The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / Obituary thread 2017

Comments

  4. I remember the back streets of Naples,
    Two children begging in rags,
    You stole all of their pennies,
    and went with 2 dirty old hags,
    Bagging off, (Royal Navy slang)
    You got a dose,
    Aha ahaa

  5. My bass-playing friend Martin auditioned, was accepted and was then scheduled to go on tour with PS many years ago.
    At the last moment PS cancelled the whole caboodle as his severe stage-fright set back in.

        • This is the truth. Great chord sequence, great accordion, easy to learn lyric, exotic imagery and the mystery of its inspiration (Sophia Loren, etc. etc.) in the days before instant urban-myth busting courtesy of the internet. If you are younger than I am you’ll just be blinded by self-congratulatory, post-modern, bollox-thinking, and you won’t have a clue about how great that single was, BACK THEN.

          • Ahahaha…how true. One of those records that was just there, and now is redolent of a whole period. Cue for yet another HJH: you had to be there threads?

            Actually, possibly cue for cryptic records that came out of nowhere and led nowhere in particular thread. Cf The Days of Pearly Spencer, Excerpt from a Teenage Opera.

            • Yes, it’s a beautiful record. The much derided “for a laugh, ha ha ha” is actually quite good – underplayed sarcasm. Accordion perfect, too. One of his brothers was Eden Kane, who briefly troubled the charts in the early sixties, and the other was the “My Resistance Is Low” hitmaker Clive Sarstedt. Interesting family.

    • If only Sacha Distel had suffered the same affliction to a much greater extent. What happier memories of light entertainment many of us would be able draw upon in those long dark nights of the soul.

  9. Top pop fact. Peter Sarstedt was one of three brothers to make the top 5 individually with different records. Not even the Brothers Gibb were able to manage this.

    Eden Kane (real name Richard Sarstedt) – Well, I Ask You – #1 in 1961
    Peter Sarstedt – Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? – #1 in 1969
    Robin Sarstedt – My Resistance Is Low – #3 in 1976

  10. oh christ.. i got caught shoplifting ‘Frozen Orange Juice’ local shop in Queen St Auckland. I actually wanted B side called ‘Arethusa Loser’. Got taken to Auckland Central Police Station til Dad had to come & get me.. 13 at time & major event in my life.. BUT also recall his debut album really well & he COULD Rock & even Roll.. songs like.. ‘Semi precious multi coloured plastic Easter egg’.. ‘Mary Jane’….but Wdygtml is truly ghastly.. yes it is..but RIP

    • Jah Wobble dedicated tonight’s gig at the Jazz Café to Jaki. Said he was the best drummer he ever played alongside. His current drummer Mark Layton-Bennett is apparently the second best.


      (Can – I Want More: Top Of The Pops 1976))

  23. I saw him play at Santa Barbara Bowl many years ago.
    I’ve got to say, I’ve been to a lot worse venues than that one in my time.
    As a bonus Take 6 were the support.

  32. Colin Dexter, aged 86. I worked at the Oxford exam board in the school holidays for several years and in the early days he was still there. He bawled someone out and when he realized he’s got it wrong he then made a point of apologizing in front of everyone.

    • Loved the Morse books, loved the Tv adaptations too – a case of where the actor seemed a perfect fit for the role he was playing with John Thaw as Morse – as is also the case with David Suchet as Poirot and Jeremy Brett as Holmes.

  33. I’m re-reading my favourite novels by the brilliant Swedish author Torgny Lindgren who sadly passed away last week. If you haven’t read any of his novels, do yourself a favour and seek them out! Not that many seems to have been translated into English unfortunately, but of the few that has I can especially recommend “Sweetness” and “Hash” (although I fear that his extraordinary use of the Swedish language and its northern dialects cannot be accurately reproduced in translation…)

    (Edit: Oh, and “The Way of a Serpent” as well!)

  34. Berni Wrightson – masterful comic book artist and illustrator. I first came across his work in the late 70s in a book called the Studio, featuring Jeff Jones, Mike Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith and Wrightson.

  36. Robert Miles.

    Like most people I started off loving ‘Children’, grew to hate it as an example of the worst kind of cheesy trance but then came full circle and ended up loving it again. RIP Bob Kilometre.

  41. Austin based Americana singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave passed away on the 21st of May, after a recently revealed cancer diagnosis. He performed at his own tribute concert only a few days beforehand. I saw him a few times in the US and I know he had some fans amongst the Massive. He was 61 and leaves a teenage son

  43. John Noakes, 83.

    That means he was 40-odd during his Blue Peter glory days, which is amazing considering the things he did. IIRC he held the world record for civilian skydiving “unbelievable that I’m flying through the air at 25,000 feet!”, he shouted – at a time when most of us would be screaming and soiling ourselves.

    The Main Thing about him was how naturally funny he was. Uniquely, I think, he used a dog as a straight man (dog) as more and more situations were engineered to make the most of his wonderful comic pairing with his border collie, Shep. There was at least one spin off TV series as well.

    If tempers flare of a summer night deciding the definitive, classic Blue Peter line up (Singleton? Judd? Greene? Ellis? Groom? Duncan? Purves? Wenner?…) only one name unites all – John Noakes. Or to give him his full title, John Noakes obviously.

  46. In “The Times” today … John F. Muir, the Producer of John Peel’s “Night Ride” in the late 60s. Instrumental in getting an interview with John & Yoko for the show.

