‘I had to learn to speak again’: How deafness helped singer James Vickery find his sound
Behind James Vickery’s left ear is a tiny tattoo, barely noticeable until he turns to point it out.
The inking is of a mute icon, a small speaker with a cross next to it, as you would see on a computer or a phone when switching the volume off; a simple image that neatly symbolises the 27-year-old’s story.
In and out of hospital with ear infections as a child, he was eventually, at the age of eight, diagnosed with a growth of abnormal skin cells called a cholesteatoma. While the tumour wasn’t cancerous his case was severe, doctors said, and it was growing towards his brain; his parents were told that without treatment to remove his eardrum he might only have two months to live.
Vickery has just released his debut album, Songs That Made Me Feel. Pic: Tom Ewbank
Surgery went well, but inevitably left Vickery completely deaf in that ear. Unable to distinguish the volume and pitch of his voice, he struggled with his speech and a vocal coach was brought in to help. It was through these sessions he found his voice; not just in conversation, but the distinctive, soulful singing voice that has now seen him hailed as a new face of UK R’n’B.
“[My parents] took me to a vocal coach and they wanted me to learn how to basically speak again,” he tells Sky News. “A good way is actually by singing because it engages your diaphragm. So we did that and my singing teacher was like, ‘you can sing, you can actually sing well’. I’d always loved singing but because of the trauma of the operation I could never do it.
“I spoke so softly. I’m still quite softly spoken…” He pauses and grins. “Actually, no, I’m a bit gobby now, but I was quite softly spoken when I was a child. I was really unconfident because no one could ever hear me speak and so credit to my vocal coach, she really taught me how to not only speak louder, but become a bigger person, you know, really fill the room with your voice. That’s something I try and have now in my songs. All the singers I looked up to as a kid had big voices because I always wished I had one.”
Vickery’s coach was a trained opera singer so, perhaps unusually, that’s where he started. “As, like, an 11-year-old boy living in south London, that kind of wasn’t for me,” he laughs. He met brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence, better known as electronic duo Disclosure, while he was in college and began writing songs with them, before moving into R’n’B, which felt like the right fit.
Upbeat and constantly smiling, there’s a sense of positivity and happiness that exudes from Vickery that even the often soulless Zoom can’t dampen. It’s hard not to smile back in his company. Going through such a traumatic experience at an early age has “100%, for sure” made him the person and the artist he is now, he says.
“I would have died,” he says, matter-of-factly. “It’s lucky they found it [when they did].” He goes on to explain the surgery. “I haven’t even got an ear drum in this ear, like, it’s just a black crater inside the left-hand side,” he says, swirling his hand around the area. “But that’s why I’ve got the tattoo, because I was like, not ashamed of it, but I don’t like people treating me different, I don’t like it to become this sob story. But at the end of the day, the older I get the more I think, you would not be the man you are today and it’s shaped me so much as a singer and a writer as well.”
The fact Vickery is “able to be a singer with one less ear than everyone else”, as he puts it, “is quite a mad thing”. And so the symbol has become a staple of all the artwork for his music. “I really try and own it, you know.”
Influenced by everyone from his mum’s favourites of soul, Motown, disco and R’n’B – artists such as Luther Vandross, Boyz II Men and Babyface – to his dad’s preferred rock and blues – Eric Clapton, The Doors, The Who, Jimi Hendrix – and his own love of attempting the Mariah Carey high notes, Vickery found his sound.
Vickery has been hailed as a new face of UK R’n’B. Pic: Harry McCulloch
In 2018, he performed his song Until Morning for the COLORS music platform, which has now amassed more than 25 million views. In 2018 he signed a record deals with TH3RD BRAIN, followed by a publishing deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019.
His debut album, Songs That Made Me Feel, aims to do just that. “The way that people consume music is so passive now,” he says. “It’s so easily accessible but I think not enough people just sit down and let the music take over. That’s really what I tried to do… I just want to make a body of work that’s going to outlive me. I think I’ve done that.”
The record is “the journey of the last two years, for me”, he says. “I wanted to call it Songs That Made Me Feel is because I feel like, as a man growing up, men are taught not to show emotion, I think. You’re taught ‘man up’.” Men don’t talk about their feelings enough, he says. “I managed to be able to do that through song, luckily.”
Save You, the closing track on the album, might sound like a love song but is actually about a friend who died. “I left it quite open because I want people to interpret it in the way that they feel, I love doing that with songs. But the song is about a friend who died when I was younger and it was the first time I had someone that wasn’t like a family member die, who was close to me.”
Vickery has also written about struggling during the pandemic. Somewhere Out There was created during the first lockdown, when he was “living alone and really lonely… I was single and hoping that someone out there was feeling the same”. You Comfort Me was born from the “dark time” of the winter lockdown, when “I was just craving something to make me happy”.
