Tracks of My Life with Angela Blackwell

Tracks of My Life is a show on RNIB Connect Radio presented and produced by Toby Davey where he invites a guest to take us on a journey through their life, sharing the tracks that mark important moments which bring back memories to them.

Their chosen tracks of their life might include the first track they can remember hearing, the first track they bought, a number of tracks that mark moments in their life and the final track, a track that they would like to pass on which might give people hope for the future.

In this trimmed down podcast version of Tracks of My Life Toby is joined by visually impaired Artist Angela Blackwell who, as she says, ‘Came out as a blind Artist’ through her recent Arts Council funded exhibition ‘What are You Looking At?’.

We will start Angela’s Tracks of my Life journey at the age of twelve at a very normal comprehensive school, starting to get into music and going to her first gig with a friend who’s Brother gave them tickets to see the Police in concert in Brighton. Her friend’s Brother offered cotton wool to protect their ears as the concert would be very loud but Angela refused the offer, she loved it all and a truly memorable experience that changed her life for ever.

We will then move on a couple of years to secondary school for Angela, getting into art, the influences of the music, fashion and culture of the early 80s. An iconic performance by Julian Cope with Teardrop Explodes on Top of the Pops with Julian wearing a nightshirt and his frizzy blonde hair an image at the time that Angela could really relate to.

We then move to Art College time for Angela at Worthing Art College when Angela was a Goth for a few years. A Saturday job at a bakery in Brighton which helped to pay for those Saturday night’s out along with  maybe a gig in the week too.

Then after Art College Angela started working at Our Price Records where she met her husband to be, buying their first house together in Brighton and a trip to New York with tickets coming from a free offer at the time with a purchase of a Hoover vacuum cleaner. The offer had very tight conditions for the tickets but thankfully as they both worked in the record store they could get the time off. After spending time in New York and before returning back home they went on to Vegas and LA too.  Some of the experiences of that trip to America also fed back into elements of Angela’s paintings at the time. 

We will then have a track that marks the time when Angela and her Husband got married in a registry office in Bridport with the track raising a few eye brows at the time as maybe not the usual type of music to be played out during a service at a registry office. 

Next we come to a track that marks the time when Angela and her husband brought their beloved camper van which they have had many adventures in with Angela’s Guide Dog too and some trips to the beauty of the English Riviera.

Before we come to Angela’s final track Angela will reflect on how, as she says, coming out as a ‘blind artist’ through her recent exhibition ‘What Are You Looking At?’, has in a way made her freer as an artist with people now knowing that she is an artist who just happens to be visually impaired too.

You can catch the hour-long version of Tracks of My Life with Toby’s guest’s music tracks in full by tuning in to RNIB Connect Radio every Tuesday at 7pm, repeated on Thursday at 1pm and Sunday at 8pm.


(Image shows Angela smiling and wearing a navy blue blouse with small white dots in front of a white wallpaper background with repeated illustrations in black pen of a woman posing wearing a raincoat and boots interspersed with bins with a drawing of a dog on them with red blotting over the images)