RESPECTED Southend drummer has died.

Alan ‘Slim’ Poston died after being knocked down by a car outside his house in Harold Wood, near Romford.

The 83-year-old was born in Southend and lived there for the first 30 years of his life.

He played in jazz bands, including at the Cavern club, made famous by the Beatles in the early Sixties and carved out a life-long career in music, playing both in this country and internationally.

He started playing at the age of 12 and played in Big Bands at the Glyderdrome, then the Kursaal in Southend.

He developed a lifelong love of jazz, and after a stint in the RAF he played in UK band, Bob Wallis and his Storyville Jazzmen, appearing on many of their releases and in radio sessions. They played the London Palladium for a summer season and regularly played all over the country.

They also appeared in the film Its Trad, Dad – known as “Ring-A-Ding Rhythm” in the US.

The band initially called it a day in the Sixties, before bandleader Bob Wallis reunited them in the Seventies in Zurich, Switzerland, where they had a residency at the Casa Bar.

Mr Poston also played a tour in Australia with Sixties pop star PJ Proby. He went on to do many sessions and concerts with various musicians throughout his life, and some time after Bob Wallis’s passing, Alan joined Trad Jazz band Max Collie and the Rhythm Aces, regularly touring Germany and across the continent. He was playing with the band throughout most his Seventies.

Friend Steven Pegrum said: “Alan truly was a gentle man and always brought warmth and laughter into a room and was a source of joy to everyone he met. He is survived by his partner of 33 years, Gabriele, his sister Jean and his nephew Steven.”

The funeral will take place on Monday, November 17 at South Essex Crematorium, Ockendon Road, Corbets Tey, Upminster.