I spent a bit of time sharing a flat in Gerald Street in Benwell with Ian, Alex & Val Matthews. Ian was never a great cook (at that time anyway) and his piece de resistance was the fish finger and brussels sprout sandwich, enhanced (?) by a liberal dollop of Hammonds Chop Sauce, a well known (at that time) brown sauce made in Yorkshire – Ian would countenance no other, being a proud Yorkshireman. It became quite renowned after a while, but when it was Ian’s turn to cook for the flat he was unceremoniously instructed that he had to find something else to cook! This would probably have been around 1971/72 I think – could be mistaken, but it was definitely post University – I think I was a Trainee Social Worker at the time.

I also remember my parents visiting the flat, all the way from Dorset, and obviously being horrified by the conditions we lived in as always, despite the presence of two relatively wholesome young women. I think it was January or February, freezing cold, and Ian emerged from his room in a t-shirt and shorts, carrying a bag of laundry and announced he was off to the launderette. After he’d gone, my parents asked me if he always went out dressed like that in the winter, and I pointed out that it would be because he’d run out of clean clothes and all his other clothes were in the launderette bag.

I hope this may be of some use in your collation, I still can’t quite get over the fact that I won’t see him again – we won’t go to another Police Dog Hogan concert at The Cluny (his favourite band for the last few years, and he came up from Leeds twice to see them and stayed with us, once with Resh and once on his own) – and he was also wanting to reform our quiz team for the Cradlewell or Punch Bowl, and was talking about coming up and staying with us overnight just for that – didn’t do things by halves, Ian