Guitarist, songwriter and much-loved ‘Space Cadet’ Roy Collenette from the Southampton-based band Radioactive Bones died on 23 May 2025. Ged Babey collects together tributes from his friends, fellow musicians and fans to remember a unique, inspirational man and musician.
Roy had asked for a no-fuss, family-only funeral. A celebration of his life/gig is in the planning stages and will be announced in due course. It will be a Saturday, in the Autumn, centre of Southampton and will be publicized locally and online.
On social media when the news broke that Roy Collenette had been taken from us, there were more than three hundred and fifty condolences posted within 24 hours, mainly from the Southampton music scene but also from the Free Festival/ Carnival Punks scene in Bristol and beyond.
He was one of those characters who everyone loved. He was a fixture on the local pub venue and later free-festival music scene with his various bands. In the late 90’s you couldn’t miss him with his long, green dreadlocks, beard and smile. He either drove his converted Fire Engine or rode a pushbike.
Radioactive Roy, Green Zone, Roy Ridiculous the Space Punk Monk (as he called himself in The Green Egg in the late 90’s) and Kaptin Ping (his alias in The Illegal Quartet in the 1980’s) was one of the most naturally gifted guitarists not only in Southampton, but the county, if not the country.
When Louder Than War reviewed Radioactive Bones, Eye In The Sky album I said:
…personally I’d rate him as one of the best guitarists I’ve ever seen. He’s Slash, Thunders, Dick Dale and Daniel Ash all rolled into one, a virtuoso who retains a punk-rock attitude. I loved the Bones as an instrumental band mixing up Surf-Punk, Space-Rock and a Dubby feel but his singing, one minute Lemmy, the next a weird kinda Pete Murphy vocalising make this even better…
The album made number 7 in the LTW Albums of The Year 2013 as reported here:
He was apparently ‘guitarist in the very first line-up of Sigue Sigue Sputnik’ in the 80’s. The two drummers Ray Mayhew and Chris Kavanagh were also from Southampton, and there is a newspaper cutting (that no-one can find) which proves it, but Roy was ‘whitewashed from their history at the time, let alone now’ according to my source. Roy was a maverick talent though, he would never have fitted in with Tony James vision.
The two space-rock power trios he subsequently formed, The Green Egg and Radioactive Bones, consisted of Roy, drummer Pete Hutton and his partners at the time. Debbie (Green Egg) and later Yaz (Radioactive Bones) on bass. They both recorded and self-released cassette and CD albums, usually giving them away for free. They are both on Discogs I was pleased to see.
Earlier, in the late 70’s/early 1980’s Roy was in the bands Pow Patrol 51 and The Illegal Quartet, the latter of whom were one of the best unsigned bands of their day: always compared to Bauhaus – but with many other influences from Thunders to U2 to the Cure and the Damned. They only recorded one demo tape, but it still sounds remarkable to this day.
What follows is a collage of peoples memories of Roy and his bands, tributes to a unique individual and condolence messages to his family, which make up the story of his life in music.
Howard Bowden
He was our guitarist in Pow! Patrol 51 – we were obsessed with The Smiths, not least Moz-esque great mate Richard Cotton, and we covered Barbarism Begins At Home after they performed it on The Tube weeks before the album came out. Obviously we claimed we wrote it. Roy turned up one night having got Johnny Marr to sign his Fender Strat at Pompey Guildhall the night before. He was a fantastic guitarist and really sweet guy. Last time I saw him was about 10 years ago at a party – we saw each other, grabbed hold and flung ourselves around the dance floor.
Pete Wilson (from the Illegal Quartet)
RIP Roy, you were certainly a one off and one of the most talented guitarists on the scene. All those mad times we all had together back in the day. Shine on you crazy diamond ❤️
John Joe Bo (Senseless Amelia / Lo-Fi Poet Band)
I’ll fondly remember all the fantastic gigs & mini festivals our bands did together from Senseless Amelia with The Green Egg till Lofi & Radioactive Bones days. What a musical legend & a lovely, funny guy to be around. We immediately bonded over a shared love of Gong, Hawkwind, spacerock & punk music. We jammed, drank & smoked & probably nicked a few riffs from each other, too, over the years! He could make an acoustic guitar sound like a rock concert. I used to love just talking absolute gibberish with Roy, cos he was hilariously fluent in that lingo. I can still see his impish grin in my head. I don’t remember paying for a single Radioactive Bones / Green Egg cd or tape. Roy mostly just gave them out, cos he wanted people to enjoy the tunes. The world just won’t be the same without his unique, creative, madcap spark. My heart goes out to friends & family. As Greg from The Delays wisely said, “Wherever we all came from, that’s where we’re going”. See you on the other side, you lovely, green, punk, pixie spacelord!
