On the 21st August 2026, we learned of the saddening news that Mick ‘Lugworm’ Queally AKA ‘Luggy’ had passed on.
May he continue to rest in peace.
This news was greeted with much sadness throughout his family, his friends, and also the people who were around him in the early eighties, when he was a well known face on the anarcho-punk squatting scene.
Below are some words from some of his companions from those days.
The photographs on this post are from Luggy’s own collection, from Mark of The Mob’s collection, from Val D’s collection, from Tarquin’s collection, may he also continue to rest in peace, from Tim Paine’s collection, from Mickey ‘Penguin’ collection and from Tony D’s collection.
Without Lugworm Anarcho-punk in London would have looked very different, it would have been a less vibrant, friendly and blossoming scene.
A few significant things happened in 1982 which helped the scene grow and expand away from the ‘anarchists all wear black’ killjoy mentality, which anarch- punk was always in danger of becoming. These good things were The Mob moving to London, becoming regulars at gigs and making an iconic album, the weekly gigs at Centro Iberico, and the Black Sheep housing co-op recognised by Islington council to provide homes for punks.
The link between all of these, plus his other wild and crazy schemes too numerous to mention, is Mick Lugworm: he was either catalyst or instrumental in all cases. I was first introduced to Mick by Lou McGrew / Harris in late 1981 or early 1982. She had become friends with Val Puppy and started coming round Puppy Mansions, our squat in Westbere Road in Hampstead, and along with her one day came Mick.
Having Mick in the house was like someone setting off one of those confetti cannons; he was bursting out with ideas, knowledge of obscure bands, clothing concepts, article ideas for Kill Your Pet Puppy and a million other ideas that seemed to pass from his brain to his mouth without pause – and they were all great. He also introduced a new vocabulary of ‘scrotes’, ‘dodgy’, ‘sprogs’, and words I now cannot remember but hope others will.
I can’t remember if Mick’s hair was crazy coloured at this time or not, but it matters not: this was a crazy coloured evening. Lou McGrew moved in when a room became vacant, but Mick was more itinerant – staying occasionally but having no permanent place to hang his hat. I remember once some bother when he had brought a can of Heinz beans, left it here to find it had been replaced by a can of International supermarket’s own brand version. Funny, the things we remember, but I think that the Beansgate affair led to him getting the hump and then involved in the Stoke Newington squatting scene.
My memories of Luggy in Stoke Newington were of him setting up the Bayston Bizarros and the Durlston Deviants; bands named after squats in the area; also getting involved in the tangled world there of The Apostles’ Andee Martin and Blood & Roses’ Bob Short.
Then suddenly Luggy had set up the Black Sheep housing co-op, along with Alistair Livingston and Bob of Blood & Roses (they are in the picture on the cover of the London Evening Standard; and just as surprisingly I was knocking on the door of 103 Grosvenor Avenue, cap in hand asking if he could move in.
1983; Black Sheep, Kill Your Pet Puppy, The Mob album that Luggy had loaned the money to record, and I got the magazine Punk Lives to feature on the front cover a photograph of Mark from the Mob at Grosvenor Avenue, and also a centre spread feature on the band. My sister; Val D AKA Val Puppy, and Luggy were featured standing in the garden of Grosvenor Avenue as they were renovating it: more madness of the time. An impossible amount of squatted or free gigs happening everywhere; Meanwhile Gardens and The Mob. Luggy was either at these gigs, or had helped organise them. He also got into the idea of himself, selling the Kill Your Pet Puppy fanzine at gigs.
In Autumn 1983 I returned to Grosvenor Avenue after an extended trip abroad. On the first day back, I asked Mick about the new squatted venue he had been talking about opening up before I left. Upon hearing nothing had gone forward, that evening Mick and me got access to the building on Rosebery Avenue and changed the locks. A few days later Mick organised a crowd to go with him to ‘open’ the place – which became the Peace Centre.
Regarding our initial entry into such a big building, I was crawling along surfaces like a limpet. All these years later I am still breathless remembering my feelings of fear and awe at Luggy’s cat burgling skill as he skipped along the top of narrow brick walls and leapt onto narrower windowsills.
