Part one of this interview is here
You are also involved in theatre and film?
A few years ago I was doing a show in the Spectrum Centre, a Sinatra show, and a couple of people who ran the Heel and Ankle Theatre Group, Sally Cochran and Kim Jackson, approached me and asked if I would get involved in acting in a play. They needed someone a bit older to play a particular part. I agreed to do that and that got me started in theatre. I did about 4 or 5 plays with that theatre company. We went all over the place, Newtownabbey, the Shankill, the Falls and lots of other places. We would do the play which might last for 30 minutes and I would sing a couple of songs.
You write plays and film scripts as well?
Yes, I was asked to write a piece for a man who owned the Health Shop about heart attacks and I wrote about ten pages for him and he thought it was pretty good. Then I started writing a script about four army men who had been in Korea and they came back from active service and thirty years later they were not as fit as they were when they were younger, so the story revolves around Andy (Trevor Kennedy plays Andy) trying to encourage the others to get fit again.
I also wrote a short film, it’s a black and white silent movie called The Miracle about a little boy is paralysed in a car accident. I should mention here that the Camera Operator for all my work is Dylan Goldhania.
Did you get any funding for the films you make?
I’ve raised money for the short film I’ve made and I did get some money from the Arts Council for a new film I’m making, but you know how expensive making a film is and after the director and the actors get paid, you don’t have a lot of money left so I need a bit more money to finish it.
You are meeting up with the Ulster Orchestra to get them involved?
I met someone from the Ulster Orchestra, Patrick McCarthy, in the Spectrum Centre and we had a bit of a chat and it looks like he is going to help record a couple of songs for the movie. My son recorded the songs originally and it will be those songs that the Ulster Orchestra might be playing on.
Have you any last thoughts?
Whenever I do something I do it as well as I can do it and that is all I am aiming to do, and I just like being creative in whatever way I can be whether it’s music, writing. theatre or film.