ERIC BRISTOW'S former manager Dick Allix has paid tribute to the five-time World Champion, who passed away on Thursday.
Allix managed Bristow from 1979 to 1994 before going on to spearhead the World Darts Council (now Professional Darts Corporation) following the split in darts.
A former drummer in the band Vanity Fare, Allix was working as an entertainment promoter when he first met the prodigious talent in a chance turn of events which would change the course of darts history.
Allix remained close to Bristow and, speaking to PDC.tv, paid this tribute to a darting icon...
Eric introduced me into darts in 1979. I had no interest in darts at the time, I didn't play the game and one of the clubs we looked after in Yorkshire wanted a darts exhibition.
We all looked at each other quizzically but we were contracted to get them what they desired. Perhaps it was fate, it was meant to be.
We didn't know where to go for a professional darts player but as it happened I was reading The Sun at lunchtime and there was a column about darts by Dave Lanning, which listed the top ten players in the world.
I rang Dave - it was the first time I spoke to him and that turned into a lifelong friendship - and he told me that Eric was the top guy and pointed me in the direction of Olly Croft at the BDO.
I phoned Olly and that's probably a phonecall he regrets taking for the rest of his life. He gave me Eric's number and I spoke to him, asking if he wanted to come up to Yorkshire where we could put a week of exhibitions together.
We did the deal and he came up. I went to see the first exhibition, which I think was at the Empress Club in Hull, and they were queueing around the corner.
I couldn't believe it so I went in and I was just mesmerised by this charismatic 21-year-old.
He used to come around to the office on a lunchtime and we hit it off. Eric didn't have a manager and we knew with the whole club circuit in the north that we could work him and one thing led to another.
I started going to tournaments and met Cliff Lazarenko too, and it all took off from there. We offered Eric a contract, got him an equipment deal and it just blossomed, and we signed other players.
It was a quick intro into darts and a quick exit from the music business!
We had fantastic years with Eric, and a few blips along the way because he was a wild child. He's always been full on and has no brakes, and now and again I'd get a 3am phonecall from a station sergeant asking me to bail out my client.
But you took that with Eric, it was part of who he was. He was a lot of fun to be with and a manager's dream because of he oozed charisma and was a winner.
It was such a change for me because in the music business who's the best band is just choice, but you had indelible proof who the best darts player was - it was him!
It was great and although I still can't play the game I love the people in the game, especially the players. Eric was fantastic to work with and then we had the period where we lost all the television and then came the split.
That was instigated by me and Tommy Cox and with the full knowledge and encouragement of Eric, but as that went on it became inevitable that I would have to spend 100% of my time with the WDC and not be able to manage Eric.
He understood that because he knew that if the WDC didn't succeed, we were all dead in the water, so by making the WDC happen that would benefit Eric, Cliff and the other players.
All the way through the court case, which took a long time and was very stressful, two players came with us and sat in court every day and went to lawyer's meetings: Eric and Rod Harrington.
All the players will always owe those two a debt, and that should never be forgotten.
I'm still shocked at how big the PDC has become and I'm sure it's going to get bigger. That's fantastic, and who'd have thought that back in 1979!