Tributes paid to 'funniest man' after gym death

A MAN who died suddenly after collapsing at the gym has been described by friends and colleagues as a "joy" and the "funniest man" they'd ever met.

• CHARISMA: Andrew Midgley was known as 'Boy Naughty'

Andrew Midgley, who had only just turned 45, passed away after a session at the Quayside Gym in Musselburgh on Thursday.

Those fond of him have been quick to pay tributes to the man, who was a popular sub-editor at the Evening News.

Gary Flockhart, 39, met him 15 years ago and they have been friends ever since.

He said: "Andrew was one of those people who was always upbeat and always in a good mood. He had a brilliant sense of humour, very black. He had a varied life, from being in pop bands to masquerading as an old woman agony aunt."

Before he embarked on a career in journalism, Mr Midgley had a significant involvement in the music industry.

He enjoyed a top ten chart success in 1992 as one half of the pop duo Cola Boy with the song Seven Ways to Love, and was involved in the early days of Saint Etienne.

His music career took him from Peterborough, where he grew up after the family moved from London, and eventually to Manchester and Dublin.

In the late 1990s he moved to Edinburgh, where he had built a network of friends from visits to schoolfriend Andrew Rainey.

He was known by two nicknames - "Midge" and "Boy Naughty" - with friends saying some people knew him only by the latter. Friend John Yorston said: "Andrew was a proper gent and a good friend. An infallible bull**** detector when it came to music and anything cultural, an afternoon spent talking about the latest set of Emperor's New Clothes, was always a joy and would leave me chuckling.

"He's going to be missed by a lot of people."

He also ran two popular websites. His blog, The Filthy Pen, features images of graffiti around Edinburgh with satirical commentary alongside, while his Bank Holiday Britain blog is a "simple but hilarious" collection of photographs featuring mundane aspects of everyday British life.

Mr Flockhart added: "He had a way of seeing the amusement in things others wouldn't, then presenting it in a very funny way.

"Some friends, Andrew being one of them, have a tradition of spending Christmas Day together. It isn't your typical Christmas, because instead of turkey we have butterscotch Angel Delight and instead of the Queen's speech we play Cola Boy's Seven Ways.

"Andrew hated Christmas. He'd turn up with his bottle of juice, or 'pop' as he called it, and sit with a daft paper hat on telling funny stories and jokes.

"It will be strange not having him there this year, but we reckon he'd want us to go ahead and have it anyway.We'll still put on Cola Boy at 3pm, and that's going to be quite an emotional moment.

"We hope to arrange some kind of tribute night for him at Cabaret Voltaire."

Evening News editor Tom Little said: "Andrew was a thoroughly professional journalist but more importantly a great guy and a popular colleague.

"He will be sorely missed by everyone at the Evening News. Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time."

He is survived by parents Richard and Dorothy, younger brother Michael, and girlfriend Rosalind Gibb.