My dear old friend, mentor and all round genius Pat Fish aka Jazz Butcher has passed on. Heartbreaking. Here he is after a gig with our ramshackle knockabout beat combo The Undertakers in the 90s. Rest easy Pat mate

In 1995 a friend with a bar made me form a supergroup to keep him entertained on a slow Wednesday night. We had me, Mark Refoy (Guitarist: Spacemen 3, Spiritualised, Slipstream, Pet Shop Boys); Tim Harries (Bassist: Eno, Steeleye Span, David Holmes, Katie Melua!) and Jon Mattock (Drummer: Spacemen 3, Spiritualised. Slipstream, Perfect Disaster, The Breeders, Massive Attack). The set was all covers. I remember we did the Velvets’ “Foggy Notion,” Can’s “Mother Sky,” some Plastic Ono Band stuff, “Suzie Q,” “Roadrunner” and a few others. We called ourselves The Undertakers. We only ever did it twice. In a sort of KLF moment, I sold the only cassette of the show for £80.

Formed as the house band of Slurp's Bar, Northampton, the Undertakers feature Pat Fish , Mark Refoy and Jon Mattocks ( Spacemen 3, Spiritualized), and Tim Harris (Everything But The Girl, Doctor Didg). They don't rehearse, they only play covers, and a total of about 43 people have ever seen them play live. How cool is that? Sound quality is exactly the same as on the Velvet Underground's "Live 69" album (which is to say, pretty crappy). So now you know. Covers by: Can, Velvets, Creedence, Kraftwerk, Plastic Ono Band, etc.

In 1997, Pat had a few things he wanted auctioned off on the JBC website, and sent me a load of stuff (posters, cassettes, etc). In the end, we were able to send Pat a nice wad of cash.

Some of those tapes, I did copy before sending the orignals onto the auction winners. I will need to go through my stored pile to see if The Undertakers tape was one of those copied. If not.. well, Jay, you're the keeper of something pretty rare.