Elly-May Barnes champions equality for disabled artists in new TV series

Two bands. All artists are disabled. Seven weeks to get matchfit to play a major festival. Elly-May Barnes reveals her fight for equality in a heartwarming new TV series.

Elly-May Barnes exerts a superhuman effort to get on stage to perform her cabaret show or sing with her father Jimmy.

Living with the chronic pain and crippling spasms of cerebral palsy is tough enough.

But the glaring inequalities and inaccessibility faced by disabled musicians in Australia have made it even tougher and steeled her to fight for change.

“I’ve always been dreaming of seeing people like myself up there on the stage, knowing the kind of talent that’s out there, and wanting to make it easier because I know how hard it can be to drag yourself up there having done it for years,” she said.

“And it shouldn’t be; it’s a human right! There’s often ramps set up to get drums and stuff on stages, and then they pull them down.”

Elly-May Barnes hosts heartwarming ABC series Headliners. Picture: Picture: Tali Gordon / ABC.

The impassioned campaigner to make venues accessible for disabled artists and fans will steal Australia’s heart – and should inspire government and industry action – with the raw, heartwarming series Headliners.

The five-part series from the producers behind the much-loved Old People’s Home seasons, follows two bands of disabled musicians curated by Barnes with mentors Tim Rogers and Ella Hooper.

In just seven weeks, they help transform these strangers into stage slayers at the Mundi Mundi Bash in Broken Hill.

Barnes said the producers received hundreds of applications from artists from the call-out. The sheer volume of talent should be unsurprising considering almost 20 per cent of Australians live with a disability.

Barnes with her Headliners "coaches" Tim Rogers and Ella Hooper. Picture: Tali Gordon / ABC.

But those artists are disappointingly under-represented in the music industry, both on stage and record label rosters.

“For me, going through the applications was the hardest part because there are just so many talented and worthy people,” she said.

“I asked if we could change the format of the show, could we bring a few more bands with us, make our own festival maybe?”

“We had to whittle down the list for the open mic (auditions) to get our bands together.”

The process of filming proved challenging for Barnes with her pain flaring so badly at times she was unable to continue.

“I was sick on open mic day so I didn’t get to see some of the auditions,” she said.

Barnes herself faced challenges during filming because of her disability. Picture: Tali Gordon / ABC

Those who made the final cut are as diverse in their disabilities as they are in their skills.

Not only did these musicians have to gel as a band, work together to arrange and perform songs and later record them, but they had to navigate each other’s personalities and particular needs. Just like any other band.

Those who witnessed the two groups perform live at a small Sydney venue during filming just three weeks after they had been selected from the auditions were awe-struck by just how tight they were; it was as if both bands had been playing together for years.

“I wasn’t surprised but I was blown away by this extreme talent and that everyone is missing out on hearing this talent because there are no stages these people get to play on,” she said.

“And I got to hear it and it was so good. All this untapped talent and we’ve really got to pay attention to these incredible artists who are disabled or neurodivergent.”

Headliners also spotlights the challenges Barnes and the producers faced finding venues where they could film the band members as they went through their journey to get matchfit for their Mundi Mundi Bash performances.

“That was a nightmare and a half,” she said. “And that’s not on the venues, I have to say, because they were beautiful and all wanted to cater for our artists in any way they could,” she said.

“It’s very difficult because a lot of venues are heritage or don’t have the correct information or access to the funding (to improve accessibility).

“Something I hope to do with this show, after this show, is to reach out and continue to communicate with these venues about funding.

“We were able to maybe find two venues in Sydney that could accommodate out artists and what they needed at the time we needed, without bringing our own ramps and things, so it was tricky.”

The artist enlisted her cheerleader dad Jimmy to help mentor the artists. Picture: instagram.com/ellymaybarnes

Barnes enlisted some superstar coaches during the series with the musicians suitably starstruck by sessions with her dad, Silverchair drummer Ben Gillies and Delta Goodrem.

“I think with Delta, she was a big surprise for them and they were all pretty starstruck, I think one of the band members said he’d never wash his hand again after shaking her hand,” Barnes laughed.

The Headliners host can’t wait for Australia to meet her bands and celebrate their triumphant debut performances at the Mundi Mundi festival.

She loved being their “hype woman” – introducing them to about 10,000 music fans at the outback event – and watching like a proud mumma as they ripped through their sets to wild applause and cheers from the crowd.

“I’ve never been an MC before so tick that one off the bucket list,” she said.

“People had no idea about them, they just came to see two new bands.

“I was so very proud and so very, very, very emotional and I really had to try to stay composed because this was all their hard work. It just felt so big, it was a big show.”

Headliners will premiere on ABC on November 19 at 8pm with all episodes available to stream on ABC iview.