Luggy formed a band around this time called The Turd Burglars. I loved the Turd Burglars – their song ‘Are You Bored Or Are You Boring?’ should have been number one. I even performed it myself onstage at Stonehenge with their original drummer Richard Crow AKA Scarecrow. But every time I hear the name of the group it takes me shivering back to that night in 1983 scaling the back of Rosebery Avenue where any slip would have been death.
Issue 4 of Kill Your Pet Puppy was printed in time for a Days Of Future Past festival up northern England. I took loads up, when Luggy met me there and found out he could make 5p on every sale he made you couldn’t see him for dust: he cleaned my stack out – at least five hundred copies, and he would have sold more if I could’ve got more delivered there. What a guy; and he said he didn’t care about the money; it was just a great excuse to meet and chat with people. He kept his 5p’s though!
Times were changing at Grosvenor Avenue, as Mark from the Mob among others were starting to get restless legs and wanted to be part of the new hippy / punk traveller’s movement erupting out of Stonehenge; residents were spending more time on the road than at home. Luggy’s response was to move in a lot of the Stoke Newington crowd as rooms became vacant, then erected benders in the garden to accommodate more. New blood, Luggy wouldn’t let any of us become complacent.
Around this later era of Grosvenor Avenue, me and Luggy bonded over terrible records – The ‘50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett’ was a great favourite and you’d be surprised how many follow up albums Tommy and his 50 guitars made; and how they made Luggy and me happy when stumbling across one of those albums in our trawls through jumble sales and charity shops. It was the only thing that kept us sane.
In Autumn 1985 I left Grosvenor Avenue with Cravat, and went on our journey to display our street performance act to the world. When we returned in the summer of 1986 there was no room at the inn; so, for many years me and Luggy’s paths rarely crossed.
Then in the 21st century Luggy started organising meet ups under the name ‘Puppy’ picnics; he invited me along and when we met up again around thirty years later, we chatted as if no time at elapsed at all. Still as close as two beans in a tin can.
We only met at Puppy Picnics; the last one was at Meanwhile Gardens where he looked frailer, and talked of the various operations he had endured and was still to enjoy.
I was worried about him, but he waved it away; “Those scrotes with their knives will keep me alive”, and then we probably talked about Kirk Brandon again. He liked the Pack did Luggy.
And that’s how the story ends. My sorrow is to not be able to sit at a ‘Puppy’ picnic again with him, but glad his pain is over at last, and he can rest in peace.
When I hear The Pack, I think of Mick.
Mick has enhanced the lives of a legion of people though his energy and commitment in anarcho-punk. Mick this one is for you.
Tony Drayton – Ripped and Torn / Kill Your Pet Puppy fanzines
I remember the first time I met Luggy. Outside the Lyceum, waiting to get into the Damned 5th anniversary show. Three punks were handing out fliers to the people standing in line. Luggy stood out because his hair was dyed about twelve different colours. After checking out the band names written on my jacket, he handed me a flyer for a show at a place called the Autonomy Centre in Wapping.
“It’s five bands and only a pound to get in — way better value than this,” he said, pointing towards the Lyceum. He laughed, and within that laugh was a hint of disdain – The laugh was as unique as the way he looked. At that moment I realized two things. He and his group weren’t going to the Lyceum, and their show was going to be way more interesting.
The following Sunday I got off the train at Wapping, the station was covered in graffiti — the names of bands I had read about in the fanzines I eagerly devoured. Sounds and the NME didn’t cover this underground scene, so we had to rely on fanzines like New Crimes, and here I was. This was the place! Luggy was the first person I saw when I got to the door — the welcoming committee. I’m sure he was the face that greeted many of the people walking through those doors for the first time. Looking back, he was probably responsible for bringing so many people into our scene.
Within the doors of the Autonomy Centre I found something I never had before. A real sense of community. I don’t look back on my childhood for happy memories. I look back at Wapping, the Centro, Brougham Rd in Hackney, Stoke Newington, the squats in Islington, the friendships I made. The scene that raised me when I was figuring out who I was without the influence of parents, school or the church.
