CROYDON COMMENTARY: Griff Griffiths is the one-time member of a punk band, now hosting a drivetime radio show on NewDawn FM. Invited on to the show, before they went on air, old friend RICHARD PACITTI, pictured left, had a catch-up about life, love, music, mental health and over-diagnosis
I’ve written about Griff Griffiths for Inside Croydon before. He, along with Mark Williams, was the creator of Are They Hostile, the documentary film about the punk, new wave and indie music scene in Croydon in the 1970s and ’80s. It was a song from Griff’s band, the Bad Actors, that gave the name to the film, the CD and vinyl LP that accompanied it.
Rock star: Griff Griffiths always seems to say ‘Yes’. It has helped improve his mental health
I later wrote about Griff’s autobiography, I Was the King of Spain, which charts his kaleidoscopic life, his many careers and the difficulties that he had with his mental health. The title of the book related to a time when his thoughts and behaviour became so strange that he was admitted as an in-patient at The Priory. In that piece I commented on the relationship between creativity and mental health.
At the time I renewed my acquaintance with Griff in 2022, as well as making the film, he was drumming in a Jam tribute band and with Circa 79, whose name gives a hint of the era of music they play.
He’s been hosting his radio show since 2023. “I tend to say ‘Yes’ to everything. If someone asks me to do something, I agree to do it and then worry about whether or not I can actually do it later.
“I’d been a guest on the radio show and a couple of people said that I came over well and I was offered the chance to do my own show. I’d never done that before, but I just said, ‘Yes’ and then worried about doing all the technical stuff later. They sent a couple of engineers down to show me how to work things and I soon got the hang of things.
Golden years: Richard Pacitti shares some of his memories with Griff Griffiths
“The radio show means I get to meet loads of people. I have three or four guests a week. Mainly from the world of music, but lots of other people come on, too. It means my mind is always occupied and I’m always busy, thinking about the show or whatever other projects I’ve got on the go.”
He tells me that he’s also going to be in a couple of forthcoming low-budget horror films. One is called Mosaic and the other is called The Witches of the Sands, in which he plays the part of a gangster.
Griff had a Christmas No1 on the revival chart with Christmas Smile. “It was played all over the world by loads of local radio stations,” he says. He continues to drum for Circa 79 and has just released a cover of the Toots and the Maytals classic 54-46.
“I’d worked with Smiley Barnard on the Christmas song, so we thought it would be a good idea to keep up the momentum and release something else. We had loads of friends singing on the chorus and the whole thing is fun and upbeat. We don’t expect fame and fortune, but we’re doing something positive.”
He’s also joined the band Public Service Announcement on drums and now has another radio show on Rock Radio UK.
As well as all of the creative projects he’s involved in, he keeps himself physically fit. He goes to the gym regularly, walks his dogs and attends more gigs and music events than you can shake a stick at.
So I asked him whether this need to stay busy is a way of managing his mental health.
“If I don’t keep busy, I can see the negative stuff coming towards me. Keeping busy and keeping active fends it off. I thought I was the only person with mental health problems that manages things in this way, but I’ve spoken to other people who say that’s how they get by, too.
“Some people get help from medication and doctors, but I didn’t think that was for me. When I was doing the publicity for I Was the King of Spain, I got lots of positive feedback from people who found what I had to say about mental health very helpful.”
Our conversation seemed very topical. We are told of a mental health crisis, particularly in young people, with both the NHS and the welfare benefits system buckling under the weight of increased demand. Equally, there are many voices expressing concern that the systems are not giving people the help that is most useful and the system itself might be part of the problem.
The Age of Diagnosis by the neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan has been getting a lot of attention. Her book suggests that differences in physical and mental health are being unnecessarily medicalised and pathologised: “We are not getting sicker – we are attributing more to sickness.”
Overdiagnosis means that millions of people who would previously have been thought of as “healthy” are now classed as “unwell”, O’Sullivan says.
Some diagnoses can be really helpful if they mean that people can then access the help and support that will return them to good health. But diagnoses that label people as unwell and incapable, or lead them to be written off or be directed to treatments that are ineffective, are extremely problematic, not only for the people receiving them but also for the services where they are referred and the taxpayer who is funding them.
Surely, a mental health diagnosis shouldn’t make so many people feel excluded and that they are less able to take part in education, work or the world generally?
Last November a BBC report on young people’s mental health revealed figures from the NHS that showed that only 46% of young people made improvements as a result of the treatment they received, while 44% showed no improvement and 10% deteriorated after treatment.
The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has said there is an “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions with “too many people being written off”.
Idleness, that is unemployment and lack of economic opportunity, was one of the “five evils” that the development of the welfare state after the Second World War set out to defeat.
More than half of the rise in working-age disability claims since the covid pandemic is related to mental health or behavioural conditions and the number of people on ADHD medication in England has trebled, from 81,000 in 2015 to 248,000 in 2024. We clearly have some very serious problems with the Nation’s mental health and how it is being treated.
On the record: Griffiths has a red vinyl EP coming out soon
On a previous show that I did with Griff, I talked about the Five Ways to Wellbeing: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, and Give. These actions, when practised regularly, can significantly improve your mental and emotional well-being. I’d said that what I like about this approach is that these are principles that can be used by everyone to improve their mental health, whether or not they have been diagnosed with a problem.
I believe they help to create resilience and a sense of control, rather than the dependence that some treatments and intervention can cause. The feedback that Griff received from listeners was really positive about the conversation about the Five Ways to Wellbeing.
So, it seems, lots of people aren’t thriving and would like to find some solutions to the difficulties they are having. Some people find the medical route and medication very helpful. However, there does seem to be more evidence that getting a diagnosis might not be helpful for everyone (and society generally) if that diagnosis doesn’t lead to effective help and support.
Listening to Griff and how he leads his life got me thinking that if our health and welfare systems were more geared up to focus on people’s strengths and abilities and how they might be used so that people can lead a fuller, more busy life, we would have a happier, more engaged, healthier society.
And we might even save the taxpayer a whole pile of money.
- For almost 30 years, until his retirement in 2020, South Croydon resident Richard Pacitti was chief executive of charity Mind in Croydon
- Croydon Commentary provides a platform for any of our readers to offer their personal views and experiences about what matters to them in and around our corner of south London. To submit an article for publication, just email us at inside.croydon@btinternet.com, or post your comment to an Inside Croydon article that has caught your attention
Recent Croydon Commentary columns:
- Work is not a magical cure for people’s mental health problems
- When people talk, things happen and they get things done
- Council bosses need to answer for Cheesbrough’s toxic legacy
- Who can afford £4,000 per month for Purley later living flats?
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
