The police tent in St Michael’s churchyard

TRIBUTES have been paid to a flamboyant musician who spent a decade trying to escape a life in Camden’s hostels before she was found dead in a churchyard this week.

Manuela Henrike Klock-Glazebrook, who lived in hostels in Camden Town, was remembered for her striking style and powerful guitar and solo singing performances in Camden’s music venues.

The 57-year-old, who always wore a flower in her hair, was discovered last Wednesday evening in the front garden of St Michael’s in Camden Town.

It was in the same church where the New Journal organised a memorial service last year for Lidia Venegas, a woman who died on the streets in Kentish Town while sleeping rough.

Ms Klock-Glazebrook had in the months before her death contacted our newspaper about her living conditions and her daughter spoke this week about how her mother had deteriorated without the security of a permanent home.

And her friends this week recalled how the songs she wrote were about “the demons she was dancing with”, her broken heart and the judgment she felt received on the streets of Camden.

The Met said her death was “unexpected” but are not currently investigating any suspected foul play.

Daughter Loretta told the New Journal: “I think my mother did everything in her power to get on with her life as best she could, even with the mental health problems she had, and with the pain she was carrying.

“I’ve always tried to help her mend it. Just before she passed, we had an argument, and I texted her: ‘I just need you to heal, I need you to be at peace’. And lo and behold, she was found dead a few days later.

“The hostels she was living in, it deteriorated her so much. She was unique, beautiful and musically inclined.

“But she was surrounded by all these terrible people. Putting her in those areas, in King’s Cross and Camden – they were the two worst places for her to go.

“She was vulnerable, a fragile little lady. She really tried. But she was always sucked back. She could have been saved. But I believe she was in so much pain and died from a broken heart.”

Manuela Klock-Glazebrook always wore a flower in her hair

Loretta was born shortly after her mother came to the UK from Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, in the mid-1990s.

As a small child, she remembered how her mother would always put her behind the speakers when she was out performing at gigs and festivals.

She shared fond memories of Ms Klock-Glazebrook turning up outside their home “with a proper old school caravan with peace signs on it” and shouting out: ‘Look Loretta, look what I’ve got!”

He mother adored her grandson, she said, and the three of them had a close bond, despite going through difficult times.

Ms Klock-Glazebrook was evicted from a flat in Holloway before being placed in Camden hostels ten years ago.

Her former partner, Paul van Gelder, said: “I remember when I first her met at a poetry and music event and she was dressed in a long ball gown, and had a lily in her hair. She would come round to mine in Gospel Oak and rehearse and write quite a few songs together.

“Our band was called The Honky Tonk Twins and she played lead guitar. We would play at the places like the Mau Mau bar [Notting Hill], Water Rats, Elephant’s Head and Bar Solo [Camden Town], the Old Crown in Highgate.”

Mr van Gelder said Ms Klock-Glazerbook had “a beautiful voice and was a great singer and a great guitarist”, adding: “She loved the Rockabilly scene. She sang songs by Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin.

“And also her own songs were all about relationships that she had, her broken heart, how other people judged her that she thought was nonsense.

“She started to sing about the passing of time. The light at the end of the tunnel, and about the demons she was dancing with and trying to shake off. Demon Dance was her best song.”

He added: “It’s the biggest loss I’ve ever had to deal with in my life. But two days ago she came to me in a dream, she had on these amazing shoes, with feathers on. It was her way of her soul saying goodbye to me.”

Mr van Gelder’s daughter Eucalypta said: “I have such fond memories hearing Manuela sing and play amazing solos on guitar her and my dad were always rehearsing and performing in Camden.

“Manuela was a mischievous lady who I got on with well in my unruly teens era. She was an Aries so her energy was often young and fiery filled with laughter and quick wit.”

Ms Klock-Glazebrook with her grandson 

Ms Klock-Glazebrook had been regular at the New Journal’s office in Camden Road over the years, often wanting help with housing problems or to speak out about conditions in hostels or problems she was having with the courts.

“It is safer than the street, but only just,” she said of her hostel room last year, as she talked to the New Journal about hostel life in Camden. She spoke about how she tried her best to live with a health diet drinking “carrot juice and beetroot juice, and herbal tea”.

She was struggling with the magistrates’ court over unpaid council tax bills she thought were covered by her benefits, adding: “I am really bad with the paperwork. I miss meetings from time to time. I can’t keep up with everything. I feel misunderstood, like I can’t talk to anyone.”

Ms Klock-Glazebrook has been in for a mass at St Michael’s on the Sunday before her death.

A police forensic tent was up all day Thursday after her body was discovered in the churchyard and candles have been lit in her memory inside church.

Candles at St Michael’s

Father Thomas, a priest at St Michael’s, said: “Most of the time when she was here, she struck me as a bubbly person. She didn’t complain about what life had thrown at her, which I thought was a nice way to be.

“She was the best dresser of the lot of them. You would never have thought she was homeless. I would have thought that would have taken a lot of effort, to sustain that.”

A statement from the Met Police said: “Police were called at 7.05pm on Wednesday June 12 to reports of an unresponsive person at an address in Camden Road.

“Officers attended along with London Ambulance Service and found the body of a woman, believed to be in her 50s. She was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.”

The family have set up an online fundraiser to help with the costs of the funeral. To donate visit:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/my-beautiful-mum-a-true-legend-have-a-send-of-she-deserves?qid=5b0693134cd5e57ba8878b10441e5c40