Alan Al The first time I met Al was in our friends’ rented house in Farnham 30 years ago. Within this building and amongst a gentle sea of Hippies was a firebrand of a character. Al. We talked about bass driver units. We debated the audio qualities of them. To everyone else we appeared to argue about hi-fi. We knew better, we usually thought we did. This set the pattern for our long friendship. That of intense, protracted debate about everything, but particularly of music. Back then Al had a passion for Bob Dylan. I did not. Over the next 5 years Al persuasively brought me over to Dylan. One proud day I announced to Al, that I had seen the light and now, finally ‘got’ Dylan. He gave me that sideways look, one I would experience many times more. “Bob Dylan?” he mused, ”Oh no, I don’t listen to Dylan any more. Have you not heard of House Music?”. This is the Al I loved. Challenging everything, sometimes controversially, often cleverly. Trying so many things. From rags to riches and back again and around again. I marvelled at the energy he had. When others around him seemed to move at such slow and gentle pace, Al tore through things. I often wondered why he approached life as if there was not enough time to fit everything in. Now I know. It is good that Al approached life this way. In his shortened time he experienced more than most of us ever will. We would need a great many days to hear the great many stories of Al. Some of my favourite include: snow falling outside the glass plate window of a sublime Hoxton club as we ‘discussed’ the quality of the bass sounds from the seat beneath us, Sasha the rescue dog so adept at tube travel, charming my Grannys at Christmas’s, removing the chimney breast from his Hampstead maisonette with a lump hammer starting at the bottom, the gold mine, the hippy ambulance, the not-so-hippy bike, the relief inducing visits to us as impoverished students. Many of Al’s friends are scattered round the globe and cannot be with us today. Simon, John, Lou, Crip, Q, Meesh, Ann and my sister Sherri send their respects and condolences to family and friends gathered here. Geof (the other student) has these words to say… “Long time no see but he holds a place in my heart that his passing will not remove. RIP Alan.”