Fathers Day
- Sonny's Dad
- Jun 18, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 10, 2024
Well, another Fathers Day came and went, the 13th Father's Day that I have missed with Sonny. It's sad but it was be expected, I didn't think he would reach out.
I sent him a message like I always do, to let him know I was thinking about him - maybe catch him at a time when he was thinking about his Dad - but I never got a response.
What did I do on Father's Day, well I spent it with my family and it ended in a way that brought me right back to Sonny.
When he was about 7 I bought him some recording time in a studio - He'd always liked listening to The Stone Roses and The Clash on our car journeys together so me being a musician and having spent some time in studio's I thought it would be a bit of fun for Sonny to experience a studio environment and sing some songs.
The songs he chose were two classics - 'She Bangs The Drums' by The Stone Roses and 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' by The Clash.
It was a great day out and the studio engineer was really good with Sonny, encouraging him how to do it and to just take his time.
Sonny did a great job and I was very proud of him - the songs sounded excellent!
Anyway, on Father's Day driving home we were chatting in the car - I was about half a mile from home on a road that I've driven on hundreds of times.
As I'm driving I could see a guy and woman walking on the pavement in the direction towards the car - I double glanced at the guy to confirm who I was actually seeing and to my utter amazement it was the man himself, the god like genius and absolute legend of Manchester, the one and only - Ian Brown!
The iconic and immeasurable front man and lead singer of The Stone Roses!
I immediately did a 180, drove the car back to where he was and parked it on the curb (almost blocking him in so he coudn't pass!). I composed myself stepped out the car by which point he was looking at me and I said the words that to date I've never had chance to say to him - "Alright Ian do you mind if we have a picture with you" - His response was "of course mate, what's your name"!
We spent about 10 minutes with him having a few pictures taken and chatting - (shout out to his missus who was really nice and was happy to take all the pictures for us!).
I told him about Sonny and that when he was little I'd taken him to a recording studio to sing a couple of songs, one being "She Bangs The Drums" - he was really impressed by it and how cool it was for a little lad to have done that!.. He asked where Sonny was, I just said unfortunately he wasn't able to make it to see us on the day, I could have told him and put a bit of a dampener on the situation, Ian himself has been subject to parental alienation so I'm sure he'd have understood but I thought otherwise
We thanked him for this time and as we got back into our car, Ian turned hand in hand with his missus and wondered off into was was beautiful sunny evening.
To say I was made up with a chance meeting of one of my hero's just round the corner from where I live was and understatement - I've never met Ian and I never thought I'd meet him where I did so it made it even more surreal.
As I drove away though and I looked in the rear view mirror as Ian turned the corner and disappeared I immediately thought about Sonny again. He should have been with me, it's Father's Day - Dads and their kids are supposed to be together, we could have all had pictures with Ian and it would have been such a brilliant end to the day.
He wasn't' though, it was another day lost and another memory missed.
That's one of the worst aspects of parental alienation, not only is it the loss of your child it's al the memories that we miss as well.
Hopefully in the future Sonny will reach out to us, we miss you Sonny x
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