Dream on.....

This afternoon one of the most recognisable figures in the North East rock scene will be buried. Jeffrey Thomas Rowe or Little Jeff as he was known to all died last week in Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital after a long illness.

I first met Jeff at a rock club called Mingles in Whitley Bay when I was a fresh faced teenager; I guess I must have been about 16 or 17 and to be honest I couldn’t have put an age on Jeff if my life had depended on it. Jeff was DJ at the club and had a great eye/ear for what tunes were likely to fill the admittedly tiny dance floor. The rock scene even back at it’s height of popularity in the late seventies and eighties was small enough for you to be able to recognise and put names to most of the regulars at clubs nights and gigs. As such you could quite happily turn up somewhere by yourself and know that there would be several people you could have a good chat with. Jeff was nearly always there and I spent many a night chatting to him about new records we had bought and gigs we had attended.

Now I would never claim to be close to Jeff, I don’t think too many people really were despite what they might say, but we got on well. He worked at many venues through the years including Walkers and the Mayfair, the biggest and best(?) rock club in Newcastle and he became a very recognisable figure around the North East. Strange as it might seem but there was even a cult like adoration starting to grow around him and he gained several hangers on who would follow him like puppy dogs. I think Jeff even started to believe some of his own hype and we drifted apart somewhat during his tenure at the Mayfair.

Jeff once told me that he appreciated he could ask me something and he would get a straight answer and I would not worry about offending him. Now Jeff and I were totally different personalities and my answers were often not what he wanted to hear and, though they were honest, they did in the later years cause friction between us. The last time we spoke would have been about six months ago when we bumped into each other whilst walking through Newcastle city centre. He was walking ahead of me in obvious discomfort from his hips which had been degenerating for a number of years and as he stopped for a rest on a nearby bench I bit the bullet and plonked down next to him. At this time we had been on non speaking terms for a couple of years, I don’t think either of us could have told you why this situation arose but both being stubborn the situation continued and worsened. The conversation was uneasy to say the least initially but as time went on it warmed and you may have even taken us for friends by the end. He told me that the pain in his hips was becoming almost unbearable and was almost totally disabling but that he was in line for a hip replacement and he hoped this would ease many of his problems. We parted on good terms and with a greater appreciation of each other. I never saw Jeff again and he died before receiving his hip replacement.

I think the record he played as the last ever song at the Mayfair is quite suitable here so Jeff from me to you: Dream on…..