My mate Jeff: some memories of Jeff Merrifield RIP

From Jeff’s book, ‘The Seeker’ about Ken Campbell, at whose funeral: “…the distinctive voice of Ken Campbell came bursting over the proceedings. ‘Why are you lot looking so miserable? Don’t you know that funeral is an anagram for real fun?”

Alan Dearling

From the first time I met Jeff at a youth conference in 1972 organised by the Essex Youth Service, who we both worked for, it was ‘Frank Zappa’ that I mostly remembered along with a cherubic Northern humour. Jeff almost always spoke preceded by a gruff little chuckle. He was something of a fanatic about Frank Z, Captain Beefheart and indeed almost all outsider music, especially jazz. Indeed, almost immediately after we had met, Jeff gave me copies of ‘Albert’, an underground magazine originating from Burnley, the town where Jeff with his doctorate and the plays and books he has written, is now recognised as one of the alumni of Burnley Grammar School. Jeff would probably suggest, with a sly, impish grin that, he was one of the illuminati of Burnley! Jeff’s contributions to Albert were a cartoon version of himself interviewing Frank Zappa, and in issue 3, a lengthy interview with film director, Tony Palmer, about directing Frank Zappa in his notorious musical fantasy, ‘200 Motels’.

I moved away from Essex in 1973, but Jeff stayed on, notably establishing the Essex Youth Theatre (EYE), Artsworks Essex, Playback Arts and the Monkeys Jazz club upstairs at the Hermit Club in Brentwood (one of the most memorable nights organised by Jeff was Stan Tracey on duets with Keith Tippett playing two grand pianos facing each other with large mirrors suspended above). We kept in touch for ever more, and in fact shared an annual Piscean birthday on March 9^th. On birthdays and at Christmas and many other times, we shared recorded music, films and live theatre and music events. In the years that I lived in various parts of Scotland, Jeff and various youth theatre groups visited and stayed at my homes, often to perform shows at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 

Here’s a pic from Jeff’s youth production of Alfred Jarry’s ‘Ubu Cycles’ from my scrapbook at Longniddry Community Centre in East Lothian.

Out of his theatre works that I have especially fond memories for, was his virtuoso, virtual monologue performance in the Edinburgh Fringe First winning, ‘Lovers Come, Lovers go, but friends are hard to find’. The title was taken from a song of the same title by Kevin Ayers, another of Jeff’s favourite musicians. Here’s the original A4 poster for the show:

Jeff had met his girl-friend and later wife, Dawn, through the youth theatre. Alongside his youth theatre and musical work, Jeff continued  to make explorations into the edgy worlds of the esoteric mystics and spiritual philosophers such as Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Madame Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, members of the Golden Dawn and the multitude of radical (and sometimes humorous writings) about heretics, conspiracies and mysticism. These writings were grift to the proverbial mill for Jeff, but a little hard going for some of his mates. But I did share his absolute love and adoration of Ken Campbell and the ‘Illuminatus!’ trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. The notion of a religion based on chaos, Discordianism, is central to the book, the plays based on the work, and most particularly the productions by Ken Campbell and Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool and also much of Bill Drummond’s creative energy as a driving force in the KLF Foundation. Bill, according to Jeff in ‘The Seeker’, says that Bill “…was largely responsible for developing the stage designs (for Illuminatus!).” In fact, the KLF remind me of Jeff, who gradually became ‘Justified and Ancient’, with his many obsessions which overflowed into his writings, books and creative ‘lives’. And in recent times, it melds into Jeff’s recent aim to create a new musical work related to H.P. Lovecraft’s horror-fantasy, Cthulhu Mythos stories – based on the notion of our cosmic insignificance. Jeff was also an avid film buff and we both rated the films of Mexican, Jodorowsky as something of a crown of creation in surreal film-making, especially ‘El Topo’.

I worked with Jeff on his book about the Cathars and the Albigensian Crusades (‘The Perfect Heretics’) and travelled with him as photographer to Southern France’s Languedoc area in the Occitanie, and the major Cathar sites such as Carcasonne, Albi, Montsegur and Rennes-le-Château . The conspiracies, myths and rumours of great secrets were also used as the basis for Dan Brown’s ‘Da Vinci Code’. Just three or four months ago, I emailed Jeff about the misuse or abuse of the symbols and images of the Knights Templars. Here’s his interesting and informed reply:

“It’s a world wide phenomenon in recent times, associated with Trump, Norwegian terrorists, and white supremacists. It mistakenly takes the Knights Templars as like Nazis. In fact, they were the poor Knights of service, there to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land and eventually as the Knights Hospitillar when they moved to Malta. That’s why St John’s Ambulance use their logo cross.

