Tributes paid to Probe Information boss Geoff Davies: “The gateway to enlightenment”

Tributes have been paid throughout the music business for Probe Information boss Geoff Davies, following his dying. He was aged 80.

The music mogul was most famed for co-founding the Probe Information store again in 1971 together with his former spouse Annie, and shortly grew to become one of the vital influential figures of Liverpool’s cultural scene.

He died on Tuesday morning (September 12) in Kingswood Mount Care Dwelling, Allerton. Asserting his dying, his second spouse Anne revealed that Davies was recognized with dementia in 2019, and solely moved right into a care dwelling on the finish of April this 12 months.

She additionally advised The Liverpool Echo that her husband had had a spell in hospital earlier than being relocated to the care dwelling, and that she noticed him deteriorate rapidly having been additional recognized with lymphoma, which was his reason for dying.

The couple’s document store was initially positioned on Clarence Avenue in 1971, earlier than shifting to Button Avenue in 1976. It was additionally near Eric’s nightclub, resulting in frequent visits from artists together with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Echo and the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes.

Well-known faces together with Pete Burns and Julian Cope labored on the store earlier than making it massive of their respective careers, and Davies was quickly established as one of the vital integral names within the native music scene.

In 2010, the store moved to its present location on Faculty Lane.

Following his passing, new wave band Deaf Faculty took to social media to pay tribute to Davis, describing him as “an expensive buddy, not solely to us, however to the complete musical collective on Merseyside”. Former Eric’s director Ken Testi additionally stated the document label boss helped “construct the raft” for different Merseyside creatives “to sail on”, and that the town’s “musical creativity and legacy” was constructed on his and Annie’s work (by way of BBC Information).

It’s with monumental unhappiness that we report the lack of Geoff Davies.
An expensive buddy, not solely to us, however to the complete musical collective on Merseyside.
Relaxation in peace Geoff.
We is not going to see your like once more. pic.twitter.com/pFMCMoAnGm

— Deaf Faculty Dwell (@D_S_Live) September 12, 2023

As reported by The Liverpool Echo, Nigel Blackwell – frontman of Half Man Half Biscuit – additionally paid tribute to Davies. “OMD, Echo and the Bunnymen, Wah!, The Teardrop Explodes, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Farm, The La’s, Lightning Seeds, Boo Radleys, The Coral – magnificent bands all, and but one way or the other Geoff missed every one in every of them and ended up with us. Poor blighter,” he wrote.

“Let it’s stated that with out Geoff we’d most likely by no means have launched our first document or certainly any document… He shall undoubtedly be missed by us all and immediately ‘Life appears much less candy, Loss of life much less bitter.’”

Louder Than Struggle founder John Robb additionally wrote a heartfelt tribute to Davies, which described him as a “key driving power within the Liverpool publish punk scene.”

“Geoff (and Annie) was one of many true architects of the Liverpool music scene. A type of mavericks who appeared to stay by means of each popular culture technology and facilitate the motion,” the replace learn. ”With out Geoff, most of post-punk Liverpool most likely wouldn’t have occurred.”

Try extra tributes from throughout the leisure world under.

And there was just one Geoff Davies farewell my expensive buddy pic.twitter.com/TrhfSO1osC

— Mike Badger (@MikeBadgerShady) September 13, 2023

So many icons of my youth have handed on over this previous 12 months however none has harm so viscerally as todays unhappy information about Geoff Davies. To many people, Probe was the gateway to enlightenment. Go straightforward, Geoff. Step calmly. Keep free 🖤

— Kevin Sampson (@ksampsonwriter) September 12, 2023

Geoff … a bit of thread …
Everybody has a narrative about Geoff chasing them out of the store for askig for the fallacious sort of document. I used to assume that was to do with style and funky however got here to grasp .. https://t.co/fN0EM1LRqr

— Frank Cottrell-Boyce (@frankcottrell_b) September 13, 2023

FAREWELL OLD FRIEND: @ProbeRecords founder geoff davies died earlier immediately. this makes immediately’s information doubly unhappy following annie’s latest dying. they had been big figures in mine and many individuals’s lives and what they did with probe ought to by no means be underestimated. so lengthy, outdated bean. 🖤 pic.twitter.com/xIfJGwB91O

— Bernard Connor. MD ANT (@bernieworld) September 12, 2023

Many issues change ones life. Geoff Davies modified mine for positive… me and the household too, shifting over to Liverpool gave us all a re boot… a distinct life. His backing for me within the bands … HMHB and now… Geoff has gone, he is departed. So unhappy. Like to Jessy, Zack and Ann X pic.twitter.com/Gx76u8iYfM

— jd meatyard (@meatyard_jd) September 12, 2023

So unhappy to listen to the information that Geoff Davies, co-founder of Probe Information has handed away.

Coping with Geoff in later years was all the time a pleasure.

He critically was one in every of a form and can be sorely missed by many.

My condolences exit to his household. pic.twitter.com/fr4FlFuGqF

— Motion Information (@ActionRecords) September 13, 2023

Discover out extra about Probe Information right here.