It’s been a sad time for us here in the AUK community with the loss of two of our writers in such a short period of time, and the loss of our Live Reviews Editor for so many years Paul Kerr hits particularly hard since he was the longest-serving writer the website has ever had, and someone who over time I came to consider a friend not just to the website but to me personally. In sharing the news last week on Paul’s own Instagram the family said: “We would like to extend our thanks to all the people who were part of Paul’s life. He will be missed as a father, grandfather, a loving husband and as a passionate enthusiast of music and the arts. He will be remembered and live on in many hearts and minds.” Readers familiar with his writing will indeed know that his musical knowledge of all kinds of genres was encyclopedic to the point that AUK couldn’t really contain his enthusiasm, so he had his own long-running music blog, Blabber’n’Smoke and wrote for other publications such as RnR, where you could see the quality of his writing in action. He was a well known figure around the Glasgow music scene to the point where more than one americana act performing last weekend including The Delines and My Darling Clementine paid warm tributes to him during their sets.
One of our writers who knew Paul for the longest was our Community Editor Paul Villers. I asked him about this: “I’ve known Paul for over years and will miss him greatly. He was already at Americana UK when I joined and that was in the very early days. Indeed he was our longest serving contributor after our Editor and a ‘go to’ over the years for a guide as to how to do music journalism properly. We bonded over a shared love of beer, cigarettes and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. He never tired of reminding me that he had a copy of the anthology of The Freak Brothers comics signed by author Gilbert Sheldon himself. The last time I spoke to him, he had to eschew the Golden Virginia roll-ups he favoured, which grieved him greatly. I had the feeling that he was looking forward to leaving hospital if only in order to indulge his passion once more. In his working life he had a long career as a mental health nurse in the NHS (something he was immensely proud of). I always figured that this gave him a particular insight into people and he certainly had his finger on the pulse when dealing with folk both personally and professionally. His taste was impeccable and his writing unsurpassed. Indeed I would often tell people curious about Americana that if a thing was signed by Paul Kerr then it was definitely worth reading/investigating (and he would often agree with me).”
Our staff team gatherings in more recent years have taken place in Buxton where Paul was always the first to arrive (despite making the trek from Glasgow) and the last to go to bed (sometimes carried), but he also was a mainstay of the more intimate gatherings we used to have in big old houses in various hard to get to places. Always supportive of the writing community, he was a large part of what made those weekends such good fun for everyone concerned. During the pandemic when we moved to regular Zoom catch-ups, many more of our wider writing team got to know him as he sat in front of banks of vinyl and shared his views on everything and anything, always with a wry smile. Viv Fish, AUK’s Editorial Support, stood in initally to cover the Live Reviews section in Paul’s initial absence and was one of those people who remembers: “I only ever met Paul via the Zoom sessions, but found him to be quite a character, with such a dry sense of humour, totally accomplished in the genre, extremely knowledgeable about it, very well connected and totally respected to boot” and Dave Jarman remembers those Zoom sessions too, “admiring both his extraordinary musical knowledge, and great sense of humour, and was delighted to meet him on my visits to the Buxton weekends.”
Another of our writers who got to know Paul well over many years was News Editor Keith Hargreaves: “Paul Kerr was like a musical older brother. He was the writer and then friend whose musical and social radar was always reliable. Having written for AUK for over 20 years I realised that he had been a friend and a colleague for over a third of my life. That friendship has brought me musical riches and laughs aplenty; be it walking at midnight through a soggy Lancastrian mill town talking nonsense or listing our favourite Giant Sand tracks whilst condemning the increasing social division in our respective countries. He was a mate, a seeker and a very witty, caring man. I will miss him.”
Tim Martin our Books Editor, another of our very longstanding writers, noted that “Paul was the first AUK writer who I got to know well and he was a big support in getting into writing for the site” while Jon Aird our Tracks Editor remembers Paul as being “such a force for the site, and did so much behind scenes that wasn’t so obvious to people as well as his perfectly toned reviews which shone with passion and a relentless honesty of appraisal. A strong voice of support in so many ways. He was perhaps the latest of the late-night gang – you missed those 1am (or later) mail drops of gig offers at your peril if you were a keen live reviewer!” Fred Arnold, AUK’s Features Editor remembers those late-night emails too: “I certainly was unable to keep the hours he kept or even keep up with him in the drinking stakes, but he was certainly one of the mainstays of AUK, with a great knowledge of the music we love and a keen sense of humour.” Andrew Frolish, our Videos Editor agrees: “He was certainly a good drinking companion and a good-humoured chap. He was also another night owl – if I emailed in the middle of the night, he would be up as well… probably always even later than me.”
Graeme Tait took over the role of Live Reviews Editor in the later stages of Paul’s health declining and comments: “The fact that we kind of knew this was coming doesn’t make the news of Paul’s passing any easier to bear, especially on the back of the equally sad news we received last weekend. We will all have memories of Paul that will make us smile when we think back to our meetings in Buxton in recent years, but at the moment it is hard to put feelings into words.” One of our newer writers Nick Barber remembers: “I first met him in Cleere’s in Kilkenny where he was welcoming and encouraging of my efforts in photography and gig promotion. We last met in person at a Birds of Chicago gig at the tiny Admiral Bar in Glasgow where he and Bernie were as friendly and welcoming as always.” And Andy Short was an avid reader of his work both on our site and off: “Paul was a great guy and excellent writer. As a subscriber to R’n’R magazine I would always look for Paul’s reviews first. Although as Jeff Tweedy wrote “We’re designed to die” it doesn’t make it any easier.”
Cam Fraser described Paul as “the very best company you could ask for” and someone whose loss “leaves a huge hole in our little AUK community” while Paula Cook, our Diversity Editor describes him as “a foundation stone of AUK. His sense of humour was wonderful and his dedication to the site almost unmatched” and fellow-Scot Cam Fraser remembers Paul as“a lovely man and a great supporter of music.”
One of the greatest sadnesses I have around his loss is that he heroically collected every single one of the Friends of Americana UK CDs which we issued between 2005-2018 and was writing a regular column which looked back at not just those physical disc-shaped time capsules of what was going on in the world of americana at the time but also through using the waybackmachine what the site looked like back then. He got up to 2012 in the end and I don’t think there’s anyone else who could continue this series. They were such special pieces and we often reminisced together over their content and all the forgotten surprises the trawl brought up (some more welcome than others!). You can find the Back Pages pieces here.
All our thoughts and love are with Paul’s family at the moment. It’s still difficult to get my head round what his absence means for the site – as Paul Villers put it, “He was tireless in his support of Americana UK and over the years he has been one of our most important servants. His support of all things Americana but particularly his love for the live music scene remains unmatched. Paul was, and remains, the embodiment of the spirit of what Americana UK is about.” We will miss him dearly.
You can watch a live stream of the service of Paul Kerr at 12:00 (BST) on Tuesday 13th October, at Linn – St Mungo, run by Co-op Funeralcare – Giffnock via https://watch.obitus.com/login/vbchgr Username pika3456 Password 071539
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