Nigel Longhurst

Fitz
Fitz

I first met Nigel Longhurst (a.k.a. Craig Fitzroy) while we were both working in the same torpedo factory (no, really). We discovered that we both greatly admired the music of Captain Beefheart. I loaned him some of my Beefheart albums, which he returned about a year and a half later—which, experience went on to show was pretty fast going for Fitz.

Fitz and I drank warm beer with each other for many years. It was at one of our Tuesday night sessions in the Red Lion, Parkate, that we first hit upon the idea of the Friends of Charles Darwin, an organisation which would campaign to see our hero, Charles Darwin, celebrated on a British bank note (we eventually got exactly what we wanted).

In parallel with our drinking sessions, Fitz somehow managed to get himself a degree in psychology. For many years, he worked on his unfinished magnum opus, Fitzroy's Crap Theories of the Mind, Body & Spirit (although many of the insightful observations, and all of the good jokes, contained therein were stolen from my very good self).

Way before I knew him, Fitz used to be in a band on the Isle of Wight. After he left, the remaining band members changed its name to Level 42. No, I wouldn't have boasted about it either.

In September, 2004, Fitz got married to Moley, whom I somewhat predictably began to refer to as Ms Fitz. They made beautiful music together.

Fitz died on 5th June, 2014, which was a pretty damn stupid thing to do.