter and musician. He
says, “Before my stroke I was writing slowly; after my stroke, I’m writing
furiously. I’m fast and furious these days. I want to crack on with things. I
feel that I must do that. I am more aware of my mortality.” Indeed, the possibilities are endless for Edwyn, who has,
after his recovery, released three music albums, produced and starred in the
Channel 4 sitcom, West Heath Yard and
released his first book of illustrations. Now Edwyn is all set to debut as a movie star in a
documentary that tells the story of his incredible journey to recovery in his
own words. Titled The Possibilities Are
Endless, the documentary is directed by Edward Lovelace and James Hall, who
helmed Katy Perry: Part Of Me. The director duo said they were inspired to undertake the
project three years ago after listening to Losing Sleep, the album released by
Collins in 2010, which was the first new material following his stroke.
Lovelace said, “It seemed like it was coming from a different place – we were
intrigued to see what had happened and how he might have changed.” “We wanted
the film to be Edwyn’s chance to speak totally freely at his own pace. Though
the music is essential in the film – it is more than just a music film. It is a
triumph against the odds,” Hall added.
Which other musician has inspired you? Or whose
motivational life story would you like to see as a motion picture? Share your views...
Hello readers, 
