Carlton Young died aged 51 at his home in Jesse Terrace on Tuesday, August 5, from bronchial pneumonia and was laid to rest in a Radiohead-themed coffin at Easthampstead Park Crematorium on Tuesday morning.

His brothers Nick and Stephen said their older brother had always loved music and, despite being wheelchair-bound due to his cerebral palsy, he regularly went to gigs at After Dark, Alley Cats, Cartoons and the Purple Turtle, where his wake was held.

Stephen, 48 from Tilehurst, said: “He was a character of Reading. Lots of people here knew him and he did a lot for the people of Reading.

“He was independent, had his own flat, he did the Reading Half Marathon in 1983. I remember him coming in about five hours after everyone else. It was pouring with rain. He tried his best and kept on going.”

Born in Reading to Colin and Jan Young in November 1962, Carlton grew up in Westbrook Road, west Reading and went to the Avenue School before being sent to boarding school.

He returned to Reading and spent the rest of his life here, attending gigs, fighting for disabled rights and organising charity events. He was also in numerous bands including Duma Yama and The Electric Groove Temple in the late Eighties and early Nineties.

He was not only a music lover but a determined disabled rights campaigner and charity fundraiser, organising a 12-hour non-stop drumathon in 2012 which raised £5,500 for the Duchess of Kent House Hospice.

In his honour the Purple Turtle created a large print of a photograph of Carlton behind his drums and mounted it on the wall for his wake.

Around 50 friends and family members packed into the Gun Street bar’s beer garden to remember Carlton including Davinah Caines, 38 from Caversham, who knew him most of her life and helped organise the drumathon.

She said: “He was always a friendly face in Reading. Although sometimes he could be a nightmare, sometimes he was wonderful.”

But it was Carlton’s stubborn streak which brought him into conflict with the borough council, fighting for disabled rights, and sister-in-law Andrea Gaynor said he managed to get a lot changes put in place.

She said: “I remember his sincere opinions, he was unable not to tell you what he thought. We used to write letters to the council and House of Commons together.

“But he pushed the boundaries of being disabled. He never thought of himself or labelled himself as disabled. That was his most redeeming feature.”