Julian Goddard, my oldest friend, died on March 17th after an 18 month battle with cancer. He was 60 and leaves behind his devoted wife Jax and two wonderful children Claudia (24) and Evelyn (11). This is my tribute to you Jules – my beautiful friend, sorely missed by everyone who knew and loved you. x

For the Jules playlist here’s the link to soundcloud – or access the songs directly here.

For a commentary on each track and where Jules features, here’s the link. This is also included at the end of this post.

“Synchronise love to the beat of the show”.   Transmission.  Joy Division

My friendship with Julian started in 1977 when we sat next to each other in our tutor room at Weydon – the local Farnham comprehensive.  We bonded over two powerful forces in both of our lives. The first – perhaps the deepest – was bereavement. Julian lost his mum to cancer when he was 9 and I lost my dad in that first term of secondary school, at 12. Julian befriended me and shared his experience – it got me through the darkest time, having somebody who understood what it felt like.  We learned to help each other out in all those awkward moments when someone asks ‘What did your mum say? What does your Dad do…?’.   In recent months, Julian and I talked about this all again  – how much we’d supported each other; how much strength we’d drawn from knowing we were not alone in losing a parent.   In those days there was no counselling, you just had to get on with it – but luckily, we had each other.  We also had Ben – Julian’s friend from primary school.  I can still remember our first encounter in the playground when the fact that Ben was West Ham to Jules’ Spurs seemed like a crucial point of identification for reasons I did not understand.  Across our time at secondary school we formed a tight bond as a trio. 

The second force was music.  Julian and Ben opened my eyes to a new world of music and, together, we discovered the joy of 80s postpunk indie!  Their disgust at my love for Mike Oldfield was made abundantly clear!  I needed an education. Through various record playing afternoons at Jules’ house, 2 Tor Road, he introduced me to the mysterious side of Lou Reed, to The Velvet Underground, David Bowie’s Station to Station and Low (Side 2 of course), obscure Stranglers songs and the wonderful Magazine. Ben introduced me to Gang of Four, Clock DVA, Monochrome Set and much more.  For my 15^th birthday Ben and Julian bought me Bowie’s Scary Monsters – it seemed like the most incredible gift. 

Together we discovered Joy Division, Kraftwerk, New Order and, our great love, Echo and The Bunnymen.  We already loved Crocodiles, the first album – elevating each member of the band to Hero status – so it was a special day when the Bunnymen’s Heaven Up Here was released – we bought a copy the day it came out, legged it back to my house and played it in full in religious silence.  It felt like an event!  When it finished, Jules said ‘we can be brilliant’!  He was inspired and was immediately thinking of all the songs we could make for ourselves.  

Alongside the albums, famous gigs included New Order in their early days , Comsat Angels supporting U2 at Bracknell Sports centre, countless visits to Guildford Civic Hall – Stranglers, The Jam – the WOMAD Festival in 1982 to see the Bunnymen and, later, The Smiths at the Hacienda in Manchester. 

Our biggest passion, however, was making music of our own. In early 1980, the fourth year, –  we turned our banter about how we could form a trio like the Police into a reality – despite not having any instruments or any evidence of any talent and conspicuous lack of rhythm! But thanks to some very-easy-to-learn songs by Joy Division and the Bunnymen requiring only one note at a time on bass and guitar, we soon learned to play, forming the magnificent trio Tract Nein -named after a science fiction short story ‘Track 12’ we all loved from our O Level English course. We spent hours and hours practising in my attic bedroom – much to the outrage of our neighbours who frequently shouted at us in despair and occasionally my mum who sometimes came home annoyingly early! Our covers included Rescue, New Dawn Fades, Ceremony and She’s Lost Control. 

Once we started to write our own songs, Julian revealed himself to be something of a creative genius. He had a proper voice and an ear for a quirky tune; he loved inventing lyrics – although Ben and I were often confused about what he was on about ! He was incredibly inventive on the guitar and the keyboards, despite – or perhaps because of his unorthodox playing style (the three finger claw!) and distinct waywardness with keeping in time.  I was the one that had had music lessons – but Jules and Ben were both self-taught which gave them a certain freedom to experiment unhindered by conventions about chord shapes. To this day, Ben, who is absolutely brilliant on the guitar, has no idea which chords he’s playing. Julian might be saying – it’s Csus 9 with a G in the bass; Ben would be non-plussed.  It means nothing to him until he hears it – then he knows exactly what to do.   

