About Me
I've set this site up as a personal photographic tribute to my very good friend of 29 years, Garry Jones. Although primarily a visual memorial, I have been given the kind permission of another dear and mutual friend, Alan Clayson, to reproduce Garry's obiturary; this appeared in The Gaurdian on 11th December 2007 and is taken from Alan's website (www.alanclayson.com)......................
GARRY NICHOLAS JONES (28th February 1954 - 20th August 2007).......................................................
......He was a bass guitarist of such versatility that he was equally at ease backing jazzer Annette Peacock as Chuck Berry. The quality of his own output, whether solo or in the context of a group, also argued a talent far above the ordinary.Garry's was an academic success story too as he entered Liverpool's Waterloo Grammar School a year early and gained an honours degree in Latin at Lancaster University. In his final years, a scholarly nature dictated multi-faceted research into such disparate subjects as post-medieval icehouses in the environs of his home in Arborfield, Berkshire, and an intriguing new angle on the origin of Shakespeare's plays.To a wider world, however, Garry will be remembered as a musician whose career left the runway thrumming bass in various Merseyside rock outfits before he moved to Reading in 1975 to join Broad Street Rumour. Then, with guitarist John Townsend, he formed El Seven, who ploughed an appealing New Wave furrow, and were signed briefly to United Artists. However, a remarkable 1980 single, Radio Tokyo coupled with a poignant Jones opus, Turn Out The Light, topped Melody Maker's independent chart. Magnifico, an EP on the same local label sold steadily over a long period, and a latter-day track, Under Control - augmented by Lol Coxhill and Mike Cooper - appeared on a 1982 compilation album of Reading groups, Beyond The River, and was described by one discerning listener as "Albert Ayler meets The Sex Pistols".
With the sundering of El Seven, Garry bought a double bass and joined forces with acoustic guitarist Steve Rolfe as The Lost Weekend, who, trading in a unique strain of self-penned country-and-western, earned the strongest possible parochial reputation, and were Mean Fiddler founder Vince Power's 'Band of 1985'. The duo issued a self-financed flexi-disc, Theme From The Beer Hunter, packaged in a glossy poster, designed by Jones, whose aptitude as a visual artist extended to commissions from other acts for album sleeves and promotional devices, often utilising skills Garry acquired in a 'proper job' in computers.His salary buoyed later ventures, which embraced a deserved cult celebrity as a solo vocalist via a light tenor that was an acquired taste for some. It always came across to me as an unconsciously Anglicised take on the languid style of bluesman Slim Harpo. The content of the material, however, covered a waterfront from Gram Parsons to Brian Wilson to Garry's own rich store of originals. He spent small eternities in the studio, working on an intended album, but was never satisfied with the results.
Shortly before cancer was diagnosed last autumn, Garry was still functioning as a journeyman musician. As well as serving Peacock and Berry, he'd also worked with Movita, The Jesus And Mary Chain and Roger Winslet's Bidgie Reef and the Gas. His last public appearance was with Clayson and the Argonauts in spring 2006, but he was considering a return to the stage in his own right. He died in The Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading aged 53 on 20th August 2007.
He is survived by his wife Katy and daughter Louise .......................................................The following text is by journalist Fiona Gray and appeared in the Reading Evening Post on 4th Sept 2007 under the heading GUITAR MAN STRUCK A CHORD: Post-punk Bassist Wrote Great Songs. It also appeared in The Wokingham Times on 12th Sept 2007 under the heading TRIBUTES TO A TRUE MUSICIAN: In A Band With Kate Winslet's Dad....A much loved Arborfield musician who was the bassist in Kate Winslet's dad's band has died of throat cancer at the age of 53. Father-of-one Garry Jones, who has performed in every live music venue in the town, enjoyed a 40 year career playing for punk, country and western, rock 'n' roll and jazz groups. Mr Jones's latest band was Bidgie Reef and The Gas, a post-punk outfit led by Hollywood actress Kate's dad, Roger Winslet. Close friend Mr Winslet said: "Garry was an extremely talented musician. Many people will also remember him as a good songwriter - he wrote a song for us called Bidgification." The peak of Mr Jones's music career came when he accompanied Chuck Berry, one of his music idols, at a festival in Paris in 1990. His widow Kate said: "Garry was thrilled but also terrified. They had never played together before, and the only instruction the band was given was, 'watch my left foot'. Garry loved telling everybody about that." Mrs Jones, who is from Wokingham, met her husband when he moved from Liverpool to Reading in the early 1970s to form a band. She said: "Garry was a punk and there weren't any punks in Wokingham. He walked past my house twice a week to go to his studio and he caught my eye. "I managed to speak to him in the pub and we've been together ever since. It was genuinely love at first site." The couple have a daughter, Louise, 17, who inherited her father's love of music and plays the guitar. Although Mr and Mrs Jones were in a relationship for 26 years, they only got married four weeks ago in a romantic ceremony at a ward inside the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Mrs Jones said: "The nurses decorated the room with balloons and flowers. I wore a wedding dress and Louise was the bridesmaid. It was really beautiful under the bizarre circumstances." Mr Jones' funeral was held in St Mary's Church on St Mary's Butts on Thursday (30th August 2007), and people came from London, Liverpool and France to pay their respects. Mr Jones, who worked for Yell Limited in Reading, admired the Beach Boys' album Smile, and especially the talents of songwriter and bassist Brian Wilson. The Beach Boys hit God Only Knows was played at his funeral and many people shed a tear for the music lover. The wake was held in Sweeney and Todd on Castle Street, Mr Jones's favourite restaurant.
