Rob was born in Belgium in 1997, and held dual British and Belgian nationality. He was a bright and talented young man with a promising future ahead of him.
Rob was studying Music Business at ACM in London. In June 2019 Rob’s father went to visit him at his halls of residence but found him lying on his bed as if asleep. At the inquest hearing in January 2020 (just before the COVID-19 pandemic) the coroner delivered an “open conclusion.” Although Rob’s death was caused by a drugs overdose, we shall never know the full details of what happened or why. He is buried at GreenAcres Chiltern, a natural cemetery and ceremonial park in the Buckinghamshire countryside. It is hard to come to terms with the fact that Rob was suffering from some mental health issues which he might have been able to address by sharing them with others. His unexpected death has deprived us of an individual who brought much joy to his family and friends. He had the potential to do so much more, building on his musical creativity, ethical beliefs and fondness of nature. We hope to reflect some of that potential through The ROB Trust. Some of the music Rob has produced is available on the Jeeni platform here.
Below you can find the tributes read at his funeral, providing you with some insights into who he was.
Tribute from Ros Curtis, celebrant at Rob’s funeral
Robin Oscar Boyce (Rob!) was born in Brussels on 24 September 1997, the third of Beverley and John’s children, and a few years younger than his brothers Chris and Andrew, who were 7 and 6 when he was born. They remember Mum and Dad telling them he was on the way and that he was the size of a strawberry. When they met him for the first time in the Edith Cavell hospital, they were allowed to hold him on their laps. He was, Beverley told me, a good baby and an affectionate and happy little boy. He went to a Montessori school till he was 5, which he liked and where he made friends. The school encouraged independence, creativity and hands on learning. Domestic tasks were included of course – Beverley remembers him going off with one of the teachers to help clean some windows, and once he asked for a sweeping brush for his birthday! Chris and Andrew played with him and were very protective of him. Over the years he has brought a lot of joy to the family.
He was a delightful little boy. He played with his Lego, enjoyed swimming and the water, and he loved the scooter he inherited from his older brothers. As he grew older, he developed a creative spirit which kept his family entertained. He had a number of big personas, including one called ‘Madame Bonnet’ for which he dressed up, using a napkin or shorts as a head-dress! Aged 10 he had a teddy called Harley which was very important to him as well as Pink Teddy (or PT), which had been Beverley’s. He used to make up stories and shoot films with them playing characters in his versions of The Apprentice and MasterChef. He even made albums with them included! Then there were the shop games he loved. He had a little till and would go around the house collecting things to sell. People had to come and buy things from the shopkeeper! He also showed an interest in music very early on. He would write music on GarageBand, using the pre-sets to start with, but he wrote the lyrics himself and sang. Laura commented that he was into really cool music from a young age – though I think that is often the case when there are older brothers to emulate! He was also a really good drummer.
At 5, he started at the British School of Brussels. He was a sociable child and made a good group of friends. Beverley frequently helped in the class room with reading and creative activities. As a young child, he was extremely bright, doing very well at school, learning French and Spanish, and easily beating the rest of the family at a variety of board games. But as a teenager, he became less interested in academic work and for a while he seemed to lose his way. His GCSE results were fine, but for A Level he chose to study maths, physics and economics, which turned out not to be right for him. At 17, he was seeking the right course to study at university, considering in turn computing, economics and psychology. Nothing seemed to quite fit, and, as is often the case with teenage boys, he became more withdrawn.
At this stage, rugby came to the rescue. He threw himself into regular training, ate protein rich food and made frequent trips to the gym. He was in the school’s 1st 15, took part in the International Schools’ championships and he even represented Flanders, winning several medals and cups. Unfortunately, his rugby career was cut short by an accident in which he ruptured his cruciate ligament. This injury necessitated a lengthy recuperation. He was bed-ridden for weeks and missed several months of school.
Because he was no longer able to play sport, Rob spent a lot of time on his computer and his interest in music became more serious – so much so, that in his final year of school he decided to study music. A course at the Academy of Contemporary Music, Guildford, seemed to fit the bill. It was a foundation year, which was necessary because he hadn’t done music ‘A’ Level, followed by two intensive years. He completed the first year but felt that Guildford was the wrong place for him. So he took a year off and returned home. During that time, music absorbed all his energy. Rob was working from home on his computer and slowly becoming known, making connections, building up a network of contacts and even making a bit of money.