Looking back, we made some fantastic songs, morphing a New Order/Bunnymen-esque sound into something distinctively us!  Our college gigs were the stuff of legend (in our heads), usually featuring Julian playing bass with his back to audience and, on one occasion, with blood trickling down his face after an incident with a falling cymbal.  Rock’n’roll! Jules actually hated playing in front of people – he found it embarrassing – so, not a natural front man, he usually needed quite a good dose of alcoholic encouragement! 

On the Jules playlist you can hear our songs – including the incredible A Correspondent that we stitched together for a recording session at BBC Radio 1 for a youth programme that students from Farnham College were invited to be involved in. We were so out of our depth but somehow pulled it off.  They told us the show had an audience of 700,000 – it was a great moment when that went out, Jules’ opening line ‘I was listening to the wall..’ blasting out across the airwaves. 

By 1983, at 17,we had collected some remarkable equipment. Julian’s bass amp was a museum piece even then with four huge valves that glowed red hot every time we played. A fire hazard for sure – but a joy to make noise with!  We never had proper guitars – only ever copies – and Jules’ bass was so bad, with strings so far above the fret board we joked how we needed g-clamps just to play a note. Thanks to cheap Casio keyboards and the loan of a classic Wasp synthesiser we found our groove – especially as by then Ben had learned to play the drums in time and was seriously good.  We pooled all our money for a couple of recording sessions at a studio in London – an epic adventure.  Here you can hear Jules’ voice in all its glory on Faceless and Life Like A Picture.  You can also hear his vision – it was always Jules driving the sound; filtering out the bad ideas and insisting on things being better.  I was always a tad nervous introducing an idea to the band – because unless Jules approved it was never going anywhere.  Ben and I were just happy to play – Jules always wanted to be great!  He was forever recording bits of songs on cassette to share – he’d give you a C60 tape and it would take ages to wade through all his meandering guitar doodles accompanied by his trademark heavy breathing to get to the bit where he’d get excited ; there-  that bit- that tune just there – what do you think?   

After a hiatus when we all went off to college, Jules and I reunited in Manchester. It seems ridiculous now but when Jules got into Salford, it took us a while to work out just how close this was to Manchester!  In our third year, Jules had met Terry – his flatmate and genius guitarist; also the shyest man you’d ever meet.  He’d also met Andy who just wanted to be frontman with anyone who’d have him.  At Jules’ suggestion we convened in my bedroom in Longsight for a practice and fumbled our way to jamming some kind of tunes with a jangly guitar vibe, very much of its time.  Andy offered to sing for us – and a band was formed.  We didn’t have a drummer most of the time but we had a drum machine that worked well enough.  Famously, in a pub one night, somebody was asking about Julian.  Referencing Jules’ magnificent quiff, they’d said ‘Julian – isn’t he that Ted?’  Jules was no Teddy Boy – but That Ted stuck as our band name even though we all thought it was terrible! 

Between them, Jules and Terry knocked out countless guitar tunes; Andy would add the vocals and I was a kind of backroom boy filling in on bass and drum programming. We were surprisingly successful, regularly meeting at Terry’s Hulme flat in the famous, now demolished, John Nash Crescent.   Songs like You Snitch And I’ll Blast You, Concrete Beats Brick, Refrigerator and Long Expected One and Twenty caused a stir.  That last song – oddly the only one I wrote – was chosen to feature on the Debris magazine flexidisk.  One night, listening to the John Peel Show, our song was introduced…Andy came running out of his room, Jules was in the shower – we’re on the radio, we’re on the radio! It was a special moment. John Peel played our song! I’ve dined out on that triumph ever since.  Along the way we played some special gigs at Manchester’s Boardwalk – supporting Wedding Present, our friends The Waltones and others.  Our biggest – most absurd – coup came in an issue of the university magazine Mancunion which features the headline: 

