Thirty minutes into a two and a half hour interview in 2019 with Ben Wallsworth, he bellowed "It's Neal Keeling!" His hearing was shot and his facial recognition was shaky. But his wit, wisdom, deep recall, and humour were all intact.
I was writing an article to recognise his achievement of being granted the Freedom of the City of Salford - an honour which put him in the same league as Nelson Mandela, L S Lowry, filmmaker Mike Leigh, and Prime Minister during the First World War, David Lloyd George.
But the chat took me back to the late 80s and 90s when I was trying to find my way as the new M.E.N kid on the block in Salford - a tough patch to cover. Face to face was how you met contacts then - no emails, no text messages, no teams meetings.
