I like words. Here’s some good ones:
I see the buildings, cluttering the skyline,
Built by miners on a pittance of pay,
They worked together, never on a Sunday,
That was not their way.
Poignant. They were lyrics written about 25 years ago, by a musician, that begin a song exclusively about Swansea, and also referring to a well known community within our city…Brynhyfryd.
Now I grew up in Brynhyfryd – until I was 9 anyway – and despite having left there 50 years ago this year, my memories of the place remain strong, the friends I knew still clear in my mind, and the scrapes I got in still vivid. But there’s one memory that remains as a clear as a bell…and it bizarrely involves Elton John.
It was after lunch in Mrs Webster’s class in Brynhyfryd Juniors in the summer of 1974, just a few months before I’d leave. I can see her face now, adorned with thick rimmed glasses, not a hair out of place and usually heading toward me to give me a row! I wasn’t exactly a naughty kid, but my concentration did tend to wander and Mrs Webster was of the old school that kept me in line – and I genuinely thank her for that all these years later – I needed a bit of guidance…still do!
Anyway, she called us to quiet before explaining that we were in for a musical surprise and to line up at the door. We then trooped out into the hall and were told to sit on the polished, parquet floor in the usual place for our class.
I was one of the first to see him, and fogged by a childlike confusion, nudged my best pal, Raymond Mainwaring, and said, ‘I’m sure that’s Elton John!’
And it was.
There, alongside the school piano, a microphone stand, a guitar and an amp, was Elton John in all his glory, standing there, smiling…albeit a little wooden.
It wasn’t the musical genius in person of course, it was a life-sized cardboard cut out of the legend, but in the mind of the young Brayley, it didn’t matter, I was convinced, ‘Oh my God, Elton John’s in the staff room, and he’s gonna come out and play for us!’
In 1974, Elton John was the biggest musical name on the planet. Just four years into his solo career, songs like Your Song, Tiny Dancer, Rocketman, Crocodile Rock, Daniel, Saturday Night’s Allright for Fighting, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – were just some of the hits that would ultimately deliver a career in which only the Beatles, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley would eventually top in terms of record sales. So, would this leviathan of 20th Century popular music really have been in the staff room of Brynhyfryd Junior School, waiting to perform for us?
Well, in a word, no.
But, the first person that Elton had chosen to sign to his own new record label – Rocket – was, a young man who just happened to be a former pupil of our school.
I remember our Head, Mr Gregory, leading this young singer into the hall, and also recall how super cool he looked with long dark hair and a really trendy leather jacket. The young singer…not Mr Gregory.
He was introduced to us as a young man who had achieved great things in music and for us all to keep an eye on him as he was going to be a star. His name?
Maldwyn Pope
The young man confidently stepped forward, sat at the piano and started to bang out several of Elton’s hits. We were enthralled. We were also hugely amused when he managed to get Mrs Webster out to the front of the assembly to dance to one of his songs!
I’ve often wondered why I remember that afternoon so much, and so clearly. I’m sure it’s a combination of emotions, but I’ve narrowed it down to two things that stuck in my 8 year old mind.
Firstly, he was good, and I mean really good. I had no idea back then what a cover version was, but this cool kid could easily have been Elton himself. His voice was perfect and his piano playing mesmerising, the performance was unforgettable. The second thing was his name. I’d never heard the name Maldwyn ever before in my life. And it was a name that would stick.
Later that year, we left Brynhyfryd for village life in Three Crosses and the young Maldwyn Pope left my mind…for the time being, anyway.
Then, about 15 years later, Maldwyn – now Mal – reappeared. Having cut his teeth at BBC Radio Wales, he was given his own show on HTV Wales – The Mal Pope Show – and because I realised it was the same person who had played for us that afternoon in Brynhyfryd, I watched…and I loved it. Part chat show – including memorable interviews with acts as diverse as The Stranglers and The Bee Gees – part live music show, with Mal’s own live sets having real power and energy and then the likes of guests such as Mike Peters, Go West and Dave Edmunds, keeping the rock very much rolling.
It was from that point that I really started following Mal’s career, being completely inspired by the success, diversity and just entertaining nature of his career. And of course, also inspired by the fact that he’d achieved this success coming from the same background, same school and same streets that I had.