COMRADES IN TWANG.  : 

MANCHESTER HAS MORE THAN ITS FAIR SHARE OF HOPEFUL, POP BANDS. THIS WEEK MANCUNION INTERROGATES TWO OF THE BEST – THAT TED AND THE STONE ROSES – AND LOOKS QUIZZICALLY AT THE HAPPY MONDAYS

Yup. We were put in the same sentence as The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays – mad as that may seem.   Soon afterwards, Jules expressed the view that ‘all our songs are crap’ and we split up!  He’d got bored with the jingle jangle sound and that was it!  It was devastating at first.. but without Jules, there was no band practice; there was no band.  And then we moved to London.   Many years later once we put the tracks online and played them again, Jules was able to hear them afresh and conceded – we were better than I thought! Some of those songs were pretty good!  He was absolutely thrilled when Claudia gave him an album of our best Tract Nein /That Ted songs pressed on vinyl for his 60th. Her support for his music meant a lot to him. 

[Sadly Andy (Price) died suddenly in January last year, not quite 60. Jules and I travelled to and from the funeral together. He’d already had his diagnosis and was dealing with it bravely – I think our talk about Andy, resurrecting the That Ted back catalogue was in inspiration for getting back into playing together.]

Roll on 38 years..  2025.  

Though we’d remained firm friends and seen each other at intervals as our jobs and family life took over  – especially for weddings and a few gigs, festivals and birthdays – aside from various solo efforts, making music had never been back on the agenda for us together.  But after Jules’ diagnosis, we set up a whatsapp group to reconnect after way too long!  . Julian, Ben and I started exchanging messages, sometimes 50 in a day,  swapping nonsense about our favourite bands old and new. Julian introduced me to The Smile and the solo work of Julian Casablancas from The Strokes.  He had developed into something of a Paul Morley/NME-style music critic with a gift for excessive flowery language, capturing music in words.   He told me how he enjoyed his car journeys with Evie which had fostered a fatherly respect for Olivia Rodrigo – not least when she invited Robert Smith on stage at Glastonbury. He said it was a perfect Dad musical moment. 

And then last summer, he suggested we reform Tract Nein to make music again.  None of us could understand why we had left it all this time.  This was a driving passion for all three of us for six intensive months.  Daily exchanges about ideas, lyrics, influences and arrangements.  You’d imagine we were writing OK Computer.  Jules wanted a different name and came up with Cosmicon – an idea Ben and I readily accepted. 

On a flight to Australia for work I had a go at making something and came up with the track that Jules decided should be a Christmas song.  That might seem rather unhip for Jules but he’s always been a big fan of Indie Christmas.  His Christmas playlist on Spotify – Navidad de Julián – is epic, packed with gems like The Bleachers’ Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call or Blossoms’ Christmas Eve (Soul Purpose). 

After many exchanges of files and comments – and Julian’s repeated desire for a ‘middle 8’ – last December, Christmas In Time was finished just in time with Jules on vocals and guitars and Ben and me doing the backing.  It’s magnificent – even though Julian’s timing issues were so bad in places, some files needed forensic editing in Garageband to knock his vocals and guitar playing into some kind of sync with the track! Outwardly, it is intended as a nostalgic reference to imagined idyllic Christmases of the past – the hook line ‘you can’t stop in time’ always felt deeply poignant knowing Jules had so little time left. Ben and I both had a good sob when we first heard it.  It feels like our friend is saying goodbye – in the most joyous way. Jax also said she liked it and that, for Julian, was massive! 

Our musical efforts culminated in a wonderful four-day trip to Julian and Jax’ cottage in Dorset – cars packed with amps, guitars, keyboards and cables we set up our own Abbey Road. That resulted in three songs: 

• Dark Star Nation is an upbeat New Order-esque effort with Ben on lead vocals, a great nod to our past Tract Nein glories. We all sing parts – it’s a proper team effort. 
• Tipping Point is nearly all Julian, inspired by his new J6 mini-synth;  his final opus: highly original, creative and moving with rhythmic synth lines and no drums.  Our job was to get his ideas into shape – which was sometimes like catching butterflies, his ideas dancing around. There’s nothing like it – I think it’s magnificent. 
• No State – is a sad piano track with Ben on vocals in lieu of Jules who was growing more tired and was never quite ready to sing his version. Ben sings the line ‘I’m not ready to go home’ – which makes me cry every time I hear it.  None of us wanted it to end. On the track, you can hear me and Ben stop for a cry and a hug mid-recording. 

