The Mayor
Mayor of Rochdale - Councillor Alan Godson
Alan Godson was born in Gorton. His father was
an engineer and his mother a weaver. Alan is one of 3 sons, John,
who lives in Middleton and Philip, who sadly died in 1999.
The family moved to Middleton in 1956 during the slum
clearance. Alan was married to Valerie for forty years until
her untimely death in November 2008. They have two grown up sons;
John and James and a beautiful granddaughter, Abigail, who is
“fourteen going on twenty five”. Alan attended Langley Secondary
Modern School, where he 
explains that he excelled
in everything except learning. On leaving school, he followed
his grandfather’s advice: “Don’t be anyone’s hand rag. Get a trade
in your fingers” and served a five year apprenticeship as a joiner
for a local building firm in Gorton. However, Alan’s life
long ambition was to be on the stage. How was he to achieve this?
“Some singers can’t dance and some dancers can’t sing”- however
Alan says he was unique as he could not do either.
Consequently, in 1965 a comedian named Alan Brady (Alan’s
alter ego) was launched on an unsuspecting public and for the next
thirty years Alan went from working pubs and clubs to starring in
Granada TV’s “The Comedians” and appearing at the London Palladium,
Manchester Opera House, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and numerous
other theatres around Britain. Alan supported legends such as Roy
Orbison, Frankie Lane and Lonnie Donnegan as well as travelling
abroad entertaining the forces in the Middle East, Cyprus and
Germany. Alan also did ten tours in Northern Ireland and was
in the first show to land on the Falkland Islands at Christmas
1982. In his spare time, Alan plays golf and is a member of
North Manchester Golf Club. He also has a Narrow boat on the
canal at Marple, something he has always wanted even though he
describes it as “A hole in the canal that you throw your money
into”! Alan was elected to the Council in 2000 for his
home town of Middleton and enjoys every minute of it. Now as
Mayor he will be stepping onto a wider stage and after a year as
Deputy Mayor to whet his appetite, he says that he is relishing the
prospect.
Mayoress of Rochdale - Gillian Brown
Gillian Brown was born in Chorley, Lancashire.
Her father was a pharmacist in the chemist where her mother worked
on the cosmetics counter...Chemistry! Gillian has one sister,
Lynne, and two grown up children, Rupert who is a professional
actor and lives in London, and Jane who is a talented artist living
deep in the Welsh countryside. She has two grandchildren,
Lucy, and a grandson, Adam of whom she is especially proud, as he
is a serving soldier. Gillian (or Gilly to her friends) has always
loved the stage; she is a trained dancer and choreographer and has
appeared in many plays and musicals as well as theatre in education
tours and professional pantomime. In television she is one of
the unsung walk-ons in Coronation Street. One of her first
appearances was when she was the radio dispatcher in the taxi
office and had to put the first call out for the then unknown Jack
Duckworth. She also appeared at Stan
Ogden’s funeral as his cousin’s wife,
but the strangest thing she was asked to do, was to stand in for
the Queen when she visited the Coronation Street set. Her
Majesty the Queen (not Gillian) approached the door of the Rovers
Return and as the door opened the camera cut to inside showing the
Queen’s shadow, or was it? One thing of which we can be sure,
Gillian will not be anybody’s shadow in her role as Mayoress.