He also wrote a poem called "Guide Cats for the Blind" which led to an unexpected development. The poem was heard by Clive Lever, a keyboard player and comedy songwriter from Maidstone, who is involved in an organisation called the "British Computer Association of the Blind" (BCAB). The Association runs a program called EyeT4all, which aims to make computers accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. Clive got in touch with Les, who agreed to the poem being used as the title track of a double fundraising CD . Les also agreed to the recording of a series of albums, in which his poems and songs would be recorded by artists from the folk world, but also by well known celebrities from the entertainment and theatrical world. Presenters from all five BBC Radio stations featured on the albums and so far between £40,000 and £50,000 has been raised.
So far five "Guide Cats" albums have been produced, "Guide Cats for the Blind", "Missing Persians File", "Top Cat, White Tie and Tails", "Cat Nav", and "Herding Cats". The CDs contain performances of Les's poems by members of the folk world like June Tabor, Martin Carthy, Steve Tilston, Mike Harding and Tom Paxton but also well known figures like Jimmy Young, Nicholas Parsons, Brian Perkins, Terry Wogan, Nicky Campbell, Robert Lindsay, Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs.
Read more about this topic: Les Barker
Famous quotes containing the words guide, cats and/or blind:
“Don’t you go believing in sayings, Picotee: they are all made by men, for their own advantages. Women who use public proverbs as a guide through events are those who have not ingenuity enough to make private ones as each event occurs.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“At noon, you walk across a river. It is dry, with not this much water: it is just stones and pebbles. But it rains cats and dogs in the mountains, and towards afternoon, the water descends wildly and she ravages all in its path, the madwoman. That is how death comes. Without our expecting it, and we cannot do a thing against it, brothers.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“Maybe we were the blind mechanics of disaster, but you don’t pin the guilt on the scientists that easily. You might as well pin it on M motherhood.... Every man who ever worked on this thing told you what would happen. The scientists signed petition after petition, but nobody listened. There was a choice. It was build the bombs and use them, or risk that the United States and the Soviet Union and the rest of us would find some way to go on living.”
—John Paxton (1911–1985)