Who would have told me 41 years ago that I would one day make a website about The Young Marble giants, I probably had a glassy look! Internet did not exist yet and I was 18 years old in the spring of 1980. I had briefly witnessed impressive concerts by XTC, Joy Division, the Gang of Four and The Cure. I visited Alex, a friend and a music lover, and he showed me his new LPs. The pick-up needle descended on Colossal Youth side 1. Everything stopped for a moment and I was enchanted. The love for this music would never go away.

Weekend With Simon Booth, Phil Mosham, Alison Statton and Spike live at Paradiso in Amsterdam, February 5,1983	The Gist Rockgarden,London 8/1983	Devine and Statton Nighttown Rotterdam,4/1989 (with Blaine Reininger)

Unfortunately I missed the tour of Young Marble Giants in the Netherlands, but luckily I later saw Weekend in Amsterdam (1982), The Gist in London (1983) and Devine & statton in Rotterdam (1989)

After a performance of Everything but the Girl, I asked the bassist of the band (Phil Moxham!) For Stuart's address. I wrote a letter to Stuart and got it back enthusiastically. There was a nice contact with Stuart that way.

In April 1989 I saw Devine & Statton in Rotterdam and after the performance I took this picture of Alison. I got her address and after an exchange of letters I visited Alison and her friend Pete in Cardiff in September 1989 and stayed with Pete and Alison for a weekend. They showed the area and I visited, among other things, the beautiful castle Castell-Coch with a fairytale interior. In that same week I visited Stuart in London on his houseboat.

In May 1990 Stuart & Cindy visited me in Noordwijk for two days. I made a nice audio session in my Tiny summer house with a cassette deck with two good microphones and a day later Stuart came to play 2 songs at mywork (on the TV program "Berghjournaal" for people with an intellectual disability).

On a visit to Stuart in 1991 I took the photo by candlelight on his houseboat in Rickmansworth that ended up in the booklet with the CD Signal Path. Contact with Stuart remained all these years and it took until 2007 before we saw each other again at a Young Marble Giants performance in Nivilles (1 november 2008) Belgium.

The photos I took of Weekend, Alison and the Gist were posted on Wikipedia and on various websites and Stuart asked if the Gist photo (above) could be used as a PR/CD photo for his CD 'Holding Pattern'. The collection of LPs, singles and CDs has grown very large (see photo from 2017) and I am happy that Stuart, Alison, Phil and Drew are still making music regularly and I'm also happy with the friendship with Stuart.