Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Final note for musical icon at packed service
HUNDREDS of friends, fa m i ly, mu sic love r s and Arabs gathered to pay their final respects to local legend Alastair
“Breeks” Brodie.
The Groucho’s co-founder and devout United follower died at the end of last month and his funeral was held at Dundee
Crematorium yesterday.
Led by celebrant Barbara
McGillvery, the service heard tributes from Alastair’s nephew
Chae Strathie and family friend
Mike Barile.
Mourners i n “flamboyant” dress – per Breeks’ own request
– were greeted with sunshine, save for a poetic spell of rain as the funeral party arrived.
Among those who turned out to pay their respects were local legends Ged Grimes of Simple
Minds and Danny Wilson frontman Gary Clark.
The crematorium’s hall was packed out, with about 300 people lining the room ahead of the coffin being borne in.
As it was laid down his widow
Stella, dressed in denim with a
Groucho’s tote bag, laid a single sunflower wrapped i n white ribbon on top of the casket and kissed the lid.
Ms McGillvery paid tribute to a man who “lived a happy life”.
She said: “A light has gone out and all we have is the precious memory of how brightly it burned and the warmth it gave.”
His nephew Chae used the words of others to describe his uncle, saying the 500-word limit for his speech wouldn’t suffice.
“That’s not really enough – not even one story’s worth,” he said.
“Breeks has just nipped off to flick through a box of albums.
“He’s still alive – in the stories we’ll tell each other for decades to come and in the love we’ll always have for him.”
He finished his reading with a poem specially written for the ceremony by the “Dundee Street
Poet” Gary Robertson – which called the Groucho’s boss “ane of Dundee’s finest sons”.
The selection of songs was inspired by Alastair’s lifelong love of what he would call “real music”.
Paul “Lefty” Wright played a selection of instrumental Jimi
Hendrix blues tunes to welcome visitors to the crematorium, followed by Hendrix song Little
Wing and Song to the Siren by
This Mortal Coil thereafter.
At the close of the ceremony songs by the eccentric Bonzo
Dog Doo-Dah Band played over the speakers – the silly tones putting a smile on the faces of those who turned out so extravagantly dressed.
It was a fitting final note for the man for whom a favourite quote, often attributed to Charlie
Chaplin and Groucho Marx, was:
“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”