Alfie Jackson has broken his silence on the death of his former Holloways bandmate Rob Skipper, whose terribly early passing at the age of 28 was made public earlier this month.
“A week ago I found out we’d lost Rob, a brother and a friend,” Jackson says in a statement. “We shared the most intense years of our life, he was an inspiration and a light that should still be shining. His music and his spirit will live forever but it still hurts and I am sad and angry.”
“The last time I was at 93 Feet East was with Rob and we were all wearing bras for breast cancer awareness,” the statement continues. “So before the gig it all hit me… and on stage it hit me even more, so I told the story of the last time we were on this stage together and demanded a bra. I wanted to re-live that moment and a girl gave me her bra – it might seem silly to some people; but although it seemed silly, it was incredibly poignant for me.”
“The Holloways were equally poignant and silly; just as life can be all things at once, things are always juxtaposed, life is tragic and comedy so often. At the end of the gig the anger kicked in as the music and passion took over along with my emotions for Rob, so my guitar got thrown across the stage and I kinda stormed off.I was just overwhelmed you know, he should still be here.”
The news of Skipper’s death, for reasons still not revealed, was broken to NME by The Holloways’ former agent Matt Bates. The Holloways were a big part of the mid-noughties boom in commercial guitar music, and have one of that era’s signature tunes in the form of ‘Generator‘.