Singer dies after freak door accident

coat, the lot. I was wearing so many layers I could hardly move around!

However wretched the winters were, the fog was worse. It could be an absolute horror to get through and was a fairly regular occurrence in the months of April, May and June in and around the North Sea – hot air coming up from the Continent would mix with cold air from the north, a first-class recipe for creating fog.

Even with all the modern navigation systems, a skipper needs to see where he’s going.

On one particular trip, the fog was so thick that you could cut it up and package it. I was standing up in the wheelhouse and yet I couldn’t see the front of the boat.

It was a very eerie, disorientating atmosphere, the sea quiet as an ice cap.

Steering through that felt like driving through a cloud 30 miles long.

I had a plotter that told me my position and a compass to tell my heading, but if those failed, we’d be lost with no clear way of getting home.

I stepped out of the wheelhouse. A dirty grey, wet, cold mist encircled the boat like a smoke ring, the fog lying on the surface of the sea.

I couldn’t see anything in front of me, but when I looked above, I did a double-take. I saw a clear blue sky and, incredibly, a shining sun.

Utterly surreal. I didn’t stay on the deck for long. In such impenetrable fog, the only way I could avoid a fatal collision was to keep a constant eye on the radar.

But the radar was no guarantee. Small boats are difficult to pick up – a skipper could easily miss one. A SHANTY group singer has died after being crushed by a metal door moments before a gig.

Trevor Grills, the frontman in Fisherman’s Friend, is the second person to die as a result of the freak accident, which also claimed the life of tour manager Paul McMullen.

The 54-year-old suffered serious head injuries when the huge door, which was part of a loading bay at the G Live theatre in Guildford, Surrey, fell on top of him on Saturday night.

Mr Grills was taken to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, where he died on Monday, while Mr McMullen, from Disley, Cheshire, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 10-piece group, from Post Issac, Cornwall, had been due on stage that evening.

A statement from the group said: “Trevor was a much loved and valued friend.”

The Health and Safety Executive is investigating the deaths along with police.