James McMahon, 3rd July 1980 - 14th November 2024
A message from James's wife.
Dear Spoook readers
It is with great sadness that I have to let you know, if you hadn’t already heard, that James died last month from soft tissue sarcoma.
James had no intention of dying. He had surgery in July to remove a huge tumour which, at the time, was successful. He spent seven weeks in hospital following his surgery, and after he came home in mid-August he immediately got back into work - you may have caught him talking about Oasis, several times, on the telly for example - with every intention that, once he was better next summer, he would be out in a park bellowing along to Supersonic, giving two fingers to the cancer that had made the previous year so hard. We were expecting an autumn of wound healing, a winter of tough treatment, and maybe more hard times ahead, but were full of hope that 2025 would be kinder to him than 2024 had been.
We found out that his cancer had recurred, and also spread to his lungs, on 18th October. This was far sooner than anyone expected, least of all his doctors. The game changed. They told us treatment was no longer going to be curative, and now would be about stopping the spread, slowing the growth. But James still worked. He published the 300th episode of the James McMahon Music Podcast - with none other than Betty Boo - interviewing whom had been a lifelong dream for James, genuinely. He gained new commissions he was really excited about, including writing about the Bullseye reboot for The Observer - a piece of writing I’m deeply sad I will never get to read. Perhaps in its place I can direct you to this piece he wrote about Bullseye for The Big Issue or I’m delighted to see that his wonderful Radio 4 documentary ‘Look At What You Could Have Won’ is still available to listen to on BBC Sounds. James was at his best when talking to real people about things that mattered to them, regardless who they were. He did more interviews and was planning even more - he was also planning a live podcast event as well once he could get back out into the world. As Conor McNicholas said in his beautiful eulogy at James’s funeral last week, there was a man who could graft. I still have a half-edited podcast interview with Jake Bugg sat open on James’s computer. With apologies to Jake’s team, I don’t have a clue how to edit a podcast. But I can’t bring myself to close the file.
So many amazing words have been written or spoken about James in the last month. Obituaries & news pieces ran in NME, The Guardian, Music Week, Kerrang!, The Doncaster Free Press, and on many friends and admirers’ social media. Eve Barlow’s beautiful and personal tribute on her own Substack was wonderful. I’ve also just this minute learnt that the charity Sarcoma UK put out a PR about James’s story which mentioned my whiteboard aquarium I made for James while he was in hospital. Bonkers.
Some of the other amazing tributes to James include:
The ‘little’ fundraiser I started for OCD sufferers has so far raised almost £14,000
James’s beloved Doncaster Rovers had a minute-long clap for James in the 44th minute of the game against Salford city on Saturday 16th November
The entire Rovers team signed a shirt for James and yes, it was Billy Sharp’s shirt.
Artists including Franz Ferdinand, The Maccabees and The Futureheads posted amazing tributes to him online, and Nadine Shah, Badly Drawn Boy and We Are Scientists all dedicated songs or entire shows to him
Several friends have already got tattoos of James’s artwork, with more planned
One inspired friend sponsored the adoptions of all of the guinea pigs at his local sanctuary in Chicago
As James would say, cor! That is all amazing. Actually amazing!
I’m not the writer that James was. I’m not even a writer at all, really. But I’ll be keeping this Substack open, with all content for free, so please don’t unsubscribe. A bunch of us have a few ideas cooking about how to keep James’s voice, his words, his legacy going, and this will be the first place you’ll hear about any of it. I’ll be working to keep his podcasts available too so you can still hear his voice. So dig in. Check out an interview, maybe try one with an artist you’ve never even heard of. You never know, you might find your new favourite band.
Thank you all for your support of James’s work.
With gratitude,
Kat (James’s wife)
We’re not going anywhere, Kat xoxo
So sorry for your loss…thank you for this beautiful tribute.