The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Lord Henry Mount Charles

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Obituary

A monumental figure in music here in Ireland. Staged many huge acts at Slane Castle over the years. I was a regular attendee during the eighties – Lizzy, Bruce, Bowie, Dylan. And again for Oasis in 2013(?).

Maytime Wordle

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A litle early but first of the month is (almost) upon us and time to gather for the may Wordle Golf Championship. While we in the Northern Hemisphere will be casting off our heavier slacks and sweaters, our friends in Southern climes will be feeling the days turn a little chilly as they lead us off. Beginning at Wordle #1412. Have a great round everybody and try to avoid…

James B. Sikking

by 8 Comments

Obituary

A highly respected actor with many roles under his belt but to me he was always Lt. Howard Hunter. Whenever I watch an episode of Hill Street Blues I always enjoy the title sequence – not only for the iconic theme but also for the montage of great characters who are so familiar to me.

CJ Sansom

by 10 Comments

Obituary

Sad to hear of the passing of CJ Sansom. I had read some months ago that he was unwell. I have thouroughly enjoyed his Shardlake series of books and also his post-WWII alternative history ‘Dominion’. It’s a shame as the TV version of Shardlake will air shortly on Disney+ – I hope they do it justice…

The Great Gambon

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Obituary

One of the all-time greats. Always worth watching. I just heard on the news that he started his acting career in the same way as Orson Welles by blagging a role from Michéal MacLiammior in the Gate Theatre using a fake CV. I doubt that MM was fooled – he just liked to give young actors a start.

I Despair…

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I am a reasonably optimistic person – we are facing many difficulties, but I believe human ingenuity will eventually solve the climate crisis despite our refusal to act responsibly up till now. I hope that the Ukraine situation will be resolved in Ukraine’s favour and that, after a suitable period of reflection and payment of reparations, Russian will re-join the civilised world. I may not be around to see it, but I think it will happen someday. But this story – this has fucked me up terribly today. I cannot bear to hear of deliberate cruelty visited on children or animals. We had a terrible story yesterday about the death of a five-year old girl in Co. Antrim after a sustained period of abuse and neglect by her mother and stepfather. That can be isolated, and the perpetrators identified and punished as a one-off anomaly. But the report from the BBC has horrified me, not just as a story of organised animal cruelty, but because it says something about the human condition. That there is a global network of people who are prepared to seek out this abomination on social networks leaves me feeling that perhaps there is no hope » Continue Reading.

Christy Dignam

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Obituary

Lead singer with Irish band Aslan. After a very long and public illness. Their music wasn’t always for me, but Christy seemed to be one of the good guys and they had a very devoted following in Ireland. They had the mixed blessing of writing a couple of very popular anthems, “This Is” and “Crazy World”, and these two songs tended to be the only songs played on radio. I remember hearing a decent carbon copy of the Stones’ “Angie” and yesterday I heard a very good arrangement of Bowie’s “Quicksand”. I saw them when they opened for DB when he played Slane Castle on the Glass Spider tour.

Cynthia Weil

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Obituary

A name I admit that I was not familiar with, but the songs are almost part of our DNA. On Broadway, You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place and lots more. Writing with her husband Barry Mann they were contemporaries of Carole King and Gerry Goffin.

Johnny Fean

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Obituary

Horslips guitarist Johnny Fean at age 71. Others will be better placed to write about his career and influence. Dancehall Sweethearts was the first proper album I owned and loved – still do. He lived a few miles up the road from me in Shannon but kept a very low profile apparently. My cousin is a professional musician and fell into the Horslips orbit regularly. He has nothing but nice things to say about Johnny and his bandmates.

Where were the Spiders?

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While painting one of the girls bedrooms over the weekend, I was listening to some podcasts. Along came this one, an old radio sci-fi drama, The Martian Death March. After a few minutes I copped that the indigenous Martians were called ‘Spiders’ by the Earth colonists. It was recorded in 1955, so it is unlikely that a young Master Jones heard the original, but perhaps DB stumbled across a repeat broadcast, or a transcript, on his ’71 visit to the states? I know there is another story about migrating spiders at a football match, but my theory seems just as plausible. Any other stories of (possible) inspirations for bands/names/albums?

https://www.relicradio.com/otr/2017/07/the-martian-death-march-by-x-minus-one/