Colin Masters aka Colin Dredd 1956-2015

Here are the last two posts have written on my dear friend Colin Masters, the sequence runs from bottom of the this post to the top.

3 hrs ago 19th May

Colin Dredd aka Colin Masters passed away at 10.45 this morning. These were the last moments I had with him...

"After that was done he had woken up to some degree and we continued to try to communicate. I then noticed that half of the cards he had received had still not been read to him so I suggested I read them and Colin agreed.
I did and he really really enjoyed listening to them being read. I can therefore tell all of you who sent him cards, that he received and heard them all, and they were read to him, just when he really needed them. Thank you to all who took the time and effort, as not only did he know about all the people thinking about him, but it gave us a very special moment that was to usher him out of the physical world.
When I eventually said I had to leave to get some sleep he turned in his bed to wave goodbye to me and that was to be my final memory of him."

I am aware that there are those of you who have sent cards that are still in the postal system. Do not be sad that your letters did not reach him in time, be reassured that the family are going to take great comfort in all of them, they are like echoes of the music he made, from the friends he leaves behind.

Colin Masters aka Dredd
Bassman Newtown Neurotics 1978 - 1988
Born 1955 (I think) - 2015

We are all heartbroken.

9 hrs ago 19th May

Update on the condition of Colin Dredd:

We nearly lost him last night, I had a text from his close friend Val to say the hospital had rung to say we had better go in. When I arrived Val was there and Colin was unresponsive. After a good while of talking across the bed, I saw his eyes begin to open and then he was back with us to some degree. After a while,seeing as he had perked up, Val left to get some sleep before she is back by his bedside again. I remained to stay by his bedside through the night. He kept trying to talk to me and I kept putting my ear next to his mask to work out what he was saying but failing miserably. Then on one of these occasions, he appeared to be making sounds that were not words and I said to him "Colin are you singing" and he nodded yes!

He sang to me! And I said Colin, I haven't heard you sing for years, that's brilliant.
Eventually he fell asleep and I watched over him through the night.
When the morning came the nurses, came to give him fresh meds and cleaned up the mask and his face. After that was done he had woken up to some degree and we continued to try to communicate. I then noticed that half of the cards he had received had still not been read to him so I suggested I read them and Colin agreed.
I did and he really really enjoyed listening to them being read.

I can therefore tell all of you who sent him cards, that he received and heard them all and they were read to him, just when he really needed them. Thank you to all who took the time and effort, as not only does he know about all the people thinking about him, but it gave us a special moment or two also.

When I eventually said I had to leave to get some sleep he turned in his bed to wave goodbye to me and that is the most I have seen him move for some time

Colin had massive infections before the operation, and these are now what are debilitating him, the doctors have thrown every type of meds they have at the problem and they now have nothing left. The disease will next go for the lungs and Colin's lung capacity has been debilitated by years of smoking.

I guess you know what I am saying here, because I'm not actually able to say it.

I've got to go to bed, I'm so tired.

17 May at 18:01

The most famous line up of the Newtown Neurotics came together this afternoon as myself and Simon Lomond visited our old friend and comrade Colin Dredd as he lie in the Critical Care unit of the ICU. I was relieved to see that although he still had an oxygen mask on to help with his breathing, he was not so distressed this time, albeit completely out of it. He is in great pain hence he is on morphine and although his surgery was a week ago, he is now fighting toxins and infection that has riddled the lower part of his body. The aim is to neutralise this poison before it reaches his vital organs.

It is almost, (although not completely) impossible to communicate with him as when he speaks, you can't hear him over the hiss of the oxygen or what words fall into the bottom of the mask, destined never to reach our ears, and he is in cloud cuckoo land with the drugs of-course. The life support machines around him randomly make sounds that unfortunately sound like the phrase "uh oh" and they unnerve me each time it happens, drawing my eyes to the read outs each and every time. The bewildering array of changing numbers are like medical dice but they never stop long enough to tell me if he is winning or losing. I try not to look anymore.

He continues to get loads of cards and I bought another batch of them today. He has had at least some of the first batch read to him but if he understood what was being said I don't know. The cards will do their job as soon as he has recovered a little more.

Simon told him to hang on it there and get better soon and we managed to hear him say "I am doing my best"

The Newtown Neurotics were and are a gang, that's rare in a band these days and as Simon and I left, we were anguished in a way only a gang can feel when one of their own has been laid low for some reason or other.

It's been a week now since his operation, he is still here, still fighting and with the tick tick ticking of the clock, all this friends hope that he inches closer to recovery.

You are with him with your cards,
he knows you are there,
that's the main thing.