His ambition to live fast, die young and leave a pretty corpse finally caught up with him on Saturday 23 March 2024, arriving by heart attack. He was 70 years old.

Bernie had made it clear that he didn’t want a funeral or any sort of memorial service, so we’re setting up this site as a place to post memories of him instead.

Anyone who wants to contribute can add their Bernie stories, and we can post up photos, videos and recordings that help his unique brand of light shine on for a while.

If you have anything you’d like to contribute, please send it to me, samseal@hotmail.co.uk, and I’ll post it up here.

(My grandmother Molly was Bernie’s dad’s elder sister, so my mother was Bernie’s cousin. That makes him my second cousin, but we’ve always all known him as “Cousin Bernie”.)

Here he is playing in a live music showcase wine bar over in Kennington.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjVweXWC2vg