Meeting Luggy that night changed everything for me and sent me on a different trajectory, one that I’m still on to this day. I may not listen to a lot of ‘anarcho-punk’ these days, and I no longer spike up or dye my hair, but punk was an attitude, and I’d like to think that even today I take that spirit with me in everything I do. Once you get it, that “Fuck it, why not just try and see if anyone stops me” attitude never leaves.
Over the next few years, I spent a lot of time around Mick — more shows than I can remember, Black Sheep housing co-op meetings, turning old buildings into homes, cafes, venues — just places to go and be around people with the same values. Over the years, you could always rely on Mick for a great conversation, a laugh, a cup of tea or a hot meal, a hilarious story or a great memory from times long gone. All made sadder by the fact that he is no longer here, and I won’t get to hear that laugh one last time.
Rest easy, old friend. We booked a ton of shows, had a lot of laughs, made a lifetime of friends. Hopefully we changed some lives for the better along the way. I know meeting you changed mine.
And thank you Luggy, with all my heart for helping to organise my surprise ‘return back to London’ party in Highbury Islington.
John Travis – Libertarian Youth
I was gutted to hear of the passing of Mick.
He was the real deal. The guy that got things done, many talk a good job, but Mick lived it.
Always the first in and the first with his hand up. We started the Black Sheep housing co-op together and he helped fund and was there for the recording of ‘Let the Tribe Increase’.
He was there at the various anarchy centres, the Zig Zag all-dayer, and for ‘Stop the City’ and every other major event in our young lives, and I dare say long after I left London, he was still as active as ever.
The world is a poorer place without him… Lots of love mate.
Mark Wilson – The Mob
So sorry to hear this sad news. Mick was a big part of my life from when I first left home in the early eighties and lived at Grosvenor Avenue and Adolphus Road with him. He sorted me a room when I needed it.
He was a massive part of my life in the day and for sure the same to be said for many ‘peeps’, a word that Mick would say. He was such a sociable guy and always knew where the party was! So much love for him.
Paul ‘Fod’ Forder – Puppy Collective
Farewell Mick “Luggy Lugworm” Queally, key personnel venue squatter, underground promoter, publisher-reporter and general welder of the fabric of the anarcho-punk squat scene in London during the 1980s.
Mick was one of the warmest, most chilled and sensible of the whole crowd.
For a few years it felt as though no serious event went ahead without him.
He will be remembered as a crucial lynchpin, a vital component of that period of counterculture who not only made it happen but made it easy and loads of fun.
That extends to the North London ‘Puppy’ picnics that brought us all together again over forty years later.
Rest in peace Mick, you were golden.
Pete Fender – Rubella Ballet / Omega Tribe
Mick Lugworm was an unsung hero of the London anarcho-punk scene. He did more than most, more than just about anyone. He was also a perma-fixture at gigs and always a pleasure to see.
Mick got things done. He made things happen. From squatting the Zig Zag club for the Crass all-day gig, to helping fund the Mob album ‘Let The Tribe Increase’, he was someone you’d very much want beside you in the proverbial trenches.
Indeed, if more people were like Mick, then you’d be justified in having a flutter on ‘the revolution’ actually working.
I last saw Mick when Flowers In The Dustbin played the Dublin Castle at the first Grow Your Own Records festival.
On a personal level, this was a lovely bookend, given that it had been Mick who asked us if we wanted to do a record on the All The Madmen record label. That was a beautiful moment, this a very sad one.
Rest In Peace Mick.
Gerard – Flowers In The Dustbin
Such sad news learning of the passing of Mick ‘Lugworm’ who I have known for four decades, condolences to his family and his many friends and acquaintances.
I first met Mick ‘Lugworm’ in the mid-eighties when I was helping out at the All The Madmen record label and distribution, although I already ‘knew’ of him unwittingly, due to two articles, one in a fanzine and one in a magazine.
