Happy Birthday Deano.

Dean McGregor would have been 34 today. Yes he was an occasionally cantankerous addictive personality. A lot of people miss him though.

Happy Birthday Aberdeen,
Wry smile rather than a beam,
Even tho you didn't want to be old
How I wish you'd stayed clean.

Dean sang in Mobile which was the first band I was in that performed my songs. Dean wrote the words, I wrote the music. I'll put a link up when I can to a Mobile track. We thought we were going to be as big as Oasis - well, we were almost as cocky which was a good start. If we'd practiced as much as those ratbags, who knows.

Death of someone close throws your life into clarity for the moment. It's an opportunity to focus on really caring about things which matter. I'm still feeling sad for his passing, in May this year, his family, particularly. I feel like he's more at peace, but have no way to know, which makes death's secrets so alluring, doesn't it?

One night a week ago I dreamed a completely alternate funeral for him. There were far more photos of his life, it was more like a wake and celebration than his real funeral, which was sad and reflected the loss of someone young appropriately. But my dream was very colourful, there was a party atmosphere, people were drinking, laughing at the photos on big round pinup boards, of the fun times. The hedonist in Dean would have had a ball at that wake.