Tony Bantock



Tony the Tiler

Late up the stairs and after the night was buzzing
In came Tony – looking as if from the wild
Bearing a smile to melt every heart that saw it
Fishing inside his coat for the change to come in

There – by the bar – he stood with his friends – contented
Lifting the room with warm open brilliant smiles
When – at the time appointed for him to struggle
“Please entertain us Tony” would set him searching

Still in his coat – he patted a range of pockets
Glasses on nose –bemusement across his face
Fishing a folded wad of his crumpled paper
Smiling – he searched – at last with a gleam of triumph

Pitching a note – then changing his mind – dismissive
Smoothing his papers down – he hitched to pitch
Sang us the tale whilst sometimes adjusting glasses
Reaching the end – he’d sigh in a mocked up blessing

Other nights found him – coming without his paper
A4 book was clutched to his chest in reverence
Laid on the bar – to search for the song he wanted
Borrowing glasses – he looked through his tiler’s notes

Organised now – performing his role and clowning
Giving back glasses – thankful - dismissive smile
Ready to sing – he mocked up the tale of losing
Studying lines – to bring out the shouted comments

Tony – the cheerful friend – kept it up – determined
That’s what we’ll see – imprinted within of him
Only the man who filled up the space with banter
Ever his eyes – his thoughtful and kindly humour

Tony the Tiler – the singer of songs he valued
Tony the man – the husband – whose ways were kind
So we carry forever the man - our fortune

Jamie Anderson

Our Jamie - Our Generous Scot died on 05 November 2013
- and we will miss him - and value who he was


The Past is not a Country We Have Lost
08Nov2013

The past is not a country we have lost
It once became a part of who we are
So we still carry forward - with its cost
Those lessons which hit hardest – there’s no bar

To memory which keeps the past aflame
Or memory which stores it – safely by
We only need to search – to play the game
Inside our being all our futures lie

And where we work to build a force for good
Or make mistakes – we’re learning from the past
Intuitive – we’re acting as we should
Or desperate – still cower in its blast

And yet – in spite of all – we’re moving on
We make our friends- our life – and learn to cope
Pick up their best endeavours when they’re gone
And that rewards the future - with their hope

***
The Solution
07Nov2013

Now here’s the problem – so he said - Now stay awhile and think
He gathered in the facts
No man was he to waste his time
Nor strength on useless acts

He knew that useless acts
Could make - of help – a pantomime
So acting on the facts
He set things right – then beamed and said – And now we’ll have a drink

***
Inheritance of Will
08Nov2013

There’s  many a man and woman and child
Has lost his spark – in part
We mourn and yet –the spark – still wild
Flares deep inside the heart

 No more than body and strength and will
Was he to set life back
Upon the way he’d have it still
Yet that is what we lack

Now claim those things he left to find
Be true to that ideal
Stand square in mind – and yet be kind
You do not take ‘to steal’

But carry on the will and strength
Build well on what you know
And when your life has run its length
Pass forward as you go.

The reference - above that 'you do not take to steal' refers to taking the songs he sang, and keeping them live by singing .
I have 'taken' Raglan Road - to keep the memory of Jamie, though I will never be able to sing it as well...)
.. am also learning The Loch Tay Boat Song.

***
Jamie Anderson – d 05 November 2013
06Nov2013

As Jamie hovered in between
The life he needed and his death
His thoughts – unconscious – were of all
His reasons for another breath

This rock who’d never be so poor
As Englishmen – without the will
Of he – a Scot – whose every act
Bespoke his reasoning – until

When looking far into the past
Or facing where his future lay
He weighed them honestly and true
Yet saw his fitness fade away

In him no frailty could abide
His mind was set on sterner stuff
He’d lived as he would have his life
His will – his body – cried: Enough!

