Ugly Boy – Rest In Peace

This is a very sad blog indeed. Ugly Boy (real name Jeremy Henty), one of the founder members of the Rude Mechanicals, has passed away, I hope to a better world.

Ugly Boy was in the Rude Mechanicals before even I was a member. He bought a drum kit to distract his mind from the state of his Phd. He was an eccentric, a maths genius who got into Cambridge at the tender age of 16.  He perhaps could never quite cope with what had been expected of him. I remember him walking down Mill road in Cambridge, in the chefs trousers covered in pictures of knives and forks that he always used to wear, and a naughty grin on his face. I liked that grin.

I wish we had never lost touch, I wish things had ended on a good note, but you never can predict the future and “I’ll contact him tomorrow” will, in the end, fall short.

Below is a very old picture of the Rude Mechanicals, Ugly Boy is the man in the strange pyjama-like outfit. I’ve included the lyrics of a song he wrote for the band underneath. Rest in peace Jeremy.

You’re an ugly little boy
playing in the dirt
your friends are the bugs and the worms
and then there’s me

Oh what fun you have

Foul creatures draw near
and wipe their filthy paws
all vermin is here
because like is attracted to like

Don’t mess up my dress

Earth in my hair
and dew upon my skin
grime beneath my nails
and the ugly little boy
is watching closely

Oh what fun.

by Uglyboy 2001