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        Pete Atkin >> Gigs >> Des de Moor
        
(Message started by: Richard Whiting on Today at 12:45)

Title: Des de Moor
Post by Richard Whiting on Today at 12:45

I mentioned this to Steve and he ‘encouraged’ me to let y’all know that……but, first, a pre-amble.

On the 7th of May 2001 I went to The Vortex (Jazz) Club in Stoke Newington Church Street in order to see Pete. Before the gig, I chatted to a guy, who gave the impression that this evening was (mainly) his doing and, reading the post-gig notes, that seems to be the case. It turned out that he was Des de Moor and he was also on the undercard. It was a great evening!

That was the pre-amble.

Fast forward quite a few years and I find myself at The North London Beer Festival in the Euston area. I noticed a guy holding a few books that he’d, obviously, like to sell and I recognised him as being the aforementioned Des de Moor. So, I approached him and we started chatting about Pete and The Vortex and that sort of thing...as you would expect. He was friendly but ended our short conversation by speculating that, and these are my words and not his, “As much as I’ve enjoyed this chat, as you seem un-likely to buy my book, I’m moving on”. And he did.

That was the mid-amble.

The post script is this:

Sadly, I’ve found out that Des has died.
Apart from being a musician, Des was also a highly-respected beer writer. He wrote regular beer articles in various publications and produced many books on the subject...at least one of which, I didn’t buy.

Here’s a link to his obituary. I hope you don’t have to be a CAMRA member to access it.
https://wb.camra.org.uk/2026/02/10/des-de-moor-a-man-of-many-words

But, in case you do, here’s a pertinent extract:
“His passion for beer was matched by his love of music. He was a singer and performed in a number of clubs in London. He specialised in cabaret and presented a collection of songs by David Bowie called Darkness and Disgrace with pianist Russell Churney. Des was “a man of many layers”. He translated into English, songs by the Belgian performer Jacques Brel. He founded music nights in the Vortex Club in Stoke Newington and took part in poetry festivals in the Camden People’s Theatre.

RIP Des!