News
TUFR Celebrates The Life Of Alan Darby
23 Feb 23
Alan Darby, guitarist, composer and Turn Up For Recovery Ambassador, passed away in late January following a long battle with cancer. This week, TUFR is celebrating his life by sharing performance clips and memories on their social media pages at facebook.com/TurnUpForRecovery, twitter.com/TurnUp4Recovery and instagram.com/turnup4recovery.
A graduate of Edinburgh University and the Berklee School Of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, Alan composed music for advertisements, television and film, worked as a musical director for UK TV shows all alongside his career as a songwriter, solo artist and band leader. Alan toured with a long list of musicians including Van Morrison, Robert Palmer, Asia, Alannah Myles, Bonnie Tyler, and Neneh Cherry and served as Lulu’s musical director.
Eric Clapton fans will remember Alan from the 1998 Pilgrim World Tour, several of Eric’s small gigs in the UK plus Alan’s show stopping performance with Bonnie Raitt and Keb Mo’ at the 2019 Crossroads Guitar Festival.
Alan was also one of the two guitarists in the London musical “We Will Rock You” for the show’s entire 12-year run at the Dominion Theatre.
He supported the work of Turn Up For Recovery from the start by becoming a TUFR Ambassador and performed at organization’s very first UK gig at the Half Moon in Putney in January 2020.
Alan released his final solo album, “Rolling Man,” in April 2022. The disc featured an amazing line up of very special guests including Ringo Starr, Bonnie Raitt, Peter Frampton, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Paul Carrack, Paul Jones, Joey Landreth, Jim Mullen and Lulu. Alan kindly donated the full proceeds from the sale of the CD when purchased through TUFR’s webstore to help continue its work in addiction recovery. Some copies of the album still remain and can be purchased at turnupforrecovery.org/alandarby.
ABOUT TURN UP FOR RECOVERY:
Turn up for Recovery is a charitable movement raising awareness of abstinence-based recovery, tackling the stigma of addiction and helping make treatment affordable to people struggling with alcohol and drug addiction. The idea for Turn up for Recovery (TUFR) came to founder, Melia Clapton, while walking her dog. She wanted to tackle the stigma around addiction and alcoholism and raise awareness about the power of abstinence based recovery. It’s a topic very close to her heart, having supported family members throughout their recovery. Her vision is for an inclusive community of artists, music lovers and those affected by addiction coming together to have a good time, talk about recovery and raise money for others to get the help that they need. Melia Clapton announced the movement in September 2019 during Eric Clapton’s 2019 Crossroads Guitar Festival.
Keep up with Turn Up For Recovery on:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube