John and my friendship goes back to 1973 or thereabouts. So many things in common that bring a smile to my lips and a tear to my eyes as the memories come back during this grieving period. Winning the first cross-country race through Stanney Woods, walking most of it, we knew the way, everyone else got lost, who knows how far they ran. We got picked for the School Team and never placed first and second ever again but always finished together. We did our paper routes together on the weekends when we didn't have to rush to finish to get to school on time. We had Scouting, Rugby and Climbing filling our spare time with trust and laughter, we laughed a lot, egging each other on. The extra curricular activities on top of the shared classes, the shared friends and shared affection for the same girls sometimes.

I moved away to Canada in March of 1978 and John left School shortly after and we wouldn't see each other again until 1981, lots of water under our respective bridges, successes and heartbreaks but we picked up hardly skipping a beat. Subsequent visits back to the Wirral were similar, but we lost touch for a few years when John's career took him to London for a while. To be absolutely honest we were both terrible at writing and I think there was an unspoken feeling that the other would always be around. How wrong we were, how wrong I was.

On a positive note, in the more recent years I had the opportunity to get back a bit more frequently, with work and for pleasure. We always made time for a rowdy group reunion of sorts or a one on one walk around the Wirral, enjoying the atmosphere, history (John was quite the historian and I learned new facts every time) and the frequent stops for refreshing beverages.

I forgot to mention music; I think John liked Genesis and Led Zeppelin a bit more than I did and I liked Queen and ELP a bit more than John did. But we both loved Yes. The youtube link below is to the album Close to the Edge, we knew every note, every lyric (even all the impossible to actually sing overdubbed harmonies that make no sense) but we tried. The 6th form common room would witness these attempts and erupt into laughter when we messed up or voices broke trying to follow Jon Andersons lead vocals. Did I mention that we laughed, a lot. This is a special album and John was a special man, take a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAuO_2h8MBI