From the Middlesbourough Gazette Website

- Friends and admirers of folk music legend Vin Garbutt will be welcomed "with open arms" to his funeral.

Vin's family has announced his funeral will be at Middlesbrough Cathedral, Coulby Newham , on Friday at noon - and anyone whose life has been touched by Vin "either through his music, his friendship or his family" is invited.

And from Facebook "All of you who wish to pay your respects are welcome to join us at the cathedral on Friday. We would like to celebrate his life the way he lived it, with open arms.

"Following the service Vin will be laid to rest at Eston Cemetery , then a wake to celebrate his life.

The message for those attending the private wake is: "Bring your instruments and your voices!!"

And here is a poem about Vin written by a Friend, Keith Hancock - "The hardest obituary I have ever had to write"

Vin Garbutt - Colossus with a heart of gold

I've penned a few one-liners, I wrote a few good songs,
I've met a few good people and some that did me wrong
But once-a-while there comes a smile that holds you in its grasp,
That shakes you to your boots and forces you to ask

If you are lucky, once in life, you'll meet this kind of man
The type of guy that made me ask exactly who I am
I met that man so long ago, when we were young and daft
We laughed and laughed oh how we laughed, we laughed and laughed and laughed

Some beliefs were miles apart and yet we never fought
Just recognised our differences in answers that we sought
But values bound and stayed with us; will be forgotten never
Like family and love of life and songs we'll sing forever

That voice, those words, that cutting wit, the messages prevail
The fun, absurd, the joy of it, the devil in the detail
The stumblings and the mumblings, as big as any song,
Even tuning his guitar would pull the audience along

So generous of spirit, an open hearted guy
and when I met his family I instantly knew why
He shared his house his home his food, his everything, his kin
but before I stayed the night I had to put the windows in *

Farewell my friend I'm broken now, but heal I must, and will
Forget you, Vin I never could, and though your heart lies still
It beats within the ones you've touched, and they are not a few
But thousands all around the world; they're better because of you.