3:57pm Friday 12th March 2010
By Carl Brown
TRIBUTES have been paid to a popular blues musician who has died of throat cancer.
Andy Johnson, 62, died at St Clare Hospice, in Hastingwood, Essex, last Friday.
Mr Johnson was well known as a guitarist in acclaimed Walthamstow 1970s rock and blues band Sam Apple Pie, which played at the first Glastonbury festival in 1970.
Mr Johnson went on to form Jimmy Riddle and the P***pots, which often played local venues including Lloyd Park and Walthamstow Assembly Hall.
He later worked as a sound engineer for the likes of U2 and The Pogues.
Jim Mitchell, 65, of Sewardstone Gardens, Chingford, attended George Monoux School with Mr Johnson and later sang alongside him in the Jimmy Riddle band.
He said: “Andy was a very private person and we would often play and watch cricket together.
“My daughter Cassie was devastated when she found out he had died. He was very kind to her when he was in the band and she was a child.”
Guardian reader Mick Holder said he remembered seeing Andy and Sam Apple Pie and described them as “great fun”.
He also said of the Jimmy Riddle band: “This band sized from between about ten up to 27 members -honest, I counted - on stage and did the Blues Brothers and Commitments thing years before the films - and they were terrific live.”
Mr Johnson leaves his wife Jean and grown-up daughters Hannah and Rachel.
Jean Johnson said: "We were all there with him at the end. "It was peaceful, pain free and quick.
"We couldn't ask for more than that. He will be sadly missed."
His funeral will take place at Pardon Wood crematorium, in Harlow, on Tuesday at 3pm.
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