Our Story
IAN GRANT: MY PARKINSONS SENTENCE
14/06/2015 - CLINICAL INDICATION - likely early Parkinson's disease. CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATION - No clear cause of symptoms. An example of how little is known about PD.
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My daughter came across a Natropath in Australia by the name of John Coleman. He was said to have been diagnosed with PD Stage 4 and he claimed to have reversed his symptoms and wrote a book entitled ‘Stop Parkin' and Start Livin'. I liked his approach compared to that of the NHS (the National Health Service in the UK) which was very much ‘one pill fits all’! I followed his instructions for a year but, didn't last the distance, although I still practice much of what he recommended.
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He made it clear that his method was not an easy one. My speech was deteriorating so I followed the speech therapy recommended by Pip Steers (NHS) on 9/9/2019. I have continued with John Coleman's course of action and kept up with the LSVT speech exercises. (LSVT, or Lee Silverman Voice Treatment is a speech therapy program that helps people with Parkinson's disease and other neurological conditions improve their voice)
Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing Neurological condition in the world.
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On 11 March, 2020 COVID-19 is declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The UK government advises everyone to work from home and imposes social distancing measures to control the spread of the virus. It was a very strange time indeed. Britain entered its first lockdown on March 16, 2020, with full restrictions lifted more than 16 months later on July 19, 2021. I didn’t find it hard to find things to do, particularly on my MacBook. A few friends gathered on the internet on Sundays in March and started a quiz online. I spent more time on You Tube (such a turnaround considering I was completely against it for many years, owing to the paltry amount bands made from it! I also despised it for allowing punters to upload rubbish recordings). But there were so many golden nuggets, rare or never seen before & live gigs of some of my favourite bands.
During lockdown, many were making remotely recorded videos. The Rolling Stones recorded ‘You Can’t always Get What You Want’ and the Doobie Brothers did ‘Black Water’, to name two. I had no idea that one could record on a laptop and the musicians could be anywhere on the planet! And it set me thinking. Could I get some artists together to record something while we were all stuck at home? I wondered who I knew who would know how to do this and my friend Paul Mitchell came to mind. In the first week of lockdown he had recorded a spoof version of Eric Carman’s ‘All By Myself’ (which had started to get some plays) and I wondered if he could help. I knew him as a really good guitarist, having seen him play in bands many times over the years, but I had no idea what he knew about recording technology. So, I asked him he said it could be done, (with a few caveats), so I said I would put feelers out to see who might join us.
You see with my years in the music industry managing bands like the Stranglers and Big Country, I’d built up quite a list of contacts who were not just colleagues but friends and I was sure some of them would be interested in getting involved. The first musician to respond was Josh Phillips and he and Paul knew each other and began working on the process. I knew we needed a well known vocalist as a first step. Given the nature of the song we had in
mind (an anti Boris Johnson protest song) the first vocalist I thought of was Phil Daniels. “Song not for me, don’t get me wrong Boris is a wrong’un but not my bag mate. Good luck 😉 though” Phil x Who next? I didn’t have to think for long. Arthur, dear Arthur Brown. I knew he would do it, whatever the song. Paul and I chose ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ because it’s not only a great song but its also free of copyright! This was important because we were aiming to raise some money if we could, and initially we decided on ‘Help Musicians’, which is the working name of the Musicians Benevolent Fund, who we knew had stepped in to help over 17,000 working musicians during the first few weeks of lockdown, and who received no government funding.