Over the years, I saw him countless times at the Grand in Swansea, whether it was one of his rock nights with his brilliant band, The Jacks, or his more intimate, solo, one man shows or even in one of the musicals he created, like Amazing Grace, or my favourite, Contender, starring an excellent Mike Doyle, which combined my two loves – sport and music, telling – as it did – the incredible story of one of my favourite sportsmen, boxer, Tommy Farr. The man is just so talented.
But it was one concert at Swansea’s old theatre in the late 90’s where Mal unveiled a song that really resonated with me, Golden Days, the lyrics of which opened this blog.
The first thing that appealed was the strong, heavy piano intro, reminiscent of one of my favourite songs – The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. The next thing were those evocative lyrics, clearly referring to a working class, industrial Wales, built by the hands of hard working men, earning just enough money to keep a roof over their heads.
But as the song developed, I recognised more. He wasn’t just singing about a generic Wales, or the valleys, he was singing about Swansea, even referring to Brynhyfryd, the place that ties us together, the place that provided our first memories. The lyrics develop into a lament to what were perceived to be the Golden Days, and the changes we’ve seen locally – the closure and increasing lack of use of churches we all knew growing up in Swansea like, Zoar, Bethel and Siloh and the memory of long lost stores like Lipton’s. But the song is actually quite inspirational, as it challenges us to embrace today as our own Golden Days, because – as Mal sings – the sun still shines for us and the air is free. It’s fair to say the song and Mal’s performance made a big impact on me.
Afterwards, we went for a post show drink in the bar at the Grand, and after about 20 minutes, in came Mal. I’d never spoken to him in my life, but as he approached our table, having thanked almost everyone personally for coming to his show, I decided to tell him the Elton John story. To my delight, he remembered his impromptu Brynhyfryd school performance, and we shared some lovely memories.
About ten years later, I became an author, writing There’s Only Two Tony Cotteys, the autobiography of my best pal, Tony Cottey. During the process, which I enjoyed immensely, I became haunted by self doubt. I’d never done anything like that before, and despite Tony’s constant encouragement, I kept coming back to my own personal challenge, ‘what makes someone like you think you can become an author?’. It sounds dramatic now, but it was very real. I was constantly questioning why a kid from a terraced house in Brynhyfryd, could even consider calling himself an author. Who was he trying to fool? And when those moments came, I always thought back to Mal. Signed by Elton John as a teenager, creating a career in entertainment as successful and varied as anyone could imagine, with the talent to write a song as poignant as Golden Days, to fronting the best and biggest cover version band in Britain – the words of Radio One and Two DJ, Simon Mayo…and so much more, his list of successes was endless.
So, as in the lyric of Golden Days, I believed and wrote the book, that would ultimately change my life. After it was published, I sent a copy to Mal, with a little note inside explaining how his success had inspired this ‘Brynhyfryd Boy’, and then one night, when my wife, mum and sister were attending his first performance of Cappuccino Girls, my phone buzzed and it was Mal. My mum had introduced herself to him at the show, and he had greeted her with the words, ‘You’re not David Brayley’s mother are you?’, and when she replied in the affirmative, he messaged me and thanked me for the book and wished me all the best for my future writing.
As my writing career grew, so our paths began to cross regularly and we’ve now become good friends and I’ve seen close up just what a giving and caring human being Mal is. The cheeky, happy persona you see in public, is what you get privately too. Always interested in you, always encouraging and always looking to help and promote you if he can.
In 2017, I came to a huge crossroads in my life. My first children’s book, Champion of Champions, was published and I used its launch to walk away from the regular, paid employment I’d enjoyed for the previous 33 years to try to hack it in the world of the self employed as a professional, full time writer. It was a big, not to mention daunting, step to say the least.
For the launch of the book at Mumbles Cricket Club, I wanted to make the event as special as possible, and for that I needed a professional host – but I had no budget. I spoke to Mal, who said he’d be honoured to do it.
