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A Celebration of the Life of Ian John Edwards

24th May 1981 – 15th December 2010

Off to Wacken in July 2008

Monday 17th January 2011 at 10am at Solihull Library Theatre, Solihull Arts Complex, Touchwood, Homer Road, Solihull B91 3RG

Ceremony conducted by Victoria Denning British Humanist Association accredited celebrant

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\m/ Number One Son \m/

Ian John Edwards is our son. We think he is the “Number One” “Of course, you’re biased!” you may retort But it’s what friends have also thought. For he is so kind, and considerate too; He’ll always smile and have a chat with you.

Being born on Empire Day, He’s often spent his birthdays away, Camping with friends on the Isle of Wight, Or at Cheddar Gorge, where we’d fly a kite, Or at Kingsbury with Bob’s hard ‘Softball’, Or Clumber Park with its walls so tall.

While the adults lazed and drank, he’d play games With Ruth, Faith and Helen, Gareth, Mark and James And Jon, Nicky and Sarah, if the Price’s were there. There’d never be trouble, we never had a care. For “Our Crowd” always seemed to get on so well And if I’d the space, many stories I’d tell.

Ian’s first job was at Safeway, stacking the cans, Then, at Wilderhope hostel, he washed all the pans. He visited Romania, home of Dracula & Vlad, Trekking out in the mountains made his heart glad. At Masham, he helped on a Mencap holiday And at Wasdale cleared streams to help salmon lay.

He likes the countryside a lot; Loves France and it’s food, and when it’s hot He’ll play petanque with our Eyziecois friends Or read in the shade, it all depends. He likes a drink, especially a Stella And when it comes to his round he’s a generous fella’.

Now Ian’s not daft; he’s passed many exams, And as a D.J. he’s got many fans. He’s tall and likes his music loud, Especially with the Bilskirnir crowd, But it must be “True” - no false pseuds - He’s no time for ‘Kevs’ or pointless feuds.

He grew his hair long to have a good headbang And has written letters to Cop-Out & Kerrang! He’s soon to have his hair short again And, although this decision has caused much pain, He’ll still look ‘hot’ we feel sure And keeping it clean won’t be such a chore.

He’s learned the guitar and collects rare Cd’s He likes Katalamas, with hot mushy peas. Now he dwarfs us both, and he pats our heads, And he’s a staunch fan of the Liverpool ‘Reds’, He’ll never be too old to give us a cuddle, So we like to link arms and go into a huddle.

He’s twenty two now as I write this rhyme And he’s been so special to us throughout all this time. So he deserves a poem to let him know That we’ve had such pleasure watching him grow. We’re proud of the man he’s turned out to be And know that many others see what we see

A poem written for Ian by his father in 2003

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\m/ Order of Ceremony \m/

Welcome & Opening Music: Avonland (from the album ‘Fatherland’ by ), Heavy Metal (from ‘Swords and Sorcery’ by Majesty) and The Penis Song (from ‘Monty Python Sings’ by Eric Idle) : a compilation by Ian.

Introductory Greeting: Victoria Denning

Ian’s Life Story: Victoria Denning:

A Life of Many Facets: Music from “Nest”

Ian’s Reflection Music: Lost In The Depths Of Me (from the album ‘A Flame to the Ground Beneath’ by Lost Horizon) : a piece of music that meant a lot to Ian and helped him during his final battle.

A Football Fan Extra-ordinary: John Edwards

Singing Together: You’ll Never Walk Alone

Carol’s Thoughts: Victoria Denning

Tributes from Friends: Keep it True (from the album ‘Keep it True’ by Majesty)

Contemplation & Quiet Reflection

Ian’s ‘Departure’ Music: Liverpool – Intro from History of Liverpool FC video

Concluding Remarks: Victoria Denning

Farewell Message & Music; With Photographic Memories of Ian’s Friends & Relations: Sorrowful Farewell (from ‘’ by ) and Within the Raven Darkness (from ‘Fidelity of Ideology’ by Semper Fidelis)

Departure Music: Heavy Metal (from ‘Swords and Sorcery’ by Majesty)

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\m/ Words \m/

The Spirit of “The ‘E’ Team”

We’ve come a long way since Feb. It’s been hard but we’ve got this far. We’re not going to flag just yet ‘Cause we’ve BEAM to contend with now.

So let’s get on with the job; We’re as strong as we’ve ever been. If we just face each day as it comes We’ll get through it as a TEAM. Carol Edwards (May 2010)

How Will You Remember Ian?

