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Friday, June 19th, 2009
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1:32 am
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charleston
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Last night, when I got in from work, I picked up my guitar and played Andy's song "What Does Love Mean To You".
I recorded it very quickly on my laptop. Was gonna try and re-sing it tonight as my voice was very wobbly but that didn't happen. Anyway - here it is - me & my guitar & my wobbly voice singing one of his songs, between eating my tea and rushing out to the pub.
What Does Love Mean To You
Edit: actually hearing it in on the speakers in the morning, I just have to re-sing it. I'll do it again next week, so you might wanna hold off downloading it until then!
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, June 18th, 2009
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9:23 pm
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guiripoet
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Here's a post from Mum that she had trouble posting, so I've copied and pasted it to my LJ so that everyone can read it:
Today I send a message out to everybody who loved/loves Andy, to ALL his friends everywhere. Looking back, I have this deep wish that I'd spoken to all of you who came with so much loyalty and feeling for Andy and sustenance for us, his family, to bear witness to your friendship at his funeral. I wish I'd given each one of you a kiss, a hug or just a word even. Anyway, I send them now to all of you who are remembering Andy today, feeling again the horror of his death. I did put a deep thank you on LJ afterwards but four years on I want to say it again and that the force of your presence, and all the many friends who couldn't make it that day but who were feeling for Andy, will always be with me. THANK YOU.
Browsing through our book "Remembering Andy" once again today and listening to his many songs I am stunned. Stunned by all his talents, by the brilliant man in there, all his lovely quirky humour. The fun. The OUTPUT! The so many facets that were my son, your father, brother, lover, friend. Thank you, Steve, for your wonderful, heartbreaking songs which express all we feel but are not able to say so perfectly. (See MySpace to share them). Looking at a beautiful photo of Andy and Sophie, we say "Thank you, Sophe, for being you and for all you gave your Dad - and give us now - joy, pride hope for the future..."
Andy says in one of his songs, 'Too much to do/Too little time,
Too much to do and not enough time...'
Think how much more the world would be full of his works, and the spread of his loving, generous spirit if he'd had the chance ot LIVE ON.
Helen.
To follow up here are a few quotations:
Tammy Denitto's assessment of Andy as 'an undiscovered musical genius with a guitar sound as distinctive as his voice' is by no means wide of the mark. Marco Rossi
I think of integrity when I think of him. Nine
...he was stubbornly loyal, stubbornly loving and stubbornly generous... Nikki
He has become a kind of touchstone for the peace and gentleness and creativeness that I would like to generate in my own life. Charlotte
I think he was someone who would winkle out the best in people and focus on that.
Anna Spivack
You don't inspire love, you don't get that love without giving it, and it's clear to me now that Andrew was a person who didn't block himself from giving love where he felt it, generously and passionately. Steve
Everything he has made has a unique quirkiness that grows out of his own detailed observation of, often the small things in, life. Jo
His art makes me feel glad, happy, entertained and amazed by his incredible talent.
Charlotte
My Lover's Hands
These hands, your hands,
Warm, swollen,
Feel no heat from summer sunshine,
Punctured by tubing,
The scent of our love
Scrubbed from your skin.
My hands, cold, grasping,
Thin air entwining my fingers. Sarah
Intensive Care
The hairy-knuckled paw with its spatulate nails that I clutch
Doesn't seem like the hand of an artist
But Helen and I, we remember,
Forty-one years ago,
The minuscule perfection of baby fingernails. Geoff
As Long as I'm Alive
Because life is short but love is long
Because lovers leave but love lives on
Because life is short but love is strong
Because loved ones die but love lives on...
As long as I'm alive
You'll be loved. Steve
One More Time
Wish I could hold you in my arms one more time
Wish I could keep you from all harm
Wish I'd told you that I loved you just one time
Wish I'd letmyself be kind.
I wish I'd known
That there would be no more time
Together no more time
Together nomore time... Steve
It Hurts Too Much
And the hurt's too deep to keep in touch
And it just won't go away
Because this kind of hurt never healed in a day
Never healed in a day. Steve
So here we are at number one, and I've put 'capacity to love' because this is what I so associate with my wonderful friend whom I love and miss so much. And it pervades everything - his creativity, his lust for life, his relationships that he just poured so much of his energy and intelligence into. Mandy
My Dad is the best man ever. I don't care what everyone else thinks, he just is.
Sophe
THANK YOU to our dear family and friends for another whole year of loving support. We are with you all today especially, as we remember with love.
We could go on but these are the ones we most wanted to share with you all.
Love from us both,
Helen and Geoff xxxxxxxxxxxx
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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10:31 am - What's in a name?
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pollitesss
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A couple of months ago - after about six years of learning and training - I was given a capoeira name. It was given to me by my teachers & friends Hannah and Mac. Normally people are 'baptised' into capoeira much earlier than this. Often given names in a slightly arbitary, commercial way at big events that cost a lot of money. But Hannah and Mac are the kind of people that take their time to get the right name. And they didn't even tell us it was a naming ceremony first - just a celebration of their time teaching and our time learning. A pause to mark the building of a community. With shared costs of room hire and bring your own food.