Firstly, going back in time, in 1982, I bought the new issue of one of my favourite fanzines of that early-eighties punk scene; KILL YOUR PET PUPPY. Within the pages of Kill Your Pet Puppy issue 5, published in 1982, was a page with the word TURD BURGLARS in large letters placed across a load of newspaper cuttings, These pages also had a really badly drawn cartoon of a punk with a fishing net, crouching under another punk shitting poo-sausages with the words “We’re gonna burgle your turds”. I thought this was absolutely hilarious at the time (I was fifteen years old at the time, so I still had a childish humour). At this time, I wasn’t quite sure whether the Turd Burglars were even a band, and I use that word ‘band’ loosely!
Fast forward to 1986 and I am sitting in the musty All The Madmen record label’s ‘office’ at 96 Brougham Road in Hackney, and Andy Martin from the Apostles, a favoured band of mine in the early – mid eighties, came around. Andy Martin and fellow Apostle, Dave Fanning (along with various Hackney Hell Crew members who kept coming and going) lived a few doors along the road at 108 Brougham Road, so 96 Brougham Road was not far for him to walk.
He bought copies of the Apostles debut album; ‘A Punk Obituary’, for All The Madmen to distribute. A wonderful album, back then, and it remains a wonderful album today. Slipped within the sleeve was an enormous A1 sized ‘poster’, not adorned with the usual photographs of the band looking moody, or station booth mugshots of the spikey haired masses, but instead just words!
Thousands and thousands of words!
Within these ‘autobiographic’ words, was the word; ‘Turd Burglars’, which caught my attention, followed by a few lines about going to a squat where members of the band were living at the time, to ‘face-out’ this guy called Mick ‘Lugworm’, because Mick had supposedly written some lyrics about Andy Martin / The Apostles which had presumably upset Andy Martin considering Andy Martin’s reaction!
Secondly, going back in time again, in 1983, I had bought a copy of the PUNK LIVES magazine and saw a person in a pink sweatshirt with black jeans on; a photograph that was placed on the pages of a centre-fold feature about The Mob, one of my all-time favourite bands of that early-eighties punk scene. I stared at this photograph constantly, well not constantly, I had to eat and sleep, and think of ways to avoid school homework, but I did stare at this photograph a lot, taking everything in. I’m a bit OCD and obsessive you see…
A couple of years later in the early months of 1985, I asked my friend from my old comprehensive school; Natalie, who was now a hairdresser, to cut my hair at her home. She had cut my hair regularly during the previous year or so, so this was not an unusual request from me. I took along my copy of that issue of the Punk Lives magazine, and I showed her this photograph on the pages featuring The Mob. I wasn’t interested in the guy on the left, who was the singer / guitarist in the band that the feature was about; The Mob, and I wasn’t interested in the lady on the right (who I learned a couple of years later was Val D) but my interest was solely on the guy in the middle.
The guy in the pink sweatshirt was also in the following issue of the Punk Lives magazine, this time a black and white photograph of him mending a window frame.
I asked Natalie to cut my hair like the guy in the middle of the photograph. I also asked her to bleach my hair for the very first time (but not for the last time). I also bought a pink sweatshirt. I had never worn pink before, and I never wore pink again after this specific sweatshirt fell apart. The guy in the photograph had looked so good, I had to ‘run with it’. I already had some black jeans (and a couple of pairs of black army surplus trousers – Temple ov Psychick Youth / Psychic TV chic) and a trusted pair of German paratrooper boots.
This photograph above of Angie G and myself at Brougham Road in Hackney, with my bleached blond, now crimped hair, with my pink sweatshirt and black jeans and German paratrooper boots (I’m wearing them in this photograph – honest) was taken when my hair had grown longer, so less similar to Mick’s in that original photograph, but a few months before, it was very similar, but the pink sweatshirt is well and truly present!
Fast forward to when I first met Mick.
I was introduced to Mick by Sarah who was one of the backing singers of Blyth Power, but I do not remember her introducing him as Mick ‘LUGWORM’ just plain Mick.
This would have been January 1986 (I checked my gig list) at the Three Crowns pub in Stoke Newington. Blyth Power were performing there, and if I recall correctly, it was one of Jon ‘Fat’ Beast’s events, (Jon also promoted gigs at the Finsbury Park Red Rose Club, the Dalston Crown and Castle pub, and the most well known venue, the Bull and gate pub in Kentish Town, the Timebox nights) and the gig was held in the afternoon rather than late at night.
