John Chapman with Mitch

JOHN Chapman was the frontman of the The Voice – a group of former William Ellis School teenagers who played Camden Town’s most prestigious venues in the 1990s and 2000s.

The band was compared to Oasis at the time. But, aged 33, he was diagnosed with eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa and was later registered blind.

He kept on playing live music though and, just before the pandemic, he had put together a new band called Audio V and was planning to release an EP, giving the proceeds to Guide Dogs for the Blind charity.

“When Covid kicked-in we couldn’t do it and it ripped the band apart,” he said.

“So now I thought I’ll release an EP on my own. “I’ve recently become a guide dog owner and Mitch has influenced my first track. To me, it’s all about Mitch. But another blind person could easily make it to be about their dog.”

The John Chapman EP – Guiding Star  includes recording of songs performed live at The Fiddler’s Elbow by the band just before Covid in February 2020.

Mr Chapman grew up in Ingestre Road estate, Kentish Town, where his mother still lives, and he has recently got his own flat with his wife and two children there.

The move to a two-bed flat from Holly Lodge estate was significant because it meant he had enough space to have the guide dog. He had been on the list for six years.

“I’ve been losing my sight since I was 28 and I’m now 41,” he said. “It’s taken six years to get Mitch, who is a massive Labrador retriever. He’s a big dog but he’s lovely natured.

“It was January this year [2022] that I got the call and I went in for my training. There’s a guide dogs office in King’s Cross. Then you go down to Premier Inn in Euston and stay there for two weeks. The instructor gets you to do different things, they even come and eat with you. It’s like a bonding time for you and the dog.”

Mr Chapman added: “They find you a match. Because it can’t be a moody dog, if you’ve got kids. I like the big dog too as I feel better to have a big dog by the side of my leg.

I come from a doggy family and I have my own Jack Russell, Lennon. They met and it was totally fine with each other. But the charity said he might influence him into being naughty.

“It’s true Lennon is a naughty little git sometimes, so he’s moved back in with my mum – he’s gone full circle. It was quite hard, because I love him to bits. But he’s at my mum’s so I see him all the time.”

Describing the benefits of having a guide dog, he said: “Before I couldn’t go out without the cane. And when you are swiping it left to right all the time, your arm is aching. It’s not good all round really. But when you get a guide dog you don’t need it and all that goes away. Mitch is not like having a robot just taking you places. It’s a partnership.”

Mr Chapman has set up a small studio at his old home in Ingestre Road estate.

He said: “It does feel funny being back on the old estate, because in some ways it feels like you ain’t gone anywhere. But then again I can’t see very well so it’s nice to know where I am.”

His vision has been deteriorating in the past six months. “For the first four years after I was diagnosed it was only affecting me at night and then it stayed the same for two years,” he said.

“But it has just taken a dip again recently. Today is a sunny day and you’d think that would help but it doesn’t. Before it was only darkness that I had a problem with, but now it’s bright light that affects with me too. A perfect day, my right eye is blurred and my left eye there is a slight vision.”

Mr Chapman said he could see the best during “a nice light day but with no sun”, adding: “Really it means if I ain’t got Mitch I have to be careful about bumping into things.”

John Chapman

He said Mitch liked to sit with him when he was writing new music, adding: “He doesn’t get up and run out – so he must like it a bit.”

The dog has also meant he can walk his children to school, which he couldn’t do so easily with the cane.

“My daughter holds the handle and he allows a bit of extra space on the pavement,” said Mr Chapman. “He’s quite clever like that.”

Mr Chapman’s seven-year-old daughter is already following in her dad’s musical footsteps.

He said: “I went to her first rockstar band performance in this Camden music service thing they do on Saturdays at Brecknock School. She is the only singer in this band with kids, keyboards and drum­­mers. One of them is 14.”

He added: “I had a big grin on my face, I was proper proud watching my little girl.”

Mr Chapman’s EP is available for download in all the main places with all the money going to the Guide Dogs for the Blind charity: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/guiding-star-ep/1657754517