Page 12 - BiTS_11_NOVEMBER_2025

With A Little Help From My Friends

Matt Long, singer and guitarist with Catfish and The Revenant Ones died
of cancer just over a year ago, after a battle with the disease that showed

both remarkable strength and at the same time brought together hundreds
of musicians from around the UK who sought to assist in raising funds to

ensure Matt’s treatment. Recently Matt’s family announced that they were
working on an album that would be a tribute to him and that involved

some stellar musicians and friends.

Ian McKenzie spoke to Fiona Long, Matt’s mother and asked her about
their future plans:

BiTS: Hi Fiona, if you are ready let’s make a start. A couple
of weeks ago, you contacted me and told me about
an album that was being made as a tribute to

Matt Long, your son, who passed away just over
a year ago now. I want you to tell me something

about how that came about, please, Fiona.

FL: Yes, of course. The initial idea was from a
musical friend of ours, Dudley Ross, who has

connections with Joe Bonamassa’s second guitarist,
Josh Smith. Dudley does the tour management for
Josh when he comes over to the UK, so they're

pretty good friends. And Dudley contacted me and
said he thought it would be really nice if Joe
performed on one of Matt's songs as a tribute

to him. So that was the initial idea, just the
one single, one track, and it just occurred to
me that we had so much support from the

music community for Matt's tribute benefit
gigs during the last year of his life, that it
would be nice to maybe give an

opportunity to some of those people to
also contribute.

BiTS: It really was quite amazing how

people came together at that time, wasn't
it?

FL: It was extraordinary. I mean, everybody we asked said yes, and they've done it

again with this. Each person we've approached has come up with the goods and has
produced an amazing track. So we've got a really stellar bunch of people involved,
which has been really exciting.