Hello, I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive

for rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The program was originally broadcast

in 1996 and the presenter was Sue Lolley.

My cast away this week is a performer. That's his description of a career that's included pop music,

art and acting among its achievements. An Essex boy he contracted polio when he was seven

and has been severely disabled ever since. After a somewhat erratic education he went to art

school but graduated in his 30s to writing and performing songs. With his group The Blockheads

he enjoyed huge success particularly with numbers like Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick,

although his popularity as a singer has since waned he remains in the public eye still writing

songs with vivid lyrics, acting and taking a controversial attitude towards disability.

He dismisses such events as International Year for the Disabled for instance because he says they

imply that next year everything will be all right when it won't. He is Ian Durey.

It's true you're not one of the disabled lobby's favourite people isn't it Ian?

I believe it is yeah. Do you go out of your way to upset them?

No. Things that are run by people who know what they're running it for. In other words if

everything like that was run by people who were disabled I think I'd probably have a different

attitude but at the end of 1981 I've got a certain huge brochure asking me to be the frontman

for 1982 and the year of recycled glass. So it really says it all.

But I suppose that was the high point of your alienation as you say 1981. I think you

wrote Spasticus or Tisticus a song that you argued I think celebrated disability but a lot of

people found it objectionable didn't they? And it was pretty harsh you know get up get up get down

fall down. It's celebrated life it didn't celebrate disability it's celebrated the fact that

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