Of course it has to be said, John lit up a lot more than lamps. I thoroughly enjoyed getting very lit up with John on many a wonderful night.

I went to see John yesterday and it made me realise that John was – and is – the sunshine boy of the touring industry. That was his true genius; he brought us smiles and he made us all happier with all that smiling he did. It’s very difficult to think of John and not see him with a smile on his face; you try it – it can’t be done. It’s like trying to name a famous Belgian.

Macca cracked it with the tribute to John that is coming in Mark Cunningham’s Total Production magazine: Paul said: “I always remember him with a laugh – I can’t think of him any other way. He was just always there – with a smile”.

And we all know that is true. There are no two better words to describe John than lovely and loveable.

A lot of people who toured with John have said the best words about him this past week – professional, polite, kind, courteous, considerate, humble, gentle, sincere, warm, friendly and… special. And he was all of that and you can see it from reading the fantastic John Roden tribute website that Baggy has built in his honour.

We love the sunshine boy because it was always such a laugh to be with John, seeing him sauntering into the bar with that wicked sparkle of mischief in his eyes. That look always told you it was going to be a great night.

We love him because he never turned his back on anybody else’s problem; he helped and he cared and he was the one who knocked on or indeed knocked down your door to check you were OK. It was a little bit like touring with a fairy godmother; although obviously he’d take exception to the fairy bit as he’d say that is more Pab’s shout.
Lovely Pab, always the Hinge to John’s Bracket.

We love him because, no matter what nightmares of ego and panic was going down over feedback or power cuts or the wrong coloured chairs in the audience, as the lovely Di reminded me, nothing was more important to John than the good manners of taking the time in the middle of a storm of shouting and wrist-slitting than to say “hello, and how are you?”

We love John not just because he was the best in the touring business, but because he was so humble with it. John never willingly hung out in a dressing room waiting for an autograph or a signed photo. He was not one for souvenirs. Having said that, if anybody wants to buy that Hofner bass that you’ve all been looking for….

We love John he very willingly did hang out in the party rooms. He was the patron saint of good times. The grass was always greener in John’s room…..

We love John because John made everything OK. John made you safe. He was a guv’nor because he looked out for you. A good tour depends upon the camaraderie and John was always the best ambassador of that.

But also, this man was brave, he had balls and Keiran and Tom deserve to know that they could have no finer father than this wonderful man and Noreen could not be loved by anyone better.

But what I love most about the sunshine boy is that John was Captain Sarcastic. He had a splendidly-irreverent wit and he used his cheekiness to raise a laugh when others despaired.

Adrianna Irvine gave me a wonderful memory of this which I’d like to share finally with you as a classic example of this lovely, lovely man. The last word is the best word – because it is John’s.

It was 1993, on the New World Tour and Macca and a crew of 198 were doing a gig in the middle of the Brazilian rain forest, in a bloody awful place called Curitchiba – which is the Brazilian word for lake.

When the crew arrived in Curitchiba it was bucketing down. It rains and it rains and it rains. It rains for all 24 hours before the gig and as our stage was, naturally, the largest on the planet; it held a LOT of rain.

Obviously, a wet and slippery stage can be very dangerous for any performer, let alone a Beatle who has never played in the aptly-named rain forest before, and so the crew are up all night, no sleep, just mopping and mopping this vast water butt that we’ve built in the middle of the actual River Amazon.

Time and again the crew got it dry for Paul’s impending Sound Check and time and again it was flooded again as the heavens opened for another rollicking from the Rain God.

Then, just as the rain finally stops, word comes that Paul’s sea plane has landed, and now everybody turns to help dry the stage; Barrie Marshall’s mop army is trebled in size, 200 natives are hired, all the towels are stolen from wardrobe and there’s more moppers on stage than there are flies on a Kleenex in Las Vegas.

Finally, after a heroic and frenzied mopping operation that could only have been organised by the best crew on Earth, the stage was pretty much dry and Macca’s convoy arrives for SoundCheck.

Tension is not the word for it. Everybody is exhausted, everybody is soaked to the bone and everybody knows that Paul and the band cannot do a show if the stage is slippery.

It’s a nightmare everywhere. Backstage Barrie has bustled in the mayor and His One Hundred and Eleven children for an impromptu meet and greet, to try win a bit more time with to dry the stage that Paul, of course, has even not been told has been wet.

But instead of meeting the mayor family robinson, Paul gets out of his limo and he walks straight onstage. And then suddenly he stops.

He looks down and at his feet he has spied a puddle that our hard-working, non-sleeping crew had missed with their maelstrom of moppery.

Everybody freezes, everybody is very tense. A $1 million show may not go on.

“Oh”, says Paul, “there’s some water on the stage”.

“Yes”, says the de-fusing voice of John Roden, “and we hear that YOU can walk on it”.

A lovely man and everybody who met him has a Roden moment that will be in their heart forever because John Roden is glorious proof of that great Paul McCartney wisdom that the love you take is equal to the love you make.

John made and takes a lot of love from us all.