RIP George Bodnar

I cant actually believe it. Today I went to the funeral of my old friend and fellow photographer, George Bodnar. By all accounts he had fought a hard old battle against Cancer and very sadly lost. When I arrived at Ealing Abbey there were quite a few familiar faces there. Plenty of music photographers along with music industry managers etc. Simon Porter Status Quo amongst them. We all left Ealing and trundled over to Hendon, where George and his family live and is now laid to rest.

I first met George with his then sidekick, Denis O'Regan in the late 70's. From what I remember George and Denis were ushers at either Wembley or Hammersmith Odeon, I cant remember. Anyway, I was taking photos at the front as we do, along with my then sidekick and good friend, Matthew Taylor (who died tooo young), when George and Denis were asking us both how we do what we do etc etc. We told them how we blagged our passes and before we knew much more they had both promoted themselves from ushers to Music photographers and I must say, GREAT photographers they both became as well as wonderful top draw geezers. George spent a lot of his later life working with Prince Charles as I believe he was Official Photographer for The Princes Trust. Quite an achievement! I have some wonderful memories of George and he will be sadly missed by a lot of people.