A TALENTED guitarist who taught at several schools in Belfast and played in a leading showband has died.
Billy McFadden (71) passed away at his home in north Belfast last week and was yesterday buried at Roselawn Cemetery.
Born in Harrybrook Street, since demolished, off the Crumlin Road, Mr McFadden was well known in music circles after a stint in the popular Clipper Carlton showband and was a regular on the UTV programme Teatime with Tommy in the 1960s.
Following his time in the showband, with whom he toured the US and Canada in its heyday, Mr McFadden worked as a musician on transatlantic liners and later taught guitar lessons at various institutions including Campbell College and the Belfast School of Music.
The guitarist and pianist, a father of two sons, was also a member of the BBC Northern Ireland orchestra.
The only surviving member of the Clipper Carlton group, 89-year-old Art O’Hagan, told The Irish News that Mr McFadden was a "quiet fella" and a "brilliant" guitarist.
Mr O’Hagan said: "He was in the US with us. I remember we both came back with new guitars and he had to pay a fortune to get his shipped over in its new case.
"The first time we went to the US in 1958 the flight took over 16 hours travelling from Shannon, it seems incredible now. There were 7,000 people to see us play in New York."
In recent times Mr McFadden is understood to have struggled with alcohol.
It is believed Belfast City Council intervened to take responsibility for his burial, and a crowd of around 20 people turned out yesterday as the guitarist was laid to rest.
Rev Dr Robert Beckett, from the North Belfast Evangelical Presbyterian Church, conducted the funeral service and said Mr McFadden was "a natural performer."
He said: "He was a small and quiet man and always respectful. He was a natural performer in the same way as someone like James Galway is. I always found him great and pleasant to work with."
