Today I’m thumbing through tracks for a gig I wish wasn’t happening. Playing tunes for someone who should be there to hear them. Who always was there when I played. His stylish, glorious self either nodding approval at a new tune or (much later) drunkenly asking for a classic filled with ‘a little love’. Clubbing without him is gonna be strange, no in-fact its gonna be wrong, plain wrong. We have lost one of Brighton’s best, one of clublands good guys. No attitude, no disco dramas, just a smile, a warmth and generosity of spirit so rare we treasured it.

To paraphrase Dimitri he was a very stylish guy. Brighton will be less so without him. He helped make Sunday Sundae, Wild Fruit and Brighton Pride the wonders they were, stood beside his beloved Gary, all tailored and tall (or PVC-ed or kilted or tashed or bespectacled or tuxed or punked and always, always fabulous darling!) He was part of the Fruity family and he will be greatly missed. And I will miss him. He calmed my nerves when a gig scared the crap out of me, he listened when my vexed soul showed and he remembered. He remembered what mattered.

And so this Thursday we will say farewell to someone who mattered to so many of us. And together with the missus I will play tunes for him. Tunes that celebrate what matters. Simon, the life he lived, the lives he touched and the love he gave. It was always more than a little, it was always more than we ever asked for. Thank you Simon and rest in peace sweet man xx

Simon’s funeral will be held on Thursday 3rd October at 2.15 at Downs Crematorum and afterwards at Audio, Brighton. Please no flowers but donations to Martlets Hospice welcome. Dress code: Stylish (as if we needed to ask).