Michael Sadler posted this on his website's forum, which I happened to visit for the first time today. Please see my couple of questions below it:

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Hi everyone,

As many of you may know by now, and for those who've not heard the news, our European promoter and good friend, Mike Durrschmidt passed away last Sunday. We only received the news when we disembarked from the ship yesterday morning after doing the Cruise To The Edge, and as you can well imagine, each member of the band is still coming to grips with this tragic news at the moment.

Mike was not only someone whom I considered to be one of the most professional and compassionate persons I've ever worked with, but also someone I considered to be a close friend. Mike was someone whose opinions I always respected. He managed to always offer constructive yet realistic solutions to various issues. He will be greatly missed and will live in each of our hearts forever.

But there is one more thing that should be mentioned regarding my respect and personal relationship with Mike. I can think of no better time than now to let you know that Mike was greatly instrumental in my decision to return to Saga in 2011. Would I have returned on my own accord, without any of Mike's input in helping me make the decision? I can't honestly answer that... but I do know one thing- Mike helped me make one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life!

My thoughts and prayers go out to his whole family and everyone at DMC.

Danke schoen mein freund! Sleep well...

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My First question: Michael is obviously referring to someone who wasn't on the ship, but on the night of Saga's show on the ship, I sat next to a guy who I think was German (at one point he mentioned Belgium, but he seemed German to me). I didn't catch his name, but I think he said he is or was a distributor for Saga in Germany, and he knew the band well. Does anyone know who this guy would have been? He was with his wife and daughter, and he was very nice. He had some interesting stories and perspectives on Saga's history.

Next, does anyone know if there's an active Saga forum online somewhere? There's a forum on Saga's official website but it's very stale - no recent activity. Or an active fan-run Saga website? Possibly all the action (such as it is) has moved to FB, so I'll check that out as well.

I've got the Saga bug big-time! Anyway, sorry to hear the band had this news as they left the ship. Bummer. According to another post on Sadler's thread, it was cancer. Or course. Damn.