In Jules’ last week, I had a chat on the phone – it was 4am for me in Sydney when the phone rang.  It was pitch black so all I could hear was his voice in the dark. Jules was in reflective mood and one of things he said was that people don’t fully appreciate just how much an impact Joy Division made in changing the direction of music.  I laughed – despite everything going on, this is what was on his mind.  Right to the end – his passion for music was at the forefront.  When I visited him in the hospice, which turned out to be the day he died, I asked if he’d had a chance to hear Ben’s latest soundcloud track.’The Call’.  He hadn’t so I played it to him on my phone.  His face was beaming – the same joy, the same love for the whole creative process and a certain pride in Ben for being so bloody good! I can’t think of anything he’d have wanted more from out last gathering. 

Ben and I have resolved to continue making music.  We’ll always have Julian’s tips ringing in our ears – he’ll be our Paul Morley in the sky, guiding us on, making sure it’s not crap! But making sure we keep the spirit alive.  

Jules.  The Playlist. 

Click the link to find the songs on soundcloud. 

Title	Band. Place. Date
Tipping Point	Cosmicon Dorset  2026
Jules wrote this on his J6 synth. He plays the rhythmic synth parts,  wrote the words and sings.  Tom added some strings under Jules’ direction and the final piano bits.  Ben provided the audio clips – sounds of news reels talking about climate change events.  It’s three sections stuck together, no drums.. the middle section was added in London – Julian insistent that another part was needed.  The theme is about attitudes to climate change – ‘do what you like, the chance is they’ll never know’ –meaning that small actions go unnoticed, positive or negative – so you have to do what you think is right.  ‘Time is waiting on you’.
2.  Christmas In Time	Cosmicon London 2025
Started off as a basic track from Tom’s garageband recorded on a flight to Australia. Jules added the guitar parts and the ‘Peter Hook’ bass.  It was his wish for it to be a Christmas song, looking back to fond memories of Christmas when we were kids and our kids were young. Words and singing are all by Jules – recorded in a couple of sessions at Wayside studios! Ben and Tom added the choir of angels! It was Jules’ idea to include a break/bridge between verse and chorus and some sleigh bells – Tom was happy to oblige.
3.  Dark Star Nations	Cosmicon Dorset 2026
This was originally called Station – a song by Tom on garageband.  Jules wrote and played the piano intro – his idea for Station to emerge from the piano sound.  He also had the idea for the title and theme and he sings the Dark Star Nation refrain.   Ben took charge on the vocals for the verse; Tom adds the ‘rise and fall’ chorus. This was meant as a guide track for Jules to sing but he insisted on keeping Tom’s version.  All three of us sing together in the final chorus.  Tom and Ben worked in the wah guitar riff together via garageband.
4. A Correspondent	Tract Nein BBC London 1982
This song was recorded at a BBC radio studio on Portland Place – as part of a Radio 1 youth show ‘Talk About’ featuring a group of students from Farnham College in 1982.  They’d asked if anyone was in a band  – and our friends nominated us for the gig! With only two weeks to prepare, we stitched together two half ideas.  Jules plays bass with a fab fat flanged sound; Tom plays guitars and Ben is on the drums.  We take it turns to sing.  Jules opens with ‘I was listening to the wall’..  Tom does the ‘take a walk… over and over’ middle bit, Jules comes back in with ‘smoking lines with my life…’ and Ben wraps up with the spoken outro ‘a blue light shines above me…’   For something so cobbled together, it’s a miracle it sounds this good – but it does!  The song was played during the broadcast to an estimated audience of 700,000.
5. Faceless	Tract Nein London Studio 1983
This song was crafted in the Farnham attic -and recorded in a London studio. Our most confident ‘New Order-esque’ tune.   Here, Julian plays the layers of keyboards – picture him using the first three fingers on his right hand to play all the chords.  The claw! Tom plays bass and Ben is on drums (he’s unbelievably good on this track).  Jules wrote the words and sings.  We could play this pretty well live with Julian working the various keyboards. In the studio we added the classic Wasp synth  – the fuzzy noise buzzing throughout and one of the lead sounds.   ‘All the trivialities, they remove all fascination; Faceless personalities – is this real or just imagination’