At some point during the following weeks, I cannot remember how the conversation came up, but it came to my attention that Mick had appeared in the Punk Lives magazine not once, but twice! Obviously, I put two and two together to equal four, and had to mention my appropriation of his haircut, buying a pink sweatshirt, and wearing black jeans to complete the look!
I am not sure whether Mick thought I was taking the piss, or whether he was generally happy that he was, for one person at least, a fashion icon. I was probably wearing my pink sweatshirt at the time anyway, and although my hair by the time I actually met him in January 1986, had grown a little longer, and was crimped, I hope that he would have seen some small comparison after the three years since that photograph in the Punk Lives magazine was taken.
A few weeks after I had first met Mick, I had now known his nice-name ‘Lugworm’, so when I saw him next I brought up the subject of Andy Martin’s typed out rant strewn across that huge A1 sized poster within the debut Apostles album, as ‘Mick Lugworm’ was named. Mick confirmed that The Turd Burglars did have a song about Andy Martin; and Mick in his own words described thus; “Andy kept threatening to throw people down the stairs, so I wanted to cover ‘Help Me Mummy’ by Rubella Ballet as “Help Me Andy – Help Me Down The Stairs”.
I also found out that Mick had helped three of my favourite bands, and three quarters of the reason for me helping out at All The Madmen in the first place.
Mick helped pay for the album by The Mob; ‘Let The Tribe Increase’, released on the All The Madmen record label.
Mick helped get the Astronauts to release an album; ‘It’s All Done By Mirrors’ on the All The Madmen record label.
Mick helped get Flowers In The Dustbin to release a 12” record on the All The Madmen record label.
I saw Mick at loads of gigs throughout the rest of the eighties, and into the very early nineties, most of the time just to say hello to, or to nod my head his way, but he was always very pleasant to me, as he seemed to be with everyone.
By the early to mid nineties, I had drifted away from the anarcho-punk scene, and those kinds of gigs and social settings in general, so I lost touch with pretty much everybody from that old punk and squatting scene, including Mick.
I was mainly going to Jungalist drum and bass raves, swallowing pills, and also going to dub nights, featuring the brand new breed of digital dub sound systems, Manassah, Boom Shacka Lacka, Conscious Sounds, Eastern Sher, Aba Shante, and so forth. I was also still going to the old sound systems, Jah Shaka, Gladdy Wax and Fatman etc.
Fast forward to around 2005 and lots of people were being reconnected on MySpace, an old social media platform that younger browsers probably would not remember. Along with Mark from the Mob, Tony D, Valerie D, Alistair, Louise and others, was Mick, all of whom reconnected, and I was eager to join in.
Around 2006, Tony D, Alistair, myself and Gerard, the ex-singer of Flowers In The Dustbin (a person and a band that were just as inspirational to me in the early eighties as Mark, and his band The Mob had been) were in discussions to create a blog celebrating those years in the early to mid-eighties. Not just anarcho-punk, but also mysticism, magick, Stonehenge and other free festivals, Stop The City / CND and other demonstrations, Psychic TV and the Temple ov Psychick Youth, squatting, and lots of other subjects, not just punk rock!
When this Kill Your Pet Puppy blog went ‘live’ in 2007, the initial interest was vast from old punks, hippies, Temple ov Psychick Youth bods, and the just plain weird, all leaving comments on posts that I had constructed. Many old acquaintances were reunited, and many of these people wanted to make contact for the first time in decades with Mick Lugworm. Mick was always in the background while we were setting up the blog, but many of his fellow squatters who had lost touch for around four decades past, were starting to reconnect with him, as I would share (with consent) peoples personal email addresses with him, and vice-versa, as obviously as an admin to the Kill Your Pet puppy blog, I had the details that are hidden in the actual public comments. So many people reconnected at that time, and for a few years afterwards.
