Collins
At the request of Oldnathan in the thread below, I am drawing your attention to Edwyn Collins: Home Again, the unmissable documentary made by BBC Scotland about the ongoing recovery of the Scottish genius after his double brain haemorrhage and MRSA complications in 2005. I saw it on BBC4 but it was repeated on BBC2 last night and is thus - for those of you with access - up on the iPlayer for the next six days. It's really worth seeing. I'm tempted to reprint Oldnathan's review in full:
"I'm not prone to over-sentimentality. In fact I'm a rather cynical old bugger who has to resist the temptation to tear up those make shift flower shrines to lost loved ones, left by people who can only grieve in public. But I spent most of the programme trying to stop myself from blubbing like a baby. I knew he'd been ill. Very, very ill it turns out. The sight of the once fey, cocky, beautiful young thing shuffling around with the aid of his wife, unable to speak properly, unable to read and worst of all unable to play guitar was heartbreaking. Thankfully we were shown definite signs of his recovery by the end of the programme. To the point where he even managed to play a live concert. But even after that, the sight of him struggling to get down the multitude of craggy steps to his favourite beach back in Scotland, and then him just sat there with his incredibly supportive wife and son, were almost unbearable. I loved the fact that his wife wasn’t interested in being portrayed as a saint and you knew when they said they rowed every day they really meant it but what a wonderfully un-showy woman she is. Truly moving."
I second this emotion. I've been lucky enough to meet Edwyn on many occasions, professionally, down the years. I first bumped int him in 1990 in Hamburg, when he turned up to guest onstage with his pal Roddy Frame around the time of Good Morning, Britain*. (Mick Jones turned up, too, but he wasn't half as friendly.) We had an uproarious night, with he and Roddy doing an improv comedy routine back at the hotel that was pure Vic and Bob. I wish I'd kept the tape. (You never do keep the tapes.) I interviewed him at length for Q when Gorgeous George came out, in 1994, meeting him in a Hampstead cafe. And he was kind enough - as was Roddy - to appear as a musical guest on the Radio 2 series of Lloyd Cole Knew My Father, where Stuart and I basically pulled favours. And this was after he'd had the big hit and the shampoo ad and was enjoying his commercial renaissance. He appeared on 6 Music often, and had been on Roundtable when I used to host it, two days before his first haemorrhage: on fine form, naturally, but complaining of nausea he'd experienced in the week, which he put down to food poisoning. Little did any of us know.
This film shows what a battler he is. But it's not sentimental, because neither are he and his wife Grace.
*I have photographic evidence of this night somewhere. Bear with me.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 3:13 PM
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11 Comments:
Thank you.
I was lucky enough to meet Edwyn when I was a roving reporter for Leeds Student Radio. I had been sent down to his gig to soundbite the audience (don't know why we hadn't managed to book an interview) and when he spotted me he offered to do an interview. Being a less than brilliant reporter, I fluffed and said I didn't want to bother him, but he did leave a lovely soundbite, sadly now lost. The program last night was totally brilliant and had me blubbing sad happy tears.
Thanks oldnathan. I have to admit, I wasn't going to watch that documentary as I thought it would be too depressing. But I just did, and it was anything but. Very life-affirming and positive - a happy story with a happy ending.
Despite the terrible tragedy of his illness, he's on the mend, doing what he does best and doing it well.
Most of all though, he has a lovely un-starry wife (who wouldn't feel blessed with a woman like that around) and a nice son who he obviously has a very close relationship with.
Edwyn Collins, you're a very very lucky man. God bless you.
It's about the most moving TV programme I've watched. I wish I'd managed to see him on his recent tour - apparently Roddy Frame was in his band so it must have been a great show.
Davec
Lovely post. A friend and I were told off by Grace years ago at a Zeke Manyika gig at Camden Town Hall for not watching the support band. Scared the bejaysus out of us, so we filed in - just the sort of gal you want to help you out of the way of the grim reaper and back to life.
I am a big Edwyn fan, and have been lucky enough to see him in London before Christmas, and in Birmingham a month or so ago. In Birmingham, Grace and son William looked proudly on, as did we all.It was brilliant to see how Edwyn's performance - despite not being able to hold a guitar, and having to read his lyrics from a book - had improved in the subsequent months, as had his typically acerbic banter. To see him work with an absolute corker of a band, and especially Roddy Frame, is a life-enhancing experience, and ought to remind us all of why we love music - because it brings us together in the most beautiful cameraderie.
I love Orange Juice, not so keen on solo Edwyn - if I hear A Girl Like You ever again I won't be responsible for my action. But hats off to him for coming back from the brink.
And I've kept all my tapes. However I very much doubt I'll ever want to listen to the likes of David Van Day, Richard Wilson or Sarah Parish over again.
A Girl Like You is a bit sad, as it's absolutely not representative of Edwyn's solo work at all, really. Awful when The Big Hit is like that.
Yes it was a terrific programme, very moving. When I saw it on BBC4 it was preceded by a programme called something like 'The Sound of Young Scotland' which demostrated how influential Orange Juice were as a band and made the subsequent EC prog even more poignant.
Their early singles and 1st LP are right up there though they fell into a swift tailspin from which Edwin hasn't ever recovered in my opinion.
Roger from Putney
Edwyn and OJ are great. I went to see him late last year and it was suprisingly good. I was worried it would be a mawkish but EC's humanity shone through.
Oh and i like Girl like you it rocks! makes that devil signthing
I'm sure EC isn't knocking "A Girl Like You" I have no idea how much he likes it (I did it at Dingwalls last year so he can't hate it) but I expect its gone a long way to paying for his rehabilitation!
Thanks for pointing this programme out.
After the initial jolt of seeing Edwyn in such a seemingly dreadful state in Feb 2007, I watched the rest of the programme with a smile on my face. What a lovely man Edwyn is; what a lovely woman Grace is; and what a lovely young man William is. I'm sure they really do have the rows that they referred to in the film, but they came across as a family who know how important they are to each other and who love each other deeply.
Wonderful stuff.
David, Liverpool
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