Going out in his own style (From Stroud News and Journal)

Going out in his own style

PUB landlord and music promoter Andy Thomas was given the send off he had planned in Stroud this week.

A key figure in Stroud's alternative circles, Andy, 43, died earlier this month but had taken the time to prepare his own funeral

And he put the skills he had learned through years of organising music events into practice.

The surreal funeral service began with a rendition of Your My Friends from Disney's Jungle Book belting out of a huge PA at the back of The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Beeches Green.

Hundreds of people came to pay their respects to the former Pelican landlord, among them Michael Eavis, the founder of Glastonbury Festival where every year Andy managed the Acoustic Stage with a legion of Stroudies.

After the service, the horse-drawn hearse led the procession of mourners and a New Orleans style marching band through the town, past Andy's two pubs, the Pelican and the Golden Fleece, and on to Stroud cemetery where he was buried.