Celibate Rifles band member Kent Steedman pays tribute to Damien Lovelock
Northern beaches rock legend Damien Lovelock has been remembered as a ‘one-of-a-kind’ person by fellow band member Kent Steedman.
ROCK legend Damien Lovelock has been remembered as a “one-of-a-kind” person by fellow band member Kent Steedman.
Steedman, who spent 38 years performing alongside Lovelock in the band Celibate Rifles, is among thousands across Australia who have paid tribute to the Bilgola Plateau resident. Lovelock died, aged 65, on Saturday following a battle with cancer. Lovelock was a man of many talents. Along with being the frontman for the famed rock band, he earned praise as a TV soccer analyst and was a popular yoga coach.
“Damien was a one-of-a-kind — and there has not been anyone like him before or since,” Steedman said.
“It was just the nature of how he operated and lived his live.
“There was a stubbornness about him, but he also had intelligence, humour and fight... he was a great guy and people will miss him a lot.”
Lovelock first joined the Celibate Rifles in the early 1980s after he saw an ad for a band that was in need of a singer.
He proved a perfect fit, according to Steedman.
“What I think was great about Damien - and there were many things - was his thoughtful, lyrical content,” he said.
“We were young.... and it’s not say I wasn’t writing songs like him, but he put it in a better, observed context.”
Away from music, Lovelock gained fame as a football TV analyst on SBS and was an avid sports fan in general.
“His astute reading of sport came from his fairly astute analysis of life and society,” he said.
“When I would sit with him he would (often successfully) predict how a game or season was going... I think he was more accurate than he was given credit more.
“He should have been a major sports analyst and respected much more.”
Steedman said Lovelock lived for the beach.
“He loved swimming, surfing and walking every day,” he said.
“He could give Tony Abbott a run for is money in budgy smugglers - but there was nothing else I know of that they had in common.
“He was probably close to 40 when he first started surfing.
“But he boogie-boarded for a while and then graduated to Malibu surfboards.”
Steedman said Lovelock - like his band — was known as a “straight shooter”, who was “always himself in the presence of anybody.”
He also described him as “one of the funniest people you would meet in life”.
It’s a sentiment shared by many who crossed paths with Lovelock, including the many people he taught and worked alongside as a yoga instructor.
“Damien was larger than life, a fantastic instructor for us at Premier Health Club (in Brookvale) for over eight years,” general manager Sachin Popat said.
“He was passionate about helping and educating our members, and never short of a colourful joke.
“Damien had an incredibly infectious character - funny, refreshingly honest and loyal. He never let us down. We all loved listening to his stories.”
Mr Popat and Mr Lovelock regularly talked about football together.
“Damien and I shared a passion for the beautiful game,” he said.
“He would pop in or call me every week to talk football and at some point in the conversation I would always be in tears of laughter.
“I’ve never met anyone quite like Damien and never will — a true legend.”
Steedman said one of the other key qualities he will remember about Lovelock, was how he was “very generous in spirit.”
An example he pointed out was when the band was touring Ireland in the mid-1980s.
At one point the bnad were staying with an Irish family on the coastline.
The band bought some salmon and later enquired with the family about how to cook it.
Despite living by the sea, the family said they had never actually eaten salmon as they couldn’t afford it.
At that point, Lovelock, without hesitation said that the family could have half of the salmon the band had purchased.
“Most people tell funny stories about him because he was the funniest guy most people had ever met,” Steedman said.
“But this story summed up his other side.
“He would do things like that... that side of his compassionate nature was really good.”
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