Three hundred people decked out head to toe in sequins, rainbow dresses and neon trousers may look more at home at a festival than a graveside.
But late Dundee musician Lexi Campbell had a habit of turning the darkest of days into a celebration, and their own funeral was no exception.
“As much as I stressed to my parents that they were going to be surprised at how many people were there, when we arrived at the graveyard and saw the sea of people in wonderful bright coloured clothing, I think we were all knocked for six,” Lexi’s younger sister Shona Campbell recalls with a chuckle.
“It was just incredible.”
Perth College student Lexi (who used they/them pronouns) took their own life last year aged 25 after making music – and a community – in Dundee for eight years.
A lighthouse figure for young musicians and queer people in the city, they were known for their flamboyant sense of style, so it had been requested that mourners turn up in bright colours.
And in an incredibly display of love and grief, Pitkerro Grove Cemetery became a living rainbow as Lexi was laid to rest.
Now a year after their funeral, Lexi is still the life and soul of the party, as the first ever LexFest music festival is being launched next month to honour the musician’s memory and raise money for suicide awareness and bereavement charities.
Testament to Dundee’s love for Lexi
“Music and Lex were just inherently linked for, like, their whole life,” smiles Shona.
“It was impossible to have a conversation with them without them talking about something musical or geeking out about some band.
“And being at gigs was when they felt their happiest, whether they were playing them or going to them. So it’s super important for our family that we do this, because it feels like something they’d want to come to.”
LexFest, which will be held at Church Dundee, was conceived first by Lexi and Shona’s dad Stuart and friend Ian Black, who Shona says “was like a big brother to Lex”.
It will feature local music acts including Connor Liam Byrne, Plaintiff, Sean Findlay, Dukebox Cheese, Jack Jones and Lexi’s former bandmates Kashmir Crows.
“The idea of a gig came to fruition in a phone call to Stuart in my car, after I delivered a lecture on suicide at Dundee College,” recalls Ian. “Ain’t it weird how the universe works at times?”
And when the organisers at Church heard who the festival was for, he says they were “gracious enough to give us the venue for free”.
“They said that this is not normally something they do,” Ian adds, “but because Church was a spiritual home of sorts to Lex – and I’m hoping due to the gravitas of Lex’s character too – they agreed.”
Lex’s Lost Boys
Shona sees the outpouring of support from key players on the Dundee music scene as a testament to Lexi’s own generosity of spirit.
“I always used to have a go at Lex for not being able to say no to people,” she explains.
“They could never, ever say no to someone, especially when it came to people asking for help with gigs and stuff.
“That energy is definitely being reflected back on us, which is just wonderful.”
One thing that’s abundantly clear when talking about Lexi is just how many people’s lives they touched during their time in Dundee, first as a student at Dundee University, then Perth College, and as a staff member at popular Perth Road pub, the George Orwell.
“I wish I could claim originality for my story about meeting Lex, but I know for a fact that countless others have stories just like it,” laughs friend and fellow musician Jack Jones.
“They were lost musically – or otherwise – and Lex found them, inevitably recruiting them into one of their many musical projects which they somehow managed to balance with work.
“It happened so often we jokingly referred to ourselves as Lex’s Lost Boys!”
And Shona admits that Lexi’s ‘celebrity’ status meant that a simple walk down the Perth Road with her starlet sibling could be a challenge.
‘They knew everybody’
“Even someone who would only meet Lexi for like five minutes, their life would have been changed,” she says.
“And it would drive me mad because we’d go for a walk and they’d be like: ‘Oh sorry, I have to stop and say hi to this person!’
“It really was like you were with a celebrity. They knew everybody.
“And they loved that!” she giggles. “They absolutely loved that.”
Whatever “star quality” is, it would appear Lexi had it in spades.
A talented songwriter, bassist and performer, they played in several bands – most recently Corde Du Roi – and were responsible for transforming the Orwell’s waning Thursday night open mic into a bustling, packed-out event each week.
“If the history of this period of the Dundee music scene is ever written, no one would be surprised to find Lex at the centre,” insists Jack.
“There is a piece of them in every melody, a bit of them in every bassline, a fragment in every phrase coming out of Dundee’s music scene.
“For me, LexFest is about bringing those fragments together so that we might catch a glimpse of the whole.”
First ever LexFest is ‘bittersweet’ tribute
But of course, like a glittering disco ball, Lexi was fragmented too.
As a mixed race, genderqueer person in a divisive Scotland, they grappled with their identity and faced various mental health struggles.
And though the light of their life was bright, their loss has cast a long shadow for their loved ones.
Ian observes how “bittersweet” it is to be launching LexFest in Lexi’s memory “while knowing what a kick they would’ve got out of such an amazing night of music”.
And Shona admits that it’s been a “lonely” year since the loss of her sibling and best friend.
She credits charity SoBS – Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide – with helping her family navigate life without Lexi.
And she emphasises that all proceeds from LexFest will be split between SoBS and the Canmore Trust, a charity whose focus is on creating safe spaces for lives impacted by suicide.
“My dad, as soon as we even thought about organising it, was like: ‘We’re giving every penny and doing everything we can do to raise money for these charities’. SoBS has been a huge help to my parents,” she explains.
“They run these meetings monthly. My parents live in Kilmarnock and their closest group is Edinburgh, so they have to travel for it.
“But for them, it’s the best thing they’ve done and it’s helped them a lot, so the idea that that help would be extended to other people is wonderful.”
‘Dress like a fancy bathroom’
Lexi came out as trans/non-binary to family and friends about a year and a half before their death.
And in the current climate of gender reform and criticism, Shona admits she is “terrified” every day for trans people like Lexi, who are already at higher risk of suicide due to discrimination and lack of support.
“Everything that’s happening at the minute just breaks my heart. Because everyone should be able to do what Lex did.
“One of my favourite things was their Instagram bio. It literally said: ‘Dress like a fancy bathroom’, which is the most incredible summary of them.
“They really were always dressed like that. They were just a shiny person.
“But the same with anyone who is like that,” she goes on, “they weren’t always like that.”
For Shona, Lexi’s “coming out” was more of a “coming home”, as she had never seen her sibling so comfortable in themselves, even calling up their sister in the mornings “to make sure their make-up looked good as they were a little colourblind”.
She credits Dundee, Lexi’s found home, with giving them the confidence to be themselves, and hopes Lexi’s friends from the city and beyond can come together to celebrate their memory at the very first LexFest.
“Dundee really shaped Lex,” she says. “It allowed them to blossom into who they were, because they felt so comfortable there. And it was wonderful to see that.
“As they went through their transition and kind of became more ‘them’, it was just the most incredible thing to see – and it felt right, the whole time.
“They were still the same person, just turned up to 100.
“It’s one of the bravest things anyone can do, to be themselves completely, because that’s when you’re at your most vulnerable.
“Lex had a wonderful way of doing that.”
LexFest will be held at Church Dundee on March 18 2023 from 7pm. Tickets are £7 and available from Eventbrite’s website, with all proceeds going to charity.
