It’s not only the chats about beer with Derek that I miss. He was such a great person, illustrated by the fact that someone I know was a patient of his at the Old Manor for a spell and thought the world of him.
Derek and I discovered, on a city saunter some four years ago, that we both shared a liking for Emmylou Harris. Derek had been an avid fan for many years whereas I’d been listening to her music for a much shorter time. We were in the New Inn at the time, and I can remember it being a bit noisy at the bar. We went into the garden, so we could both hear better and spent some time talking about folk music. Again, he knew far more than me. I did manage to tell him something he didn’t know – that Emmylou duetted with Bob Dylan on most of the songs on his 1976 album Desire. That fact had somehow escaped his notice. He bought me the next beer as a reward.
We exchanged a series of emails about Emmylou only a few months before he died.
