Award winning Poet and Best Selling Author, Sid Ozalid is releasing his latest EP ‘Ne Ne Boy’ to help him recover from a debilitating brain injury.
Sid suffered a life-threatening concussion 18 months ago and moved back to the UK at the start of 2019 to access better medical care, he decided to return to performing as a means of further aiding his recovery. Since March this year he has gone on to perform around his native Scotland and made live performances in Paris, Amsterdam and New York.
Initially, he found this experience extremely challenging. “At the first show in Aberdeen I felt very shaky on my feet and was I barely able to remain standing when people laughed or clapped,” says Sid. “Fortunately, the live shows became a source of therapy with each performance got easier and better.”
“I count myself lucky, last year I could not walk and talk properly, and here I am back on stage and recording new material”
Sid Ozalid first burst onto the scene in 1978 as a One Legged Tap Dancing Poet. His unorthodox comedy style soon attracted wider industry attention and he became a popular support act at music events, opening for the likes of The Clash, Simple Minds and The Specials. Publishing a number of poetry booklets and postcards, and releasing his EP/Book ‘Songs and Stories from a Suitcase Extravaganza’.
Sid went on to make a number of TV appearances and for 5 years in the 90’s wrote and performed a weekly radio show called ‘Invisible Radio’, still finding time to perform at the Moulin Rouge and the Edinburgh Fringe.
In 2011, his book ‘Mr Elastic Brain – The Life and Poems of Sid Ozalid’ was in the Amazon best selling poetry top 5 for over three months and saw Sid, who is dyslexic, receive an award from the British Dyslexia Association.
Sid has performed in London, Amsterdam, New York, Paris, Melbourne, Singapore, Cape Town, Borneo and his native Scotland.
Sid has teamed up with his long-standing friend Jim Shepherd from the Jasmine Minks, a band formed in Aberdeen in the early eighties, which became one of the first to be signed to Alan McGee’s Creation Records. Jim is still recording and playing live with The Jasmine Minks and has collaborated with a number of artists, including: Sleepyard (with Mike Garson), The Beat Hotel and APB.
Together with Jim and Fred Wilkinson of legendary Aberdeen punk band, Toxik Ephex, they are releasing a series of EPs of music set to Sid’s poetry. The first of these, ‘Ne Ne Boy’ will be out on the 8 November. They are also planning to release of an album at the end of 2020, with the working title ‘40 Years of Sid’
The first EP to be released on Oatcake Records is called Ne Ne Boy and has three tracks all written and performed by Sid and Jim Shepherd.
