DJ Derek: Accountant with a chocolate company who became a disc jockey and performed at Womad and Glastonbury

In 2012 he received the Lord Mayor’s medal for his outstanding contribution to the city of Bristol

Serpell-Morris in action at the Bristol Harbour Festival in 2013 (2013)

DJ Derek was an accountant turned club disc jockey who delighted in the title of “Britain’s oldest DJ”. Having played at festivals including Glastonbury, Bestival and Womad, he gained a reputation as the godfather of Bristol’s music scene. He had spun his trademark mix of ska, rocksteady and reggae at venues across the town and further afield until his retirement three years ago.

Derek Serpell-Morris was born in Bristol in 1941, the son of a carpenter. As an infant growing up during the war he remembered a barrage balloon falling on to his home, from which he later used the material to make a simple drum. He first heard rock’n’roll and reggae on American Forces Network radio as a teenager and formed a group, the Ramrods, supporting Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry at local concerts.

By the 1960s he was an accountant at Fry’s Chocolate (later Cadbury’s) by day while revelling in the Bristol music scene by night. “There was the Bamboo Club in St Paul’s, where I first heard the likes of Desmond Dekker, Toots and the Maytals and early Bob Marley,” he recalled in 2009. “Some people thought hanging around the Bamboo was dangerous for me, but the guys there knew I was only there for the music.”

The year 1977 was an annus horribilis for Serpell-Morris: he had recently lost both his parents and was going through a second divorce. He left his job at Fry’s and found himself DJing, as he said, “by accident”.

At that difficult time the music he so loved became his saviour, bringing a new direction and purpose to his life. “I went on the dole and was on the verge of a nervous breakdown when a Jamaican bus driver I knew took over the Star and Garter in Montpelier and asked me to bring some of my records in to play for beer money. He knew I had something for everybody.”

From that early beginning DJ Derek’s reputation soon grew; he played regular gigs at venues around Bristol and at festivals across the UK and Europe. In 1994 Nick Coleman, in a piece for this newspaper, described him as “a respected figure among the elders of the local black community, which is unusual given that he is a white man and his business is music. His one-man ‘Sweet Memory Sounds’ sound-system plays the Star and Garter twice a week, and a brace of other Bristol pubs on the remaining weekday nights. ‘He give us what we want’, the grown-ups say.”

Of aligning himself with the Jamaican community, he said, “A 1950s Jamaican upbringing was just like my British upbringing of the same period, as regards the schooling of manners and general demeanour, and I identify with that. I love the black community in Bristol. I am at home with them. They have culture.”

In 2012 he received the Lord Mayor’s medal for his outstanding contribution to the city of Bristol. On retiring from the scene the following year, he ended his final DJ set with Bob Marley’s “One Love”, as usual. The song, he said, is “a perfect signing-off record for a reggae set – let’s get together and feel all right. So next time, people, let’s get together and feel all right.”

He was last seen during the early hours of 11 July last year after leaving The Criterion pub on Ashley Road in Bristol’s St Pauls area and was formally reported missing 12 days later. Detective Inspector Chris Jay said last August, “Since Derek was reported missing, on Thursday 23 July, we’ve conducted a thorough and wide-spread search investigation. This has involved detailed CCTV examinations, house-to-house enquiries and physical searches. We have also had a large number of reported sightings following our public appeal and we are working through all of these.”

Members of the city’s music scene, including Daddy G of Massive Attack, had joined the campaign to find him. But after many months without positive news, his family and friends had been losing hope of finding out what had happened to him. However, his body was recently found by police and DNA analysis has confirmed his identity.

His great niece, Jennifer Amy, who had helped with the search, made extensive use of social media to try to locate Derek. She said to followers on Facebook, “We would just like to thank you all for all the love and support over the past eight months, we wouldn’t have been able to get through this without you.

“Yesterday we got the news that our beloved Derek had been found, I am feeling numb right now to think of him being there alone all this time. I’m sorry Derek that it took so long and that we were all looking in the wrong places.

“I just hope and pray that nothing bad happened to you. At least we can now say goodbye and give you the massive celebration and send-off you truly deserve.”

MARCUS WILLIAMSON

Derek Serpell-Morris (DJ Derek): accountant and disc jockey; born 18 December 1941; twice married; died c. 11 July 2015.