6. My Life Is a Picture	Tract Nein London Studio 1983
We swapped instruments.  Ben plays the guitar, Tom is on the keyboards – including the bassline (only slightly ripped off from Bananarama). Julian sings.  We use the legendary Dr Rhythm drum machine. This was Jules’ tour de force vocal performance at our gigs.  Big voice, no inhibition, he’d just let it rip.  ‘My life is like picture, hanging over you..’
7. Into the Open	Tract Nein Farnham 1981.
Our very first effort to record anything properly – in Tom’s living in room via the hi-fi system.  Ben is on drums, Tom on guitar, Jules plays bass and sings – at the same time! It’s recorded live in the room – no mixing or overdubs; just via one microphone!  The intro jet fly-past effect was plays on a cassette player moving it across the stereo mic just before the drums come in.  It sounds like it’s flying across the speakers.  Probably this would be better half the length but we loved it so we went round again! Blues on the white read red in my mind…. Into the open, like lies again…  This is Jules being political – a commentary about newspapers not telling the truth.
8. Open Picture Experiment	Tract Nein/CosmiconLondon 2025
This track was a kick start to Cosmicon.  Tom made the track sampling Ben’s drumming from Into the Open, and Jules’ singing from Into the Open and My Life is Picture – which pulls in Ben’s guitar. It’s a fusion of the old and new.  Big sound and energy.  Works pretty well.
9. Refrigerator	That Ted Hulme 1986
This was the song most people cited as our best or their favourite.  The chord structure was written by Julian – but Terry plays the rhythm guitar.  Julian plays the twangy lead guitar line – it’s some of his best work. Tom plays bass and programmed the drums.  It’s essentially a long long intro…. Finally, half way in, Andy comes in with the singing.  ‘You’ve stolen my best friend’s refrigerator… you’ve crossed gypsy blood, now you’re gonna pay…’.  This was Andy’s take on the true story that when Julian and Tom first got a flat together in Hulme in one of the crescents – all our stuff was stolen over the summer including the fridge!  We loved playing this.
10. Beg to Fall	That Ted Hulme 1987
One of the few That Ted songs recorded with a real drummer – so it’s the most complete band sound we ever achieved.  Again Julian created the song structure with the chords – playing rhythm guitar. Terry plays the lead parts with Tom on bass,  Albert on drums and Andy singing .  There’s a backwards guitar overdub in the outro – a nice bit of experimentation and not easy with classic reel -to-reel studio kit.  It’s a proper sound of Manchester track.  We played this live at Manchester Poly supporting The Waltones.  ‘Another avalanche on me; oh so cantankerous for me, another squall’
11. Mind to Get Its Way	That Ted Hulme 1987
Our last song as That Ted.  Our best pop song with Andy on great vocal form.  ‘you tear my halo around, spit on the ground, is this what I get from you?  Julian and Terry reversed roles again – Jules on lead guitar and Terry on rhythm.  There’s a lot of intricate playing required – another case of Jules’ musical imagination running slightly ahead of his skills but eventually he pulled it off .. after a few takes!  All the tuneful higher register guitar that comes in after the intro is Jules – including the fab middle section which is almost Terry level playing.  The picture of him with the red guitar – is when we recorded this. Tom is on bass and drum programme as ever.
12.  Jules Piano	Cosmicon London 2025
This piece has no name. It’s Julian playing the piano/ keyboard at home (it adds strings in behind the piano sound all at once) – he sent the file to us to listen to on Whatsapp.  We just added some eery keyboards and tinkle chime effects for flavour – but mainly it’s Julian being inventive, busking a tune he thought might make a good song one day.  We love it just as it is.    Not bad for a self-taught keyboard player.

RIP Jules. Going to miss you so much xx