Most of the obituaries must already be written, and the worst but most well-known song lined-up for the capsule new reports. Funny how time slips away.
https://theweek.com/articles/861750/coming-death-just-about-every-rock-legend
The coming cull of rock musicians
by 40 Comments
I sincerely hope he’s very very well though Mark Knopfler has been announcing from the stage on his current tour that’s he’s hanging up the red Stratocaster.
It’s to be his last tour, apparently. He’s 70. Fair play to him.
Not, it needs to be said, before time.
Not sure I understand that comment @Slug. Is it based on your thoughts of Dire Straits or his solo catalogue. His solo stuff has been pretty amazing and his tours are always great.
Interesting you report that @Beezer. I saw his tour earlier this year in Birmingham and his comments were that he had thought about retiring but had then decided against. Maybe as the lengthy tour progressed he changed his mind. Incidentally it was clear his mobility wasnt that great – as if he was having hip problems.
His guitar playing was still exceptional though and his voice for me has got stronger.
Agree. He’s got better too, moving into areas he likes and diversifying without losing his essential thing. No lutes, musicals etc for him. More power to his Strat I say.
Oh! Good! I hope I stand corrected then.
I watched some fan footage of the European dates a few weeks ago and his regular stage patter was to the effect of ‘thanks and goodbye Madrid/Barcelona/Paris etc. I’m getting old so this is the last tour’
If he’s changed his mind then that’s alright with me.
He did look a bit stiff.
The UK dates were first so I am worried he has changed his mind in the wrong direction.
I am pretty sure he would still make albums though – he is immensely talented,
Oh. Fuck.
Those years of smoking and drinking, bad sleep due to jet lag, late nights and early mornings, and life on a coach can’t be good for you, even if it’s made easier with a lot of things being done for you. Then there is the heavy adrenaline rush of performance and the come-down 3 hours later. Brilliant and like being in a naughtier circus when you are younger, but surely tiring later. And the repetition! Songs you’ve played for half a century, doing the same show for 6 weeks when you’ve said all you can with the rest of the team, and nobody cares about new material any more…
Debbie Harry is older than Van Morrison? Gosh!
Debbie Harry is a year older than my mum. No wonder I was a confused boy!
If you think that’s surprising, reading the birthday column in The Guardian over the past couple of weeks I noticed that Jerry Allison, drummer in the Crickets, at 80, is a year younger than Jet Black, the drummer in the Stranglers .
Maybe it’s the way rock history is written, tending to see it as abrupt changes between distinct eras which makes it seem odd that the main players in a lot of different styles were closer together in age than you expect.
Everybody is younger than Jet Black! When he took up the sticks Methuselah was still in the Cubs!
Been that way in jazz for years.
Can’t buy a Daily Telegraph or Times without, on the obituary page, a jazz musician and, of course, a toff no one’s ever heard of.
Mojo magazine will just move onto Paul Weller (already there), Suede, Oasis, Blur, Primal Scream and…etc
I haven’t been able to bring myself to read Mojo for several years now. The same features recycled over and over again (“It was madness says Macca!”), and prose with all the excitement of a trade journal.
A retooled version focussing on the generation of bands you describe could be more entertaining. “A flop on its release, we reassess and talk to those involved in the making of the final album by Cast…”
@atcf your assessment of Mojo is just wrong. Since it’s new editor it has had a new lease of life. Plenty of new stuff every month. If there is a Beatles or Woodstock anniversary reissue they are somewhat duty bound to feature them.
The more relevant question is why there is a need for these myriad reissues in the first place. If an alternative version of a song was any good in most instances it would have appeared on the original release. Scraping the barrel is the work of the labels not the magazines.
The magazine’s will cover what their readership wants. Pity there isn’t enough new stuff that excited like the old. It’s a bigger problem than a magazine.
The BBC must be hoping that Gambuccini outlives them all, otherwise they’re scuppered.
Nope. The Hep will step manfully into that gap.
Hep or somebody probably already has a Gambo obit ready.
Gambaccini’s only a year older than Hep!
They’re probably working on each other’s obits.
Whenever the BBC Breaking News clarion explodes on my phone I always think ‘Oh, there goes Macca.’
Do we think Ringo is going to outlive us all?
I think he may be the last one standing. Which is quite ironic seeing as he was the one always sitting down.
Doubly so as he almost died in childhood!
And freaky since Paul has already died once.
The Vertical Man!
Eddie, I am the same. There is a momentary thrill of dreadful anticipation when I hear a ‘breaking news’ alert.
Anyone fancy an Afterword Deadpool?
Given I’m the same age as Elton John and Don Henley, I expect they’re planning to live forever. As are the inexplicably left out Ian Anderson, Mick Fleetwood, Ronnie Wood, Carlos Santana, Brian May, Meatloaf, Bob Weir, Joe Walsh and Rock Zelig Jeff Lynne.
They can take Keith Richards off that list. He is undoubtely indestructable.
Yep. Essentially he’s The Highlander, isn’t he?
I expect Mick wants to still be around to see him off. He’s very competitive.
See also Shane MacGowan, Ginger Baker, Iggy Pop and Bonnie Langford.
Helluva supergroup – they’ll be touring in 2050.
With Andy Summers and Georgie Fame, no doubt.
Marshall Allen will still probably be around but busy leading the Sun Ra Arkestra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Allen
Keith cannot be killed by conventional weapons.
We shouldn’t forget that Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard are still alive. The Killer’s still touring!
I am staggered, but obviously glad, that Shane MacGowan is still alive. I’ve seen him live several times, and he looked half-dead twenty years’ ago. He’s demonstrably not in great shape, but not drinking like he used to, apparently.
“He’s demonstrably not in great shape” was said of him in the first live review of the Nipple Erectors in 1978. Probably.
I was pretty shocked by this, I mean I know he’s had back issues, and I’m reliably informed that had his drumming technique been shaped by a teacher in the early years he wouldn’t be in such a mess, but…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5AN2BwaimE