Goffy Media - Project - Brendan Healy

North East legend Brendan Healy sadly died in February 2016, but Goffy Media were proud to have helped this lovely man in his later years.

Brendan began as a musician playing keyboards in groups around his native North East. Most famously with the legendary rock band 'Lindisfarne'. He then moved into theatre and was immediately snapped up by Andrea Wonfor, then of Tyne Tees Television, to present children's TV, most notably 'Razzmatazz' in the seventies.

But Brendan also worked in theatre and television, appearing in numerous series, including 'Spender', 'Auf Weidersehen Pet' and 'Coronation Street'. He wrote over forty TV signature tunes, and later played keyboards with John Miles and wrote with Brian Johnson of 'AC/DC'.

Brendan spent the last fifteen years of his life as a comedian and appeared on television in various shows. He was also in huge demand on the after dinner circuit where he had become one of the most sought after comedy speakers available.

Goffy Media was approached by Brendan a few years before his death to help him promote his comedy tour. Even though he had worked all over the world as an after dinner speaker, his comedy gigs had mainly been in the North, and so we looked to publicise him further South.

Brendan is pictured on the right in the studio with BBC Tees presenter John Foster, where he appeared on an hour-long programme talking about his career, which included several recordings of his varied work over the years.

It only took a few minutes for the phone lines to start buzzing in the studio, as well as comments on Social Media, from people that were not previously aware of Brendan's huge talent, but soon warmed to him.

This was the ideal window to showcase Brendan to the uninitiated, and various newspaper articles also enhanced the campaign.

We looked at other ways of increasing Brendan's profile and awareness throughout the region, and suggested we might be able to arrange for him to write his own weekly column for one of the region's newspapers.

Brendan is pictured left with the editor of the Sunday Sun newspaper, Matt McKenzie, at their first meeting to discuss this idea.

This was obviously successful, as the page gave Brendan great exposure for several years, and allowed him the opportunity to reflect and look ahead, as well as promote his own work.

Right up until his sad death, Brendan was still touring the world, working as one of the popular after-dinner speakers, and regularly appearing on TV adverts promoting the 'Sunday for Sammy' charity concerts, which celebrate the life and work of Sammy Johnson, the popular Tyneside actor who died suddenly in 1998.