My heart aches knowing Gavin Martin is gone Where to start with this mad, lovable, loving, poetic genius? I'd been reading his work on and off for years, before I had any idea he'd started the Alternative Ulster fanzine, before I knew just how legendary he really was.
I found all that out over dinner at the Bombay Brasserie in London, the weekend he welcomed me to town (having never met me, only been introduced via our good friend Dave Marsh) to see Bruce Springsteen in 2009.
I spent time with him whenever I got to London, seeing Drive-By Truckers and talking to Patterson Hood, seeing Brian Fallon, taking his ticket to see Paul Weller (he had a date, god bless 'im), seeing an awful band in Hammersmith with Raymond Gorman.
Watching the London Premiere of “Good Vibrations,” a movie where, as Dave said about himself and “Almost Famous,” Gavin was “just outside every frame.”
To say he was a wonderful raconteur hardly captures his sweet, visceral, funny storytelling. And he was as righteous as they came. Not self-righteous, either.
Truly righteous, whether railing against the abuse against children and women that plagues our society, or the antisemitism that his father helped fight in WWII and continues to this day, or the pompous ass that Bono (whom Gavin once considered a friend) turned into.
And it all came from a place of deep, immense love. Love of life, love of his fellow human, love of music, and love of literature and all the ways we flawed creatures made sense of our world.
If you've never heard his Talking Musical Revolutions album of spoken word set to music, listen. It's (almost) all there.
The first time I met him, he was late for dinner because he was working on his obituary for Michael Jackson, which the Daily Mirror refused to run because Gavin not only acknowledged but shone a spotlight on the elephant in the room …
… comparing Jackson to Moloch (and, by extension, asking who the rest of us are in relation to Jackson and other abusers). Like I said earlier, he was righteous. REALLY FUCKING righteous.
R.I.P., brother.
You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: typefully.com/EricSchu_Ras/7pGMqX7
Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen
@EricSchu_Ras
VP and Editor-in-Chief of Streaming Media. Occasional music journalist. He/him.