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In September 1986 I was so glad to have met a wonderful, honest & talented friend at Queen Alexandra College in the nice city of Birmingham. Since then, Martin James & I had built up a wonderful & strong bond as we got on so well & we had a lot in common. Further more, there was NEVER a dull moment between us. I was always very proud & indeed amazed by my best mate Martin in many ways including his out standing musical talent, the joy & amazement he brought to everyone. Martin helped me progress with my music talent so thank you for that mate. When I first heard Martins musical talent, he was playing on the college organ his own & indeed VERY good rendition of Blue by Wham. My immediate comment was "Your good" From that day on I was full of amazement with Martin & his wonderful talent. He would often go into the studio in college & churn out his own renditions of familiar pop songs including many George Michael covers & I was ALWAYS keen to be one of the first to listen to his amazing & indeed hard work. In July 1987 we had our annual open day at this nice college when Martin sang his own & VERY good rendition of A Different Corner by George Michael. Not only did Martin sing, he also used his own backing track he had so professionally recorded track by track with keyboard, vocals & he also played the saxophone so nicely as well. One of the music tutors at the college announced that Martin was the first student to put a track together in such an independent way. Further more, Martin was grade 6 on the piano & indeed he was VERY much self taught at playing keyboard, synth, saxophone & singing. Martin was blind from birth & the fact he had two false eyes never stopped him being so independant & so very gifted. Martin sadly died at the young age of 37 on November the 10th 2007 after being so ill for several months. Martin will always be in my thoughts each & every day for the rest of my life. Martin has a lovely family who are so very proud of him just as I & all of his friends are. Thank you Martin Lee James for being such a wonderful mate & I'm so proud to have put this tribute about you on this website. May you now rest in peace from your best college friend Rich.