A musician with a Keighley band has died in Manorlands hospice, aged 66.

Gerald ‘Ges’ Smith’s time with psychedelic rock band Dawnwatcher was the culmination of several years’ playing with a number of local bands. In the 1960s and 1970s he was a member of bands including The Ratfinks, Carnal Horus, Kaboss, Abyss and Intrepid Birdman.

Ges, a former student of Keighley Technical School, worked in engineering, and finished his working life as a warehouseman.

His widow, Linda Smith, said her husband had a lifelong love of music and started playing in local bands as a teenager.

She said: “Even when he no longer played in bands he played his keyboards or guitars and set himself up a music room to play. In recent years there was a renewed interest in Dawnwatcher and several new fans contacted Ges.”

The couple, who married in 1981, raised two children, Jane and Andrew, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Jenny.