RIP Simon Wring

Our friend Simon has passed away last week.

I don't really want to go into the details but let's say it wasn't a complete surprise, he had got himself into a state where it was something that could be on the cards. Still, it's a shock and very, very sad...

He was an old friend of our drummer John, but I've known him for quite a long time too. We always felt he was the unofficial fourth member of the band. From the early days, and apart from demos, he did all of our recordings, and he also did sound for us quite a few times. I always remember going into Waterhouse Studio, a little place he set up with a friend underneath a church opposite Stratford shopping centre, for the first time and recording our first demo, and I'm not sure I even have a copy of it anymore. I was just so excited to be in a recording studio for the first time, and Simon was the perfect gent, very capable, precise, and supportive. From that time onwards he became a friend. He would always oversee everything we recorded and later, once he closed the studio, we would just be in his house to do it. He sometimes would add a piano motive, or other sounds to a song of ours (Shades of Green, for instance), and would reportedly work on that for hours, he was a bit of a perfectionist. But otherwise he often favored a first-take, spontaneous approach to recording, he didn't like recording too many takes, and more often than not, he was right. Our new album, which is finished you know, was probably one of the last things he worked on, there were several sessions, recording, mixing, etc. It's actually quite a while ago now, and the last time I saw him was at our last London gig in July last year which he recorded. 

He also played bass in Gallon Drunk, went on tour with them a few times, and was tour manager for Bright Eyes, The Wedding Present, and others. For a while he was always off on tour, and his house was full of music memorabilia and photographs.

Anyway, here are a couple of videos, from his short lived project Rail that played our "when i'm pretty" night a couple of times at the Cross Kings:






(Vicky and George have now regrouped as The Pink Choppers, btw)

 and with the mighty Gallon Drunk at the Corsica Studios (apparently they called him "The Bison"):



RIP Simon, I'll never forget you & thanks for all the music!

Thomas x