Signsong performer, Fletch@ and Marie Pascall of Performance Interpreting tell us about their UK stadium tour with Ed Sheeran

Fletch@: Hi everyone, I’m Fletch@, and I’m a SignSong performer from the West Midlands. SignSong Performing has been a life long passion of mine from an early age and especially since my first experience of stadium interpreting with Ronan Keating at Wembley. Since then, I have strived to make the music industry accessible for the deaf community.

I was first contacted by Performance Interpreting back in November 2021 to see if I’d be interested co-working with them at Wembley Stadium for Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics tour. I felt like, “This is it, all of my dreams and hard work has led me to this point!”

This was a first for both myself and Performance Interpreting as they had never had a deaf performer co-working with them on a stadium tour before. Prior to being contacted by Marie back in November, my knowledge of Ed Sheeran’s music was limited. I’d heard a couple of his songs and loved his voice and style of music but had only ever translated a few of his songs.

Working with Marie Pascall from Performance Interpreting has been a pleasure. Marie has met with me frequently on Zoom to discuss song choice as we did not know what he would be performing on this tour. We both listened to all of his songs and picked the ones we felt matched our styles.

For myself, it was important that I selected the tracks that I could hear as quite a few of his songs I could not, due to various reasons ie, instrumental louder than the vocals, rap being extremely tricky to distinguish between the lyrics.

Since November I have learnt and translated a total of 26 songs which include Ed Sheeran’s songs and those by his support acts: Maisie Peters and Dylan. This was a huge undertaking as it would normally take me on average 2-3 weeks to learn the English lip pattern of the lyrics and then translate it into BSL/SSE.

I have felt every emotion possible during this experience; stress, panic attacks, even tears as I got to the point where I thought I could not go through with it. However, I was determined to do this as this, as it has been my life long dream:- it’s what I’ve always wanted.

Marie asked if I could join her for the full tour around the UK which includes, Cardiff, Sunderland, Manchester, Glasgow and Wembley – a total of 10 shows! I agreed instantly and contacted Access to Work to apply for a budget to cover the cost of my team of interpreters.

I have worked tirelessly with RSLI interpreters and ATW support to work with me in preparing and undertaking this tour. As I was aware that live music acoustics sound very different to the tracks you practise at home with.

I knew I’d require support during the live shows to feed me cues such as, to let me know when the song was starting, to help me on track with timing etc, as this again can be very different to the track and to also feed me any dialogue that the performers may use when addressing the audience, to make it accessible for the deaf participants.

The tour so far has been truly incredible, I’ve realised the amount of work involved and how it really isn’t glamorous, you work hard behind the scenes and deliver access in all sorts of weather and set ups, and spend hours travelling. I’ve really enjoyed being part of a supportive team that is giving access to the deaf community and it has been an experience I will never forget and one I will be forever grateful for.

We have a large group of deaf children coming to watch their first ever BSL accessible concert at Wembley next week, I’m hoping the experience will enable them to feel inspired seeing a deaf person providing access, and knowing they can go to concerts and social events with their families and friends.

Marie: I set up Performance Interpreting Ltd 7 years ago. I was born with no hearing in my left ear, as well as being a registered sign language interpreter with a background in dance and performing arts. Performance Interpreting provides BSL Interpreters for music and sports industries for small and large scale events and we have always worked with registered deaf translators and deaf performers in a variety of domains.

This is the first time I have co-worked with a deaf performer on a stadium tour. Live music is always a challenge regardless because we often get the set-lists on the day or the week before, which means we have to use a lot of guestimations in our work and sometimes prepare and translate songs that will never be sung.

Often interpreters will have to interpret new songs that come up on the spot without any preparation. A tour is the best chance of having similar set-lists throughout, I thought this would be a great opportunity to show deaf professional can work in this domains and thought Fletch’s style and skill was a perfect match for a mainstream artist like Ed Sheeran.

When you do this type of work it’s really about team work supporting each other to achieve the best access for the customers. There are always logistically challenges because the stadiums are not set up with BSL access in mind. Fletch has worked extensively with an RSLI and ATW support to work on translations and develop a cueing strategy that works for Fletch in the stadium.

The third interpreter supports both Fletch and I when we are working, they sit opposite us and will discreetly sign the songs, and use their cuing system when Fletch requires it. I use the interpreter as a feed as I cannot hear the dialogue. The support model has worked really smoothly and because of everyone’s commitment has proved very successful.

My aim is to develop more work opportunities and explore different strategies using technologies and support methods from RSLT’s, Deaf performance consultants and RSLI’s to work with other deaf professionals to work in the industry and develop this provision further.

We’ve had some great customer feedback, one customer said it was the first time they had ever experienced a BSL accessible concert, and at the end said they liked it so much they were going to buy another ticket to watch at a different venue.

Our aim is to be a bridge between the artist and audience by performing an interpretation of show, showing what music looks through the use of our body language, musicality, BSL features to reflect the artist and music.

We have spent the last 7 years prising the doors open to the music industry, and have worked extensively with the industry to develop BSL access and consider BSL accessible tours from the point of ticket sales.

We still have a huge mountain to climb, as websites on how to book interpreters need to be clear, marketing should include BSL accessible videos etc but we’ve made huge leaps in the right direction.

We are now on the last leg of the tour and booked for all of 5 dates at Wembley Stadium. Deaf customers have booked for every single date. You can book tickets from the Website or call using signvideo details in the link below. Once you have booked your tickets you can request a free PA ticket via the email in the link.

To see Fletch@ and Marie provide BSL access at Wembley with Ed Sheeran, see the ticket info below:

https://help.wembleystadium.com/support/solutions/articles/7000028451
https://www.wembleystadium.com/events/2022/Ed-Sheeran

www.fletchbsl.co.uk
http://performanceinterpreting.co.uk/