So after a week or so of phone calls and discussion, we had our band, which consisted of Arthur, Tony Butler (Big Country) Dave ’Peggy’ Pegg (Fairport Convention & Jethro Tull), Terl Bryant (Martin Barre Band), Josh Phillips (Procol Harum), Alan Clayton (The Dirty Strangers), John Altman (writer, arranger and player of the smallest saxophone you’ll ever see!) and Paul Mitchell. iPhones or equivalent were good enough for each musician to film themselves, but they would need to be capable of basic computer recording, which most of the team were. Except Arthur! But Paul helped him acquire some of the gear he needed and further amazed me by being able to remotely control Arthur’s laptop from his home studio! The recording was a success (It appears on this album you’ve got in your hands!) and by the end of 2020 Paul and I were keen to do another. We chose Paul Rodger’s and Andy Fraser’s (Free) ‘All Right Now’, inspired by the fact the UK government had announced that the first vaccines would be available very soon. Arthur was the main vocalist again, duetting with Sonja Kristina, with Blondie’s Clem Burke on drums, Sex Pistol’s Glen Matlock on bass, Chris Spedding and Paul Mitchell on guitars, Tony Moore (Iron Maiden) on piano and vocals, Josh Phillips on Hammond organ and Paul Tuthill on Bodhran. Paul did the third remote track on his own, after being asked by British folk rock legends Fairport Convention, (who’s Cropredy Festival had been called off due to the pandemic), if he could help record a version of Meet On The Ledge and include every artist who was due to appear! No mean feat! And again, that track is contained on this album.
The next track we recorded has much sadness attached to it. At the end of November, Steve Brown (who produced The Cult’s LOVE album when Alan Edwards and I were their managers) approached me to see if we could help him make a Christmas single remotely. It was obviously far too late for 2020. I said “let’s meet in the new year and discuss”. Sadly, it wasn’t to be because Steve passed away at the end of 2020. He had already assembled a stellar line up of musicians and having gotten the hang of remotely working with some world class singers and musicians, Paul Mitchell was keen to record another track. The song was already chosen by Steve’s widow Jacky and singer Elizabeth Westwood. It was to be Robbie Williams ‘Angels’ and was to support a new charity called Angels of the Nation which was started by Paul Gilley who was a friend of Steve’s. By now we had adopted the name Kindred Spirit as a label for any musicians who came together to help. Every hour, 2 people in the UK are told they have Parkinson’s.
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Following my Parkinson’s diagnosis I had been doing regular LSVT speech therapy sessions that helped support and repair my speech. Paul knew about the sessions and we discussed coming up with a song about it and he encouraged me to write the lyrics and thought the title should be THINK LOUD, the mantra used in the therapy sessions. I had never written a song before but set about trying to compose something that rhymed and had a good meter. Eventually I had something and in March 2023 Paul and Josh were going to spend a day and night together to compose the music, which once done, they recorded. Several famous names contributed performances to the track, including John Illsley (Dire Straits), Marcella Detroit (Shakespears Sister), and Stuart Elliott (Cockney Rebel, Kate Bush).
Celebrity friends made guest appearances in the video including, Stuart Pearce, Pat Cash, Mark Butcher, JJ Burnel & Elizabeth McGovern (the latter two I managed) and my long standing friend, Leo Sayer sang the lead vocal. The song is a foot-stomping, rousing, soulful, pop-rock track complete with backing from a full gospel choir (The Jordan family gospel group) and a chorus that you can’t help but sing along to. It aims to inspire and empower people living with Parkinson’s, whilst also raising awareness of the condition that affects some 10,000,000 people worldwide and the urgent need for funding to find a cure.
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It is hoped that the track will encourage people to make a donation to Cure Parkinson’s, a charity dedicated to finding a cure once and for all. The link with Cure Parkinson’s was made by John Caulcutt CBE, an entrepreneur and philanthropist who has raised millions for various charities. John is a member of the Cure Parkinson’s Development Board, also has PD and was introduced to Josh Phillips by the late Gary Brooker (founder member of
Procol Harum). 1 in 3 Adults, (that’s just over 16 million people) not just know someone with Parkinson’s but have a personal connection to it.
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Bob Geldof and Band/Live Aid set a trend. People from all walks of life were organising charity events (remember Sir Tom??) And now more than ever people were beginning to show signs of “charity fatigue”. Whether it be a celebrity, rock star or well-intended member of the public. I am not as well known in the music business as I was in the 70’s & 80s. I have been used to ‘refusals’ and the disappointment that goes with being a manager attempting to secure a recording contract for a new artist. You need the same tenacity and never give up attitude. So despite the challenges, I continued reaching out to as many people as I could think of and despite many famous names being very busy and hard to reach, we did get some valuable offers. The most pleasing contributor was Pete Townshend.. Not just because of the amount he ended up donating, but because 57 years ago I attended my first rock concert and I cite that night the reason I ended up in the music business. The band were The Who!
