THE funeral has taken place of Jay Dyer, who was one of the enthusiasts that resurrected Monmouth Festival in the mid 1990s. He also ran a music shop in White Swan Court and claimed to have sold a really ‘crappy’ violin to Nigel Kennedy.

With his long hair and trademark black hat, he had a stall on the town’s market selling guitars and other musical instruments and on the success of this opened a music shop in White Swan Court which became a regular haunt for musicians recording at Rockfield Studios.

Jay grew up in Bromley in Kent with his parents Sidney and Beatrice and was educated at Dulwich College before becoming a sound and lighting technician at various London theatres.

Jay then blagged himself a job as a sound technician at LBC, Britain’s first legal commercial radio station using the skills he had learnt in splicing and edit tapes.

Jay then met Anji, who was working as a producer at the BBC and they set up home in London. In the mid 1970s Jay joined the American news agency Associated Press and became its war correspondent based in the Middle East.

But he had become very health conscious following a very rare cancer diagnosis, the survival rate was very low, and he returned to the UK.

He met Ross Gazette journalist Andy Sherwill as a Fleet Street photographer on various assignments in London, while he was still working for AP.

He and Anji eventually moved to a 25 acre small holding at Gockett House, Lydart with numerous sheep and other animals. He became a regular exhibitor with Monmouthshire Show and even learnt to drive a pony and trap and entered into those competitions at the show.

Jay was a good musician and an excellent guitarist playing the bass guitar and stand up double bass. He played in various bands including a ceilidh bands, jazz bands and rock bands. He was also a dab hand at playing the accordion for local Morris men.

He gave up the shop in 2000 and went back to selling from the market stall. But this gave him an opportunity to further his interest in photography as he enrolled on a degree course at Newport University.

Andy and Jay met again when he walked into the Free Press office in Church Street with prints from Monmouth Festival, and this was followed by numerous photographs taken for his degree course or subjects that he knew had a news value.

His wife Anji died in 2003 but later met Sarah in 2006, having been friends for years.

In 2013, the family sold the small holding and moved to Cardiff. And even though he spent years in the Monmouthshire countryside Jay realised he was a ‘city boy’ at heart and liked being near the theatres and music venues in the city.

Jay, who died at the age of 75, is survived by partner Sarah, children Alys and Lucy and grandchildren JiJi, Olive, Pan and Glyn.