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It’s beginning to look like…..holiday booking time
Every year it was the same. The conversations would start at the Christmas table: I could do with a wee holiday, you know….. And our response would be to tell Dad to stop talking about it. That we hadn’t even gotten Christmas Day over. Or it was far too early in the year to start…
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With Valentine’s Day approaching please be careful if you’re buying expensive knickers…
As Valentine’s Day approaches, some of us will wonder what to buy our beloved. And some of the less romantic among us won’t – complaining that it’s just another Hallmark Card celebration… Gerry was very much in the nostalgia camp. Every year he went out to buy twelve red roses. Very romantic! And being a…
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Remembering Gerry at the Grand Opera House
On 24th September 2019, long time friend and former colleague of Dad’s Robin Elliott organised a special charity evening at the Grand Opera House ‘Remembering Gerry Anderson‘. Robin put together a brilliant array of Ireland’s top entertainers that included Brian Kennedy, The Adventures, The Miami Showband, Bronagh Gallagher, Rose-Marie, Malachi Cush, Mirenda Rosenberg, Jim Brown,…
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People Watching and People Watching You
There is no doubt that Gerry was a people person. And there’s nothing he liked more than people watching. Not in a judgy or nosey way. He loved to study and observe people as they went about their daily lives. I am not sure when it started. But I think that studying social anthropology at…
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Toejam, rock and roll lives forever
Mark Patterson from BBC Radio Foyle has been looking back on legendary bands from Derry recently. Today it was my turn to join Colum Arbuckle and Jim Whiteside to reminisce about Toejam. Although Colum and Jim were doing most of the story telling considering I was still in a nappy when Toejam hit the scene!…
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What really happened to the Millenium Whiskey?
We think enough time has gone by to bring this up. Y2K and Princes ‘Let’s Party Like It’s 1999’ are distant echoes in our memories. Was there really a Rickety Wheel? And what really happened to the Millenium Whiskey? The Rickety Wheel But first we must go back further in time to the reason why…
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A simple guitar becomes an instrument to fight racism and sectarianism
Growing up I knew Dad was a musician. We had guitars, music and records around the house. By the time I was 15, I was starting to get the itch to play. A friend was swapping his acoustic for an electric, and I asked Dad if we could get it. Of course, his initial response…