THE agent of the man found dead at Park Hall after watching The New Saints says he was a 'beautiful soul' who will be deeply missed.

Les Barker, a poet, author and musician of global repute, was found at the The Venue after collapsing the night before, travelling from his home in North Wales to watch the Saints.

His agent, Jacey Bedford, said she was shocked and saddened to hear of his death, and said she will remember a man who made her laugh with his poetry and his friendship.

She said: "I first met Les Barker at Wath Folk Festival in South Yorkshire in 1985 in a pub room above the Red Lion.

"I’d gone there with Artisan, our first outing at a folk festival and Les, already becoming established as a performer and a character, was there with a few of his homemade books of ridiculously clever poems including: Jason and the Arguments, Cosmo the nearly accurate Knife Thrower, Spot of the Antarctic, and Captain Indecisive.

"I’d never seen an audience laugh so loud or so long – though I was to see the Les Barker effect many times over the next almost-four decades

"Les, an only child born and raised in Manchester, trained in accountancy. He worked for the local authority, but had given up a secure job to try to make a living on the folk scene. A leap of faith soon justified.

"Though the scruffy, cardigan-wearing idiot was his stage persona, in real life he was a scruffy, cardigan-wearing gentle genius who wrote not only side-splittingly funny poems, but, serious ones, too, bitingly political or searingly beautiful. His stage performances, reading his poems from one or more of his numerous books sold said books, and CDs, in fistfuls after each show.

"He wrote upwards of 77 books, and released 20 albums.

"His fundraising double CD, Guide cats for the Blind, featured Terry Wogan, Prunella Scales, Robert Lindsay, Nicholas Parsons and many others, raising close to £50,000 for the British Computer Association for the Blind’s EyeT4all initiative which makes computers accessible to the visually impaired.

"Les moved from urban Manchester to rural Bwlchgwyn in North Wales in the mid-2000s.

"Once in Wales, Les settled down to learn the language of his adopted country, becoming so proficient that he wrote poetry in Welsh and won prizes and ‘chairs’, always reserving time from his busy performing schedule to attend the National Eisteddfod.

"He won the hearts of a whole new community.

"Due to ill health (cancer and a heart condition) Les retired from performing in late September 2022, but sadly had little more than three months to enjoy pottering around at home, walking with friends and tending to the little wood he bought a few years ago.

"He was a fell runner, played football and ran marathons in his younger days, loved real trains and models, hated green food, loved brown food. He was kind and self-effacing with no personal ego, but he hated injustice and could express his distaste for war and politics very succinctly in his poetry.

"He was a beautiful soul, if eccentric, and a literary genius, loved by his many fans around the world.

"He was my friend, and I will miss him."