John McCoy

[sniper]

You mean this little guy, Bill...?

yeah, thats the guy.

his little sister Tommie Brewster and i were close to collaborating on a second unfinished poem of mine. the first was going on her album cover, but artistic differences, unauthorized release of unfinished work, threat of lawsuit, copyrights, opinions and blah blah blah equaled her and i have not spoken in almost a year.

she is very much an amazing artist.

i believe John is very much underated. his resume reads like who's who in rock royalties courtyard.

[Highlander]

He used to live about a mile from me over in a rough estate in a place called Heston, known locally as Convict Way - when I was 18 (halfway through the apprenticeship) he offered me a shot of auditioning for a band he was producing but I turned it down - living at home, no transport, no money to spare, just me and the Peter Cook for use... I later discovered he was deping in the band to help out whilst he was also in Gillan and recorded some stuff with them - the bassist that got the gig was Chris Aylmer (RIP), the Drummer called himself Thundersticks, Guitar (also now passed, RIP) was Mick Samson... the vocalist recorded about 3 LP's and has a better gig these days - never met any of them...

I saw Ian Gillan dozens of times... Mr McCoy ended up with a set of Marquee pics from me; he played pick-up gigs there from time to time too...

I'd like to dig out some CD's of JM's Zzebra stuff - have them taped somewhere and used to have the vinyl...

John McCoy was most definitely a major influence and an all-round (no pun) nice guy...