Pop Stars in Wheelchairs

[JohnnyCondom]

Can anyone list any performers that have appeared on Top of the Pops in a wheelchair? I presume Robert Wyatt has been on at some point but I can't name any others. Please help. Any famous musicians in wheelchairs generally would be a help.

[andy hughes]

Can't think of anyone who has been on TOTP, or indeed any famous musicians in wheelchairs. They exist though - America has band called Van Gogh, fronted by brothers Bobby and Ricky Heisner who both have Becker muscular dystrophy. Italy has a band called Ladri Di Carrozzelle (it means 'wheelchair thieves') and of the eleven members of the band, nine carry the same condition.

[Lord Panda]

Robert Wyatt, singing 'Shipbuilding' in about 1984. Wyatt was the drummer with - I think - King Crimson. He broke his spine in the mid 1970s and has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. I have a feeling that I have also seen someone else on there in a wheelchair after breaking their leg, but I cannot recall who it was.

[SRAYN1]

Not King Crimson but Soft Machine. He then left that to form Matching Mole (a French pun on the Soft Machine name). He had just finished his first solo album End of an Ear, when he he had the accident

[JohnnyCondom]

I remember the K.L.F. performing in electric wheelchairs for their millennium 'comeback' single. I also recall some guy in a dance act sitting behind a keyboard in a wheelchair. I suppose what I'm really looking for is any famous musicians that have been wheelchair users. I know Curtis Mayfield, Jackie Wilson and Teddy Pendergrass have all been in wheelchairs at some point. But what I'm interested in is acts that have made the British chart and TOTP specifically. Anything would be useful.

[Waterwolf]

That dance act you remember was Paul Johnson, performing 'Get Get Down.' I think he was paralysed in an accident or something. I'm sure I heard a story of someone else who appeared on TOTP in a wheelchair, and then the BBC received letters of complaint; but that's before my time, I'm afraid.

[Tom Phillips]

I have a hazy recollection of someone in the seventies being a wheelchair....either Thunderclap Newman doing "Something in the air" or was it Kenny Rogers doing "Ruby" ( and acting the wounded soldier) and recieved lots of complaints for doing so.