Robert 'Noddy' Needs, a quiet, unassuming man who followed the Sex Pistols around the country and owned a punk clothing collection valuable enough to appear on the Antiques Roadshow, has died aged 71. His death on July 28 came as a huge shock to his family and friends, not least because he had been living life as he always had in the days before his passing.
His daughter, Holly Needs, said: "I meet people and they say, 'Noddy's my best friend', and I would say, 'He's my best friend too'. But that's just how he made people feel - like they were the only person in the room."
A life surrounded by music and friendship
Robert spent much of his life surrounded by music, friendship and stories. Long before punk even had a name, he was part of a group of young people who were determined to do something different. His close friend Stephen "Jinxy" Jenkins remembers a time in the mid-1970s when long hair, bell-bottom trousers and platform shoes were all the rage, but a group of young people from across south Wales were beginning to carve out their own identity.
"There was a group of people in the mid-1970s that were sort of fashion outcasts - a bit punky," Stephen recalls. "We were a bit different and we used to congregate people from different valleys; Merthyr Tydfil, Bridgend, Newport and Cardiff in different clubs across south Wales. We'd move from one to another each night, listen to funk music and dress up funny. We had our own thing going on and that was exactly 50 years ago. It was around the time, just before the Sex Pistols, before punk was even invented. We were doing our own punk scene in south Wales."
The group would go wherever the music took them. They feature in photographs from the Sex Pistols gig in Caerphilly, believed to have taken place in 1975, when Christians gathered outside to try to prevent people entering. Many of the people captured in those photographs remain friends to this day, still meeting regularly decades after those early years.
A punk collection for the Antiques Roadshow
Robert worked in the steelworks in Newport, and because he had a car and money, he used to go to London to the Vivienne Westwood shop in World's End and buy clothes. That collection would eventually become a piece of punk history in its own right. Years later he took it to the Antiques Roadshow, offering viewers a glimpse into the world he and his friends had inhabited when punk was still in its infancy.
"The BBC couldn't show the explicit ones," Stephen laughs. "They showed a few boring ones but the really explicit ones that were quite on the edge remained out of sight." Robert would still wear some of those pieces in his later years. According to Stephen, whenever the group would meet up, there was one question everyone wanted answered: "What is Noddy going to wear today?"
Beyond fashion, Robert's car was also his passport to a musical world that few people could have imagined at the time. He and Steve Strange, the lead vocalist of new wave synth-pop group Visage, were good friends and followed the Sex Pistols anywhere and everywhere. "They followed the Sex Pistols all over the country," Stephen says. "But for all the things he must have seen, he never spoke about these matters. He was so quiet, so unassuming - you wouldn't expect that, but it's because he was so humble. I would call him the 'silent witness'."
A friend to everyone
Stephen says it was Robert's character that made him unforgettable. "Noddy was the friendly one that got everybody together. People from Merthyr to Bridgend, from Newport to Cardiff, they all got together through Noddy really because he is such a friend to everybody. He was the glue that held everybody together."
Robert maintained friendships for more than five decades, with people such as Stephen, Dave Lambert and Chris Sullivan among those who remained close enough to speak at his funeral. His children say that longevity says everything about the man their father was. "He was more of the listener, more in the background, but he'd make a friend wherever he'd go," Holly says. "When we were kids everyone knew our dad - Noddy. People would be like, 'Here comes Noddy.'"
Robert worked for British Steel for 40 years, beginning in Newport before transferring to Port Talbot when the Newport factory closed. Away from work, music remained a huge part of his world. "He was the human equivalent of Shazam," Matthew jokes. "He knew every song."
Robert owned hundreds of records, played guitar and had a passion for discovering music. He also played in a band, although Holly says he spent much of his life practising his chords rather than performing as much as he might have liked. His love of music has passed down another generation, with his grandson now playing guitar.
Robert loved comedy and games, and was known for his impressive trivial knowledge. He joined a choir not long before his death, despite, according to his family, being unable to sing. He joined friends for step classes, and he became part of what his friends jokingly called the "fitness family", going to the gym three times a week.
"He was living his best life," Holly says proudly. "His social life puts us to shame." Matthew adds: "You could do something or say something, then months or years would go by and he'd just bring it back up as conversation and remember those little details. I think that just adds that little detail of sincerity and just niceness about him, really. He didn't judge. He would always be welcoming to everyone. If someone was on their own, to the side, he'd go and make the effort to get them involved. All he ever did was laugh. He was just the nicest person."
That kindness extended beyond his immediate family. Holly's husband didn't have a father of his own but she says Robert effectively adopted him. "My husband doesn't have a dad and my dad sort of adopted him as his own. That's the kind of person he was and the impact he had on people. He was just a genuine person, really humble."
Robert's funeral will be held Thursday, August 27 at 11.30am, at Langstone Vale Crematorium, Magor Road, Newport, Gwent, NP18 2EB.
