John Shuttleworth

I remember coming back from a band practise one night in the nineties. It was about 23:00hrs and Mark & Lard were on the radio doing the Graveyard Shift whilst I was driving home. Guesting with them on this night was John Shuttleworth, a character new to myself at the time. He was telling Mark & Lard about the terrible time he lost his first wife. Whilst he was driving she was asking John Trivia Pursuit questions. The question, “What was Whitney Houston’s first hit single” came up. As he was thinking hard he hit ice on the road and the car skidded uncontrollably. His wife was flung from the car as she wasn’t wearing a seat belt. John managed to find her very injured, bleeding and dying. He grasped her and held her tightly and said, “I will always love you” to which she replied, “No, I wanna dance with somebody”.

I had to pull over into Cuerden Park car park as I was laughing so much with tears in my eyes and from here on I loved John Shuttleworth.

Last Thursday I went to see John Shuttleworth on his farewell tour and it was lovely. Sarah gets tearier than I do when she laughs and she came away looking like the Emperor from Star Wars.