Then, about 10 days before the launch, Mal contacted me to say that the funeral of his great friend and talented broadcaster from BBC Radio Wales, Alan Thompson, whose passing at just 54 saddened everyone, was to be held in Cardiff on the day of my book launch. Mal wasn’t pulling out of my launch, but needed to know timings etc to see if he could still keep the commitment. Despite experiencing the sadness of attending the funeral of one so young, he was still willing to come back to support me, not to let me down. Of course, I couldn’t allow that to happen, having lost a close friend very young myself, I knew the last thing I’d want to do after a funeral was to go and host some upbeat event, so I told Mal it was no problem at all, and I’d find someone else. He very reluctantly agreed.
On the night of the launch, my pal, Richard Thomas, former Evening Post journalist and BBC Wales cricket commentator filled in admirably in place of Mal and ensured the night was perfect. There were well over 120 people crammed into the cricket club and the evening was going perfectly. I was up the front, just coming to the end of my Q&A with Richard – it was about 9:30 by then – and I saw the door open at the back of the room, and quietly, in walked Mal and his lovely wife, Hilary.
When we took a quick 10 minute break from proceedings, I went straight to Mal, and before I could thank him for coming, he said, ‘We’ve come straight from the funeral, we won’t stay, but I just wanted to pop in to see that it’s all gone well…and buy a book!’
That’s the measure of him. Always looking to support others, wherever he can, no matter the hardship that might be causing him.
Champion of Champions went really well, and all worked out perfectly for me in terms of the risk I’d taken to pursue the road of a self-employed creative. But again, that success has been influenced by the guiding hand of Mal.
I write this, humbly, as a winner of the national writing award, the Telegraph Sports Book of the Year Award for a Children’s Sports Book, along with my co-author James Hook, for our children’s novel, Chasing a Rugby Dream: Kick-Off.
Before writing that book, I’d never met James in my life, but unbeknown to me, James had confided in Mal about an idea he’d had about a series of children’s rugby books he’d like to write, but needed someone to work with. James has since told me that Mal said instantly in response to James’s query, ‘there’s only one person for that job, David Brayley.’
And the rest, as one writer no doubt once penned, is history.
Mal came and expertly hosted our book launch, the book won the award and James and I still attend schools and literary festivals together, trying to inspire young people to embrace reading and sport together, as a pathway to achieving success in their lives. Simply, without Mal Pope, none of that would have happened and the numerous opportunities that have been created for me by working with James would never have occurred. I am beyond grateful.
So why the blog? It’s a nice story, no doubt, but what’s the point?
Well, the point is, my friend Mal is celebrating 50 years in show business, which more or less began around the time of that unforgettable concert in Brynhyfryd School Hall. Now, on 3 October, Mal takes the stage on an all together bigger hall…the stage at our wonderful Swansea Arena.
With guests such as the incredible Elio Pace (if you haven’t heard his Billy Joel Songbook Concert on BBC Sounds, have a listen – it’s brilliant!) and Mal being backed by his band, the utterly superb Jacks, one of Swansea’s own and one of Swansea’s very best, is coming home to celebrate his own personal Golden Anniversary. It’s going to be an incredible evening and no doubt a very emotional one too.
I truly hope that by reading this, you might think of popping along, if you haven’t already bought your ticket of course. Mal is an incredible person, an incredible writer, an incredible talent, but above all, a truly incredible performer…and you know what, he’s one of our own. And if we can’t come out and support one of our own at our wonderful home arena, when can we do it?
Without Mal’s help and support, I know I wouldn’t be experiencing my very own Golden Days in terms of my career, and, as the optimistic lyrics of that great song state:
So travel onward, with your journey,
But just remember keep your eyes on the sky,
And when they tell you, don’t you believe them,
It’s never do or die…these can be golden days
So, on 3 October at Swansea Arena, I hope you can come and celebrate the golden days of a performer who’s had a golden career of 50 amazing years, representing Swansea all around the world, and most recently across the water in Pittsburgh, still banging the drum for our wonderful city and our great country. Let’s fill the Arena for him and make it an evening to rembember, a true celebration of Swansea and the life and career of one of its finest, a lad from Brynhyfryd.
There can be no better thing than having a musical night out together to celebrate all that…after all, we need to make the most of every day, because these are our Golden Days.
