News of a great friend passing

I just heard that Jeb Milne aka Million died in his sleep......
In my 20's when I moved back to London from Brighton to seek my fortune I was lucky to run into Jeb Million (Milne) fairly quickly who had started an amazing club with friends kevin Callen and Susan Worth called Singers at the Milk Bar next door to the old Astoria on Tottenham Court Road, a club where singers who had never performed in public, singers who did backgrounds but had little opportunity to sing lead live and big stars could all perform on the same stage. I was the 4th person ever to host the club and made so many friends and contacts through it.
Prior to our meeting Jeb was the first signing to Stock Aitken and Waterman with The Second Time Around and then Speed Up My Heartbeat.
He was a successful songwriter too having written for Lulu, Shaking Stevens and Air Supply amongst others.
Singers was an AMAZING club, we started off with pianist Sammy Flynn and quickly grew to need a bigger venue and a band which was the Hanover Grand and then to the Cockney on Tottenham Court Road which held about 600 people and was always rammed, amongst others we had Roachford, Oleta Adams, Chaka Kahn, Seal, the Supremes, Janet Kaye, Snap, Jocelyn Brown and Carleen Anderson to name a few, it became the place to go if you were in town, I cut my teeth there, I made life long friends there such as Angie Brown, we would all do each other's backing vocals and the spirit was intense!
I was fortunate enough to actually live with Jeb in his flat in Tuffnell Park for about a year, it's not possible to explain just how much I learned from him, we would talk about my performances and other people's at length discussing in minute detail what did and didn't work, we wrote songs together, we laughed alot and we cried, we were great friends. We even taught ourselves to swim with goggles together at Kentish Town Pool.
Some years ago Jeb moved to LA and re-invented himself as a very successful animator, he then went on to buy property and start another performance club Witzend, I was planning to go this year or next................
Here is Jeb performing a song he wrote about Amy Winehouse whose voice he just loved.
This photo is of Zebedee wearing Jeb's levis jacket with the original Singers logo on it, I was Leather Girl and he was Denim Boy, I've always kept this old jacket, now our tramp lamp is wearing it.
Max and the boys were very sweet to me when our friend Sylvia called with the news, Zebedee has even done his own tribute......
This was always one of my favourite songs by Jeb, I remember him singing it to me in his flat whilst playing the piano, it's called The Evergreen Tree.
I was planning a trip to LA this Autumn and was hoping to see Jeb and sing at his club.... I really can't belive he is gone and that I will never see him again...... I can't seem to stop crying....
One thing he said to me after a disappointment was 'bitterness feeds on the host' something I've never forgotten and which has helped me in my life very much... I can't believe he is gone.....

Edit comment added for posterity that I left on the Witzend page
At the age of 24 in 1989 I moved back to London from Brighton and luckily for me within 2 weeks I met Dr Stuart busking in Covent Garden who took me to Singers at Ivories, I was introduced to Jeb who told me to come back and audition next week, I had left Brighton in a whirl with my ambition uppermost in my mind and was not about to come back next week, I persisited and was allowed to sing, I gave it my all and brought the house down, Franke Pharoah was hosting that night and he and Sammy Flynn along with Jeb and others took me to the Hippodrome where I sang again, they took me under their wing and within a couple of weeks I was one of the hosts. I had no money but was lucky enough to be offered a free place to live in Victoria so I used to walk into Soho every chance I got and sing at Jeb's club nights and through those I met other people running similar nights at the Limelight, Xenons and The Orange, we were a big family of Artists who supported each other, played and sang on each other's songs and wrote music together, it really was amazing, Singers plugged me in to my City and the acceptance I found there kept me grounded and gave me a sense of belonging, I also met people there who I made records with, wrote songs with and formed bands with. Jeb and I became very good friends and he would talk to me at length about my performances helping me to refine my skills, he was my Mentor. A couple of years later I was having some personal problems and Jeb took me in and I lived with him n Tuffnell park with Grant Gilchrist, Jeb gave up his bedroom for me and his spare room for Grant and he had the big living room with the piano and recording equipment and bed and everything in there.... he was such a sweetheart, not a bad word to say about anyone, always looking for the good in people, I remember playing through songs with him and vividly recall Evergreen Tree, probably my favourite song of his.... we taught each other to swim properly at Kentish Town Pool,he said 'Katherine, the secret is goggles!!!' and it was :-) Shortly after that as Grant recalls in an earlier post Jeb moved to Charing Cross Rd and started his animation journey.... Looking back at my life so far at the age of 48 I can truly see and say that Jeb has been one of the most important and influential people it it. I am deeply saddened that it has been so long since we last saw each other (although we have been in touch as recently as May via email) and that I didn't make it down to Witzend, I had hoped to come and sing for Jeb and show him how I've grown as a performer over the years, he would have been so proud.... back in the day our pet names for each other were Denim Girl and Leather Boy, he gave me his jacket with the original Singers logo on it in the photo below which I still have, in his last message to me in response to me planning to finally come over he said 'Let me know when you're thinking of heading over - I need a tub of ice cream with my Denim girl...xxxx'
2 days in to the knowledge that he is gone the tears show no sign of stopping but reconnecting with old friends and sharing memories is helping and more and more I am relishing those memories and savouring the time I did have with Jeb.... he was simply amazing and we are all blessed that he crossed our paths, having this page to share with all of you is wonderful as well, reading through all the posts I can see that Jeb had not changed and that he had a profound effect on everyone he met, an inspiration.... RIP dear friend, all my love Katherine xxxxx