Having lost my father in March and my 31 year old nephew in September, 2022 threw in one last awful event on the 23rd of December when a greatly admired, and much loved friend died of a massive stroke in only his early sixties. I had known John Barnett for around 20 years and he was a founding (1978), and still performing, member of Hitchin punk band the Bleach Boys and he wrote many of their songs featured on albums such as ‘The 4 Cyclists of the Apocalypse’, ‘Taking the O out of Country’ and ‘Fur Cough from the Grave’. If you went to one of their gigs expecting cover versions of The Sloop John B or Surfing USA then you were going to be in for a shock as they remained a true hardcore punk band despite the advancing years. Not everyone’s cup of tea I’ll grant you, but they continued to tour the UK, Europe and Japan and had/have a very dedicated and loyal fan base and all this whilst holding down proper, fairly normal, full time jobs. Their singer is, I believe, a classically trained opera singer and John worked on IT projects for the railway network. See them on the platform in the morning and you’d never know that they had another life!

John and I had tentatively discussed the possibility of me building him a custom bass and I am sorry that this project never got further than words. It would have been very special to see him play ‘Stocking Clad Nazi Death Squad Bitches’ (one of their big hits) on an instrument that I had made for him. The last time we got together was for an ironic Eurovision Song Contest pizza night and he was on top form. A great night and and great bloke, I’ll miss him.

RIP John, you are a legend!

Darren