It’s hard to pick one story or memory from a thirty five year friendship.  We spent a lot of time playing guitars and singing old songs.  It turns out that perhaps the stuff you take for granted are the things that make you happiest.  I know I was often at my happiest when I was with him. I remember Al telling me how much she loved watching the two of us play together or discuss some musical idea when she had no clue what we were talking about.

But I suppose the wedding on the Isle of Bute has got to be up there.  Mel and Spike had asked me if I would consider playing the role of celebrant when they got married.  We were walking over Wanstead flats at the time, and they showed me this wooded clearing where it might take place. “We’ll write the words of course- tell you what to say…”
And so, a little while later we did.  A beach on the Isle of Bute was now the venue, with a small group of friends and family.  Of course, there were guitars and singing but also poetry, sunshine and swimming.  Spike called Mel ‘the family poet…the poet of my life’.  I have his words written here, he said;
“In our life you have taken my words and put them with your own and you’ve given them back to me as love.”