Former Mirror music critic Gavin Martin has died at the age of 60 while on holiday in Barbados.
Born in Belfast, Gavin grew up in Bangor, County Down, where as a teenager, he put together the punk-era fanzine Alternative Ulster (its title immediately stolen by the band Stiff Little Fingers).
He began writing for the New Musical Express when he was still at school and moved to London in 1980 to become a staff writer for the NME, where he interviewed everyone from Marvin Gaye to the Sex Pistols.
Gavin was also important in helping the early career of U2 - to his “eternal and lasting shame” as he later wrote.
This was a remark typical of Gavin, who never let his intense love of music and respect for talent get in the way of his critical and often acerbic judgment.
Even his all-time musical hero Van Morrison wasn’t given an easy ride because Gavin never took anyone or anything for granted, giving the notoriously difficult Van a run for his money on many occasions and earning the singer’s respect.
Gavin will be remembered not just for his writing – which was among the best rock criticism in the world - but also for his character and personality: he was a man who could be bitingly funny and even caustic when the mood took him (which was often) but he was also a brilliant, funny, kind and loyal friend.
As a writer, he enjoyed a stellar career on many publications, from rock magazines to national newspapers. His work appeared in anthologies of rock writing, but it’s a measure of his excellence as a writer that – unlike several of his colleagues who eased into writing about rock bands of the past for heritage magazines, Gavin was still focused on modern music in his pieces for Mirror.
In recent years he moved to St Leonard’s-on-Sea with his partner Kate and became a performer, writing and recording spoken word pieces under the Talking Musical Revolutions banner, many of which were about his musical heroes.
Some people might have considered slowing down in later life, but Gavin was always working, always writing, always funny, and always the best of friends. He will be greatly missed by many, many people.
Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips said: “Gavin had a huge passion for music and brought that passion into every word that he wrote.
"He was an enormously talented journalist whose understanding and love of music flooded from the page to the readers he served.”