A year later in 2008, Mick decided to organise a Kill Your Pet Puppy summer ‘Puppy’ picnic for all these recently reconnected people. Set in open-air spaces (with a pub nearby just in case of rain) some of these open-air spaces had some kind of ‘anarcho-punk’ relevance.
Some of the people at the first ‘Puppy’ picnic – I cannot remember the location – September 2008
Some of the people at the second ‘Puppy’ picnic – I cannot remember the location – May 2009
Some of the people at the third ‘Puppy’ picnic – I cannot remember the location – May 2010
These summer ‘Puppy’ picnics, organised by Mick continued annually as the first picnic in 2008 was so successful. Many people from the old punk / squatting scene turned up for these annual events, and the events were always enjoyable.
Mick did all this, organising the picnics pretty much on his own, because he cared enough to organise though his love of the people who attended, some people attended pretty much every year, as Tony D and I did, as well as Simon, Andrea, Linda, Vicky, Gary, and Phil, and other people attended sporadically every few years when they happened to be in London.
Some of the people at the seventeenth ‘Puppy’ picnic – Meanwhile Gardens – May 2025
I was with Mick at Meanwhile Gardens last year at the annual summer ‘Puppy’ picnic making this event in 2025, the 17th year that Mick had organised them. He was quite weak, and I was worried about him. Some of the attendees helped him to the nearby Westbourne Park tube station after the picnic. He had already told me some weeks previously that he might not be able to come to the event that he had organised, as by this point due to his health he felt venerable on trains especially if he didn’t get a seat. The train bumping and swerving along the tracks. Of course, Mick made it to the event, as if I / we were in any doubt!
What a guy Mick was.
I contacted him a few times on the phone after the picnic to say “Hi’, and I kid you not a few weeks ago, just a few days before learning of his sad passing, I was thinking of contacting him to see if he wanted to think about organising another ‘Puppy’ picnic. A short-notice late summer / autumn picnic, because there had not been an annual picnic this year, and although I thought that perhaps this year Mick would not be strong enough to actually organise one, I was more than willing to do so on his behalf, if he picked a place, near to where he lived, so he could join us as he would every year. Sadly, the May 2025 ‘Puppy’ picnic was to be his, and ours, last picnic.
Mick was a lovely, gentle, and humorous man, who had a big heart and cared for others. Totally approachable. I never saw him angry for the years that I saw him out and about.
I’m glad that in 1985 I appropriated his appearance going back to that single photograph taken in the Punk Lives magazine published in the summer of 1983.
To me Mick was a role model, with a legacy of being on the right side of the anarcho-punk history, as well as a short lived fashion icon!
May he rest in peace.
With LUV always.
Mickey ‘Penguin’ – All The Madmen / Southern Studios / Southern Record Distribution
Absolutely gutted to hear of Luggy’s passing.
I spent a lot of time hanging around with Mick, particularly at the Wapping Autonomy Centre and Centro Iberico in 1981 and 1982.
I remember his claim to fame was having all eighteen colours of the Crazy Colour range in his hair at the same time!
I also remember the time, near Christmas, that he asked for a 10p kid’s fare on a bus from Dalston Junction to Wapping and the conductor wouldn’t sell him the ticket. Mick said, “Come on man it’s Christmas”, but the conductor still refused. Mick grudgingly handed over the full fare calling the conductor an old scrote.
I have many fond memories of Mick, although I haven’t seen him since those days sadly but always hoped to.
We reconnected and were friends on Facebook.
A truly lovely guy and I am close to tears as I write this.
Thanks for the memories and your friendship Mick.
Rest in peace my friend!
Pete ‘Protest’ Knight – Assassins of Hope
Shocking and sad news that Mick has passed on. We’ve lost an inspiring, passionate, hilarious, loving and all-round wonderful human being. An absolute lynchpin of the anarcho-punk movement. Where would we be without him?
Mick was one of a kind. Inspirational, caring, hilarious, passionately committed. A beautiful human and a lynchpin of the anarcho-punk squatting scene.
I first met Mick through Louise Harris and the Wapping Anarchy Centre. He was a real organiser and loved getting people together.
He had the idea of setting up a Housing co op as a way to get more permanent housing for everyone, I lived with him at New North Road and Grosvenor Avenue.
