It's a sad day for us here as Mum remembers her brother. It's been two years since he passed and Mum says the grief is still so raw that it feels like only yesterday.
So we're sharing some photos in his memory.
This is Mum and my uncle John in the early 1970s. Mum likes the photo but hates the way she looks. John was a happy smiley baby as you can see.
Happy siblings in the early 70s
John when he moved to Sweden, early 2000s
Mum and John musical ambitions 1985/86
John iair-guitaring and headbanging during the 90s in a rock club.
In our hearts always
Mum finds it difficult to write these days that's why our blog posts now contain very little text. It pains her because she wanted to write a lot more about her beloved brother but says she can't.
He was a talented guitarist, musician and songwriter. He did it because he loved it and always said he wasn't interested in becoming famous.
So here's a couple of music excerpts of John playing guitar we'd love to share. The volume is quite low though so you may have to adjust it a little.
Have a listen if guitar solos are your thing and you'd love to hear it, but not too loud as it might blow your ears off!
We are going offline for a while due to a death in our family.
Mum's dear brother John passed away Friday night from a heart attack. Next month would have been his 52nd birthday.
We are shocked.
He was due to have heart valve surgery in about a month or two's time. He was on blood thinners - Eliquis.
Mum suspects this is what really led to his death and is so angry. But she needs to grieve for her dear brother, who was so talented yet a tortured soul. He wasn't into drugs or even alcohol, but he had a lot of health problems in his life. Just not fair!
John's all time favourite band was The Who, but Mum can't bring herself to listen to his favourite song, that spoke so much about his life - See Me, Feel Me from Tommy, so instead she is playing one of her favourite songs from Temple of The Dog: Say Hello To Heaven.
Mum can't even bear to look at or share a picture of her brother right now, so that's why there isn't one in this post.
We hope you are with your dad, your beautiful cat Molly and Suzy, and that you are jamming with Hendrix, Morrison, Lennon, Elvis, George Michael, Keith Moon and Chris Cornell, etc, What an amazing supergroup that would be in Heaven.
We love you, John. Our heart breaks and we still can't believe it. We will never get over this 💔
Anyone taking this disgusting murdering drug? Have a look at all the reviews on line and save yourself!
So we are almost at the end of our fortnightly alphabetical countdown of bands and artists that have recorded songs that Mum has liked over the years. She is a major fan of some of the artists we've featured so far, but some others she may not be a fan of but might just like a song or two of theirs.
This week we are on V - over to Mum...
So here's The Verve. I don't remember the Nineties much because I was drunk most of the time. This is a great track, released in the summer of 1997. Sadly, it will always remind me of when Princess Diana died.
THE VERVE - Bitter Sweet Symphony
VIOLET ETERNITY
You wouldn't have heard of this artist because well, it's a recording project put together by myself and my brother John. We started it over twelve years ago. It's mostly his music project and I recorded some lead and backing vocals. We've no plans to start it up again, though my brother continues to write his own music. As for me, I have enough to keep me busy with all my blogging, writing, art, photography and animal advocacy ☺
First, this is the photo I had planned for today. Me sticking my tongue out. Actually, I was licking my nose and Mum took the pic while she had Sports mode on her camera because I was moving about a lot and she didn't want it to go all blurry.
Second, this morning Mum found out that it was Love Your Red Hair Day. Ok, I'm not a redhead like this intruder:
She hasn't always been a redhead. Her natural hair colour is dark brown but she's been colouring it for years, usually a lighter, golden brown. However, just a few years ago as the singer of Violet Eternity, she had black hair.
Metal Mum
For a laugh, Mum thought she'd make me a redhead in this pic.
It does make a nice arty pic, but I don't wanna be a ginger puss, thank you! I love my beautiful brown tabby markings and I'm sure Mum wouldn't have me any other way :)
Today I am dedicating my post to my cousin Molly. We aren't blood cousins, but she was my mum's brother's cat. Sadly she passed away a year ago and so we are posting this as a tribute to her. We never met, but Mum has met her and she really loved her. She was her little furry niece after all. Cats are drawn to Mum and Molly always loved it when she visited Uncle John in Sweden. She was always sad when she saw Mum packing her suitcase to fly back home. My uncle used to say that Molly would be a bit quiet after Mum and Gran had left. Molly was such an affectionate cat and loved her daddy so much. My Uncle John is a musician and songwriter and she always liked to hang around while he was recording. Molly always liked to listen to Mum recording her vocals for their recording project. Molly was their Number 1 fan. And even when Mum practised her vocal exercises*, Molly wanted to hear. I don't know why. Mum's vocal exercises scared me when I was a tiny kitten and heard her doing them for the first time. In fact, she doesn't do them anymore because of me I think. But then again, maybe it's because she doesn't sing much these days. Sweet Molly, we hope you are running free over the Rainbow Bridge with Suzy and Granddad and every other soul you have known and loved. Purrs xx 💖
ROCK STAR KITTY
This video is very funny. It was filmed some years ago when Molly was younger.
Mum made this photo art to be included on Saturday for our Caturday Art hop. She used the Sadness effect in LunaPic and added a grunge frame in BeFunky.
Mummy made this video of me and so I thought I'd share. I look really happy and content because I am! I love my home, my family and my mum! The music you can hear is a lovely instrumental composed by my mummy's brother John. They are in a band together called Violet Eternity. I really like them and I love it when Mum sings but she doesn't sing here of course because it is an instrumental.
