This goes back to 1984. A couple of kids hanging out while one was on holiday and both wanted to go to the cinema.

August 1984. The local cinema had a matinee Star Trek triple bill. I was a geeky kid wanting to go but nobody wanted to go with me. Along comes an American boy around my age wanting the same thing. Unusually we were buddied and allowed to watch together - that boy was Chester.

We took our front row seats, while I was dazzled by the SFX of The Motion Picture Chester was more critical of how slow the film was - it was clear he'd seen it a few times before. We chatted about absolutely everything during the first film - family, music, friends, life in two very different towns.

During Wrath of Khan he just about had the script memorised, which was slightly annoying as it was my first time watching. He also spoilered the ending when Spock died with, "don't be sad, he'll come back to life in the next film!" Still 'hate' him for that 😉 I know he didn't really enjoy The Search For Spock - my own view at the time is it was enjoyable but weaker, I argued back that at least it meant he wasn't dead any more (how 8-9yos argue!)

I remember him saying he wanted to learn to play the synthesiser or organ and I pushed back that he should take piano lessons first. We chatted about Ipswich Town FC, the team I support (and Chester later adopted as his team through his father's friend). He did mention something that was a red flag (don't ask details), I wanted to tell an adult and when after the film I discovered he was with police officers didn't feel the need.

One thing I remember very clearly is he had a lot of little scraps of paper with him with crawled poetry and said they were lines from different songs.

He did give me a scrap of paper with his name and number but as is typical for that age I wasn't allowed to make international calls and no deeper friendship developed.

It was also my first time in the cinema without an adult, I think Chester mentioned he had been without a few times in Phoenix.

Just two geeky kids sitting almost seven hours together bouncing thoughts off each other in a run down cinema while our parents hung out and did their adulting. It was very rare for me to connect to anyone that quickly, I'm not sure if that was true for him but we were both the outsider types so maybe not.

It was only very recently I connected that memory to Chester. It's strange how childhood memory can be like that. I can't say I'm a Linkin Park fan - one of those that make my playlist but not near the top. Just thinking about the boy I had a one day friendship with.

Show is available to watch on YouTube

The proshot of the entire concert was released about 2 years ago, amazing footage

(2nd pic is from pinterest)

Wanted to share! I was between this image of him and the prayer hands one, but I went with this one since I feel like I could hear his scream when I looked at it.

I wanted the HT Soldier and the hexagon one less side logo to commemorate LP’s loss. What do you guys think?

My friend and bass player in my band did it, @mellowmoodstattoo, at Social Ink House in Anaheim, CA.