Oh my **** God.
That’s horrendous. Not just a bona fide musical genius (a term easily applied but completely accurate in his case) but a genuinely lovely man as well.
I’ve had so many wonderful nights thanks to him.
Many many years ago I used to work on the door at Glasgow’s Sub Club where he played regularly. When I worked there, every time he played he would arrive at the door with his boxes, head downstairs and get set up then later on, reappear back upstairs with as many pints of lager as he could carry, for the guys on the door (even though we weren’t really meant to be drinking!) For no reason other than being a total gent. Always sat around at the end til the death as well, chatting music with anyone who wanted to, genuinely interested in everyone’s opinion while always being The Knowledge. Came to a couple of afterparties as well.
From Boys Own, Shoom, Loaded, his dub stuff with (and reverence for) Ade Sherwood, introducing Plastikman, THAT set on the Back 2 Basics metal tin compilation, all the Sabres output, all the random mixes, his influence on the music I’ve grown up and older with is enormous. I never felt sad when Bowie died, his music was never formative for me. Weatherall’s was, this is awful news.
Fast forward several decades and his Music’s Not For Everyone NTS show is my favourite thing on the internet. I’ll never forget the tingly feeling I got when he played my mate’s band on one episode a few years back. So excited. All of the Love From Outer Space with Sean Johnson is amazing too.
There’s nobody who has introduced me to as much music as he did – even this week, I’ve a wee list of stuff to track down. **** sake.
Colin Potter! Who else would have shone a light on him?