SHED TALKS (Jeremy Thomas‪)‬ Blue Baltic Entertainment Ltd

New to 2024: SHED CHATS
Shed Chats are briefer conversations with interesting people - not specifically to do with mental health, but fascinating topics nonetheless.

Self-effacing Harvey Lisberg talks about making his own luck, His wild life in the music business, meeting Elvis, Colonel Parker, playing on the same bill as the Stones. What it was like to be in the fast lane in Manchester and the North, London and New York. and on being a self confessed gambler.  Graham Gouldman, Peter Noone, Herman's Hermits and 10CC How he met his wife, Carol  and how she changed his life for the steadier and much better. His time  with Danny Batesh at Kennedy Street .  The importance of family then and now.

Mary Ryan was a GP for over 35 years, is the mother of four children and the wife of one husband. She is the national adviser for the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, an Oxford graduate and scholar. Throughout her life, she has been fearless and shown great courage and humour. In just the same way, she talks about her diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), its stigma and the lack of understanding surrounding it, and how her own feelings about it have changed.
Mary talks reconciling with her Catholic faith after a traumatic childhood, growing up as an 'outsider', a sudden stroke at 41, serious workplace bullying, hospital admissions, and the one treatment that has really helped her mental health. Mary also recalls her time in Australia, her love for the Archers, Barry Humphries, dogs, baking and cleaning.

Music biographer, reviewer, and co-founder of elvinyl.com Richard Morton Jack joins host Jeremy Thomas to discuss 'Nick Drake: The Life' and much more.
Many people thought that Nick Drake was going to be hugely successful in the 1970s. His three albums were all critically acclaimed, yet did not sell. Tragically, he took his own life when he was 26. However, ever since his death, his popularity has continually increased throughout the world. This episode sets the record straight on unanswered questions about Nick Drake’s private life and his demise. Was it possible he had severe depression or schizophrenia? Was it possible he was going to marry someone? What would have happened to his mental health had he been alive today?
Thanks to the unfettered access to private correspondence, tapes, university friends, family friends, and female acquaintances, Richard Morton Jack sympathetically but objectively unveils Nick Drake's private life, medical history and much more.

Jan Ravens did not enjoy her childhood, did not like being teased about her father . Did not like feeling such a powerless child. Jan talks about how being ill, causing a serious weight loss and his made her the most popular gal down at the disco. How this and impersonating teachers to her fellow pupils gave her some much needed power. She talks of some good times laughing at comedy TV with her father and trying to be sympathetic about her angry mother. How her father was baffled and defeated by life. She describes many poignant and awkward aspects of the effects on the family that her father's illness trig How local Glenda Jackson was a major inspiration. Ferociously bright, Jan got to Cambridge University, took a deep breath and dived into the world of the Footlights. Her achievements include winning the big Award at the Edinburgh Festival. Going on to work in Spitting Image, the RSC, Strictly, she felt the fear and did it anyway. What drove her on and what keeps her afloat?

 Ambassador to Bipolar UK, animal lover, Nicky Chinn waited nearly many years to discover the best ways to stay sane.
 Alongside his songwriter partner Mike Chapman, Nicky enjoyed huge success around he world, including wining three Ivor Novello awards. Acts like Sweet, Mud, Racey, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Toni Basil, Tina Turner and Huey Lewis. 
Nicky also talks about the terrifying treatment he received for severe depression and bipolar disorder he suffered aged just 16 and how this repeated and the subsequent multiple hospitalisations he experienced throughout his life. He talks about how alcoholism ruined the life of a singer of one of their biggest acts. There is also humour throughout such as when he tried to buy two Rolls Royce during the same day and transforming his bathroom into a discotheque complete with rollerball, then bought the Hollywood actor, Paul Newman's massive house. Asked for a possible overall trigger, Nicky points a finger at the abandonment he felt not knowing his parents but brought up by a nanny instead- and sent away to school aged six. Friendship became all important, one with pop supremo, Mickie Most. Despite some set backs in the early 90's, 1995 proved to be a massive turning point towards lasting happiness- when four things happened: . 

See you all soon!