Godley can’t wait to get back out on tour despite cancer battle
It was meant to document her final tour as a stand-up comic but Janey Godley did not even know if she would live to see the finished fly-on-the-wall feature film following her on the road with her daughter, comic and writer Ashley.
But as she launched the documentary in her native Glasgow, her fans were told she is going to perform more and more in the coming months, despite her terminal cancer diagnosis.
Godley, 63, will be embarking on two major tours of Scotland in the space of eight months.
The first will see her take to the stage after screenings of Scottish filmmaker John Archer’s documentary. The second will see her perform full standup shows as part of a tour entitled “Why Is She Still Here?”
It is a nod to last year’s “Not Dead Yet” tour, when a camera crew followed Godley and Ashley as they tried to come to terms with the impact of her illness.
Speaking after the world premiere of “Janey,” Godley admitted that watching the film with an audience had been a much more emotional experience than she had expected.
She said: “John had shown me the film a few times and I was OK with it. Watching it with so many other people was an incredibly different experience which I wasn't prepared for. It was incredibly moving for other people to be in the room with me it was incredibly moving. I could hear people gasping and laughing - the reactions were just amazing.”
Storrie recalled the mixed feelings she harboured throughout last year’s tour.
She said: “I was hyper aware that it might be the last tour I got to go on with my mum. We’ve shared such an amazing journey together. There was a slight feeling that this was the end of it. That was the sad part, but at the same time you wanted to enjoy it. I didn't know that we'd still be here.” Godley admitted the most traumatic point of the tour came when she had a coughing fit on stage, an incident which features in the documentary. She said: “It was terrifying. I genuinely thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to be able to breathe again. It was a very strange experience."
The 21-date Scottish tour Godley is planning in October and November will include shows in Edinburgh, Haddington, Greenock, Kelso, Perth, Aberdeen, Stirling, Airdrie, Glenrothes, Dundee, Dunfermline, Montrose, Inverness and Glasgow.
Godley said: “I can't wait to get back on tour again because I loved it. I find that going on tour and being on stage does kind of keep me alive.”
The documentary recalls how Godley lost huge amounts of work in 2021 after she was accused of racism over social media posts and dropped from a Scottish Government health campaign.
She said: “John wanted me to speak about it in the film and I wanted to talk about. It didn't want to say 'let's just skip over that.' I'm proud of who I am and what I came through.
“I’ve already said I am sorry, but people don't want an apology. They want you to either die or go anyway. I don't think there's any such thing as cancel culture now. It peaked and wore itself out.”