We lost contact when I left London but bumped into him at Glastonbury a few years later.
He was a wonderful man and will be hugely missed.
Val Drayton – Puppy Collective
Mick’s passing was such sad news, and I was so sorry to hear this sad news.
Luggy was a such a huge presence back then, both far & wide on the scene & in a local way house sharing as I did at Grosvenor Avenue and the Rosebery Avenue Peace Centre.
He always knew where the good things were. He had a fine knowledge of where and when the local councils collected skips and would appear with amazing treasures from the numerous skips that he had plundered.
Luggy – AKA Magpie Mick.
Kind, funny, proactive & so resourceful, he will be missed by so many.
Vicky Ridley
I am struggling with what to say.
Friends leaving has that effect on me.
Mick was a lovely man and throughout the eighties and nineties, our paths crossed so many times and they were always good. I know he will be sorely missed.
Mark mentioned of how Luggy had come up with the necessary cash for us to record ‘Let The Tribe Increase’ and it just reminds me of how without his belief and help it would just not have happened.
Rest easy Mick.
Curtis Youe – The Mob
Mick was a much-loved man, as well as a squatting legend and committed anti-authoritarian.
We had many a good time together at Wapping and in Stoke Newington. I believe I first met him in 1980 when he had a group called Part Time Poseurs (I remember a self-made PTP armband.)
A truly gifted lyricist with a sly and wicked sense of humour, just checkout the words to any song by his band The Turd Burglars, who as some of you may recall I was the drummer for.
Rest in Peace Luggy
We will not forget you.
Richard Crow – The Turd Burglers
So sorry to hear of Luggy’s passing.
A kingpin of the 80s anarcho-punk, squatting and music scenes, Luggy like a lot of people, experimented and pushed the boundaries. He was someone who led the way, took control of situations and was always on hand to help out.
When I first met him and being a shy teenager, I must admit I looked up to him, his confidence, belief in what he did and knowledge of life in general, seemed ahead of its time.
He always had a wry smile and distinctive voice and laugh, that could always be heard when you thought of him.
More recently he organised the regular ‘Puppy’ picnics that would reunite many of our old chums, with endless stories to tell!
I will remember him fondly.
Simon Collins
Very sad news on the passing of Luggy.
I first met Mick ‘Luggy’ in early eighties at Wapping Anarchy Centre, & Centro Iberico, and many other gigs.
He was originally from my old hometown Cheam.
Mick was always proactive on the anarcho-punk, squat and protest scene’.
Mick would be breaking squats including the Zig Zag, where Crass, the Mob, Poison Girls and many other bands performed an all-day festival.
Mick was also present at the Bingo Hall and the Roseberry Avenue Peace Centre, hair always a multiple of colours.
Rest in peace the not so ‘dodgy ol’ scrote’.
Aaron Paul
Mick’s passing was such sad news.
I shared a squat with Mick and several others in New North Road when I first moved to London in the early eighties. Doubtless to say we got up to lots of no good!
I loved his energy and wry sense of humour. He was always up for almost anything.
Our paths frequently crossed over the years at various gigs where he would randomly pop up fully prepared with smuggled alcohol and snacks.
He will always be remembered as an integral lynch pin in the 80s anarcho-punk and squat scenes.
May he rest in peace.
Andy Ashford
Luggy is not just a loss to the Lugworm community but very much to ours too.
We didn’t see him much in later years but that doesn’t matter because our love and regard for him was on rock solid foundations from the 80s.
Like many others, we found he was always the first. The first to greet us at the Wapping Autonomy Centre, not just on that first Sunday we went there as slightly wary teens, but every Sunday. And then the first to do likewise at the Centro Iberico and many other venues across London he either helped establish, organise or was just a cheery punter at.
And in later years, the wonderful ‘Puppy’ picnics that got us all together once a year from wherever we had scattered. We will miss him for who he was as a person (especially that absolutely wicked sense of humour that has often been remarked on) and salute him for the selfless role he played over decades in being the glue that kept us together.
Ruth Doll – Hagar The Womb