When we all found out on the weekend via social media of the sad passing of Lord Zion I’ve thought about his passing and how we could pay tribute to a beautiful soul that touched several of us at RPM Online back in the early days of Uber Rock so I approached Gaz to put his feelings into words and pay a fitting tribute to Lord Zion.   I hope these words bring even a small amount of comfort to his partner Vikki and show how well respected he was and how his positive attitude had an effect on us all.  Rest in peace Zion.

“When news broke over the weekend that Lord Zion had passed away I, like every one of you I suspect, recoiled in both shock and horror. Then the sadness kicked in. Known to most as the frontman of SPiT LiKE THiS, and to many as one half of gloriously offensive T-shirt company, Smell Your Mum, Zion was once a member of a gang that we called the Uber Rock Massive; a group of clued-in music outsiders trying to change the business one chord, one paragraph at a time. Whether it was via an autobiographical article or a typically OTT video rounding up the latest rock news alongside his partner-in-crime, Vikki, Zion totally captured the spirit of what we were trying to achieve with the Uber Rock website and its spin-offs. Uber Rock still exists in another form in another corner of the Internet, but that original, aforementioned UR spirit is now strong in RPM via its editor and scribes, hence the need for acknowledgment of Zion’s passing here: he is a part of the fabric as much as any other person who made the jump to this site.

The first time I met Zion he greeted and spoke to me as if I were an old friend and, as he dipped regularly into a Tupperware container full of cold meats, I smiled a smile that never left any time that I was fortunate to be in his company. His quirks were brilliant – “I never carry cash… or a phone” – and his stories even more so. Our paths had similar trajectories – Star Wars toys and Region One DVDs. Zion sold both on the then-fledgling Internet and, after setting up a Star Wars toy website that cheekily featured the name of the first prequel, The Phantom Menace, but with a strategically-placed hyphen, he actually received a cease and desist letter from Lucasfilm. How did he react to this threat from an entertainment giant? He replied telling them that their movies had taught him that the little guy should always stand up to the big bully… and that was that. He heard nothing in return. Typical confidence from one of life’s genuinely great people.

I saw Zion and Vikki at many a ComicCon around the country as they sold their T-shirts and hilariously blunt greeting cards on their Smell Your Mum stall, and they were always available for a much-needed and very entertaining catch-up even when the shirts (typical design: “I’m only fat because every time I fucked your mum she gave me a biscuit”) were flying out thick and fast. Vikki would produce the first four Uber Rock shirt designs, all of which sold out quickly. It was the band, though, that was my introduction to one of the coolest couples I ever had the pleasure to meet.

I saw SPiT LiKE THiS play small clubs, and I saw them play massive stages. They treated every performance exactly the same; as if they were on the cusp of being the biggest band on the planet and everyone else needed to do a lot of catching up… fast! I took photos of the band when they played the main stage at Hard Rock Hell (still, in my eyes, the biggest and best I’d ever seen them) and was thrilled when one of my pics appeared in the CD booklet of their second album, 2012’s Chris Tsangarides-produced ‘Normalityville Horror’. Even then, with proper stardom appearing closer than ever to their collective grasp, Zion wore his Uber Rock colours front and centre in a number of the band’s music videos. He was, and always will be, one of us.

Zion and Vikki sold the T-shirt company, dissolved the band, and moved from one end of the country to the other to start a new life together. I’m sure you’re all with me on this, but isn’t it weird when something ends yet due to social media we can frequently be involved in the lives of people that we may never see again? Well now, due to tragic circumstances, we will never see Zion again. And that stings the eyes. It breaks the heart. The World was a brighter place having Lord Zion in it and even though right now it feels like a light has gone out, there is a shadow over all of us who ever fell under the spell of this massive personality… and that shadow is the shape of a statuesque rock star who took on the Galactic Empire… and won.

Listen to SPiT LiKE THiS, watch the YouTube videos, read his book, and Zion will never really leave us. It might not feel like it now, but he left a mark on us all that won’t fade easily. Rest easy, Z-man.”

Gaz Tidey