When Bradford community radio profiled my friend Colin Lloyd in 2016, the interviewer listed his occupations thus: “Teacher, printmaker, artist, drummer, musician, actor, performer, gay activist and cultural observer of Bradford, the city he grew up in and loved”. Colin, who has died aged 64 of pancreatic cancer, was a hugely creative and compassionate man.
He was born in Bradford, one of seven children of Florence (nee Whittaker), a care worker, and Vincent Lloyd, then working in the city’s textile industry. Colin went to Buttershaw comprehensive school, then notable for a drama department run by Janet Beard, who encouraged him to act and helped him improve his reading skills via Shakespeare.
