Sweet goodbyes

Two Saturdays in a row - two funerals.

John Myers was last week - a magnificent send off in Carlisle Cathedral. The great and good of Carlisle were there, along with Johns family and home town friends - and a good portion of radios best and brightest, who had made their way up to not far from the Scottish border to say goodbye to the great man. His presence filled the space. Barbra Streisand’s evergreen absorbed the cathedral as the coffin was brought in. Son Scott did the most wonderful Eulogy for his dad. Simon Cole, Simo and I just about managed to hold it together during our bits, and there was some wonderful singing - both solo and small group - from the team at Cumbria University - beautiful. Tears were shed. I’ve blogged below about John, and little more needs to be said about how big a radio presence we have all lost from our lives.

Yesterday was Nigel Ackroyd's funeral, in Burbage parish church in Leicestershire. Nigel was less-well known across the industry at large, but was much-loved in the Midlands, first at brmb/Xtra in the 80s/early 90s and then as my launch Marketing guru for Heart, where he stayed for the best part of a decade as we grew that station into the Midlands biggest. If Heart is the largest brand in UK radio today, Nigel can claim his part in getting the show on the road almost 25 years ago. How sad he has passed just a few months before that auspicious anniversary. Nigel found a second wind as the purveyor of all things sweet and chewy in Warwick’s only independent sweet shop. Many of those sweets were consumed yesterday in his honour. His funeral was smaller, more intimate, but still filled with love, music, and radio. If Streisand filled the cathedral last week, McCartney brought a smile to the parish church yesterday. More tears were shed.

Two lovely and moving ceremonies, to two men both gone from our lives, and the collective friendship of the radio community, far too young, at just 60 and 56.