A Memorial For George Teide
George Teide Artist & Musician was born in Canada died at only 64 years old late last year (2018)
George lived in a hot rusty industrial shed in Berrimah Darwin, Australia, where he prolifically painted, his walls were adorned with his art works. In his later years he was on a pension and also worked as a cleaner on Saturday mornings at a mate’s machine shop for a little extra cash.
George's passing devastated all his close friends and took them completely by surprise. No one ever would’ve thought that this old boy was going anywhere anytime soon, he just had way too much painting and guitar playing to do.
When he played the drums: " you surprise me George" when you play the harp: " you surprise me George" I reckon you could say “he was an all-arounder type of music playa.” If you ever queried him about a subject he would look up, as if pondering and in his best Canadian accent he would reply
Oh yeah?
A true Gentleman
George was a true gentleman, softly spoken and he would always lend an ear and would listen to you intently before he opened his mouth in reply.
George lived a very humble life and was a very humble person. He was wise and he knew a lot about the history of the music industry and he had a great love and repect for all the monumental musicians that are the fathers of the nusic industry as we know it today.
George the Musician
The only thing George loved more than painting was playing guitar, or any musical instrument for that matter, that he came across. As long as it was the blues or rock ‘n’ roll, he would fire up his guitar with his mates when they dropped by to see him.
"George loved jamming so much that he would often ring and tell me when he had some beers and some good smoko, so to entice me to come over and make music. Often we would end up in a 24 hour long rock ‘n’ roll drunken stoned jam session." (recalled by my brother Dave)
George the Painter
George he loved to paint and his love for music is evident in his artworks. Many of his paintings are portraits of musicians that he admired, listened to and enjoyed playing covers of their songs. Sometimes he woukd sell some of his older paintings, other times he gave them away to friends as gifts, but he had many art works stacked in the corner of his shed because he couldn't fit all of them on the walls. He would rotate them regularly around the walls if his shed and the spares would be stacked in a pile against the wall in one corner.
Most of the black-and-white paintings on his walls were of blues artists as he was working on a collection of paintings that he liked to call "100 years of the Blues" The collection, although extensive was unfinshed at the time of his death.
Memories of conversations with George by your good buddy Dave:
"I remember something about that" then he would add his recollection to the conversation and we’d be like glued intently listening to his storytelling then he would stop and just look at you and say something like "do you wanna roll another joint" or "let’s play that song" or "fuck we shoulda recorded that last set we jammed......" I loved George so much as a human being he always made you charged up with energy feeling humble and warm and fuzzy.