PATRICK David Bradley, a musician highly regarded on the local music scene, who once jammed with Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, has died at St Mary’s Hospital, following a long illness, aged 74.
Born into a musical family, the son of well known Island pianist Babs Bradley, he was educated in Newport and got his first guitar when he was 12.
Having worked as a fisherman and in construction, he landed a job doing security at the IW Pop Festival at Afton in 1970.
It was there he got to meet all his rock heroes and even had opportunities to jam with some of them off-stage — legends such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix.
This experience inspired Mr Bradley, known to everyone as Pat, to forge ahead with his passion for music, predominantly as a rhythm guitarist.
A survivor from the mid-60s, he played rhythm guitar for bands including Aftermath and Rebecca May and was once voted the best rhythm guitarist on the Island.
After an eight-year hiatus from playing music, he returned in 1978 to perform in folk-rock duo, Mick and Pat, then Lynx and a season with Sidestreet. He also recorded with band The Korgis, which later went on to enjoy chart success.
In the 1980s, Mr Bradley went on to perform with Island musicians and chums, Les Payne and Snowy White.
After going from job to job, he went on to work on the Forties Delta oil rig, 200 miles off Aberdeen, for six months in 1980, as a helicopter-landing officer and rescue-boat pilot.
On the rig, he wrote songs and taught guitar, with many of his recorded compositions played over the rig’s sound system. Radio North Sea gave air play to some of them.
He wrote songs for friend Phil Ledicott’s reggae style band, White Flame, after they had both been involved in a band called JAB. Mr Ledicott organised the music for his funeral, held at the IW Crematorium, Whippingham, on July 14.
Mr Bradley, who was also a keen fisherman, established music clubs on the Island for those interested in learning and playing music on a low budget — giving up his time and sharing his vast musical knowledge and talent for free.
He often performed gigs in aid of worthy causes and, in his later years, he formed the band Geezer with veteran musicians Barry Flood and Chris White, purely to raise cash for charity.
Mr Bradley is survived by his sister, Jean Bradley, seven children and nine grandchildren.