Simon Dunn RIP

On many of the gigs I have been to in recent years I have been accompanied by Simon Dunn, who sadly died in the early hours of Monday 16th November 2015.

Simon Dunn and I coincided over a love of two things: natural foods and the Rolling Stones. Over dinner before a Sainsbury’s organic dairy meeting I got talking to Simon for the first time about something other than work and realised his deep love of rock’n’roll was a match for my own. There followed a series of excursions: The Who in Southampton, Pete Townshend in Brick Lane and the Stones all over the place, most recently  Zurich. His party animal tendencies dimmed in recent years but he was always up for a music-related chat. We even managed to get some work done occasionally, although sadly Fairtrade cigarettes never happened. Simon was a passionate champion of small brands and carefully shepherded their growth: Ecover, Whole Earth, Cawston Press and Jordans were just some of his success stories. He was lucky to find his ever-supportive wife Alyson, and he knew it.

The above photo was taken in Dublin on 17/8/07, the  night before seeing the Stones at Slane Castle ( https://onlyrockandroll.london/2012/03/13/got-to-scrape-that-shit-right-off-your-shoes/.) The Guinness is in focus, Simon is a bit fuzzy which seems about right.