I went to Joe Cassidy’s page to check in and the world stopped when I saw he died yesterday. I am devastated and am sorry if you are a mutual friend finding out this way.
I have loved Joe’s music, every beat of it, every note of it, for 30 years and more. I always will. My record label, Onomatopoeia, was named after the first Butterfly Child album. Releasing the My Bus album for Joe and Gary last year is one of my proudest moments.
I am heartbroken for his friends and family.
We never met in real life, although we did once miss each other by an hour on the same meter square of Giants’ Causeway in a massive non-coincidence. When working on My Bus I was in London, Gary in Belfast and Joe in LA then Chicago. Joe and I were close co-conspirators able to share our feelings about music, life, everything openly as well as take the piss out of each other. Joe was one of those people. Totally open, totally heartfelt.
Those long long planned beers and whiskys won’t happen now. Or maybe they will in another time and place. I will be toasting your music, your life and your memory tonight Joe.
For my 40th birthday my brother arramged a surprise for me, a one off single. He got Triumphant from Onomatopoeia and put a recording of Boz, then a baby, gurgling over the top. He got in touch with Joe to ask if he was OK with that. He was but not only that he sent a then unreleased Butterfly Child track for the B-side. THAT is entirely typical of his openess and generosity.
What music. What a man. What a life.
Last couple of years he’d talked about writing his memoir. I was’t sure if it was true, a joke or a half joke. If it was true there is a helluva book on the way one day. There is also finished acoustic album of Butterfly Child songs.
I recommend all Joe’s music: Butterfly Child, Assassins, NOISE, My Bus but am sharing Louis As Anna from The Honeymoon Suite. It makes me cry everytime anyway.
RiP Joe
Onomatopoeia Records 