BRIAN Madden is probably best known as Barney Madden the boxing writer and for his book Yesterday’s Glove Men, The Golden Days of Ulster Boxing, celebrating famous names like Rinty Monaghan Bunty Doran, Freddie Gilroy, Johnny Caldwell and Billy 'Spider' Kelly.
Although he’s working on Volume Two, Brian has now turned his hand to something else – songwriting. But it’s writing with a deep meaning – his latest CD is a sympathetic look at Alzheimer’s disease through the thoughts of a sufferer looking back.
'Why can’t I remember the colour of the sky yet recall vividly the green within your eyes; can’t remember the names of the flowers in the garden yet remember the the bouquet you sent on Valentine’s Day?'
“No bother with distant memories,” says Brian, “but recent memories were, to put it mildly, rather vague, he says of the song's protagonist. Thus the name of the song, Why Can’t I Remember?
"I’ve had aunts and uncles and friends who have suffered Alzheimer’s, most recently a brother-in-law who died just 18 months ago, and I wanted to do something not only to highlight the disease but also to raise funds.”
Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia and the statistic that, in the UK, 225,000 people will develop dementia this year is frightening. That’s one person every three minutes.
Brian put his feelings on paper and asked singer Eve Williams to consider recording the vocal. Eve, who is based in Bangor, has performed at international festivals, on television and radio, and is also a music tutor. She agreed. Put the two together, add guitarist Steven McKnight and you have a thought-provoking and very beautiful piece of work.
More details from Brian 028 90 308194. All proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Society.
COOL DUDE
SO ADAM Faith was a spy. A secret agent sent by MI6 to spy on Fidel Castro. I knew he was special. My most loved pop star and actor. I met him twice, once shared a taxi from Aldergrove to Ulster Television – such joy! – and once in London at the studios where he was recording Ready Stead Go. My favourite photo is now somewhat grainy but it still makes my knees (even the new titanium ones) go weak.
PHONE A FRIEND? DON’T BOTHER
HOW’S this for a bizarre overnight tail. I know this gentleman so I believe every word. I will change the names so protect the innocent.
“Patrick and I were introduced to a guy called Michael at a social event. Got home but at 1am I received a text saying the sender was glad to have met me. I foolishly replied asking who and suggested texting back at a reasonable hour in the morning.
"They immediately replied signing off the text with 'M'. I made the assumption that the M was the Michael we’d met earlier, I was furious that this guy had my number and texted my mutual friend who’d been with us, saying I was annoyed that he’d given out my number. However, it transpired that the person who had texted me at 1am was a woman in a bar who’d met a guy who bought her a drink and at end of the evening they swapped phone numbers.”
OK, I follow.
“I think he must have given her a bogus number or changed a digit in his own and she ended up with my mobile number. Unfortunately I only deduced this after many many texts resulting in me almost threatening this woman. It got so bizarre she asked me if she could ring me and listen to my voice so that she could hear that I wasn't the guy she met in the bar. I foolishly agreed thinking that would get rid of her.
I commiserated with her and said it was disgusting that she had been set up. Half an hour later, still in the middle of the night, I was getting texts asking how did she know I wasn't disguising my voice or got a friend to answer the call.”
Quite literally a night-mare.
“In the morning my phone was full of texts and missed calls. I threatened to call the police and report a nuisance call and blocked her number. You couldn't make it up!”
One question: what took you so long to switch your phone off and get a good night’s sleep?
Actually, strange things do happen in the middle of the night. I had a call at 4.55am recently; no-one there when I replied. I phoned the number and there was just an answering machine. Didn’t leave the message I felt like leaving but one of these days I will ring again and see who answers.
Especially distressing when you have a family member seriously ill in hospital, you immediately think a call like that heralds bad news. I am also getting a lot of calls from 0161 and 0113 numbers, now I don’t say a word and they cut off. There are a lot of scams so advice is, don’t speak until you’re spoken to.
And if it’s one of these call centres just click off. If someone says – ‘Can you hear me?’ – definitely don’t respond, it’s a way of making a connection with your number and storing it for future nefarious use.
