My friend Colin Masters, better known as Colin Dredd, who has died aged 59 of complications from surgery after a long illness, was the bass player, backing vocalist and a founder member of the punk band the Newtown Neurotics.
In the 1980s the Neurotics recorded John Peel sessions for BBC Radio 1, released a critically lauded debut album, Beggars Can Be Choosers, and saw their third single, Kick Out the Tories, become an anthem as they played an exhausting schedule of benefit gigs throughout the 1984-85 miners’ strike. As the band’s political lyrics and fundraising activities gained momentum, violent confrontations with the far right were commonplace, and Colin, although he seemed physically frail, always stood his ground.
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