A tribute to Placebo (Charles) from his daughter

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placebo

AVForums Grandmaster
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Apr 14, 2010
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Dear Forum friends,

Sincerest thanks from myself and my mum for all the wonderful messages and tributes that have been pouring in on behalf of my dad. The avforums.co.za was a huge part of his life and he made so many wonderful friends and connections with whom he could share his love of music and audio equipment.

I wanted to take this opportunity to share a small tribute about him here with all of you and though he was a man of few words, I know he will forgive me just this once for using his account with a long post.

As long as I can remember my dad always shared his love of music with me. One of my earliest memories is him coming home with a small, bright yellow Phillips tape player for me in the early 80's when I wasn't even knee height. He would record his records onto tape and pass them on so I could get a 'proper' education. He loved nothing more than to play those records so we could dance around the living room together and he was particularly proud of any music that had formerly been banned by the old government as he was an ardent liberal at heart. Unfortunately there was a terrible break-in at home in the mid 90's and my dad lost all the equipment he loved so much and had been passionately collecting for many years. For some time the music died and he was just devastated. Then he discovered the AVForums and he came alive again. He would animatedly sit with me every night and painstakingly run through the particular technicalities of a piece of equipment and its pro's and cons. We would argue fervently about certain groups and songs- the Pink Floyd arguments were always the loudest. I couldn't convince him, no matter how hard I tried, that anything apart from 'Another Brick in the Wall' was any good  :Ooooooh:

He's gonna kill me for letting this out, but despite his excellent taste in equipment, he loved nothing more than sitting on the porch with me at night with a few beers in hand, listening to my iPod through a tiny set of black speakers and try to guess every song and artist as quickly as he could. His knowledge of music from the 50's, 60's and 70's was always encyclopaedic. I used to make whole playlists for him of his favourite songs and Sunday mornings were always record day for him and I.

I want to take this opportunity to thank members of the forum and those who hosted the events he loved so much, the vinyl fairs and those who visited the house, for all the joy you brought to his life. He was never happier than he was with the forum.

Lastly, I'm not sure he ever shared with anyone where his handle came from, but when I was a typical pimply, angsty, teenage girl I was crazy about the band Placebo and my dad would always help me track down and order their back catalogue of rare releases and then complain bitterly that he was spending his hard earned beer money :facepalm:.

He was the kindest and most generous soul you could ever hope to meet and despite the tough exterior and his generally grumpy demeanour, he had a wicked sense of humour and you couldn't hope to meet a kinder friend.

Thanks to all.

Lauren (Charlie's daughter)
 
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