Perry Flatt ( Flying Alexanders / Zombie’ites)
We were all lucky to share the same venue with him many many times. On a personal note I put him up there with Bruce Roberts as an influence on my guitar attempts. Never bowing to conformity or mainstream monotony he tried to push the boundaries. Fly high our friend, the Moon shines tonight. (Ged – Roy’s influence on Perry’s latest band I acknowledged here and at his best Perry gets very close to being as-good. xx)
Martin Cavell (UX Diver)
Sometime in 1990. A conversation with Roy.
“You’ve painted the Fire Engine green. Cool!”
Roy answered: “Yeah, we’ve painted everything green: my guitar, my hair, everything and I’m going to eat nothing but broccoli for a whole month to see if I turn green! “
A few weeks later, I bump into Roy again:
“How’s it going Roy?“
“I don’t feel very well, the doctor says I have to eat something else, but I have gone slightly green, don’t you think?“
Emma Wetherell (One Dead Hunter)
Martin, I remember you telling me this story back in the Joiners days (30 years ago) probably not long after I had just met Roy and the Green Egg….. I think it was your way of explaining him.
Nathan Brown (Haywire/AFU / Abrazos)
Among many things Roy said to me:
“Do you believe in evolution?”
Yeah
“What, you think you were descended from an ape?”
Yep, why, where do you think people came from?
“My grandad was an alien”
When he was given his diagnosis he planned his own death: in his own inimitable way.
“I wanted to take loads of cocaine and strap dynamite to myself but the Hells Angels couldn’t get me any dynamite”
Mark James (Soul45 DJ)
Sad to hear of the passing of Roy “Ridiculous” from Radioactive Bones last week. A prominent figure and quite a character in Southampton’s Punk Rock scene!
I had the pleasure of meeting Roy once a week for 10 years, randomly training together. Kung Fu, Xingyiquan to be exact. He loved it! He was a tough fighter though he never looked the part! We were worlds away but actually had a lot in common so a friendship grew. Mainly our mutual love for dub and dancehall.
He had a hard start in life, but was a decent Soul and a good father. Great on guitar too! Thanks the music and some mad times.
Mark Davies (Flik Spatula / Sombrero Fallout)
RIP Roy: A big part of the rich tapestry of our lives in Southampton, always pleased to see you; great chats, gigs, good company, generous, funny, supportive, interesting and a great musician.
Last met him on a local bus; we chatted about life and death, I got off before him, waved, and in typical Roy fashion he put his face to the window, thumbs in ears, tongue out, then smiled.
Donal Ogilvie
So glad we reconnected many years later at a Damned gig in Southampton. Saw loads of bands with him, Pistols, Stray Cats, Buzzcocks amongst others, a couple of Rebellion festivals too. Then came the Radioactive Bones, bloody marvellous. Will miss the old fella, had a lot of laughs down the years. Rock on Roy x (Ged) I have a fuzzy memory of a gig where the guitarist did ‘forward rolls’ or maybe backward rolls whilst continuing to play the guitar – the other night I sudden realised it was Roy in Illegal Quartet days … or is it just my imagination playing tricks on me? (Donal) Sounds very plausible, and he could carry it off. My own memories of that period are somewhat addled, I had quite a fierce appetite for LSD in those days, as did Roy…
Pete Harvey (Up Balloon Up – Interesting Wallpaper)
He was a surreal and creative influence on all of us (in the local music scene). There’s another helicopter in the sky tonight.
Ged Babey
A quote from Roy I remember from talking to him in Green Egg days after a trip to Egypt.
‘We meditated in a pyramid! Tripping! It was like…….’ (a look of utter joy on his face) Anyway, That’s what the new songs are gonna be like.’
Richard Chorley.
If Roy had been a planet, it would have been a hitherto undiscovered one. A unique, one-off character – and massively talented musician – who went his own way, undeterred by trends or conventions. A serious loss to the Southampton counter-culture and music scene, rest empowered mate.
Richard Allan
Roy was effortlessly funny and had a heart about ten miles wide. I’ll miss him.
Harry Bahia
I remember he had a green van with ‘The Green Egg’ by my school and we used to knock on his door and run. One day he chased me and I went to the floor and he just looked mad whilst I was massively apologetic. Soon afterwards he’s living around the block from me and I was always intimidated by his stare.
Years later seeing Radioactive Bones – daaamn he could play. Made an active effort to see them a couple of times because he was just mega.
It’s been amazing seeing the impact on everyone, how he’s being remembered by so many people. You know we’ll keep finding his stickers everywhere for years.
John Joe Bo oh yeah, he must have covered the whole fuckin globe in stickers! I loved that van too, but especially the dude in it. He was definitely a one off.
Bryn Jones
He was one of those people you can’t forget and I never will – he was just a good dude
Kris Head
A true original.
Jodie Copeland
I loved that man.
Lisa Noden
Thank you for all the music Roy. Stay Weird (he would always say this to me)
Hammy
An amazing Southampton character and talented musician, he will be missed by so many.
RIP The One and Only Fire Engine Roy you always brightened my day for sure. So many crazy memories.
