Morning, I hope all is well. All pretty rubbish here this week as a great friend and even greater influence of mine died on Saturday morning after a brief battle with bowel cancer.

Fraser Moss was the same age as me. We first met in a queue for a film fair in Westminster early on a Saturday morning in about 1991. He was with Martin Green and we were the youngest people there. We chatted and realised that we were all after the same kind of groovy music and our friendship developed very fast indeed.

Pretty soon Fraser went from working with Viv Westwood to having an odd first floor office in Soho full of proggy chairs and records - a business he called "Professor Head". There then followed a funny little shop in Covent Garden, selling deadstock Nike running shoes and rare selvedge denim he'd found in Japan and New York. By 1996 Fraser had started YMC with his mate Jimmy. And for the last 26 years it has grown into a testament to his timeless taste and style. 

Fraser was always way ahead of the curve both musically and sartorially - but his musical ear was simply awesome. Weird electronics, post punk, sunshine pop, experimental library, psychedelic folk - in many cases Fraser was collecting these (and finding the best examples) before anyone had really caught on to just how good it all was. He was always a joy to hang out with, full of laughter (he was bloody hilarious) and always with better records than anyone. 

Fraser would pass through my mind pretty much daily, for all sorts of great reasons, and I know this will never stop. He will be terribly missed by all who knew him.

His son has set up a Brave The Shave page to raise funds for MacMillan cancer support.

I'm now off to cycle around the city, will buy some records (it's what Fraser would want) and will keep telling myself just how lucky I am to be alive.  

Thanks for listening as always

Jonny

 

New Patreon Show drops today. Some of Fraser's classic records that he bought and played us years before anyone thought they were really good. All revenue going to Macmillan Cancer Support.