by JimN » 28 Dec 2020, 13:06
Sad news indeed, George.
Just for clarity, It was John's daughter Amy who provided the news (on John's own Facebook page) and it was relayed to wider audiences by both Paul Maidment and Ian Kershaw, each on the Facebook fans' pages they run.
it's quite a while since I last saw John. In fact, it was probably, now I think about it, at Jet's funeral in 2011, where he and I shared a pew with Marty Wilde and "Tich" (of Dave Dee and co.). In fact, I only ever met John a few times, but the conversation was always lively and eventful. I particularly recall our lengthy discussion of suggested contents of a disc he'd been asked by EMI to compile - and which materialised as ""Everything Of Value - Rarities II".
John was incredibly knowledgeable about The Shadows and as we can probably remember, was their official mail correspondent for some years. Although I was never a customer (living 250 miles away), his Record Scene shop in SW London was the epicentre of Shads news and views, as well as a source for international record releases, much like Leo's Den today.
The news comes as a great shock. R.I.P. John Friesen.