Tracks of My Life with Chris McCausland

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 Liverpudlian comedian and actor Chris McCausland, who you may have seen as a guest recently on many TV panel shows. Chris also took his topical comedy to the Royal Albert Hall for his first appearance in front of members of the Royal Family for the 2021 Royal Variety Performance.

We will start Chris’ Tracks of My Life journey with his early life growing up in Liverpool and a love of the Back to the Future films which remains his favourite film trilogy today. The Back to the Future films also inspired his love of all things time travel related which got Chris into a very specific type of Sci-Fi which he still indulges in today.  

Then we will come to the first vinyl record that Chris brought aged 11 when he was at Worcester College which was Trash by Alice Cooper and Chris still has that same record from those early school days which actually still plays today. As Chris says at that age his musical tastes were more influenced by older kids  at school and it was a lot of cheesy hair metal time for him back then.

We then have a track by Chris’ favourite band Nirvana and one from their MTV Unplugged album which took his musical tastes down a more grungy American route. With memories of how back in Liverpool when Nirvana’s Unplugged show was on MTV, he asked a friendly guy in the street to tape the show on to VHS for him to watch again later and how that Nirvana MTV Unplugged record has been a bit of a comfort blanket for Chris over the years.

We will then hear how Chris and his wife first met while he was performing up in Edinburgh and a track by Perl Jam that they used to sing along too together in the car and one that he proposed to his wife to at a Pearl Jam concert in Hyde Park with thousands of people around them and maybe not the best lyrics to propose to!

Chris’ Tracks of My Life journey will then step back to University days and his time down in Kingston upon Thames, how a lecturer at the RNC encouraged him to apply to University, why he decided to choose Kingston, with again more widening of his musical tastes and how he has still kept in touch with some of his University friends from back then. Oh and not forgetting all the gigging he did during those University years to see many different bands too!

Chris will then reflect on how the Covid Pandemic and all the lockdowns affected him as a Comedian and performer, not being able to get out there and gig, although he was lucky in many ways as he did a lot of radio and TV work during the lockdowns. It was hard for Chris not being able to go out gigging, but it was as he says good for his health and mind to have a break from touring for a while. More time at home gave Chris time to rediscover new music and again widen his album collection  too.

For his final track Chris will first talk about the track he would have liked to have chosen, a track by a blind rapper which we could not have played on the station due to the language, but he thinks people should definitely look him up though. His actual final track is one from the musical The Greatest Showman, a musical his daughter loves, and the track was performed by Keala Settle at last year’s Royal Variety Performance at the Royal Albert Hall where Chris performed too. Chris was very lucky to be on his own in the Royal Albert Hall to watch a very moving rehearsal performance by Keala Settle too. This track certainly for Chris sums up so much of his life where he is now, his comedy career, his home life and a new found love of musicals too!

If you would like to find out more about Chris, details of when he is next out and about gigging, sign up to his mailing list or just have a watch or listen to some of his comedy then why not visit his website for more - https://chrismccausland.com

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.  Please note that there will be an extra repeat of Chris McCausland’s Tracks of My Life this Easter Bank Holiday Monday (18 April 2022) at 5pm too.


(Image shows Chris in a dark blue denim shirt with his hands behind his back, smiling towards the camera)