The humour, the music.

"Mushrooms could be the key to the next dimension."

The above is a direct quote from the one and only Steven Santa Cruz Booth, uttered in the depths of the Curzon Soho basement staff room regarding a topic concerning the theory that humans derive from mushrooms. On that fine day of many, I just listened to him, enjoying every second of his earnest proposal.

I've said it before and will do so again: I could write an essay on Steven. He meant so much to so many and always will.

For me at least, strangely, films and indeed filmmaking were often not the absolute priority for Steven and I.

What I appreciated most about our relationship was the humour and the music.

Steven was solely responsible for reigniting an old flame of mine: heavy metal. Upon joining the Curzon in 2014 and realising we were permitted to grace the -1 bar with the soundtrack of our desire, all it took was me mentioning I had a thing for 'the heavier stuff' to set Steven off.

For the next 6 years, starting with Black Sabbath, we travelled throughout the intricacies of the genre and way beyond on a journey of pure discovery and thrill which changed my life in a very positive way.

Only recently on a daily lockdown walk did I randomly start listening for the first time to James White and the Blacks which Steven once recommended in response to me attending a Flipper show in 2019.

How I'll miss that fruitful, generous knowledge of his.

A hope and desire was always to discover something for Steven that he wasn't already aware of, which was - as anyone who knew Steven can surely attest to - almost impossible. It was the same with films.

The closest I got with music was the subgenre of 'sludge metal' starting with Melvins I think. The joy it gave him; it was like a personal victory. An achievement.

Another desire of mine was to make the man smile at any opportunity; usually at the cost of making a fool of myself or saying something outrageous.

Weirdly, I was/am always willing to break protocol for Steven.

I had a long running 'joke' with him if he was playing something a little softer in the bar (yet it would still be brilliant as ever): I'd crawl out of the cinema basement where I was happily confined as usher and say something to my dear friend along the lines of:

"Steven, the music's great tonight, truly, but, well, it's a bit awkward but I've overheard a few comments - not really complaints per say - from guests as they're descending the stairs saying that it's not...quite...heavy enough? And a little on the quiet side? I know! There's also been a few requests for some Norwegian death metal but honestly, I'd just go easy Steven."

To which he'd force a little laugh, roll his eyes and utter:

"Oh yeah? Again? Ok Jamie, let me see what I can do."

I think I was often a terrible influence on him. He was of course the exact opposite on me.

I only have a single personal photograph of Steven which I'm going to keep private. It's beautiful of course.

Ever since we lost him, amongst many other things I've often wondered: why didn't I have more documentation of this extraordinary being? Well, I guess we all thought he'd always be around, right?

Thankfully there's no shortage of material out there for the world to consume.

Searching my archives, I did however find a completely unremarkable photograph which triggered a fond memory, attached here to this very post. I took the photo merely to remember specifically what he'd done...

Basically, I had noticed Steven fiddling around behind the bar looking rather confused, so went to see what was going on. It turned out he had tried to play something on his phone through the speakers by a band called Devo but had accidentally selected an unofficial Youtube video which in fact consisted of the same short guitar riff repeated over and over for half an hour, presumably uploaded by someone as a joke.

Honestly, I've never laughed so much in my life and I implored him to let it play in its entirety. Come on Steven!

Quite rightly however, he switched it off after about five minutes for the sake of everyone's sanity. Link below if you want to try it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyDzGPbzg7A&feature=emb_logo

Eternal love and admiration to the man who forever stayed true to himself.

Play it harder and louder, always.