GBA 53 To The Heart Of It

Summary: GBA 52 : To the Heart of It This is a special episode of GBA which mixes true stories that I told live at Spark London with family conversations and a new song to explore how my dad’s heart attack and quadruple heart bypass touched both me and my family. I talk to: Jo http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-52-jo Sonia http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-51-sonia Tony http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-35-tony and my Dad http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/the-dad-episodes/ about some big moments in our family history, getting different perspectives and shining a light on the way we interact as a family group. This episode is about how families create myths, how memories of events contradict, change and fade, how families interact and how the idea of a parent’s mortality can shape your life. CREDITS The song "Talk to your Parents" will eventually be on the upcoming album "Bouncy, Poppy Songs About Death" from The Reactionaries: http://soundcloud.com/thereactionaries Hayley is the other member of this alt-pop duo, you can hear her playing fiddle on the track: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-9-hayley The mixes you hear were thrown together at very short notice by the magnificent silent member of our duo, our producer George: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-6-george The two stories you hear me perform were told at Spark London nights: http://www.sparklondon.com/ One at the open mic they run at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton and the other at the curated nights they put on at the Canal Cafe Theatre in Little Venice. I've been actively involved with Spark London for a couple of years and have told quite a few true stories there and even produced some of their episodes. As a result of this one strand of GBA is conversations with Spark London true storytellers: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/spark-londoners/ CAST LIST: In the interests of clarity this is how my family works: Dad's 1st Marriage = Dad + Sheila Two daughters from this marriage: Jo and Rebecca (http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-28-rebecca) Sonia is Jo's daughter. Dad's 2nd Marriage = Dad + June/My Mum (http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/the-mum-episodes-1) Two sons from this marriage: Tony and Me Mum's 2nd Marriage = Mum + Mervyn One daughter from this marriage: Rosie The two friends who are mentioned in my story are: Owain: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-16-owain and Steve (who I haven't managed to do a full GBA with yet but who appears in this GBA Special: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-17-cardiff ) Jen is my girlfriend (who appeared in the Christmas Special and will have at least one proper episode coming out in the future.) Liz makes a cameo in this episode as she was my outside ear and shaped the way that the episode was narrated. She talks about some of the things discussed in this episode in her GBA episode: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-4-liz This is the playlist of all of the family episodes that have aired so far: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/family You can hear Getting Better Acquainted on Stitcher SmartRadio, Stitcher allows you to listen to your favourite shows directly from your iPhone, Android Phone, Kindle Fire and beyond. On-demand and on the go! Don’t have Stitcher? Download it for free today at http://www.stitcher.com or in the app stores. Help more people get better acquainted. If you like what you hear why not write an iTunes review? Follow @GBApodcast on Twitter. Like Getting Better Acquainted on facebook. Tell your friends. Spread the word!