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So, I attended a memorial concert in Bath Abbey for my mate, Kieron Jones, on Friday 3rd November. I introduced the final act, The City of Bath Male Choir, conducted by Kieron’s father, Grenville, and I started out by swearing – in the Abbey for Christ’s sake.

We’d just heard a pianist, Nurry Lee, playing. She’s an international star, and she was totally brilliant.


I looked at her and said: “That was bloody amazing!” My comment went down okay. I’d have known if it hadn’t – you know, that horrible moment when all the energy gets sucked out of a room? But that didn’t happen. And then I paused briefly, and in another tone said: “You’ve been practising!” That got a laugh, and I was irrepressible after that. I said hello to everyone, introduced myself, and said some nice things about Kieron. Finally, before introducing the choir, I sang the four lines that I’d written the evening before his funeral – to great applause. Everyone was very positive about my little performance. Kieron’s mate, Dave, was impressed I’d sworn in Bath Abbey. Kieron would have loved it. He was the irreverent one in his rather religious family.

Here’s the song accompanied by guitar.



I saw this goddess on the way out of the Abbey, and it turned out she was a university friend of Kieron’s. We ended up chatting in The Crystal Palace. I gave her the rose I’d been given for my presentation. She said to me, “You really loved him, didn’t you?” “Yeah,” I said. And then she told me she’d loved him once. I didn’t pry. I’ve tried to contact her since, but she hasn’t responded. So, here’s a companion piece to “For Kieron”:

For Ally

Your face is easy on the eye.
I like it very much.
An’ even though we said goodbye,
I’d like to keep in touch.


Here are a couple of photos of Kieron with his two brothers:

The three brothers – Kieron, Laurie, Dan

The three brothers – Laurie, Dan, Kieron