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Memories of David West – died 4th March 2003


Today its the anniversary of the death of my great friend David West who passed away on the 4th March 2003 ( David is the one with the big smile on the left of the picture). Seems amazing that six years have past since that day when after a short illness David was taken from his family and friends to be with his Lord and Saviour. I have so many great memories of the times we had together starting whilst still at primary school when we sang together in a group called the Immanuel Trio, right up to just before his death when we would regularly get together for a “jam session”. The picture above captures one of these occasions when we were together with our other good friend Gudmund Johannesson and spent the evening playing together and singing in harmony! As you can see the microphones are set-up and on that occasion we did actually record the proceedings which were peppered with harmony, conversation and of course loads of laughter.

I recently published a podcast of some sentimental audio recordings – originally captured on reel to reel tape – this is one of the MP3s which features the “Immanuel Trio” during a practice session I think in about 1968, click on the play button below to listen.

It is pretty rough but never the less sincere. David is playing the guitar – I think that this was the only song he could play on the guitar at that time. You can hear the young David’s voice in verse three – “If you will not bear a cross you can’t wear a crown……”

Also I have an extract from the jam session featured in the above photo which you can hear by clicking on the play button below.

The three of us enjoy playing guitar, as you might guess and for anyone who is interested, the instruments being played on that occasion were are follows ( the first voice heard is Davids – he developed a very nice tenor voice during his teenage years and had a natural ability to harmonise)

David West – Martin D28 – 12 string
James Buchan – Fender – 12 string
Gudmund Johannesson – Hagstrom – 12 string

So many happy memories to recall and now I am really happy that those audio recordings were made capturing some sentimental and precious moments. Of course these have no real significance as performances – in fact they are quite “rough and ready” but its the relationships that underpin them which are the basis for very vivid and valued memories.