I saw someone signing a song today and thought about Paul Whittaker OBE today and Music-for-the-deaf.html today. A fantastically inspired and funny man. I met him at a do when he, myself and Gervais Finn were running workshops on the same morning. They were expecting Adrian Partington,
but he was ill so Gitika Partington was the last minute replacement, and they just the replaced the Adrian with a G. on the cheque at the end of the day. I wonder if we are related….Paul  thought my name was Jessica ( crap lip reading I joked!), but gave a sort of ‘after dinner speech that made me cry with laughter, as did Gervais Finn! Life story below, amazing man.

 SONG OF THE DAY – Ain’t No Mountain -Ashford and Simpson -Sing Up version…signed for the deaf. I love signing.. I love the middle aged rubenesque woman in the very ordinary clothes who signs the MTV   channel in the middle of the night…what a groovy chick she is. There was an amazing signer at the Royal Albert Hall once who made me cry when he was signing the instrumental solos for the kids from the local deaf school who come and sing and sign at the bog schools singing festival.One of my regrets is that I never learned to sign. I think we should all have learned at school. Signing songs is a really good start.