Pop legend Vince Hill receives a standing ovation at his last concert (Image: David Fawbert Photography)
When Vince Hill took to the stage last month to sing his 1967 hit Edelweiss, his iconic voice was as smooth and unmistakable as ever. But few could have guessed that the legendary singer was struggling under the bright lights at his farewell show earlier this year at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, because of a degenerative eye condition which has been slowly robbing him of his vision.
“I’ve spent my life on stage but now I can only see the audience sometimes,” he admits today.
“Lights are a menace for me, shining brightly into my eyes. The audience were so wonderful, absolutely fantastic – at least I could hear their appreciation.
“But I need people to help me get on and off stage. I should have got an Oscar for getting down those steps. I love it when I’m on stage but I’ve been doing this for 60 years.
“I’ve lost that rush of excitement I used to get. It takes so much effort now to get around that I think, maybe it’s finally time to stop.”
It would be a great loss to his devoted fans.
Cinderella at the Royal Court Theatre Liverpool with Barbara Windsor (Image: Mirrorpix)
The singer had a string of Top 20 hits during the 1960s becoming record label Columbia’s most prolific recording artist, producing 14 albums of traditional melodies in nine years.
Edelweiss, from the musical The Sound Of Music, spent 17 weeks at No 2 in the British charts and became a platinum-seller.
A move into television followed, hosting popular BBC shows such as They Sold A Million and The Musical Time Machine.
He has performed regularly ever since.
But a routine eye test eight years ago revealed that Vince, now 85, was suffering from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a debilitating and progressive condition which is the UK’s leading cause of blindness.
When musos had talent: Harry Secombe, Bert Weedon and Vince Hill hold up Bobby Crush (Image: Gary Weaser/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty)
It occurs when cells in the retina at the back of the eye gradually die off and – devastatingly – there is no cure.
“I started to notice I was struggling to focus, and going a bit cross-eyed,” Vince recalls. “It was a slow, creeping thing in my right eye, which felt weak and misty.
“I’d reach out for a cup or glass and close my fingers around it only to realise it was miles away. That started to happen more regularly, and I was struggling to judge distances when driving.”
Figures show as many as 1.2 million people in Britain may be suffering from AMD.
Most, like Vince, have the “dry” form but, when it becomes more advanced, it can turn into “wet” AMD when abnormal blood vessels leak into the eye.
This can be stabilised with injections, which can slow the progression of the disease.
Vince accepts that he has, to an extent, been lucky. He can still see the faces of his grandchildren – now aged 21 and nine – if they are close enough.
“I still have some vision, although it’s patchy. It’s like looking through a real pea-souper. I can’t read and the words swim around the page,” he says.
“I’ll often throw things across the room in frustration. I can’t recognise faces and I’ve had to give up driving. I can’t go out on my own any more as I’m a danger to myself and other people.
Eamonn Andrews surprises Vince for This Is Your Life (Image: ITV)
“The one positive thing is that it doesn’t affect the rest of my body. I can walk, stand up, all of that.”
His eyesight has deteriorated to such an extent that, just five months ago, he was officially registered as partially sighted.
Vince wears glasses with an opaque lens on his worst-seeing right eye to force the left eye to do all the work.
But even the sight in his best eye is “like dark, shadowy blobs”.
“I find it all so aggravating,” he sighs. “I’ll take them off for a break and a glass of wine and end up putting them back on again. If they’re off I see two of everything.
“The doctors have said there is nothing they can do, but I don’t buy that. I don’t want to give up just yet.”
Vince at home in Roehampton in 1968 (Image: Popperfoto via Getty)
The loss of his sight comes on top of several years of heartache for the singer.
His only son, Athol, died suddenly aged 42 of an accidental overdose in 2014, and his beloved wife Annie, whom he married in 1959, died following a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis three years later.
“It slowly destroyed Annie, which was hard to watch. It’s been three years now, and I still can’t believe it.
“After Athol died I actually did feel like packing it all in. Then you think, I can’t go on like that.
“So I got myself back on to the stage. But I’m at a point now where it takes a lot of effort to get up there and do it.”
Vince has sought support from charity the Macular Society, which has provided telephone counselling.
It has been really helpful just to talk about it, he says.
Cathy Yelf, the chief executive of the Macular Society, said: “We must fund much more research until a cure or treatment is found which can stop it in its tracks, so no one else like Vince has to live with this terrible disease.”
It’s hardly surprising that Vince is reluctant to slow down given the decades he has spent in the spotlight.
He performed with Cilla Black and Tony Christie at venues like the Royal Albert Hall, London Palladium and Sydney Opera House.
But it was featuring on This Is Your Life in 1976 with Eamonn Andrews which remains a highlight. He nearly didn’t make it.
Vince Hill was a hit with the ladies (Image: Getty)
“Annie told me I was going to sing some songs at an old folks’ home in the East End,” he recalls.
“I’d been doing some digging that day in my vegetable plot and Annie came out and said, ‘I think you should get a decent jacket on – the car’s coming any minute’.
“So I grudgingly got changed. As I was sitting down with a cup of tea, I felt this hand on my shoulder and it was Eamonn. I was so knocked out by it. It was a great moment.”
One famous fan was reportedly Princess Margaret.
“I always found her very nice and very charming,” Vince says. But one evening in the 1970s, he was performing at the Theatre Royal in Windsor, with the Princess in the audience, when there was a blackout.
“We decided to do the soliloquy from Carousel, as that just involved me and a piano. It’s quite long and dramatic, but it was wonderful in the dark.
“We all lined up to meet Princess Margaret afterwards and I expected her to say, you know, ‘Well done, considering the circumstances’. Actually, she said, ‘What a long song, wasn’t it?’
“I never forgot that moment.”
His only regret is never singing with his idol Tony Bennett.
Today’s musicians don’t hold as much appeal, although he admits to “quite liking” British singer George Ezra.
His career isn’t over yet. Warner Music is releasing a greatest hits album, Legacy, as a digital download to commemorate his 85th birthday year.
And next month, Vince will appear – for one night only – as Baron Hardup in Cinderella at the Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon.
Reading the script has been a challenge, but he says proudly he’s “the only one who’s so far learned their lines”.
“They’ve decided they’re going to put me in a wheelchair, which will be part of the comedy. It’s a bit naughty, but it should be fun. After that, who knows? I think I’ve had enough.”
For his audiences, at least, Vince will always be a sight for sore eyes.
• Contact the Macular Society on 0300 3030 111, or macularsociety.org. Legacy is available on CD from vincehill.co.uk, price £5.99. A download comes out later this month.