Of all the industries that have been hit by the pandemic, he believes the live entertainment business is among the worst affected. Vickery is not “completely fresh” to making music but is in that “awkward” spot where he’s “by no means up there”, he says, gesturing above his head. He moves his hand down. “I’m hovering here somewhere.”
Which means it’s not been easy. “The way that the music industry runs now is that [live shows] are kind of the main source of income, no one makes that much money from streaming songs; unless you’re streaming hundreds of millions, then you’re going to make good money, but other than that, no. Thank God I signed a record deal the year before because otherwise I would have been really struggling.”
Fortunately, the deal was in place and the album is out now. Vickery says he hopes he adds another voice to highlight the UK’s new resurging R’n’B scene, which he feels is overlooked.
“The thing is the UK RnB scene is so, so good,” he says. “But God forbid you can ever turn on a radio and find an R’n’B song on in the daytime, you know. I feel like that’s going to change, though. There’s plenty of people like Jorja Smith and Mahalia who are really, really flying the flag for UK R’n’B, and I think that’s going to change hopefully in the future.”
With Vickery too, that change is surely closer. That tattoo behind his ear is just a small reminder of how much he can achieve.
Pamela Anderson is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood.
Ever since she was spotted on the huge jumbotron screen at a baseball game aged 21, her physical traits have been the overriding subject the world has focused on.
Now 57, the actress and model is claiming back her life, her story and forging a new path in her career.
“I feel so free,” she tells Sky News during a conversation in a London hotel about her latest film The Last Showgirl.
“I write a lot of emotional journals and there’s a lot that you can get out. You can go to therapy, or you can talk to your best friend, but there’s nothing like an art project to express yourself and heal parts of yourself.”
Pamela Anderson in The Last Showgirl. Pic: Picturehouse Entertainment
The Last Showgirl follows a seasoned entertainer who has to plan for her future when her Las Vegas show abruptly ends after a 30-year run.
The role almost slipped from her fingers when her old agent passed on the script.
“I have a new agent now,” she says with a smile.
Pic: Picturehouse Entertainment
It was her son Brandon who served as a catalyst in her career resurgence after stumbling upon the screenplay and showing it to his mother.
“My sons are so protective of me and their goal is just to say: ‘Mom, we just want you to be able to know that you focused on us as kids and we want you to have the opportunity to shine and to reach your potential as an actress’.”
She adds: “I do have a lot to give, so now I just feel so free. I couldn’t have done anything like this when I had kids because my focus was with them. Now that they’re grown and they’re doing well and they’re thriving, that gives me the opportunity to be able to play in this universe.”
The Canadian-American has been the victim of many harsh headlines over the years with her most challenging moments played out in front of the world.
One of the toughest moments, when her sex tape with her ex-husband Tommy Lee was leaked, ended up being made into its own TV series starring Oscar nominee Sebastian Stan and English actress Lily James.
Anderson had no input in the show and repeatedly called for it to be scrapped.
Anderson as CJ Parker in Baywatch. Pic: Fremantle Media/Shutterstock
Anderson says that despite the adversity and misogyny she has faced being in the public eye, she feels ready to take on the spotlight again. This time on her terms.
“It was hard for me decades ago, and now I can look at it as a learning experience. And it was a different time. I think that looking at it through my kids’ eyes was interesting.
“Talking to my adult children about having a mom who was, you know, objectified in some way and how that felt [for them] and how that shaped them and their experience growing up, being teased in school.”
Her sons, Brandon and Dylan, are now both in their late 20s.
A make-up free Anderson dazzles on the BAFTA red carpet
Drawing similarities to her character Shelly in The Last Showgirl, Anderson says the film serves as a reflection of the sacrifices, external expectations and realities connected to being a woman and a mother.
“We’re doing the best we can with the tools that we have and what we’ve seen growing up. And there’s no perfect way to be a parent, there really isn’t – and especially in this industry.
“When I did Playboy, when I was in Baywatch, I wasn’t thinking about how it was affecting my kids. I was thinking about just keeping the lights on and living this exciting life and getting through it myself.
“But, you know, it affects everybody around you – your parents, your friends, your kids – and so to kind of look at it from that way [in The Last Showgirl] and to have empathy for the character of Shelly dealing with that… I had some experience to draw from.”
The Last Showgirl. Pic: Roadside Attractions
The film also stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Brenda Song and Kiernan Shipka as her close friends and co-workers in a fading corner of the Las Vegas strip.
Anderson adds of the film: “I think this can resonate with any working mom. We all carry this guilt and shame and wish we would have done this or that. And we have to be happy, too.”
