Daisy Gill

We’re now halfway through the Mental Health Festival and it’s still going very well.

Last night we had a really great night of ‘Drama in Development’ at The Brink - listening to readings from 3 new plays about mental health by local writers, Geoff Woodbridge, Anthony Richardson and Mark Curtis. The plays covered homelessness, OCD and suicide and, although these are serious subjects, there was a lot of comedy involved. I conducted Q&A sessions with the 3 writers and there was a lovely atmosphere and a lot of support in the room.

Today has been a loooooong one... our annual celebration in Williamson Square. Music, dance, performance and drumming, alongside lots of information stalls on all aspects of mental health support. And free food available from Soul Fillers and Foodcycle Liverpool!

The morning went fantastically well with great performances from Drums for Health, St Julie’s Catholic High School, Bollyfit, The Choir With No Name, Lunacorona and today’s Blip subject, the excellent, up-and-coming local singer/songwriter Daisy Gill. She’s not only stylish (see also the Extra backstage picture) but she has a terrific voice. She mostly sings her own songs but she kicked her set off with a cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ which gave Dolly a serious run for her money! Here she is with ‘Walk Into The Light’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwZxlbYxMM8

Then, the skies opened.

We had a couple of hours of torrential rain, which sent the crowds running for cover, but thanks to Yellow House for braving the downpour and performing their silent drama whilst the matinee at the Playhouse was underway.

We had to cancel the Wirral Roller Derby performance as the Square was so waterlogged (I was gutted!) but the weather gradually cheered up and we had some more excellent performances later in the day from Mel Bowen, Dave Owen and Anwar Ali, the fabulous Beat It! drummers, and the amazing Wellbeing Warblers choir which consisted of people who turned up on the day, rehearsed for one hour and then gave an absolutely barnstorming performance on stage!

Last year we had over 13,000 conversations about mental health with members of the public on the equivalent day. We have yet to tot up the tally counters for this year but I know we’ve done loads to raise awareness, challenge stigma and entertain people - and I’m delighted!

Special thanks to our brilliant compares - Nikki and Pad; our stage manager - Malou; all the performers, speakers, volunteers and sound engineers; the stallholders who stuck with us through the rain; Lovelock’s for providing free food and drink to all the team and, as always, my compadres, Sarah and Nici. I couldn’t ask for better people to work with!

Now for some sleep. I’m up early again tomorrow to do a radio interview about what’s happening next week...