You can shed tears that he is gone or you can smile because he has lived. You can close your eyes and pray that he’ll come back or you can open your eyes and see all that he’s left. Your heart can be empty because you can’t see him or you can be full of the love you shared. You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. You can remember him and only that he is gone or you can cherish his memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back or you can do what he’d want; smile, open your eyes, love and go on. Anonymous

You’ll Never Walk Alone or in Ian’s case “You Never Walked Alone”

When you walk through a storm, Hold your head up high And don’t be afraid of the dark. At the end of a storm there’s a golden sky And the sweet silver sound of the lark. Walk on through the wind, Walk on through the rain, Though your dreams be tossed and blown. Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, And you’ll never walk alone, You’ll never walk alone.

Walk on, walk on, With hope in your heart, And you’ll never walk alone, You’ll never walk alone.

Gerry & the Pacemakers October 1963 (Rogers & Hammerstein 1945 © Imogen Publishing)

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6 Metal As Religion

“Heavy Metal” Lost In The Depths Of Me” Majesty Lost Horizon Massacre Records CD0323 Music For Nations CD MFN289 Words by Tarek “MS” Maghary Music & Lyrics by Wojtek Lisicki

Coming out of darkness, powerful like a fortress. Solo: Equilibrian Epicurius Glorious and raw. Wearing spike and leather, standing proud together. Down in the ashes wounded I crawl Fight against the law. Pray shall I not – god is gone Pounding like the Thunder, never we surrender. Lonely, but mighty, insightʼs my home Look inside our eyes. Into that shine now and again I will go Strong unification in the Heavy Metal nation, Stars gleam on my way, darkness chants for me for my Brothers I would die! Into the depth I can see Frozen, but conscious, spirit is my warmth All together we are one, but the false we canʼt forgive. Wings of true will are carrying me through this world We are bound by truth and faith, forever we shall live. But the world still is drowned in ecstacy Heavy Metal Of the fate and the myth of gods, Our Strength and our Religion But I doubt there's a journey planned for me Heavy Metal The meaning of our Lives. As I own every moment of my life. Heavy Metal And the blessed they shall call it blasphemy Weʼre rebels with a vision. But I know what I think is right. Heavy Metal Still the sun and the stars will shine for me We will keep on fighting till the end. For the pure I will fight Until the end. For no kings I will die For my thoughts I will live. “Keep It True” Rambling in pain, drowning in sorrow, burning Majesty with hate [email protected] Why all this grief… Words by Tarek “MS” Maghary Chains no on me! Iʼm not a chosen one!!! Fate for the mortals I turned on the radio, it shocked me, yes it did. I heard some dolls of media, interesting like * * * * Eyes for the searching ones I turned it off and swore an oath, if I break it I shall die Donʼt dare you pray for me “I will fight for Metal the rest of my life.” When that faith is gone! Lost in the depths of me If youʼre playing Rock nʼ Roll, play it without lies. Always be as brave and proud as an eagle in the sky. Solo: Equilibrian Epicurius If you want to be remembered, thereʼs one thing you should do, For the mind of the world When you play your music (you) gotta I share my eyes KEEP IT TRUE. Truthʼs arms embrace these words All the ones who lost their hope If you look at the ʻBillboardʼ charts, position 1 to 10; Look deep in your ego – youʼll find it there! They change every f * * * * * * day; short is For the mind of the world every trend! I share my breath in mystic empathy Now itʼs time to raise your hands and tell them From the awe I healed my heart what we like: And now as I tell this Heavy Metal, loud and wild. I donʼt fear no more!

If youʼre playing Rock nʼ Roll, play it without lies. Always be as brave and proud as an eagle in the sky. If you want to be remembered, thereʼs one thing you should do, When you play your music loud, gotta KEEP IT TRUE.

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\m/ The Ian Edwards Cancer Break Trust \m/ helping those fighting blood cancers take a break

Ian Edwards’ 10 month fight against his T cell Lymphoma ended 5 months short of his 30th birthday. Like all patients suffering from a blood cancer, Ian had to spend much of his precious time in hospital having chemotherapy to try and destroy the cancer cells and antibiotics to combat infections acquired while his body was immunosuppressed. What helped make this bearable was the ability for him to go away with his family on mini-breaks of up to a week whenever the opportunity presented itself, sometimes at less than 24 hours notice. These visits to beautiful parts of the UK, where they enjoyed short walks in the country and meals & real ales in local CAMRA recommended pubs, gave him and his parents real joy and are still a source of comfort now he is no longer alive. The "E Team" as they styled themselves were fortunate that they were financially secure enough to not have to worry too much about the cost of these breaks but realised that other families were not so lucky, especially if it was the main earner who was ill. In his life, so cruelly cut short, Ian touched many people of all ages with his affability, winning smile, love of living and genuine concern for the well-being of others. Friends, family and acquaintances were united in their desire to set up a lasting memorial in Ian's name in the form of a trust that would help others whose lives have been turned upside down by a blood cancer. What better way than to help give those in financial need the opportunity to take a holiday or short break during one or more of the brief intervals between their spells of intensive treatment as a hospital inpatient, through guaranteeing to pay certain overnight or travel costs?