  48. Like Peter Sallis last week, he had a really distinctive, instantly recognisable voice. Think I’ll replay his very enjoyable interview with Chris Hardwick on the Nerdist podcast (from 2014) later by way of salute…

  52. I really liked Brian Cant. He’s in my very earliest TV memories. When it was his turn to present Play School or read Jackanory, you knew you were in for a treat. You could tell he really loved doing it – wasn’t just a job. And he supported Ipswich Town!

  58. Chester Bennington: very sad. My wife is (and definitely was 10-15 years ago) a fan of Linkin’ Park. I wasn’t, but went with her to see them at Wembley in about 2004. They were tremendous live, and extremely warm to the audience (which I didn’t expect from such a large American band).

    Not sure how popular they are on here (so I’ve not done a separate thread) but just sad nonetheless.

    • Vera Duckworth, Elsie Tanner, Ena Sharples, Hilda Ogden, Stanley Ogden, Albert Tatlock… no other telly programme has come up with such brilliant names for their characters. Is that still the case, I wonder? (Amy Turtle -Crossroads- does merit a mensh too.)

    • He soundtracked my early teenage life without me realising it, scoring Space Oddity, Without You, Your Song, You’re So Vain, among others. He also arranged Moonlight Mile and Sway for The Rolling Stones. I was really surprised when I learnt that the album he worked on with Miles Davies is none other than On The Corner. Just, wow!

  70. Johnny Hallyday, France’s answer to Elvis (who hadn’t asked France a question in the first place) – gone aged 74.

    And Christine Keeler, who didn’t release any records, or get a mention from Philip- Larkin…

    Sexual intercourse began
    In nineteen sixty-three
    (which was rather late for me) –
    Between the end of the “Chatterley” ban
    And the Beatles’ first LP.

    …but must have been on his mind when he wrote it.

  71. Max Clifford, died in hospital following a heart attack in his prison cell. The man who once said without irony, ‘Why would I need to name drop when I’ve worked with the Beatles?’

      • I can pretty accurately date the last time I saw Breakfast TV.
        It was in late November 2001 and I tuned in after hearing the news of George Harrison’s death on the radio.

        I’m not positive what George would have made of Max Clifford being one of the “experts” who were brought on to talk about him but, with the legend “Beatles Manager” at the bottom of the screen next to Clifford’s name … I kid you not … I’ve got a fair idea.

        • Reminds me of when one of the Spice Girls was brought onto the radio to talk about the death of David Bowie and proceed to tell listeners that her favourite Bowie record was Ground Control to Major Tom.

      • Mrs F and I stayed in a West End hotel once in the years BC, so at least 15 years ago. Sitting on the breakfast table next to us was Max Clifford.

        I am not a violent person, but never have I felt the urge so strongly to stab someone with a fork. He was an insufferable smug tw*t, just eating his breakfast. And that was long before the perv stories broke.

        Much as I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, the world is a better place without him.

  73. With a bit over a fortnight left of the year, the tally so far (chronologically)…

    Peter Sarstedt
    Magic Alex
    William Onyeabor
    Mike Kellie
    Baroness Rachael Heyhoe-Flint
    Lee O’Denat
    Bill Price
    Butch Trucks
    Mary Tyler Moore
    Jackie Liebezeit
    Al Jarreau
    Brian Pern
    Peter Skellern
    Steve Hewlett
    Bill Paxton
    John Hampshire
    Howard Hodgkin
    John Lever
    Joni Sledge
    Colin Dexter
    Torgny Lindgren
    Berni Wrightson
    Bruce Langhorne
    Robert Miles
    Geoffrey Bayldon
    Roger Moore
    Jimmy LaFave
    Gregg Allman
    John Noakes
    Peter Sallis
    John F. Muir
    Adam West
    Brian Cant
    Michael Bond
    Carol Lee Scott
    Martin Landau
    George A Romero
    Chester Bennington
    Glen Campbell
    Liz MacKean
    Virgil Howe
    Liz Dawn
    Sean Hughes
    Keith Barron
    Della Reese
    Rodney Bewes
    David Cassidy
    Paul Buckmaster
    Johnny Hallyday
    Christine Keeler
    Max Clifford
    Keith Chegwin

    • That grim grouping of:

      John Noakes
      …
      Adam West
      Brian Cant
      Michael Bond

      Made me realise that most of the people who had given me such pleasure in my childhood are reaching the end of the line, and in every case it made me wish I had taken the trouble to thank them. Now if I particularly enjoy I book I often contact the writer on social media to say thanks.

      That didn’t seem right for David McKee so I wrote a letter, an actual letter with a stamp and everything, via his publisher to say how much I treasured childhood memories of Mr Benn, and that when in Putney for a show at the Half Moon we had taken a detour to Festing Road to see where Mr Benn ‘lived’. He replied saying that writing and illustrating can be an isolated trade, that he enjoyed knowing that there were readers who appreciated his work, and that his favourite gig at the Half Moon had been Doctor John.

  74. No, John Lever as well?
    The left-arm fast bowler for Essex and England?
    But I’m sure I saw him in a café in Woodford last week.
    Oh.

    Maybe they were on other threads but the two biggest names aren’t on that list … Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.

  78. I simply cut and pasted the list from this thread – there are other luminaries who warranted their own thread, I was just too lazy to go through the archives to find ’em….we can’t all be Kaisfatdad 🙂

Leave a Reply