TEN FOR TEN Nick Boston catches up with tenor Ian Farrell as he celebrates 10 years sober and a new beginning

When tenor Ian Farrell left rehab in 2009, he told a friend:

“I want to get back to my hairdressing, see the world and sing.”

After several years working as British Airways cabin crew, he’s now back in hairdressing, so the first two goals were ticked off the list. It felt like the singing was the final part of the jigsaw. Ian joined Brighton Festival Chorus a couple of years ago, but solo singing was his real goal, so rather than waiting for it to happen, he decided to record an album of his favourite tracks to mark 10 years sober in 2019. Ian was born on the Isle of Wight in 1977, but moved to Cheshire aged seven. His love of singing began in the local church choir then, as a chorister with the Northern Cathedral Singers, he had the experience of singing in cathedrals around the country, including York, Exeter and Coventry.

Music continued to be central through his school years, and he went on to Dartington College of Arts and then London College of Music. All was going extremely well, including performing a lead role in Howard Goodall’s Silas Marner, as well as numerous choral and solo performances in London. In his final year, he won the Worshipful Company of Musicians scholarship and a also a place on the English National Opera’s The Knack, a bridging course for singers entering the profession. He was all set for a Masters, and a glittering career as a singer lay ahead of him. But this was the point at which things began to unravel for Ian. What had always felt natural and easy had suddenly become a source of pressure.

In Ian’s words, he began to “self destruct”, turning his back on singing and living a wild life increasingly fuelled by alcohol.

For a time he continued to hold down jobs, including working for Cameron Mackintosh, but eventually dependency on alcohol caught up with him, and his physical and mental health reached crisis point.

When I met up with Ian, I asked is there was one thing that turned things around for him? “No, it was a combination of things really. I realised the singing was important, and there was stuff I still wanted to do.” His nephew and niece had an influence too: “I just didn’t want to be the uncle that passed away prematurely. I didn’t want to ultimately fail in anyone’s eyes (let alone mine).”

But fundamentally, he says: “I’d just had enough.”

He talked a lot about misconceptions that addiction is about loss of control. “Being an alcoholic on a budget meant I had to be very organised, to know I had enough money for the next drink.” But aside from the mental and physical toll this took on him, keeping up this sense of control became harder and harder to maintain. Through support from Turning Point, the drugs, alcohol and mental health charity, and periods of rehab, Ian pulled things back from the brink, and stopped drinking for good in 2009.

Since then, it’s been about “learning to be me again – a new me, but the old me too.”

So for Ian, this album is clearly very personal, but it’s also hopefully sharing a message that it is possible to come back from a very dark place and find a way forward. As Ian says: “I’ve learned that just because you make mistakes in life, (however monumental) which sometimes lead you down a different path than the one you thought you were going to take, it doesn’t mean that with determination, self belief and a dream, you can’t navigate your way back to your dream or chosen path.” So to the album. The 10 tracks provide a great showcase for Ian’s powerful voice, in a wide range of musical theatre repertoire and more. The backing tracks are simple, allowing his voice to take centre stage throughout. Ian’s choice of songs clearly has personal resonance, from This is the Moment from Jekyll & Hyde, to the triumph over impossible challenges expressed in The Impossible Dream (Man of La Mancha) and Puccini’s Nessun Dorma. His voice is powerful, and he relishes the big moments, such as the iconic climax of Nessun Dorma, or a passionate final top note in This is the Moment. But he also brings a sense of simple wonder to Pure Imagination, and Over the Rainbow has a touching simplicity.

His philosophy on life shines out in Charlie Chaplin’s Smile, as well as in a heartfelt rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone.

As a personal statement of achievement in getting to where he is now in life, this is impressive, but it should also prove to be a great calling card for whatever comes next for Ian.

MORE INFO

You can download the album for free from Ian’s website at iandavidfarrell.com. And look out for him performing live soon – follow him on I @iandavidfarrell.