Conspiratorial medievalism: History and hyperagency in the far-right Knights Templar security imaginary – Katharine M Millar, Julia Costa Lopez, 2021.

Imagery associated with the Knights Templar appears in the public discourse and symbolism of many white supremacist and white nationalist groups.”

He added on Sunday 11 August 2024, Dr Jeff Merrifield <[email protected]> wrote:

“https://historycollection.com/these-16-mysterious-facts-about-the-knights-templar-will-have-you-searching-for-buried-treasure/

Scroll down to the end of this article and you will see where they nicked the picture from.

“They’re all fucking bastards, Frank,” said Larry (Wildman) Fischer. “They’re all fucking bastards!”

   Jeff xxx xxx

Here’s what it says about Jeff from his CV with United Agents:

“Early work with the Ken Campbell Road Show included publicity, developmental work, making props and guest appearances.   He was later involved in revival productions of THE WARP (1999-2003) and became the official chronicler of the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool, work which eventually resulted in the award of a Doctorate on the work of Ken Campbell for the University of Liverpool (2001). A producer and presenter of CLOSE UP, a wide-ranging arts programme on BBC Radio Blackburn (now BBC Radio Lancashire), Jeff also ran the Monkeys Jazz Club at the Hermit Centre in Brentwood, Essex for almost a decade. This legendary club attracted some of the brightest and best jazz musicians in the country, including Ronnie Scott, Kevin Ayers and Django Bates.

Jeff’s wide-spanning career in the Arts has included projects which have weaved together theatre and jazz, organising mammoth festivals, Board Director of Theatre Recourse, a company specialising in art with and for the disabled and disadvantaged, and writing and editing books ranging from children’s poetry to DAMANHUR, about an artistic spiritual community who have produced award-winning artworks inside a mountain. 

HIT ME! – THE LIFE AND RHYMES OF IAN DURY which tours summer 2010.”

Jeff moved to live on Shetland in 2008. It became his new permanent home and on the island he became known as Dr Jazz. Jeff co-hosted a Jazz and World Sounds evening programme on BBC Radio Shetland alongside Joy Duncan. And he brought many diverse musicians to play on the stages of Shetland. He was also until very recently a lead trustee of JAWS – Jazz and World Sounds, who organised many of the gigs on the island. In addition to the Blockheads, many great jazzers were tempted by Jeff to perform in Lerwick and beyond.

As recently as December 2022, Jeff wrote to me:

“Hello Mate

We’re okay (so far) on South Mainland. Dawn had her work cancelled today. The major shutdowns are further north, Lerwick to Unst. That’s where the guys are toiling to restore power. Glad to see you’re busy in music. I’ve just secured a quite good grant to get Jazz, World Music and Improvisation going again up here. We’ve got a whole clutch of top jazz geezers coming up, including my trumpet hero Henry Lowther. He played Woodstock with the Keef Hartley Band and he’s played with most British and international players since. Now 80 (like me, soon) he’s still playing as beautifully as ever.

Look after yourself

Much love.

Jeff & Dawn (snug as bugs in a rug) xx xxx”

Jeff had been on and off unwell and under medical supervision for a few years. But he still retained a wicked sense of humour, alongside his ever-restless spirit of discovery. He would say of himself that he was a ‘Seeker’ in much the same way as Ken Campbell was. He particularly loved his works and research at Damanhur. It brought into focus into many of greatest loves, mystics, the occult and the Damanhur community, founded in the Piedmont region of Italy in about 1975 by a central charismatic figure, Oberto Airaudi, the inspirational leader of the Damanhur project.

Along with my heartfelt condolences for Jeff’s wife, Dawn, I want to end on a couple of examples of Jeff’s sense of surreal fun, plus a couple of older photos.

This was what Jeff wrote to me after our joint 9^th March birthday celebrations in 2024:

“I got pissed, stoned, had beautiful ham, egg and chips (with mushy peas) and the best egg custard tart made for me that I’ve ever tasted. Then, got stoned again. Thanks for the pressies. Not watched yet as the blu-ray player is in the other room. Looking forward, if as you say, they are similar (?) to Jodorowsky.”

And here’s an image of Jeff and Dawn ‘back in the Day’ with words from an infamous Frank Zappa song:

I’d also like to think that Jeff will be looking at the Internet and spotting that if you enter his name into the search engine, this collage image appears!!!