David McGregor
Lovely guy. I remember he won a competition in Sounds for one of Ritchie Blackmores Strats. Such a great musician, I always remember him at the Riverside standing in for a local band whose guitarist hadn’t shown and basically did a Michael J Fox in Back to the future and got an ovation from the band he was playing for. R.I.P Roy
Neil Johnstone
We (Wirehead) played a lot together as a double bill with Green Egg. Always a charming and gentle soul. There is a (green) light that never goes out.
Simon Harvey
Green Egg were a massive influence on me, he will be the ultimate Space Cadet. Fly to your next adventure Roy ❤️
John Joe Bo dude played some mighty licks!
Simon Harvey i loved the warped out vocals
John Joe Bo and the bouncy little legs ☺️
Simon Harvey and hair!
Simon Wild
I did speak to him on the phone last year (after about 25 years!) when I heard he had cancer.. was just as I remembered him.. funny, upbeat & unique.. Had a great passion for music & adventure (& marijuana quality!) … spent many eves as a teenager at his green house with his ex Debbie & trippin’ out to his band… sweet guy & great guitar player – he’ll be missed ..I remember him telling me that he wrote the song ‘Hash Bungalow’ as a response to Acid House haha! …RIP ‘Roy the ridiculous Punk Monk’
Darren Fisher
Gutted. Roy was a massive influence and support back in the days when I was first gigging in bands.
Matt Clark
Loved that dude, always funny and bumped into him at the most random of times (like 4:30 AM with Pete Hutton)
Lee Silsbury
RIP Roy punk rock cuckoo clock
Jacqueline Smith
Sad news. Thinking of his family. We loved Radioactive Bones when they came and played the Hidden Hedge. RIP Roy Xxx
Angie Gilbert
Condolences to the family. We saw him often around our way. He cared for his mum. R.I.P Roy. ️
Dionne Caplin
A legend lost! Thanks for the music and spirit Roy! I remember him when me and Jodie were kids hanging out in Maddos carpark & always took the time to an acknowledge us. Then grew up to be able to be his adult friend & music follower! Amazing musician & beautiful soul. What a gift of a person.
Craig McKeown
We had Radioactive Bones play practically bi-monthly at The Hobbit back in the day.
Roy played there so frequently, I offered to get a set of keys cut for him at one point.
Mind how you go, Roy x
Richard Emery
Radioactive Bones – One of the best local bands we’ve ever had, and whenever I picture them in my head they were smiling.
Phil McCarthy
I got to know Roy when I re-entered the local gig scene around 2014. The first time I saw the Bones was at the Hobbit. I was blown away. He was a friendly geezer and I had no preconceptions about his earlier life/music. A genuine anarchist in a quite brilliant band. When I talked to him one on one I found he was a caring, deeply sensitive and spiritual guy. We had a long talk at my last night-out before my stroke. Many of the things he said still resonate with me today. And what a tough bastard he was. (…meaning Roy outlived the doctors prognosis by at least a year or more.)
Bobby Looga
You know how if you’re out and about and you bump into someone, and you casually ask, “You all right, mate?” You don’t generally expect much more than a “yeah” and maybe a “you?”
A couple of Valentine’s Days ago I went to see Zanias at 1865. It was really nice to bump into Roy there, so I did the usual…
He wasn’t all right at all, though. He told me he was ill, and how, and I have enough of a basic grasp of the medical to know that it wasn’t very rosy.
It’s difficult to describe Roy, as I found out when my fellow Zanias attender asked. Of course there was those huge walls of guitar that he built. I wasn’t around for the Green Egg days, but I was lucky to be on a few of the same bills as Radioactive Bones, a few of Marco’s nights, and Roy was always incredibly otherworldly, but always supportive, good and interesting company, and curious. The few text messages I got off him were always in ALL CAPS, and I kinda think that’s how he lived – in upper case.
My strangest Roy interaction was in Sainsburys in Portswood a few years ago. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. We were both getting some shopping in, as you do. He had this thing of kind of barking out my name, which alerted me to his presence. We chatted a bit of nonsense, and then he continued pushing his trolley about – doing such earthly things as buying groceries. That seemed incongruous; somehow being in the same realm.
I wonder what he’d think of all of this. The tributes, of his passing, and whatever next. An eye in the sky? It’s a weird thought. I still see his stickers about. He is missed. But he left his mark, on everyone he met…
Our thoughts are with Roy’s daughter and family. x
A celebration of Roy’s life/gig is in the planning stages and will be announced in due course. Likely to be a Saturday, in the Autumn, centre of Southampton and will be publicized locally and online.
Anyone who has Green Egg tapes and can digitalize to get them available online please get in touch.
Thanks to Everyone who have contributed here and to photographers Adam Barnes and Arturro AN for permission to use their photos. Bones uploads on Youtube by Nathan Brown.
Compiled with love by Ged Babey
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