Derek Jolly died recently in Bulgaria where he had lived for the
last few years. Derek was originally from the North East of
England, Newcastle Upon Tyne I believe.

I believe musically he was mainly a blues man but is chiefly known
on Mudcat as the writer of My Grandfather's Ferret. His claim to
fame, or so he said, was having the first sound to light disco - I
have no idea whether that was worldwide, countrywide or in the
North East.

I first came across Derek in 1986 as one of the organisers of the
Readifolk club in Reading, Berkshire, England (Note for out-of-towners, Reading is
pronounced "Redding" and Berkshire is pronounced "Barksheer" or "Barkshuh").

I believe Derek moved from Reading first to Hertfordshire, England (pronounced "Hartfordshire") and
then to Cyprus before settling in Bulgaria.

Here's a video of Derek singing My Grandfather's Ferret.

(For those who visit the Mudcat Worldwide Singaround or know me
otherwise, I am Simon Meeds. Sorry for the patronising pronunciation explanations but having socialised with some of our transatlantic cousins recently and knowing they like to get these things right, I thought it worth the effort.)