The Record Charity Book

Tim Darvell will be known to many UK Alarm fans (and many American ones after attending the Gathering there this year and last!) as well as being a fan himself he is also an author and fundraiser raising both money and awareness for the treatment of Bowel Cancer. His first book had heavy Alarm connections and now with the publication of his new volume "The Record Charity Book" that is something that continues! So here is what you need to know....over to Tim!

"I had been thinking about doing a follow up book to Lives & Times during the last couple of months of Mum’s life, and when she died my mind was made up, and I began approaching people to be in The Record in September 2016.

The Record has been done in memory of mum who died of bowel cancer on August 29^th, 2016 one week after her 80^th birthday. The cancer had spread to her brain, and she was moved into a nursing home for palliative end of life care once there were no ore treatment options available.

Lives & Times concentrated on Mike, Eddie, Dave & Twist, so for The Record I turned my attention to the current line up. 

I met Smiley at his studio in Fleet in spring 2016 just after his 4^th album, Smiley’s Friends Eclectic, was released. I spent a fascinating hour talking to him about his career, and this was just before the launch of the Blood Red album. 

I met James in Oxford at the O2 Academy before the band’s gig there in October 2017, and he gave me a fascinating insight into his musical roots.

 Then just when I thought I wouldn’t get Jules we had a great chat a couple of months ago, and her chapter is the longest chapter in the book and covered just about everything in her life.

The connections in the book continue with Gaz Top who I met before the concert at The Forum in London last May. Welsh rugby legend Rupert Moon also came on board. He is a great friend of Mike & Jules, and he gave me an amazing tour of The Principality Stadium.

 Ryan Hamilton needed to store his stuff in my hotel room at the recent New York Gathering, so I grabbed the opportunity to get him in the book. Finally there is the wonderful and inspirational fan of The Alarm, Gillian Wood, who is a bowel cancer survivor.

The book has 65 chapters, and everyone taking part gave up their own time to do it.

Since I published Lives & Times in 2015 I have met and become great friends with so many fellow fans of The Alarm. The support for that book took me rather by surprise, and as someone who used to keep very much to myself at concerts it made me come out of my shell, and it has been one of the best and rewarding things that has ever happened to me. I remain truly grateful for the wonderful and generous support from the fans.

The Record is available to pre order now in paperback and hardback from my website rivers2cross.com, and it will also be available to buy from all the usual online outlets soon including a kindle edition. All proceeds raised from sales of the book will be donated to Bowel Cancer UK. Since mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2012, almost £10,000 has been raised.

Bowel cancer is the second highest cancer killer in the UK. 16,000 people die every year. 42,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year, which is one person every 15 minutes… Bowel cancer is one of the most treatable and if detected early at stage 1 over 90% of patients can be successfully treated. At the last stage 4 just 7% of patients live for 5 years or more. This makes raising awareness about the disease vital to help improve early diagnosis rates. This is the reason why I continue to do what I do, as it raises money for Bowel Cancer UK, but just as important it helps to raise awareness about this awful disease."