Keepers of the Fire
Below is the obituary notice that was published in Venue magazine shortly after Toby died:
On the 1st of June 2002 Bristol, and indeed the world was deprived of one its finest musical minds and drummers when Toby Pascoe left the planet.
A long-term member of The Moonflowers and, more recently, Breakbeat Era, Toby's sound was perhaps the element that made those groups shine in performance and on disk.
When he joined The Moonflowers, aged 20, in 1990 they were transformed from a shambling garage outfit into a shambling hard edged and grungy dance machine powered by the funkiest drummer in the world.
More than a drummer Toby could play any instrument he cared to try out and on Moonflower records alone he played flute, moog, guitar, bass and voice as well as being one of the most innovative sound engineers around. After 5 years with that band (by no means his only project during that time) he left to pursue sounds and ideas that only he could imagine. At one time his recording studio consisted of a Dat machine, a drum machine and an echo unit all feeding back into one another: "you're listening to the sound of electricity!" Toby was proud to announce.
During the same period he began to build a drum machine using real drums powered by steam and programmed with a [roll of paper with loads of holes in] like a pianola.
With Breakbeat Era the world got its first real chance to see Toby at the height of his powers inspiring: "breathtaking drummer defies all human limitations to reproduce the most complex, chopped-up breaks in real time." when that group performed their world tour in 2000.
His funeral last Thursday, attended by over a hundred friends and family, was itself a work of art. After a short speech and some poems, friends played some music as everyone placed a flower onto his wicker coffin then applauded for his life.
Toby Pascoe 1970 - 2002 leaves the world his daughter Seren and his recorded music under the names: 'Gurtrude', 'Casual-T', 'The Owl Man' and 'Aether'.
Toby put the 'Praise' in ' Praise Space Electric ' and also played with 'Sheldon And The Onions', 'Triplane', 'Loopforce' and ' The Invisible Hands ' amongst others.
"Tread lightly" he said, "never spill a drop."
------ Jesse D Vernon
