Ah damn, we only found out about Lawrence and his illness a few days ago, hadn’t seen his big smile around for a bit and well, just, well damnit!

Just got a text message, shit shit shit… Seems Lawrence passed away, surrounded by family and friends on Friday evening.

Lawrence’s good friend Julie Tweddle (she of Koogaphone) has been running a fundraising page that says far more than I can, she just posted    “I know many of you have now heard the sad news. Lawrence passed away last night surrounded by friends and family. The room was so full of love and admiration that he must have felt like a true rockstar.Although he was more a lover of music, I’ve heard him sing, there won’t be an invite to the Angel choir. Thank you so much for all the hope and support you gave to Lawrence and his family during these final weeks. Lawrence left this world knowing he was truly loved. Lawrence, I will miss you each and every day. Heartbroken X”

I hate writing these things, it just doesn’t seem right that someone should pass away at such a relatively young age, And yes I know people always say the same things about people when they hear sad news like this, but he really really really was a good guy (I guess we don’t write these things for people we didn’t really like, it would have been hard not to like Fluffy Bunny Lawrence).

I can’t really claim to have known Lawrence really really well but we did regularly cross paths and share a love of DIY gigs and putting out records and zines and such. It was always good to bump in to him, as we often did, at a gig he was involved in or a gig we were involved in that featured a band he was doing something with or just at a gig featuring a band or two we both liked.  He was always full of such friendly positive enthusiasm, he always had a big smile as his blond hair flopped about and we traded new releases on our respective record labels or passed on news of new bands or forthcoming gigs we were excited about – “have you has a demo from so and so?”,  “You should check out this new band. “.  Lawrence was always so damn happy, always full of enthusiasm and always so positive when you met him at a gig – even at one of his own gigs (and I tell you from experience putting on your own gigs back there was sometimes very stressful!). He always had a great big smile on his face, never saw him without a big smile… I think the last time I saw Lawrence I was playing China Drum’s version of Wuthering Heights at a gig, it wasn’t  a Fluffy Bunny release but I’m going to stick it on now and have a big smile to myself, he was always on to me about how good he thought China Drum were and how I should be covering them more, Lawrence was all about back rooms and gigs like this one….

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If you don’t know who Lawrence was then take it from someone who was around and bumped in to him regularly in back rooms and soundchecks, Lawrence was a big positive part of the the London underground music scene in the 90’s, he was very active on that indie side of punk, he put on loads of good gigs and put out lots of good releases, records from bands like China Drum, Speedurchin, Jolt, Daisy Chainsaw, Travis Cut, Decadent Few, Blaggers ITA and a whole load more. If you do read anything about him you’ll probably read about how he put on the first Green Day gig in London, but it was the little London bands to the bands in transit vans from out of town trying to get a break in the capital that Lawrence really celebrated and should be remembered for, the little bands he did so much for with so much smiling enthusiasm, bands and great nights alive with energy and DIY attitude in the back rooms of the Falcon, the Dublin Castle and the days before the internet when not so much was documented. Hey Lawrence, those were good times, we’ll miss you…

Our thoughts are with Lawrence’s family and friends, he leaves us with a lot of fond memories, flyers and smiles.  Lawrence leaves behind his partner Mimi and a four year old son called Christopher.  Hey Christopher, your dad was a great guy, I hope his record collection and all those old gig flyers will one day make you proudly smile….

There’s a lot more from Julie Kooga on her Just Giving fundraising page for Lawrence…

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