by stublag » Mon Mar 29, 2010 6:33 pm
Yes very sad news --like Humph and Dankworth they just don't make them like that anymore- and Diz also was an excellent cartoonist.
I first met him in 1982 when my then (folk rock) band Hunters Moon supported him at Swinton Folk club up north.At that time he was driving (and sleeping) in an old Rolls Royce hearse believe it or not.
I also remember he had a full barrel of scrumpy on stage the whole gig and emptied it very quickly.
I was foolish enough to get up on stage and play Nuages with him--after which he annouced to the audience that he was just about to bring over to the Uk "a Gypsy kid from France called Bireli Lagrene"--- we really have Diz to thank for Birelis many gigs in the UK around that time
Diz was also responsible,i believe, for getting Birelis teeth seen to--Bireli rarely smiled and was a pretty gawky kid before that( Diz said..."all Bireli did was play guitar, drink coke and watch cartoons")
Last time i met him was when he borrowed a (crap) Hoyer Selmer copy from Mairants for that interview he did for the Grappelli dvd--he said he'd trashed at least 3 Maccs in his time--what a waste!
To his credit he was very gracious towards Stephane on the DVD despite the pretty frosty relationship they had after the Geoffrey Smith biog of Steph,which ended in litigation.
Anyway we'll all miss him--a genuine english eccentric.