Young plugger from the 90s - nice, bright young man, has passed away. One of the reasons I am so sad about the current state of the music industry is that it no longer seems to be a community; even in the 90s we were pretty aware of each other. These days nobody cares and few even know.

Music Week are carrying a nice piece:

Music industry PR, radio plugger and director of Large PR Stuart Emery has passed away suddenly after suffering heart failure.

Emery, 50 was a much-loved music industry veteran of more than 30 years. He entered the music industry with Phonogram Records as a radio plugger, before moving to Sony (Columbia) as Head of TV in 1994.

In 1998 he went freelance and the following year set up Absolute Promotions with Amanda Beel and Large PR in 2004. Stuart worked with many of the world's biggest artists including Robert Plant and Alison Kraus, Michael BoIton, Mariah Carey, Incubus, Katie Melua, Amen and Tim Burgess.

Close friends from across the music industry have lined up to pay tribute including BBC Radio 6 Music's Steve Lamacq who said of Emery: "Stuart was larger than life. He talked so animatedly about the bands he worked with; because he had such an infectious way about him. And he could talk to anyone. He was a proper friend, but a really thorough, hard-working professional to boot. If he believed in a band it was hard not to trust him."

Former Business partner and friend Amanda Beel of All About Promotions said: "Stuart worked as a fitness instructor when we first met. We've been close friends and colleagues for 30 years. He was loyal, honest, straight-talking, fun and loveable. I am going to miss him so terribly".

Details of funeral arrangements will be announced in the next few days.

But isn't that the REALLY sad thing about the music industry today Jk? Where have all the people who eat, drink, sleep and (probably) fantasise MUSIC , BANDS and THE CHARTS gone? I did not have the pleasure of knowing Stuart but just from reading his obit I feel I know the kind of guy he was. My generation (born in 65) grew up with MUSIC and THE CHARTS as the b all and end all of their teenage years (bar Girls or Boys, of course) but today its all very second rate and music is now seen by kids as 'something they can get for nothing' rather than something to enthuse about, collect and aspire to a career in.

As far as your comments about how the music industry used to be a community I don't think its just the music industry that has lost that feel. Today, thanks to the E.U. (sorry, I know you will disagree with that!) and the do gooders who have made it almost impossible to get a full time job these days the sense of 'getting to know' people who work in an industry has gone out of the window. With most people working part time jobs (or multiple part time jobs) there is never a sense of continuity whenever you approach or visit a company. For example, I used to work at Tesco at a Superstore in the 1990's. In those days it employed around 330 people - most of whom were FULL timers. The same store now 'employs' over 800. Where you have part timers who are not earning much and are only there a few hours at a time you will rarely find passionate people who care about their jobs.

Call me old fashioned but I miss the old days!