After his year out, he picked up a new course at the ACM’s London branch. This course was closer to what he wanted and it seemed that he was beginning to settle down, making friends and becoming better known. In the world of ‘trap’ he was beginning to be known as a producer to watch, under the name Gosuto. His tutor Dave Cronen is here and would like to say a few words… [see separate tribute below]
Music was an all-consuming passion for Rob, so much so that he had little time for other interests. However, he did follow Liverpool football club like his brother Andrew and went to watch them play with Andrew and his father, including in Kiev in last year’s Champions League final. The family enjoyed a weekend in Liverpool this April, for which the highlight was watching Liverpool beat Huddersfield 5-0. His other interest was one he shared with his family, and that was travel. They were in the fortunate position of being able to travel quite extensively and so the family have enjoyed together some wonderful and sometimes exotic holidays. Rob always enjoyed this time he spent with his family and threw himself into all the planned expeditions. A couple of years ago they went to Namibia which produced some wonderful memories, including a flying safari and quad biking on the dunes. Photos of the trip show these happy times.
Rob was a complicated character and he was, as creatives often are, something of an enigma. He was always warm with the family but strangers may have found him shy and quiet. His friends, though, describe him as a boy with a lively sense of humour, who liked to tell jokes and have fun. He was, of course, still young and as yet finding his feet in the adult world. He was ethical, empathetic and authentic, sometimes disarmingly so. He had strong opinions and was independently minded. He became a vegan late last year and this was a typically principled choice for him.
For Rob, family was very important and something that rooted him. The holidays they enjoyed together were occasions when he could put his reserve aside and simply enjoy himself. The wider family was important to him as well, especially his young cousin Hannah. He was very fond of her and she really enjoyed his company too. I am sure he knew how much his family and friends all loved him.
Tribute from Dave Cronen, one of Rob’s tutors at ACM
Good afternoon, everybody. I am Dave Cronen. I’m part of the Business Team and was one of Rob’s lecturers over at ACM Guildford and ACM in Clapham. For those of you who aren’t aware, ACM is the Academy of Contemporary Music where Rob studied.
I want to start by expressing my thanks to Rob’s family for the opportunity to speak here today to help remember and celebrate his life.
Rob was a highly intelligent student who had a passion for the music industry, an incredible ear for new and cutting-edge music, and his development within his studies across ACM was quite unique and something that I haven’t seen from many other students. This passion was for both creating and discovering new music in the specialist genres that he championed and his work always reflected this. Rob decided to move over to the business degree in Clapham after he had completed his foundation level in Guildford as London seemed to suit him more for his studies. This was so that he could run his career in parallel with his business education so he could expand on his entrepreneurial skills and learn how to run his record label to enable him to fully exploit his music. His input clearly showed that he was starting to get to grips with the Music Business Degree and that his work was going from strength to strength. His last submission of assessments showed evidence of his strongest work to date and we had high hopes not only for his degree but his career as a whole. There’s no doubt that the contribution that Rob made towards ACM alongside his body of work that he will be truly missed by us all.
We are determined that Rob’s spirit and legacy lives on within the ACM community by ensuring that his music gets out into the world to be shared by everybody. We believe that music is the shortest distance between two people but it also outlives human beings which is something incredible that Rob has left for us all. We are working on ideas with Rob’s family to share an opportunity to celebrate his work with all the students and staff across the ACM campuses.
This is obviously a very difficult time for everybody who is attending here. It has deeply affected our students, my colleagues and myself but the one thing that I have personally drawn inspiration and comfort from has been spending time and communicating with Rob’s family over the past few weeks. Therefore, I want to say thank you to John, Beverley, Chris, Andrew and Laura for their inspiration and how they have dealt with this tragic incident in such a dignified and united way.
I want to finish by saying that all of us here today will shed a tear for Rob’s life but, most importantly, we need to also celebrate this life and acknowledge the incredible, talented and passionate young man that he was and I hope we can all take strength with this fact and make sure that his memories live with us all for a very long time.
