1. Bob Fringes was a great friend of mine in the 1970’s.  He was an integral member of the Greenwich and Blackheath alternative scene and everybody who knew him have some great stories to tell about his generosity, his humour and his general joie de vivre.  In 2011 he fought a battle with cancer and we were all pleased when it seemed that he had beaten it off.  Today I found out that he had died and this was a shock.  I spoke to him on Skype about a year and a half ago and he was his usual cheeky self and we talked about him coming down to Wales for a holiday.  Sadly he never made it but we all have such great memories of late night adventures with Bob and so that will have to do us now.  I wrote a poem for him in May 2011 and here it is:

HIGHWAY TO OBLIVION

Bob rode a mighty fast journey

Kept his throttle open wide

On the Triumph Bonneville of life

The fringes on his old suede coat

Streamed far out behind him

He was majestic at the start

When the lights turned green from red

Once in a while I rode with him

Through the other side of dawn

Always close to the very edge

On the highway to oblivion

On the highway to oblivion

I never asked his back story

Seemed I didn’t need to know

Back then it was easy to be friends

With strangers in a strange land

All revved up from the get go

Night after night after night

You could always find the gasman

With someone cool riding pillion

Roaring, roaring, roaring down

That highway to oblivion

The following photo from Lorraine Murphy shows Bob 3 years before he died.