I stumbled across a documentary about Edwyn Collins last night, and ended up watching the whole hour. I’d previously only known him as the one-hit-wonder bloke behind 1994 hit “A Girl Like You,” and I wondered why he might be the subject of an hour long documentary.
What I didn’t know was that Collins suffered a stroke as the result of a double brain hemorrage in 2005. This left him unable to speak, walk, read or write, and without the use of much of the right side of his body.
The documentary charted his progress in the years since the stroke, as he struggled to re-learn all the things he had lost, with the help of his wife and son (who now looks after his myspace). Collins has only vague memories of his life before the incident - his life as a wildlife illustrator, a member of critically acclaimed post-punk band Orange Juice in the early ’80’s, and subsequently as a successful solo artist.
The program was in equal parts heartbreaking and uplifting. Collins is not the same man, he can no longer play the guitar, except when his wife provides the strumming right hand, and he needs help with many basic daily tasks. However, the spirit and general optimism of the man, and his wife, Grace, is quite inspiring. He seems happy to just be alive and making progress.
As Collins’ speech improved in the months and years after the stroke, he began to write songs and sing again, re-learned his old songs, and eventually got to a level where he could practice with his old band again. The film culminated with an emotional comeback gig in Camden, where he and his band played a mixture of old and new material to a packed house - a remarkable achievment for a man who couldn’t even speak only two years previously.
In late 2007 Collins completed and released the album he had been working on prior to the stroke - Home Again, a review of which can be found here. I’m not sure I’ll be rushing out to buy it, but this was, nevertheless, an excellent piece of television about a remarkable man.
