Gordon John Edwards

Memorial Headstone in loving memory of the multi-talented Gordon John Edwards, also known as Gordy and Scouser Gordon, was a good man with a kind nature. Born on Thursday the 26th December 1947. Found dead on Friday the 28th of February 2003.

Born in Southport, a large seaside town on Merseyside.  A former student at Fowey Grammar School, Cornwall, United Kingdom.

Gordon is a talented self taught professional Singer-Songwriter and Musician

He was active from the late 1960s through to the late 1990s. Vocals, Keys, Piano, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass in The Lynx  (Fowey) 1963/1964, Djijn, Kingdom, Sunshine 1972, The Electric Banana Hot Licks 1973, The Pretty Things 1973- 1976 - 3 tours in the USA, Metropolis, John Coghlan's Diesel Band 1976, The Kinks 1978, The Firm, three weeks with Rainbow and as a sessional musician with Tony Franklin, Paul Rogers, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Hendrix, John Lees. Record Labels: Swan Song, Warner Bros. Records, Snapper, Harvest, CBS, Closer Records, Mad Fish, The Glaziers, Music De Wolfe, Lupus, 97 Account, Atlantic and K-Box Records. A lesser-known but colossal talent. He is most noted for his role in the Pretty Things Swan Song era. Gordon wrote City Sirens - misattributed to Jimmy Page on the "Death Wish II" soundtrack. Other songs Gordon wrote remain misattributed to others.

Gordon was another casualty of the "business" who died from self-inflicted wounds following a period of depression and addictions.

Gordon struggled off and on with our family disease of suicidal depression and subsequent addictions to class a, b and alcohol. Gordon was his mother's favourite son: Eva Cecilia Edwards (RIP), née Jenkins, from Llanharan, Pontyclun, South Wales. Eva taught Gordon to play on their chapel organ and the home piano. Gordon was self-taught on guitar. Gordon's father, Verdun Edwards (RIP), was from Brynna, Pontyclun, a wealthy businessman and F1 racing driver circa 1950. He was very close with his older brother Clement Edwards (RIP), my father (12 years his senior), and Raymond Martin Edwards (RIP) was the youngest, two years his junior. 

While working as a professional musician in London, his mental well-being swung in and out of major depression. It was in 1978 when Gordon departed from The Kinks. His mental and physical well-being was not good, and he was heartbroken after his fiancee left. “I felt a lot about the relationship (to Maudie) and got depressed. I was drinking a bottle of whisky a day to get completely smashed and to blot everything from my mind.”

Gordon was not a weak man; he had a severe, chronic substance abuse disorder that his oldest brother Clem, his parents and friends helped him to recover from many times. Gordon was a vulnerable and sensitive being, and despite visiting his GP for his addictions, he was never signposted for mental health support. He was not one to speak out about his significant childhood traumas either.

Gordon's body was discovered by his landlord breaking in through a bedsit window on Friday the 28th February 2003, age 56, though suspected dead three days prior. He was penniless, alone in a filthy bedsit in Greenford, Greater London. His body was poisoned, starved, and chronically infected by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). After cutting his own throat, he died in under a minute.  Gordon likely slipped into a coma very quickly in under 10 seconds. Gordon bled to death and sat on the floor of his bedsit, wearing only a shirt. His cause of death is recorded as self-inflicted knife wounds on his arms and, finally, along his throat, according to the forensic pathologist Dr Freddy Patel (since struck off). Though little consolation, letting his blood flow was as near a painless death as he could achieve.

Gordon John Edwards is my paternal Uncle. When I first dreamt of him, he appeared smiling, his gorgeous smile that said a trillion words. I promised to take care of his needs as they arose since he passed 19 years ago. Gordon is buried at Llanharan Cemetery, CF72 9QE, South Wales, in Plot number 1145, with no memorial. I visit the cemetery when I can as my father, Clem Edwards Gordon's older brother, and his parents Verdun (Born in Llanharan, raced the uprated E-Type ERA in several club events in the mid-'50s, and Eva Edwards née Jenkins (Born in Brynna, the Llanharan Chapel Hall Organist and Accountant) are buried close by to Gordon at Llanharan Cemetery, Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales.

All donations will go towards an appropriate memorial headstone.

More information on Gordon is here: https://www.facebook.com/GordonJohnEdwardsRIP/

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/former-member-kinks-buried-unmarked-13155611

By JAMES MCCARTHY 10:35, 10 JUN 2017.

Gordon was a good man, a risk taker, a smiler who struggled with mental wellbeing, in an unmarked grave plot 1145 in Llanharan Cemetery, South Wales since 2003.

I am Gordon's Niece - Melanie Antoinette, née Edwards.