Leonard ‘Liquid Lenny' Bass, fond farewell to Gooner who lived life of adventures
'He was my best friend too', says son John
Friday, 15th August — By Tom Foot
Leonard and John Bass board the Millennium Falcon in the US
LEONARD “Liquid Lenny” Bass had many adventures in a life well- lived, almost always with his son and best friend by his side.
John Bass, 44, recalled fond memories of listening to his huge vinyl collection, watching classic films and the many trips they took together – at home and around the world – taking in rock concerts and sporting events.
Star Wars fanatic Lenny – who worked on the railways and as a kitchen hand – was still playing cricket right up until the end, taking a final wicket in a tournament on the Isle of Wight a week before his death, aged 72, in University College Hospital.
He had caught a mysterious infection while travelling back to Camden from the south coast.
John said even in his final moments his father had been listening to the most recent Test match – despite having fallen on the floor at his home in Holsworthy Square, Holborn.
“He was Sir Lenny the Legend,” said John. “He was known. And we did stuff people would only dream of doing in a lifetime. It hasn’t quite hit home yet I don’t think, because I thought we had many adventures left to do.”
He added: “He was not just my dad, he was my best friend, and he was my number one fan too.”
Born in the Royal Free on January 31, 1953, Lenny was the first of eight children of Leonard Snr, known as “Popeye”, and mother Linda.
He grew up in St George’s Flats in Somers Town, went to St Mary’s and then Sir William Collins “until they couldn’t handle him anymore”, said Mr Bass.
In his funeral speech at St Mary’s Church, he recalled a favourite family anecdote about his dad hiding from the police in an empty coffin at the Leverton’s in Eversholt Street.
“Police shouted out, ‘is anybody there?’And his big huge voice replied ‘Noooooo’.”
“It’s a true, legendary story – one of many,” said John.
Lenny met Linda, “Lil”, at a dance in the mid- 1970s and they were married in the St Pancras New Church.
John, their only child, was born in October 1980.
Lenny was a big Arsenal man who followed the Gunners home and away.
John said: “I think it was at Leicester away when he had a couple too many and was sick over someone’s back.
“That’s where he got it – people called him ‘Liquid Lenny’ after that.”
He added: “Dad loved cricket, football, tennis, darts, horse racing, snooker – we’d been to The Crucible and Masters plenty of times – and American Football.
“But it wasn’t just watching sport, it was playing.
“When he was playing snooker at Kentish Town, and later Cousins in Holloway, he’d sometimes take on the brown thinking it was a red.
“There were a fair few ‘steward’s inquiries’, especially if there was a pound or two involved.
“He played darts for the Boston and Sheephaven Bay.
“We played cricket together for the Fireflies as it was known as the time.
“Then Harrowdene for many years, the British Medical Association team, and then most recently with the Unison lads.
“The week before he died he was on a cricket tour in the Isle of Wight, and picked up a wicket.
“We got back from the tour on Sunday, but by Friday morning on he was gone.”
John and Lenny watching the Washington Redskins
Mr Bass fell ill and began complaining about pain in his right side.
“On the day he went to hospital he’d fallen out of his bed, he was alive – but delirious.
“We found him just lying there with the cricket on his phone, not watching but just so he could hear it.”
John recalled how for his dad’s 60th birthday they flew out to Washington to watch his beloved Redskins play.
In 2016, they had gone to Italy to see Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour play at Pompei, before travelling up to Milan to catch Bruce Springsteen at the San Siro stadium.
“For his 70th we went to Texas and did the Alamo, before a week in downtown Dallas,” he said.
As a child, John recalled kicking a ball about with his dad down at Coram Fields and Market Road, and unconventional tennis matches on the St Augustine’s flats.
“We’d go around and pick up the police cones, trolleys and signs and things from the street, and we’d carry all that up to the flats and make it into a tennis net.”
Lenny was well known around Somers Town and Euston – in long-departed pubs, including the Lord Somers, Anchor, Jubilee and The Neptune.
“In the late 1980s, when he was in between work, he started working in Kingsway College in the Gray’s Inn Road as a kitchen porter and chef.
One particular Thursday night in 1994, his mates had asked if he fancied a couple of beers over the road at the Water Rats.
He wanted to make a move but he was convinced to stay for the last band – and it ended up being Oasis.”
It was Oasis’s first proper gig in London, an historic event that featured heavily in the recent revival.
“I managed to score a ticket to see their comeback at Wembley – and they kept flashing up on the big screen ‘Water Rats, Water Rats, Water Rats’.
“Dad was at Wembley a couple of weeks before he died – at Guns and Roses. Last week, he was supposed to be in Luxembourg to see them too. This was his life.”
Lenny used to talk about a legendary concert back in 1979 with a “super line-up” including The Stranglers, Nils Lofgren Band, ACDC, and The Who.
John recalled: “The story went that all of Somers Town went down mob-handed. They ended up pulling over a van, saying ‘get us to Wembley!’
“They were wearing high-vis, and got to wheel drinks trolleys into the stadium. Some of them got in the Royal Box.
“If I had a time machine that’s one concert I’d like to have been there with him for.”
Another 180 for Liquid Len
John said that what his dad lacked in academic qualifications he made up for in general knowledge about sport and music, and also Star Wars and Star Trek.
“When we went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios we ended up being the main pilots on the Millennium Falcon they had there.
“I was driving. Dad was always a bit like Chewy anyway, the old Wookiee.”
“I like to think he’s up there on the Dagobah System.
“In the films, it’s where the planet Dagobah is where people go in exile – it has trees and water and everything.
“I like to think my dad’s up there with Master Yoda and all the other false ghosts.”
Lenny leaves behind John and six of his surviving siblings, including three uncles still in Camden or Islington.
