I was a friend from the age of eight, when he was called Marvin Fitton. We shared a dog, an English Springer Spaniel, called Floppy. It was semi-wild and used to turn up at odd times, covered in mud after roaming the local marshes. We also shared a love of railways and used to go on our bikes to sit at the side of the main London-Scotland line. He was a good swimmer and diver, known as "Fits", which was a shortened version of the surname. A bright boy but always the class fool, too, he went off to Leeds University, to study Geology. We lost touch after he married and emigrated to work in the metals exploration field in a process during which he became "Fritz" I re-discovered him when I began to organize a school reunion in 2003 and he surprised everyone by turning up, from Fremantle. He performed a few songs, under the strong influence of beer, at our local folk club, The Bothy, where we had been members in our teens. I was aware that his health was not good when I last spoke to him by phone. A one-off, for sure.