My capoeira name is Passeira. It's a slangy type word for a friend roughly equivalent to 'mate', me old mucker, 'y'allright mate?'. My mate. My friend. Someone you can rely on. Someone who's there when they say they're gonna be and if they're not they've sent a text message to let you know and say sorry.
Andy continues to inspire me in the kind of friend I want to be. The art of staying true to yourself without being any less of a friend. An art as tricky and contradictory as capoeira. I think I owe a little bit of my new name to him.
Cheers mate!
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Sunday, May 10th, 2009
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6:45 pm
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guiripoet
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Finally, nearly three years after starting on this project, in March we mixed some songs hopefully for the last time, and during the Easter break put them up on myspace. It's a random selection of things written since Andrew died, all 'inspired by' that event, whether they talk about it directly or not. Not really songs *about* Andrew, more about me trying to come to terms with his death. And one that slipped in there, a hymn to mediterranean hedonism that bears no relation to the general theme...but I think he would have liked it.
Wanted to call it 'songs for Andy' but found that already existed on myspace - some other Andy... - then I tried Steve Roberts and found over 10,000 of the same .... So I stuck my middle name in and the result is called Steve Bruce Roberts and this is the address:
http://www.myspace.com/songs4andy
As you'll see I haven't yet worked out how to stick an active link in here, if anyone wants to explain it to me!!
So anyone who has a myspace, if you want to friend me, feel free.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
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11:36 pm
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my_name_is_anna
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Thinking about Andy a lot tonight. Dunno why, just happens like that sometimes eh?
And I wanted to say here that he often popping into my thoughts, in that I wonder what he would have thought of something in the news, or what he would have thought of my cat (I think they would have got on very well), or how I feel standing at the bus stop opposite the Camden bookshop, like no time has passed at all and if I go in there it will be like long ago.
You are thought of often and with much friendship, Andy.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, March 15th, 2009
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1:21 pm
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| Sunday, October 12th, 2008
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12:06 pm - Picnic & The George
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| Thursday, September 11th, 2008
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2:33 pm - andy in the flash light
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cleanskies
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andy and the ghosts of queercore past
I'm going through photos at the moment, chucking a lot away, and I found this old photo among a pile of Holga shots. It's from a gig some time, upstairs in a pub, I think (I can't remember the name). Maybe you were there, from the photos, a lot of people were. |
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
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6:34 am
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| Thursday, July 24th, 2008
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7:17 pm
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| Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
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9:47 pm
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| Thursday, June 19th, 2008
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9:16 am
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guiripoet
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Yesterday was irksome, from the work point of view, because I spent most of the day doing it and didn't stop, didn't really have time to think about Andrew or about how I feel about being three years away from him.
At least I spent 45 mins in the morning preparing a song for recording, a good way of remembering him, of projecting his presence into the present and future. If it hadn't been for him and his persistence with his music i probably wouldn't have been doing it.
Many thanks and love to everyone who's posted here. It means a lot me, to his family, to everyone.
current music: Train comin round the bend
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
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8:57 am - Music and memories
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jinty
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I'm glad Linus songs don't make me blub any more; they're too good not to listen to.
(Andy's 4-track demo of Camden Road Station, though - that's a kicker and still gets me sometimes.)
current music: Love Is The Law
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, June 12th, 2008
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7:19 pm - Three years
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2:19 pm - like a cartoon character in his own right
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1:35 pm - Remembering Andy
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charlottecooper
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It's three years since ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) andypop died, more or less. To me, the time that he actually died is a bit fuzzy because, as far as I know, he wasn't properly conscious after the accident, and he hung on for a few days afterwards. The anniversary of that awful time isn't something I generally keep in my head and prepare for so much, maybe because of the fuzzyness surrounding it for me, maybe because I wasn't touched so directly by the initial trauma as others were. It was so shocking. At the time I couldn't accept that he could die and I still find it hard to believe, even now.
Andy not being here is such a strange thing to think about because in many ways he's very present. I listen to his music all the time, and put it on mix CDs for people. I dip into Helen and Geoff's monumental Remembering Andy project from time to time. When I'm stuck with something I still wonder what Andy would do. He's here and he's not here.
It would be so much better if we could talk to him right here and now, and he could answer back straight to us. It would have been lovely to see him grow and develop. We can't have these things. Nothing can make up for that. But we're not left with nothing, I know that his memory keeps going, keeps me going, and I think about his art and music, his capacity for friendship and creativity, and that all remains too, even though he's gone. It's pretty amazing, pretty wonderful, in spite of the loss.
cross-posted to my journal
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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1:11 pm
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my_name_is_anna
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Tonight I shall have some white wine and think of comics, guitar music, small T shirts, a bus ride, a quiz in a sushi bar, a gig at the Hope and Anchor, and a nice guy I knew.
Cheers, Andy. Here's to you.
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(comment on this)
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1:05 pm
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10:00 am - 3 years
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8:57 am - Superman
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rememberingandy
