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BRYAN Glancy: Died on January 20.
Music world mourns loss of inspirational songwriter
Saul Brody2/ 2/2006
BRYAN Glancy, who died on January 20, 2006, aged 39, was a much-loved singer/songwriter who inspired and influenced a generation of musical talent.
He was a warm, charismatic, funny and intelligent man who will be greatly missed by scores of friends and admirers.
Bryan emerged as a hugely impressive songwriter and performer in the early 1980s and remained a familiar and popular character in and around Manchester from that time, performing in many of the city's prominent venues.
His career took him all over the UK, Europe and the USA, and he enjoyed lengthy and successful collaborations with several prominent artists including ex-Chameleon, Mark Burgess and I am Kloot's John Bramwell.
Bryan had many friends in Manchester and beyond, who admired his musical talent, his wry and intelligent humour, his loyalty and his compassionate nature.
It is an indication of the high esteem in which he was held that he was best man to no fewer than six of his closest friends, including fellow singer songwriter David Gray, with whom Bryan toured and performed extensively here and abroad. Bryan was renowned for his unswerving personal and musical integrity; he never abandoned his ideals for the sake of commercial success.
Bryan was born on April 1966 and grew up in Prestwich. He attended King David Junior School and Bury Grammar School, and began playing guitar, aged 13, in 1979.
By the early 80s he was forging a reputation as a bright and hugely promising talent, writing beautiful songs, and, for a time, dispensing alcohol and largesse from behind the 'cans bar' at the newly-opened Hacienda. He was invariably the focus of a lot of, mostly female, attention - Bryan had a magnetic quality that drew people towards him.
He continued to perform and write songs throughout the 1980s and was well-known in such venues as the Green Room, where he frequently played alongside John Bramwell (then known, of course, as Johnny Dangerously). His work with Mark Burgess drew considerable media attention and critical acclaim. In the 1990s he was a member of the seminal and influential Manchester band The Mouth, before linking up with virtuoso violinist Graham Clark.
Everybody loved Bryan, from the Granby on Princess Street, to The Temple of Convenience, Big Hands and legendary Manchester venue Night and Day. Bryan was a friend to many of Manchester's most prominent musicians and entertainers.
Bryan's funeral at the Jewish cemetery in Failsworth was attended by more than 200 mourners, among them Badly Drawn Boy, David Gray, the members of Elbow and I am Kloot, and rising star Steven Fretwell, as well as scores of friends and family members.
Bryan was a wonderfully talented and versatile man; at the time of his sudden and unexpected death, he was enjoying the second year of a degree course in creative writing at Salford University.
He was looking forward to the future with hope, confidence and enthusiasm. He will be sorely missed; not only by those alongside whom he performed, but by his many, many friends and his teammates at Dynamo Thursday, for whom he appeared for several years on Sunday mornings in the Manchester Publicity League, and those with whom he enjoyed a Thursday evening kick-about at Mersey Meadows for a number of years. Bryan was incomparable and will be irreplaceable.
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I understand that you don't want to turn Bryan's death into a subject of curiosity, but hear me out. I was getting to know Bryan in the last couple of years. In fact he spent a week in my apartment in Tel Aviv between Xmas and New Year. I was due to come up and see him in Manchester in January but he died.
Saul, if you can tell me I'd just like to know what wasn't mentioned in any of the Press. Was it suicide? Was it smack?
It's a small thing compared to the pain you must feel at the loss of your best friend. But Saul, he left an impression on me and I want to know why he's dead. It's wierd that we were just getting to know each other again.
He was still as smart and funny. And we're both much nicer.
R.S.V.P. PH Love and Peace xx
17/03/2006 at 00:24