The Last Showgirl is out in UK cinemas from Friday 28 February.
Entertainment
Salman Rushdie attack: Hadi Matar found guilty of attempted murder after stabbing author multiple times on stage
A man has been found guilty of attempted murder for attacking author Sir Salman Rushdie.
The 77-year-old British-American writer was stabbed multiple times as he was preparing to give a speech in New York in 2022.
He was blinded in his right eye in the incident, suffered a severely damaged hand, and spent months recovering.
Following a trial in Chautauqua County Court, a jury convicted 27-year-old Hadi Matar of attempting to murder Sir Salman, after less than two hours of deliberations.
He was also found guilty of assault for wounding Henry Reese, who was on stage with Sir Salman at the time.
Matar gave no obvious reaction to the verdict, and quietly muttered “free Palestine” as he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
Hadi Matar was found guilty by a jury after less than two hours of deliberations. Pic: AP
The court heard Matar ran on to the stage at the Chautauqua Institution where the author was about to speak on 12 August 2022, and stabbed him in front of an audience.
The Indian-born writer, who spent most of the 1990s in hiding in the UK after receiving death threats over his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, was stabbed about 15 times.
Sir Salman was attacked in the head, neck, torso, and left hand. He also suffered damage to his liver and intestines.
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From 2024: Salman Rushdie recalls stabbing
‘I was dying’
During the trial, Sir Salman described the moment Matar attacked him and told the court: “I only saw him at the last minute.
“I was aware of someone wearing black clothes, or dark clothes and a black face mask. I was very struck by his eyes, which were dark and seemed very ferocious to me.
“I thought he was hitting me with his fist but I saw a large quantity of blood pouring onto my clothes.
“He was hitting me repeatedly. Hitting and slashing.”
The writer then said he felt “a sense of great pain and shock,” and added: “It occurred to me that I was dying. That was my predominant thought.”
The court also heard that Mr Reese, the co-founder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, had suffered a gash to his forehead in the attack.
‘Attack was unprovoked’
During closing arguments earlier on Friday, District Attorney Jason Schmidt showed the jury a video of the attack and said: “I want you to look at the unprovoked nature of this attack.
“I want you to look at the targeted nature of the attack. There were a lot of people around that day but there was only one person who was targeted.”
Matar’s defence team argued prosecutors did not prove he intended to kill the writer, with Andrew Brautigan telling the jury: “You will agree something bad happened to Mr Rushdie, but you don’t know what Mr Matar’s conscious objective was.”
Mr Schmidt said that while it was not possible to read Matar’s mind, “it’s foreseeable that if you’re going to stab someone 10 or 15 times about the face and neck, it’s going to result in a fatality”.
The judge set a sentencing date of 23 April, when Matar could be jailed for up to 25 years.
Read more from Sky News:
Pope ‘not out of danger,’ doctors say
‘Severed hand’ found near school in Dublin
Matar faces a separate, federal indictment from prosecutors in the US attorney’s office in western New York alleging that he attempted to murder Sir Salman as an act of terrorism.
He is also accused of providing material support to the armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the US has designated as a terrorist organisation.
Entertainment
Neighbours cancelled again by Amazon – just two years after 40-year-old soap was revived
Neighbours has been axed for a second time, just two years after Amazon threw the Australian soap a lifeline.
A statement on the programme’s social media accounts confirmed the final episode of the 40-year series would air in December 2025.
The show follows the lives of the residents of Erinsborough, a fictional suburb of Melbourne, with famous former alumni including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Margot Robbie.
Read more: Neighbours – the famous stars on Ramsay Street
Executive producer Jason Herbison said: “Audiences all around the world have loved and embraced Neighbours for four decades and we are very proud of the huge success over the last two years including often appearing as one of the Top 10 titles in the UK and the show’s first ever Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Daytime Series in 2024.
“As this chapter closes, we appreciate and thank Amazon MGM Studios for all that they have done for Neighbours – bringing this iconic and much-loved series to new audiences globally.
“We value how much the fans love Neighbours and we believe there are more stories of the residents of Ramsay Street to tell in the future.”
Read more from Sky News:
James Bond producers cede creative control
Liam Payne death charges dropped
Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan returned for the first series finale. Photo by Fremantle Media/Shutterstock
It is the second time the show has been cancelled, after it was first axed by Channel 5 in the UK after it failed to secure new funding.
But a few months after what was meant to be its final episode, the series was revived by streaming giant Amazon Freeve and Freemantle.
The show is available online in the UK and on Channel 10 in Australia.
Channel 10 said on X: “They’ve been our neighbours for almost 40 years, we’re so sad to be saying goodbye. We’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to this remarkable Australian story over the years.”
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