I got a text message at work on Thursday letting me know that a guy I used to work with had passed away suddenly.

The message came late, after the funeral, when it was too late for me to show up for him and say goodbye properly.

This morning, I hauled my lazy ass out of bed early and went into town for Record Store Day because I knew if he was still around, he’d be so excited about all the goodies on offer. I wanted to buy the limited edition Belly 10″ because the last time I saw him was at the Belly gig two summers ago. We wandered around Dublin together in the small hours, and he insisted on walking me to the quays and waiting with me for the bus to Wexford.

He was one of the good ones, and I already miss him.

I struck out on the Belly 10″, but I spent a happy morning rambling through the city as it slowly woke up to a sunny Saturday. I had that weird nostalgia that’s triggered by flicking through bins of vinyl records, and picked myself up a couple of albums I’d meant to buy. Don’t know if Pablo would have approved of the limited edition yellow vinyl Beyoncé, but I know he would have dug me picking up Surfer Rosa on vinyl. We both loved the heck out of that album (and I still do).

Many years ago, we used to ride the DART home from work together, and talk about music, movies, and video games. We had similar tastes then, and when we reconnected on Facebook more than a decade later, we still did.

He was the only person I knew who was as excited about the return of Twin Peaks as I was, and he always was a staunch supporter of my nerdery. Last summer we laughed at how our paths had diverged and yet stayed in the same realm. We had been techies together in Compaq, now he was lecturing in game design and I was writing for a video game company. I hadn’t thought to ask him if he was going to see Belly because the gig was in Dublin and he was working in Cork, but I was not at all surprised (and more than a bit delighted) to see him there. We fell straight back into conversation like it was a Monday afternoon in 1998, and managed to get caught up on our personal highlights and lowlights from the years in between.

When Belly announced their new album through PledgeMusic I posted it on Facebook for him to see. I know he pledged, and I’m heartbroken that he won’t get to hear it.

Belly posted a preview of one of their songs for Record Store Day last night, and I couldn’t get him out of my head while I listened to it. It’s a gorgeous song, he would have adored it.

When DOVE arrives next month, I’ll be pouring a glass for him alongside my first listen.

It’s the very least I can do.

Rest in peace, Paul (you’ll always be Pablo to me).

I hope they’ve got some seriously good tunes wherever you are now.