Guy Lovelady

I only met Bryan this century, although I was aware of the enigma from his "Manchester Busker" days in the early 90's. The weirdest thing was that when we met, introduced by Peter from I am Kloot, I found out that I knew his dad really well. Ken was a referee in the Manchester amateur football scene and I had had lots of dealings with him. I had never made the connection.

Over the years Bryan and I got into a lot of parallel scrapes: money (or lack of it) was a common problem for both of us, music - I forced him to play the Hard Rock Cafe (he hated it), dragged him semi conscious to Stoke (a legendary night) as well as exotic trips to foreign Climes - well Dublin.

In all that time i never really got as close as I did in the first 2 hours we talked at the contact theatre, never felt like I was as close a friend as I would have possibly liked.

I now find myself with a big gap in my life even though he occupied a Bryan sized area when he was here, because I know that I wasn't able to help him to the most important thing he craved. That was the recognition for his musical gifts. His writing, his tunes, his cock-eyed delivery were all very unique to him. But his humour was the thing that set him apart for me.

When he played me "Morphine" for my first time I asked him what it was all about. "It was about the time when Man United got relegated to division two" He always knew his audience and knew how to get the laugh with his wit and wisdom.



Last week was just a nightmare but hopefully he is up there, having a good time, networking and gigging. Hopefully in the next life he gets the recognition he both wanted and deserved.