Yesterday was the first anniversary of the death of Eric Roche. On Tuesday night, TSP and I went to see Nizlopi play at KoKo in Camden, and one of the support acts, Newton Faulkner studied with Eric, and commented after the gig when I mentioned that Eric had been a good friend, ‘I pretty much owe everything to Eric’.
I’ve spent a lot of time this last year thinking about Eric, saddened by his death and by the thought that we’ll never get to play the music we had planned, to do the gigs we’d talked about, to record a duo version of ‘Deep Deep Down’. It’s funny, when he first told me he’d wanted me on it, I thought it was an after thought and as I was there he just said ‘yeah, I wanted you on it’, but quite a few people over the last year have said ‘ah, Steve Lawson, Eric told me about you’ and then mentioned that tune as the one he picked out that he wanted to do with me.
I now do a solo version of it, and as much as I enjoy playing it, it doesn’t sound the way it would if it were both of us…
Anyway, spare a thought for his wife and kids, and what they must be feeling – regrets about missed collaborations are infinitesimally small when compared to the loss of a life partner, parent, child…
And if you haven’t already got Eric’s CDs, head over EricRoche.com and order them, they’re all great.
i lament with you friend