Guy Garvey can remember his last ever meeting with his dad – a Mirrorman for 30 years – like it was yesterday.
A former proof reader in Manchester’s “Fleet Street of the North”, Don, 84, was being cared for by daughter Gina at her home as he faced cancer with characteristic wit and determination.
Rock star Guy, 47, was leaving for Canada with 44-year-old actress wife Rachael Stirling, daughter of the late Dame Diana Rigg.
The Elbow singer says of the meeting in Bury, Gtr Manchester: “Rachael had three months’ work.
“She had supported me and I had to be there for her. So I went to see dad and it was very tearful and moving and I said, ‘This might be the last time I see you’.
“He was adamant that it wouldn’t be. As I left the room, I said, ‘I love you Dad, you are the best dad’.
“He said, ‘I am not going anywhere, I will see you in a beer garden in the summer’. They were the last words he ever said to me. And I thought that was perfect.”
Don died in 2018, and Guy told how his dad was a larger than life union man and great raconteur.
He worked at the Mirror throughout the singer’s childhood, and his love of language lives on through his son’s own story-telling in his songs.
Don checked pages and headlines as they went to print. They included iconic historic events such as the first Moon landing and the assassination of John F Kennedy.
His work inspired Elbow’s latest work and the song Flying Dream One with its line “Dad’s across town tonight fixing the Mirror, shaking his head at a richer man’s grammar”.
At 6ft 4in, Don was a gentle giant, always “immaculately turned out”. He and wife Shirley were fiercely proud of their working class roots.
Guy says: “Their love of words definitely filtered through into my songwriting. If we did not know a word at home, we had to look it up in the dictionary.
“Mum saw the extraordinary in the ordinary. My dad was this balance. All his jokes ended in the humiliation of the posh person.”
Mancunian Guy formed Elbow when he was just 17 with his mates Pete Turner, brothers Mark and Craig Potter, and Richard Jupp at 6th form college in 1991.
They went on to become one of the most successful British rock bands of their generation. But Don wanted Guy to go to university. So his decision to pursue a musical career caused some tension.
Guy says: “My dad was born poor and so was my mum, although they never ever referred to themselves as such. His biggest regret was that he never went to university, he was part of the first generation that could. He got a job instead.
“When I did not go to uni, and did not pursue a salaried career, he was worried about me. And it came between us a little bit. Once I met the lads, I thought, ‘I would rather fail at this than succeed at anything else’. It stopped Dad coming to my shows.
“I would pretend that I did not mind, but all you want is your dad to be proud of you.”
But when Gina took Don to see Elbow at Manchester Arena in 2003, he was totally enthralled.
Guy adds: “When he walked in, his jaw dropped. Gina realised not only had he never been to a concert of ours, he had never been to an arena.
“He was then full of questions. ‘Who is that woman with Guy’s guitar?’ [his technician]. Does Guy employ her? Dad thought we were still in a transit van going to gigs.
“He was proud of his little lad. But from that day everything changed, we had a great friendship for the last 10-12 years of his life.”
Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, Don did night shifts at Mirror HQ, which became known as Maxwell House when the tycoon Robert bought the paper in 1984.
Guy says: “If this story is to be believed Robert Maxwell was touring the plant, and he asked my dad if he was going to come and work for him, and my dad replied: ‘Not if I can f***ing help it’.
“No love lost there. My dad was the Father of Chapel for NATSOPA, the printing union, a very respected and respectful man. Grandad Ted and his dad, also Ted were in newspapers.
“Dad always brought the Mirror home. We were a very staunch Labour household and we still are. Dad would tell us about all the historic events covered in the paper.”
In retirement, Don kept working as a volunteer in his community, and helped behind the bar at St Bernadette’s club in Manchester.
Guy, speaking at The Dairy studio in Brixton, South London – three miles from the home he shares with Rachael and their son Jack, four – tells how he dropped in to see him.
He adds: “He was dead chuffed. He was telling me stories, which is where I get it from, because I love telling stories.
“But there is a student standing at the bar and I am looking at him, as if to say, ‘You’d better serve him’ so dad says to him: “Yes?” The student says, ‘Two pints of snakebite please’.
“And my dad says ‘we don’t serve f***ing cocktails, if you are getting p*ssed, drink the Guinness’ and then he carried on telling me a story.”
When Don died, Guy, older sisters, Gina, Karen, Louise, Sam, Beccy, and younger actor brother Marcus found a little satchel with his dad’s work kit, a pair of oily gloves, a copper pipe and razor blade and an instrument for newspaper binding which he had made for himself.
The singer, presenter of Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour on BBC6 Music since 2007, interviewed Don for a Radio 4 show the year before he died.
They shared stories of his Second World War experiences and lots of anecdotes from his youth.
Guy adds: “I had this state of the-art minidisc recorder which I was very eager to use. As time wore on, I realised we all had that to remember him by.
“The voice captures the soul, more than old photos. There is no more important document.”
“The timbre of your voice changes as you get older,” Guy reflects now. “Particularly when you broadcast you hear that every week. I sound more and more like my dad.”
In her final days at their home, Guy recorded mum-in-law Diana, who played Tracy Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
As they left the memorial service after her death in September 2020, 007 music was playing in the back of the cab. Guy adds: “She was very proud of her work. It was very moving to hear the music.”
*Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour is on BBC Radio 6 Music on Sundays, 2pm-4pm.