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From Pete Townshend
Ian,
I know how tough it is to be asking for favours for charitable stuff. It can be demeaning. But, when it works out, it makes it all feel worth it. You can use my donation in any way that is useful.
Pete
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It was an interesting email conversation with Pete that led to him giving us £20,000 for Cure Parkinson’s, and to help get this album made. So clearly there are some good souls out there!
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So back to the making of the THINK LOUD single. We (Paul, John, Josh and I) had to get a move on. Although the whole month of April was a Parkinson month, April 11th was the main day. We had something to aim at, but we needed more musicians and singers. The idea was to have guest vocalists similar to Band Aid, but despite our initial elation at the brilliance of our idea, it was not happening. I prompted Josh to contact his celebrity friends and he reached out to Leo Sayer. The original idea was that the guest vocalists would all record a specific line, (like on the “Do They Know It’s Christmas” single from 1984), but when we sent the backing track and lyrics to Leo, he went right ahead and sang the whole song and nailed it. Its fair to say Leo blew me away. We had first been friends in the 60s in our native Worthing and I was thrilled to be working with him again. Marcella Detroit had been someone I’d known for many years in the music business, and she had become a Facebook friend (amazingly for 13 years) and she was happy to help. More vocalists did begin to come in but were, for various reasons, slow to record their parts and we were on a tight schedule. I
opened my phone book and came up with Mark Butcher, Terl Bryant, Pat Cash, Clem Burke, Glen Matlock, JJ Burnell and Baz , Stuart Pearce, John Illsley, Miles Hunt, Rev Peter Owen-Jones, Jake Burns, John Coleman, Tony Butler, Elizabeth McGovern, me and my grandsons, Josh and Kai.
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Putting it all together was far more of a task than the previous recordings had been. More people involved. We had 6 musicians involved with only days to go before the launch date. It was a nerve-wracking time. Paul had got stuck in the USA so, I had 2 choice’s with the video. Put the release back or……….see if I can find Rupert Style who had produced a few videos for me. Fingers crossed I could find him. At first attempt I drew blanks and when I finally did I discovered he was living in an Ibiza! Oh god, how am I going to pull everything together? I still didn’t have Elizabeth’s contribution. In fact she left a message saying “sadly this isn’t going to happen”. She was in Hollywood directing and appearing in a play she also wrote, about Ava Gardner. I sent several pleading emails, firstly when she was rehearsing and then when the play went live which included matinees. “I’m so terribly sorry, but I’m not gonna be able to get this to you. It has been such a crazy time”. But as I said earlier, never give up. So she sent me an email saying she had managed to do it and was sending it to me via WeTransfer. The email link arrived but it wouldn’t download. Anyway it did in the nick of time.
And she was fabulous in it. Clem and Glen were on tour and they looked as though they weren’t going to make it but….they did. And they looked great. JJ and Baz of the Stranglers were in New Zealand when they did their bit. I was chuffed when Mark Butcher, Stuart Pearce and Pat Cash’s footage arrive. All the videos were sent to Rupert by Paul and I was blown away when Ruperts edit arrived (he even had my two grandchildren in it.)
Moving on, Leo was amazing. He went out of his way to promote the track wherever he could, including in Tasmania! We did a joint interview with DJ Shayne Brian (Search FaceBook for his Long Way To The Top podcasts) and during the interview he suggested doing a THINK LOUD album and Leo said “yeah and you can do the sleeve notes” And here they are. The album includes all the tracks I mentioned plus a whole host of new recordings
and unreleased gems including the last ever performance of A Whiter Shade of Pale performed by an all-star band and recorded after Gary had passed, but with Gary’s vocal from 2010. A true collectors item.
I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved with the making of this album, particularly Paul Mitchell, because without him, it wouldn't have happened. And I must thank my dear wife Debbie, who has been an angel. And Hank Marvin was her idea! And to all the artists who gave of their time, primarily to help me and my quest to help find a cure for Parkinson’s disease. And of course, to my dear Grandson Josh for his excellent artwork for the album cover.
And finally, to you dear reader for buying the record. Without you, the whole venture is pointless. So many many thanks. (and by the way, if your friends would like a copy, you can scan the QR code on the back of the album to place an order!
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IAN GRANT, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER