Here
we have a page for links to remember Eric Bird.
Eric
was a regular at AMP Access to Music Project
(website here)
Here is Eric on the left with
Roger Weston at one of earliest
AMP meetings in 2004 Above and below.
Eric with one
of his guitars.
Eric was photographed for the
Dorset Evening Echo Weekend Magazine and it was brought out
on Saturday 19th March, 2005. Please contact the Echo office
if you would like the photograph.
Eric was due to perform at Lighthouse,
Poole's Centre for the Arts at a community performance on 28th
May, 2005 and then AMPFEST there on 2nd July.
Eric was always willing to teach
guitar and banjo to anyone who came along to AMP, although his
nimble fingerpicking did cause a few crossed eyes! He was very
fast! Eric was an inspiration to all ages and helped with teaching
everyone from 13 up to our senior citizen members. He never
failed to have me in fits of giggles with his naughty folk songs,
and I have to apologise for the wobbly filming in a couple of
cases!
Eric had many friends and many
hobbies and interests, from the Quakers through gardening and
on to sailing and music. He lived a very full life which should
be a lesson to us all!
Eric was a fabulously eccentric
character, which was perhaps his greatest and most memorable
feature. He never stopped laughing at the ridiculous-ness of
life and he could always raise a smile from the grumpiest of
people! Besides, I was never lost for something to write with..I
just had to grab a pencil from one of the two or three nesting
in his beard :-)
Eric, thank you for coming to
AMP and meeting us all, I'll miss you terribly and so will all
of your friends.
Paula Brown
Here are some
video links to view. They are rather large, so take care! Broadband
is a must! They work in RealPlayer on my computer.
Maids
When You're Young at Lighthouse, Poole in February 2005.
A
Clip with Roger at Christmas 04
Three
Drunken Maidens!
Eric's funeral
flowers.
There was standing room only at
Eric's funeral on 8th April, 2005. He had requested garden flowers
only but from his friends at AMP, we couldn't resist making
him a banjo.
There is also a memorial page
on the AMP website.
Eric suffered from encephalitis
- he requested donations to be made to the Encephalitis Society
at his funeral. Please
click here for the Encephalitis Society website. You can
make donations via their website links.
Tolerably
marginal
Eric is tolerably marginal
He always tells me so
Whether he's playing folk
Or abandoning a squeeze box in a car park
His words are the same
Eric is tolerably marginal
He tells other people too
Whether he's tending plants
Or mowing the lawn for the first (and only time) this year
His words are the same
Eric is tolerably marginal
I’m sure he’s told everyone
Whether he's skippering a cat
Or working on his disabled sailing project
His words are the same
Eric is tolerably marginal
He tells his diary too
His leather bound memory
Full of everything he's done from singing to eating
And his words are the same
Eric feels tolerably marginal
But I don't see that in him
Talented and wickedly funny
An extraordinary eccentric
With a teachers patience and pencils in his beard
And his words are still. The same
Dave Brown
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