By Ged Babey.
The funeral of Roger Francis, of Southampton band First Men in Space will take place on the 9th January at 12, at Test Valley Crematorium in Romsey, followed by a gathering at The Railway Institute in Eastleigh. A collection will be held for charity Alcohol Change UK.
Some people are far too cool to have a fashionable self-mythologizing ‘online presence’. They didn’t set out to be influential and inspirational. They just were, by accident, just by virtue of being themselves, by doing what they did in their own sweet, mad, unique way. A head full of mischievous ideas inspired by art, music, science-fiction and humour and an individualistic approach to life. There is one in every town, suburb and village. Some go on to become rock-stars…. others stay as local heroes.
There won’t be headlines or celebrity tributes, but there are still a lot of people who spent their rebel teenage years in the 1980’s in St Marys music pubs of Southampton who will remember him with affection.
The Southampton music scene has lost one of it’s originals. A one-off. Roger Francis. Our most enigmatic post-punk, art-punk singer has left us. Our First Man in Space, our co-doorman at the earliest NBT gigs at the Joiners. The Man Who Fell to Eastleigh in his charity shop suit and fedora and Warhol specs. Like me, you may not have known his surname for years, he was just Roger, Mint Burston‘s mate and singer with the First Men In Space and other bands.
The only existing recordings by First Men In Space and idid idid can be found on Geoff Walls Stick It In Your Ear (Cassette Label) Archive (Southampton Music 1981 -87).
Adapted with permission from an article in Louder Than War.
- In Common is not for profit. We rely on donations from readers to keep the site running. Could you help to support us for as little as 25p a week? Please help us to carry on offering independent grass roots media. Visit: https://www.patreon.com/incommonsoton