When the DJ, producer, artist and raconteur Andrew Weatherall died in February 2020, aged 56, a quite extraordinary burst of activity began. As Weatherall’s partner, Lizzie Walker, says, “within 24 hours there were tributes and murals popping up all over the country – all over the world, in fact” – but that was barely the start of it. Social events, online communities and archival programmes haven’t stopped since, and this month’s AW60 series of events across the UK, around what would have been his 60th birthday, continues the love-in.
The main pillars of the Weatherall community are the A Love From Outer Space (ALFOS) club he founded with DJ partner Sean Johnston; the Weatherdrive, a vast online repository of 1,300 hours of his DJ sets, radio appearances and other media, with its linked Flightpath Estate community of completists who annotate everything; and the Convenanza festival, in a castle in the mystically inclined medieval town of Carcassonne in southern France, founded by the equally mystical Weatherall with friend Bernie Fabre, which returned last year and continues in 2023.
