Damn Firstly, my heart goes out to Frances, Emily, Alex, Harriet and Florence Alex has posted this video tribute to his father on YouTube: And there is a page of remembrance here; https://philjohnstone.muchloved.com/ I hope that the family don't mind me posting these links and my own thoughts that follow as I am possibly long forgotten, but I felt compelled to say something as both my sister and I are not looking forward to breaking the news of Phil's untimely passing to my dad. We only got to learn of it this past week through friends and both know it will have an impact on dad. When dad was studying at Plymouth Polytechnic in the early 60's he lodged with Phil's family in Salcombe and worked with Phil's own dad in his boat yard. Dad used to babysit the young Phil over the 8 years or so that he was bumming around as a marine engineer and blacksmith down there before having to grow up as his 30's approached... Roll on 20ish years to 1988 and on one of our annual pilgrimages as a family back to Salcombe for our holidays and visit to see old family friends and news got to us that 'Phil's back, and he'd love to see you!' At this point we knew nothing of his new found fame and success...right up until Brian May's long lost younger brother walked into the pub, and stories were exchanged about where life had taken each of them. To teenagers like my sister and I at the time of our annual trips, that now included dropping in to see the Johnstone's, he was a dude and Frances earth mother. Being shown round his ever expanding recording studio with DAT capable mixing desk being run off an Atari ST (I was an Amiga fan so we poked fun at each other) was so cool especially listening to his experiments with recording our voices and then riffing them into a tune on the keyboard (after first being shown what he could do to Kirsty MacCol's backing vocals on Heaven Knows!). Our trips generally coincided with Phil's birthday, on of which was an epic party I shall never forget, and another being there when RP rang to wish him a Happy Birthday. The snippet of how Phil met RP is a gem worth sharing, which I hope I have remembered correctly, Phil was busking in Covent Garden (London) when RP was walking past, stopped, stayed to listen and then have a chat, the rest as they say is history If memory serves the last time I saw Phil it was not long after Alex was born, by this time I was at uni and not on the pilgrimages each summer and life happened. My folks stayed in touch with cards at Christmas exchanged after the Johnstone's moved to Exeter, but I suspect these lapsed as my mum's memory has faded due to Parkinson's Dementia and so the encyclopedia of Christmas Card lists has become patchy... RIP Phil we really are going to miss you, and wish we hadn't left it so long to actually catch up properly