The desperately sad news tonight is that concert promoter John Reynolds has died suddenly at his Dublin home. He was 52.
One of the industry's pioneering forces, John, a nephew of former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, became well-known during the '90s as the owner of the POD nightclub and, along with Louis Walsh, was one of the driving forces behind Boyzone.
In 2004, he staged what many consider to be Ireland's first boutique festival, Electric Picnic, which he grew from a one to a three-day event.
Following the curtailment of his involvement in EP, he launched Forbidden Fruit and Metropolis, the urban festival which will go ahead as planned this weekend in the RDS with the likes of Roisin Murphy and Villagers headlining.
Irish music fans also have John to thank for Leonard Cohen's 2010 visit to Lissadell House in Sligo, which the legendary Canadian rated among his all-time favourite shows. This year, he engineered the Nick Cave and Patti Smith double-header in Kilmainham; launched the Vinyl spoken word festival at the RHK with David Bell; and struck festival gold again with the inaugural All Together Festival in Waterford.
A maverick and a true music fan, John was a good friend to Hot Press and will be sorely missed,

Statement issued by the Reynolds family confirms the sudden death of music promoter John Reynolds pic.twitter.com/WnX39h4BKy

— Fran McNulty (@franmcnulty) October 25, 2018