Rest in Peace, Sarge

It has been almost 20 years since I last saw Sarge in person.  2003?  2004?  The “greatest piercer in southern England” make the trek to Canada once again to hang out with our Niagara Falls friends, the Legendary Klopeks.  Sarge loved Canada.  He was hoping to make another visit from Bournemouth, post-pandemic, or so he told me in one of our late night chats.

Late night for me; for him in England it would have been early morning.  We talked science fiction into the wee hours.  We’d speculate on what Marvel was going to do next and what was going on elsewhere in entertainment.

The last time I saw him, we were in St. Catharines and he gave me the awesome Motorhead T-shirt seen below.  He brought it especially for me.

A few weeks ago, Sarge’s wife posted that he was in hospital with bleeding in the brain.  As if that wasn’t enough, he got Covid while he was there.  I hoped we hadn’t had our very last chat about Thanos and Loki.

But we had, and with no time stone to turn things around.  No soul stone for a final meeting.

I’ll never forget my favourite Sarge story.  He told me this tale when I interviewed him years ago:

The year was 1986. Sarge was out at the bar. Although he had no way of knowing, Philip Lynott from Thin Lizzy had died that day, and the bar was playing his music in tribute to the fallen rock hero. Sarge, however, was not a fan. When he openly criticized the music of Thin Lizzy with some choice words, a large man with “bad teeth, long black hair and a low gruff voice,” told the young Sarge to fuck off. This was Sarge’s first and last meeting with the infamous Lemmy Kilmister!

Rest in peace my friend.

 

23 comments

    1. Genuinely a good guy. Heard a great story from him yesterday.

      When Mike from the Klopeks did their British tour back in 2004-ish, they were up in Scotland and made the long drive down to Bournemouth. They arrived in the dead of night, and Mike scratched up the rental car trying to back into Sarge’s driveway.

      Sarge said, “No problem, don’t worry, we’ll sort it out in the morning, get some rest.”

      The next day Sarge called a mate up called “Dave the Hat”. Apparently by the looks of him, you wouldn’t want to approach Dave the Hat in the streets! But he was the nicest guy, fixed the damage and refused to accept payment. All because of Sarge.

      Liked by 1 person

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