He thought: I would not have you grieve
I will not now in weakness be
My time is come and I will leave
But please think fondly yet of me

Raise up your voices – sing my song
Red wine to toast in memory
The hills – the lochs – will see no wrong
They stay – as in their constancy

 They always stood – and yet will I
I lived – I loved – and that still stands
I leave my music and my voice
In wealth to you for your safe hands

I’ll tap the time – I’ll hold the tune
In spaces where I always stayed
Be that at midnight or at noon
My will continues what I made
  
***
A Life
07Nov2013

He’d lived a bit
And when he died
He’d bested most of life
He’d seen the world
And set it right
Was settled with his wife

He’d acted for
The best – he thought
The Law – a guide – no more
He was a man
Of good intent
Yet set aside no score

He wouldn’t let
His cancer win
He worked – and willed – and won
Then lay to let
His death begin
This good man now was done

Now what will we
Remember most
His smile - his song - his will
The stories that
He used to tell
Will haunt our lives until

The time that we
Forgetful then
Remember not a friend
We will have passed
His stories on 
Before we reach our end

And so they seem
To take his thought
Where stories still will spin
No mind to lose
Nor man forget
In honour he will win

***
This is a song, based on his particular love for the song about the Mini Cooper, which I believe was the way he saw himself. 

Jamie Kidd Anderson 1937-2013

He and Mini Cooper had a pact to get them through
They wrangled through the mud and took the knocks
Hedged no bets and didn’t once consider what to do
Their engines revving – stormed on through the rocks

Two wheels on the corners gave them grip enough to slide
To speed onto the straight and see them right
Cleaned up very nicely – a bit battered on the side
The smell of engine oil was their delight

Mini Cooper’s headlights smashed a bit – and so did he
Lurching from the bank at dead of night
Both were patched but gleaming – long before folk came to see
‘Best foot forward’ always saw them right

Now they’re gone – but how they lived in certainty and speed
Roaring down the forest tracks and growling
Picking up on clues – made up of thought and will and deed
Leaving all the banshee drivers howling

He and Mini Cooper leave a memory to rest
Braw and bold and living hard and curious
Moving on and settling down – but only with the best
His and Mini Cooper’s lives were furious

Young men are the best mechanics – old men are too tame
He and Mini Cooper – always young
Needed to be best – ahead of every safety game
Knowing that ‘the risk’ is never wrong

Celebrate this brave young man – old age was not his way
Roaring down the track in hail and mud
Don’t forget the power that he needed every day

All his life was living as he would

In memory of a good friend
Jamie Anderson
with thoughts of Jamie's wife and family

Laurie Stuart Burton


Laurie Burton 

Here was a man we’ll never know
Here was a man – and clever
Kept his life about him so
No one knew him ever

Here was a man who’d not let go
He found a need and hunted high and low
Here was a man who’d not let go
ch
He saw the wrong – the status quo
He found a way – did nothing for the show
He made them change the status quo
ch
Their fictions failed – he told them No
He marshalled fact long row on row on row
He said: Listen! – Wouldn’t take No
ch
Yet all who thought they knew him know
He lived and worked – the seeds were his to sow
As those who thought they knew him know

Here was a man we’ll never know
Here was a man – and clever
Kept his life about him so
No one knew him ever

Nor will forget him - never
CPR April 2011




Of Australian origin
Laurie was a man who did not suffer fools gladly

He functioned on logic

He determinedly set out to achieve whatever things he saw as necessary
laying out the facts and refusing to accept fictions presented by 'authorities'

He worked right up to the day of his death

He was instrumental in many community improvements in Knutsford 
and will be sadly missed as 'a good friend' by many people who knew him

Others will heave a sigh of relief
thinking that his friends will not continue his valuable work
They would be wrong

His funeral was
according to his stated reasoning
Humanitarian 

Presented as
A Celebration of Laurie's Life, 
it was attended by many of his good friends
and others in the community in which he lived

Laurie was given a good send off and now rests in 
Tabley Hill Cemetery
which is a wild and beautiful place of waving grasses
surrounding trees and country views