Gareth's Speech
Gareth Gates took 20 seconds simply to tell the panel of judges his name at the programme’s audition in August. Yet he went on to astound them with his moving rendition of Westlife’s hit Flying Without Wings. After hearing him sing, even callous panel member Simon Cowell told him: “You’ve captured my imagination.”
From barely being able to say two words without stuttering, he has amazed his friends and family with his remarkable progress in speech therapy. He said: “No one can believe it — if you had heard me before, I couldn’t talk at all. Not being able to speak for years, I haven’t been able to develop a strong personality. When I went back home and started to speak, my mum was so surprised she burst into tears.”
Gareth was helped by a treatment method called the Maguire Programme and took part in a four-day intensive course in Liverpool in August. He said: “On the course you have to change the way you think and breathe and overcome your fears. Now people have been asking if I even had a stammer in the first place.” Even so, when Gareth first began speaking normally he was worried he might lose his brilliant singing voice. He said: “I began speaking from early in the morning until late at night and it affected my throat. I’m taking it a bit more easy now.”
Tim Metcalf, Gareth’s teacher on the Maguire Programme said: “I’ve seen thousands of people of all ages with stammers and Gareth’s isn’t unusual. But what did shock me was when he opened his mouth to sing — it was perfection.”