Ask those who knew Doogie Paul how they remember him, and they will tell you he was a brilliant bass player; that his solo banjo chorales were spellbinding; that his skateboard capers bagged him the name "Doogie Death".

That he was a lively and well-loved fixture in James Yorkston And The Athletes, Edinburgh's DIY scene and King Creosote's Fence Collective.

And they will tell you he died too soon - aged 40, from cancer, last November.

This week, some of Paul's musical comrades and friends are set to celebrate his life at a charity gig in Edinburgh featuring Mogwai, King Creosote, James Yorkston, Kathryn Williams, Sheena Wellington, Alasdair Roberts and Ian Rankin.

If this stellar and divergent cast highlights pop's widespread affection for Paul, so too does it promise a raucous tribute to a man who loved not things, but music, and people.

"I helped Doogie move house once," recalls event organiser Yorkston, with whom Glasgow-born Paul played double bass on five albums and countless tours.

"He called me up and he said, 'Can you help me move? Can you bring your car?'

"So I cleared out my car, put the seats down - it was an estate - and I thought, 'Right, we've got a hard afternoon's work ahead,'" he chuckles. "Doogie had one rucksack and an empty golf bag. That was all. Actually, sorry, the golf bag had two rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in it.

"And that's what Doogie was like. If he ever had money, he would walk into the first shop he saw and just buy whatever. I remember one time he had £50, which he spent on tobacco and an organic duck. He didn't even cook it - he just put it in a pot in the studio and left it for weeks. I think he was more comfortable when he didn't have any money, when he had nothing. He wasn't very good at having things."

The few belongings Paul held close reflected his love for music and touring with friends. "After he died I went up to his bedroom," Yorkston continues.

"And I found all the tour laminates we had ever had, from 2002 onwards. Seeing them there in a big pile was really interesting, because he hardly had anything else - he must have placed a lot of value in them to have kept them."

Paul joined The Athletes in 2001, lured by a green double bass inherited from Fence cadet Weary Waters.

"We'd gone through about four different bass players, they left for different reasons, me being one of them," Yorkston jokes. "One was going deaf, one was playing with Kenny [Anderson aka King Creosote], and we knew about Doogie, but we were always a little wary of him. He had a shaven head, he wore this skateboard gear, he had some kind of statement going on, and he didn't seem particularly approachable in the way he looked.

"But we also knew he was an amazing bass player. So Reuben [Taylor, The Athletes] and I got to know him a bit better. We started drinking in the same pub, and he turned out to be a very loving guy.

"So we decided to ask him. We sat down and said, 'Cosmic John is leaving, and we're just wondering if you wanted to play.' And Doogie said, 'Oh I don't know - I've been thinking about giving up the bass.

"'Let me have a think about it.' He thought about it for six, maybe seven, seconds and then he went, 'Aye, awright.'"

Paul was a congenial force at Yorkston's shows from thereon in, as Yorkston explains.

"Live, he was amazing - he would always follow you, he would never stop or panic and would be delighted if you went off-piste. Having someone who was liberated enough to do that was fun. That's the kind of musician you want."

Paul's solo work was rare. Banjo in hand, voice in the heavens, he would cover the likes of Scott Walker, Jacques Brel, Fence siren HMS Ginafore (who identified him among the "Top Five Fence Tottie" in a fanzine and christened him The Dickensian Gaslighter), Yorkston and King Creosote.

Since his death, the latter two have written beautiful songs in his memory, but it is unlikely any artist will tackle Paul's own compositions.

"His own songs were plaintive, really dark," says Yorkston. "It was like watching Diamanda Galas - I was transfixed because it was so odd.

He had this almost castrato voice, it was extraordinary. After he died I thought I should maybe do one of his songs, but you listen to them and you think, 'I can't sing these'.

A lot of the time there was barely a melody. It was all in the way he was singing and playing."

Yorkston touches on something else that we all remember about Doogie Paul. "His individuality made the performance."

Doogie Paul Memorial Concert with Mogwai, King Creosote, James Yorkston, Kathryn Williams, Ian Rankin, Alasdair Roberts and Sheena Wellington - Edinburgh Assembly Rooms Music Hall, tomorrow, 8pm, £18. Proceeds to The Sick Kids Friends Foundation, Marie Curie, Macmillan and TCCL.