My son, Stefan Hoyle, who has died suddenly aged 33, was a Manchester-based musician who was also a DJ under the name Syd Far-I, specialising in jungle/drum’n’bass, but was also known for sets of older Jamaican reggae.
Stefan was born and brought up in Manchester, where I and his mother, Bev Gallier, are both involved in the music scene. I am a musician and Bev works for Factory International/Aviva Studios. Stefan went to primary school in the Longsight and Levenshulme areas, where he soaked up the music and culture of his many friends in the Asian, Caribbean and Irish communities, and later to South Chadderton school in the north of the city. This multicultural childhood gave him an appreciation of the lives of others, a worldview that would lead him to befriend many of those who had no hope of help anywhere else.
