30.07.03 HELLO MAGAZINE INTERVIEW - October 2000 Joe Longthorne tries to be philosophical as he relives the prolonged nightmare of the last few months. The charismatic showbusiness star explains how, while celebrating the new millennium with family and friends, he was blissfully ignorant of the horrors lurking in the shadows, ready to strike him down. First, the 45-year old entertainer was devastated to learn that thought he believed he'd got the all-clear from cancer in 1997, following a long battle with the illness, he was, in fact mistaken and that he still has the disease. Then, four months ago, he was declared bankrupt after failing to clear debts totalling more tha £1 million - this, the man whose brilliant singing impersonations of Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and David Bowie had made him one of Britain's highest paid performers, with Rolls-Royces and Bentleys in the drive of his £750,000 house in Berkshire. "At one stage", reflects Joe, still physically frail and puffy around the neck from his last bout of chemotherapy, "I was supposed to owe nearly £2 million. But you've just got to be positive, haven't you?" In fact, the larger-than-life former rag-and-bone man from Hull, whose mother's family were Irish gypsies and whose father's side ran travelling fairs, is a fighter, as his 12-year battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma bears out. Joe, a showbiz veteran at 16 after starring for two years in the weekly children's TV programme Junior Showtime, is one of Britain's more colourful showbusiness characters. He has always lived his life in the fast lane, with only ill-health forcing him to pull over onto the hard shoulder to take stock. After years in the clubs, seaside summer seasons, regular TV appearances, three series of The Joe Longthorne Show, several platinum albums and a number of prestige performances in the USA and Australiam he has become what one critic described as "arguably Britain's greatest showbusiness talent." And yet, like many brilliant artists, he also has a darker side, succumbing to drugs, booze and the gambling which, in tandem with bad business advice, brought him to bankruptcy. But now, as he records a new album and embarks on a UK tour next month, he is looking resolutely ahead. Hello! met Joe at his fabulous 1920's mock-Tudor home with it's own recording studio and private swimming pool, set in seven acres of rural Berkshire, where he keeps several goats and pigs as well as a couple of horses and three dogs. back to top Joe, when did you discover that your cancer "all-clear" was, infact, a mistake? "Seven months ago. I was a week into my UK tour when I said to my touring manager: 'I'm not feeling right'. I went to the local doctor who referred me to the Leeds General Infirmary where Dr Anthony Childs, my specialist since I was first diagnosed with cancer back in 1988, found that my illness had come back with a vengeance. "I died inside, and when I left the hospital I cried my eyes out. I was with a friend and I sobbed, 'Here we go again.' I thought I'd licked the cancer and I hadn't. That evening I cried on the way to the show. Then I went on stage and I blocked off all the bad feelings. 'I've fought it once before', I thought, 'and I'll fight it again.'" Yet, three years ago you told an audience, "I'm living proof that cancer can be beaten"... "I thought the cancer had gone; with this disease you do have periods when you feel perfectly alright. I mistakenly thought the doctor had given me the all-clear." "I was very mixed up and for some reason I never went back to hospital. Now I realise that there was a communication breakdown, and that somewhere along the line I got it into my head that the cancer was gone." Did you feel angry at having lost nearly three years of treatment? "Not angry, nor bitter. I just thought, 'Joe, you've let yourself down.'" How soon after seeing Dr Childs in March did you resume treatment? "The same day. I've just come off six months intensive treatment. I feel I've been to hell and back. It made me feel like I'd done 15 rounds with Mike Tyson. I'd take these pills and ten minutes later I'd be seeing double and I'd have to go to bed because I felt lousy. I'm off that treatment now and in December I start a new course of chemotherapy." How did you first discover you had cancer in 1988? "I started losing weight and had a stiff neck. The doctor took some tests and I went to see him two weeks later. It was September, and he said: 'If you don't start treatment immediately, you'll be in a wooden overcoat by Christmas.' He recommended the Leeds General Infirmary and because most of my family come from Leeds, I went straight there after the summer season finished and saw Dr Childs." back to top How quickly did events move after that? "I had a biopsy, a lumbar puncture and two other tests. The results were positive. I had cancer. It all proved too much for me, the diagnosis, the conditions at the Victorian hospital... "I was asked to have a pre-operation bath. I got in this old brown bath, with six inches of lukewarm water. I was at my lowest ebb and I wept: 'This is it - the end.' After the operation, the fight to save my life started, but I was also determined to make that hospital a better place. "With the help of fundraising by Friends Of A Cure For Leukaemia, my fans and my various charity shows, the hospital's Brotherton Wing materialised. It's like a four-start hotel, with all mod cons and TVs in every room." What has kept you going through all of this? "Being an optimist and keeping myself busy. I don't know what the new treatment's going to do to me, but I'm a realist and I just think: 'You've had a good innings. You've sung for kings and queens. You've had a fabulous career.'" To add to your worries, you've been declared bankrupt... "Yes. For four years I tried to stave off going bust and when it happened a few months ago it wasn't my choice. My creditors demanded it. I'd really struggled, scrimped and saved, to pay off my debts. I was paying back £7,000 a month, but it wasn't really making any impression on the million or so I owed. "I've also had to sell this house, thought the chap who's bought it has no immediate use for the place, so I can stay here pretty much indefinitely." All of your financial difficulties must have been a tremendous worry to you... "Over a period of time it mde me ill. I couldn't pay household bills, let alone afford luxuries. I couldn't buy a tank of petrol to get to a gig to earn money to pay my debts. I got very depressed and for several months, a few years back, I couldn't move and just stared into space all day. I was like a zombie. "My family looked after me thank God, because I really didn't want to live. Eventually I had a huge breakdown, and ended up in a mental hospital. Psychologically I was as low as I could go." You say you didn't want to live... "All I know is that at one point I took some pills to help me sleep and three days later I woke up in hospital." What brought you back from the brink? "Michael Barrymore rang me up and said, 'Come on mate, I want you on my show.' I said 'I don't know whether I can make it, I'm nearly dead.' He couldn't believe it when I arrived. I had to be carried in. I did loads of impressions with a song at the end. The producer said the song was OK, but I wasn't looking right, so they only screened the song. "I just think, God bless Michael Barrymore for giving me a chance, and God bless the producer for paying me top money. It really boosted my confidence. Gradually, I got back to normal and now here I am again, the eternal optimist." Was there ever a time in your life when you thought you might marry? "No, never. Marriage is not for me. I'm not the marrying type." You once said, "I started off with nothing and I'm not afraid of ending up with nothing." Do you still feel that way? "Yes, because I don't really have anything now, do I? But I've got alot to live for. I'm very lucky because the tools of my trade, the singing and the performing, are part of me. So long as they aren't taken away from me, I'm going to be alright. The illness is in check and I'm steaming ahead." © Hello! Magazine 2000. Interview by Ian Woodward. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. back to top site design_navajo media