My Friendship with Ian
Created by John 3 years agoA fantastic folk (English and foreign) musician and a great friend, Ian was also comfortable with other genres of music, including jazz. He even went to Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club at Charlie Watts’ invitation to hear his big band play there. When Ian joined Long Man Morris Men nearly 30 years ago, I found that we hit it off immediately as friends. I mentioned to him that I ran the Young Enterprise scheme at Park College and was looking for professional business people to act as advisors. Without hesitation, Ian offered his services and regularly came into Park College to advise the students who came to regard him very highly.
Our main friendship stemmed from our playing music for Long Man Morris Men. We regularly gave each other lifts to practices and to stands at local pubs and, as recently as last year, we travelled to Antwerp together and shared a hotel room there while attending a Folk Festival. A genuine internationalist, Ian was happy in all the European countries we visited: Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Belgium. On an early visit to Klüsserath, Germany, he became very friendly with a Polish dance side, one of whose teenage members, Monica, was facing a rather bleak future: although clever enough to go to university in Poland, she did not have the funds to pay her course fees. Ian persuaded Long Man Morris to sponsor Monica financially through university – a life-changing event for her. Ian also enrolled for Polish lessons in Eastbourne, became very friendly with Eastbourne’s Polish community, attended musical and cultural events with them and ended up able to speak Polish fluently. It always amused our Morris side to witness Ian’s uncanny ability, when performing out, to home in on Polish tourists and visitors.
Whether we were performing locally or abroad, Ian always made time for the very young and for the foreign visitors. He brought a real joie-de-vivre to practices and to performances and his infectious enthusiasm and friendliness earned him friends across the world. A wonderful conversationalist, he could relate to all sorts of people. Rest in peace, dear friend.
Our main friendship stemmed from our playing music for Long Man Morris Men. We regularly gave each other lifts to practices and to stands at local pubs and, as recently as last year, we travelled to Antwerp together and shared a hotel room there while attending a Folk Festival. A genuine internationalist, Ian was happy in all the European countries we visited: Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Belgium. On an early visit to Klüsserath, Germany, he became very friendly with a Polish dance side, one of whose teenage members, Monica, was facing a rather bleak future: although clever enough to go to university in Poland, she did not have the funds to pay her course fees. Ian persuaded Long Man Morris to sponsor Monica financially through university – a life-changing event for her. Ian also enrolled for Polish lessons in Eastbourne, became very friendly with Eastbourne’s Polish community, attended musical and cultural events with them and ended up able to speak Polish fluently. It always amused our Morris side to witness Ian’s uncanny ability, when performing out, to home in on Polish tourists and visitors.
Whether we were performing locally or abroad, Ian always made time for the very young and for the foreign visitors. He brought a real joie-de-vivre to practices and to performances and his infectious enthusiasm and friendliness earned him friends across the world. A wonderful conversationalist, he could relate to all sorts of people. Rest in peace, dear friend.
Pictures
Music at the Long Man