RIP Martin Cockerham

24th—25th March 2018
Canterbury

The legendary Martin Cockerham (from the early 70s Canterbury-based prog-folk band Spirogyra) had been in touch about possibly staying at my place as he we was coming back for a gathering of his old UKC friends who had lived at the (also legendary) 5 St. Radigunds Street house. Former university Entertainments Officer Max Hole, who'd ended up managing the band before going on to a career in the music business, had arranged that. MH had gone into the music industry and got as far as being CEO for the European division of Universal Music Group (I think) before he suffered from encephalitis and accompanying memory loss and had to retire. Getting the old gang back together became a priority for him, so he'd arranged a feast at The Parrot, the pub/restaurant across the road ("Simple Simons" when I was a student, the art college print works before that, and St. Radigund's Hall back in medieval times). Martin showed up late the night before, having just flown in from India (where he'd spent the cold half of each year for a while now, being involved with the Krishna scene, and having a lung condition that required avoiding cold, damp environments). We had a bit of a walkabout in the morning, got a coffee, and I helped him look for some suitable vintage clothes (he wanted to look suitably 'rock'n'roll' for the inevitable photos, having shown up in rather sensible, practical gear) — no luck there, unfortunately. The lung condition was clearly a constant worry, as he couldn't walk too far in one go, and we ended up getting taxis, etc. I said my goodbyes and left him at the door of The Parrot.

A couple of days later, I saw the photos. Various band members, roadies and friends appeared to have had a lovely reunion, had even managed to convince the current occupants of no. 5 to let them come in and take some photos in the house and garden.

[Martin was very adept with smartphone/social media, had uploaded this to Facebook, captioning thus: "Back standing from left to right: Steve Borrill Spirogyra Bass player and half roadie. Drove us everywhere in his transit van. Helped build and design our PA. Julian Cusack Spirogyra Violin & Piano. Rick Biddulph Roadie and Spirogyra 3 member on Guitar & Bass. Patrick Wright band friend and house mate. Max Hole holding the photo - Spirogyra manager and organiser & financier of this event. Steve Hillage - house mate who also travelled and once played with Spirogyra. Seated left to right: Pete Ball Road Manager & Sound Engineer. Martin Cockerham vocals, songwriter and guitar. Pete Rhodes our artist photographer and house holder."]

No Barbara Gaskin, sadly. Patrick Wright, who had gone on to become a prominent cultural historian and broadcaster, had independently (via another old Canterbury head, my friend Angela in Deal) found out about my local history book You Are Here in which Spirogyra, no. 5 and its most famous resident — Steve Hillage — feature. He'd mentioned in an email to me how he recalled walking around town with Martin just before the cult classic Bells, Boots and Shambles was released, putting promotional stickers up, Martin having to leap up to stick one on the sign for Turnagain Lane (a tiny, mysterious cul-de-sac off Palace Street). I casually mentioned this to Martin while we were walking around, and he explained that there was an unreleased (until relatively recently) Spirogyra track called "Turn Again Lane":

This whole happy sequence of events was soon followed by tragic news. Martin had decided that it was too cold/damp to stay in England, had decided to fly out to Thailand (where he had more Krishna connections) until later in the year, had contracted some kind of infection and passed away in a hotel room.

He had a big circle of friends and musical collaborators in Glastonbury (including Michael Tyack and Jenny Bennett from Circulus), which is where we first met, in the summer of 2015. I'd turned up with a friend, thought to contact Michael T, whose 50th birthday it happened to be. We all ended up in a pub called (curiously, considering the Cantuarian connections) the Thomas Becket. Michael had mentioned working with Martin, I expressed an idle wish to chat to him one day about his days in Canterbury, and before I knew it, Martin had called him and we were sitting together deep in conversation about his younger days. Later, my friends Rosie and Daygan had ended up working with him, even going out to Italy to collaborate — Martin had quite a following out there, as well as being friends with Richard Sinclair, now happily resident in the south of the country. There was an unfinished album Martin was very excited about when he came to Canterbury for the reunion, and as well as various memorial gigs and events, I believe there's a concerted effort to get the album (and other unreleased recordings) out eventually.

I had to break the news to Steve Hillage via a Twitter message. The only time we've communicated, which is pretty tragic, but it was heartening to see this:

I'm shocked and saddened to hear that Martin Cockerham of Spirogyra has passed away. He was my friend from my time at Canterbury University, a great musician, songwriter and personality. What is shocking is that I was with him just 11 days ago. Rest in Peace. ♥️ pic.twitter.com/Oa6PmMfRuK

— Steve Hillage (@stevehillage) 5 April 2018