Initially these non-repayable cancer-break grants will be restricted to patients receiving their blood cancer treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where Ian received most of his treatment. It is hoped that it will be possible to extend this assistance in the not too distant future to patients at the Royal Hospital in Liverpool, because although Ian was a fan of many football teams across the globe Liverpool FC was always “No.1”, and St Gallen Kantonsspittal, where Ian was admitted as an emergency and his problem first diagnosed & treated by medics from Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Maybe it will become possible to extend help to other hospitals or other types of cancer if the Trust really takes off.

If you would like to help form and sustain the Trust that we hope will be an everlasting memorial to Ian, please give, fund-raise and, if possible, gift-aid your donations to “The Ian Edwards Cancer Break Trust”. Gift Aid forms will be available at the afternoon celebration.

The Ian Edwards Cancer Break Trust Details so far:- Patron: Not yet confirmed Trustees: Carol Edwards, John Edwards, Liz Cook, John Bastable, Gill Fielden, Chris Scrivens, Tom Moffatt & Matt Coleman-Hamilton. Bankers: Barclays . Account details: Not yet known Address for correspondence: IECBT, 157 Welford Road, Shirley B90 3HT

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\m/ Later in the Day \m/

After the Celebration of Ian’s life there will be a short service at Robin Hood Crematorium (Streetsbrook Road B90 3NL) for immediate family and very close friends only.

All Ian’s friends are invited to spend the afternoon at a “Farewell Gig For Ian” which will be held in the Upstairs Room at The Assembly Rooms, Poplar Road, Solihull B91 3AD from 1pm. Light refreshments and a range of alcoholic & non-alcoholic drinks will be available and from approximately 2.30pm onwards, five of Ian’s friends will each DJ a 30 minute set of music to a style or genre requested by Ian.

“Philsy – some proper Heavy Metal and Power Metal from Steel Dreams era. Noj – stuff that would have been played at Bilskirnir and some NSBM/Honor. Chris Scrivens – cheesy pop shite and stuff FRED_LOW would have liked. Billy – stuff that would have been played at Reanimator and some epic Heavy Metal. Random Phil – stuff that would have been played at Scruffy Murphy’s”.

More Photographs & Memories of Ian If you would like to see more photographs of Ian (not always very flattering) and read what other people thought about him (usually very flattering) you can do so on two Facebook pages created shortly after his death.

“R.I.P. Ian Edwards. You'll Never Walk Alone” was set up by Adam Sewell on 17th Dec

“Ian Edwards: A Celebration Of A Legend's Life” was created by Philsy Symons around the same time.

Carol & John are very grateful to Ian’s friends for setting up such wonderful tributes to him and thank everybody who has posted their memories, photographs & links to other web pages or online albums.

Ian never signed up to Facebook; he was a ‘MySpace’ man. If you find his page called Ian_Edwards you can view his likes & dislikes and read about his interests, musical tastes & views on life.

Final Places of Rest Ian left detailed instructions for his funeral and wake. These were written early in September 2010 before he went in for BEAM chemotherapy, just in case he picked up a life-threatening infection during the period when he was immunosuppressed, before his stem cell transplant repopulated his bone marrow. These included the request that his ashes are to be placed in 4 containers which are to be buried 2 feet below the ground at the following places:

• Shirley Town Football Club, Whitlocks End, West Midlands, England. • AS Les Bisons, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac Sireuil, Dordogne department, France. • F.C. Leysin, Vaud canton, Switzerland. Hopefully this will be possible under the penalty spot at the home end of each ground. • Beneath his tree in the Iron Maiden woods.

If you ever visit one of these sites, perhaps you can spend a few moments remembering Ian.

A DVD & CDrom of the day’s events and some additional photographs and documents will be made available as soon as possible. Please request a copy if you would like one, preferably by printing your name and address on a sticky label available this afternoon.

Design: Carol & John Edwards Realisation: Chris Scrivens Printing: Paper & Print

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