Rolling Obituary Thread 2024

There's a fair argument to be made that Madness might not have reformed or recorded their post-reunion albums - including The Liberty Of Norton Folgate, perhaps their best album - without Power inviting them to perform their Madstock festival in 1992.

I saw some of the best gigs of my life at Mean Fiddler venues during the '90s. I don't really care if Power was a bad person.

Regarding Vince Power, the Times and Telegraph have sightly differing accounts of a Madstock festival incident in Finsbury Park, London. Both obits agree that a bag-carrying member of his staff was mugged while holding the band's fee in cash. Both obits agree that Vince rushed around collecting cash from stall holders and calling in favours to be able to hand Madness their fee in cash and cheques, and happily the festive was able to go on

But in the Times its £250,000 and in the Telegraph £25,000. Just how much did it cost to hire Madness to headline a festival at that time?

This was in 2000 by the way, so the equivalent amounts today would be around £450,000 and £45,000.

Madstock was a great show. Sadly I turned away from watching for a second and missed the Morrissey orange juice moment.

RIP Pete Rodriguez, born in 1932, a Puerto Rican American raised in the Bronx whose bugaloo piano playing on “I like it like that “ has inspired many, including Cardi B and Bad Bunny and others who have covered it or sampled it or adapted it

Aw man, that's a shame.

"I Like It Like That" is an all timer.

Paul Alexander, polio survivor in iron lung for over 70 years, dies at 78 after Covid diagnosis

https://www.yahoo.com/news/paul-alexander-polio-survivor-iron-172415147.html

Marcello Gandini, designer of the Lamborghini Miura, Countach, & Diablo, along with the Lancia Stratos and Ferrari 308 GT4, dead at 85
https://www.thedrive.com/news/marcello-gandini-legendary-lamborghini-miura-and-countach-designer-dead-at-85

Dan Wakefield, author of Going All The Way and much more besides.

Angela McCluskey, 64.

https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/music-special/angela-mccluskey-wild-colonials-telepopmusik-mbe has links to four studio sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYHHUDqpeUQ She’s on point, every track with Telepopmusik. Wish we’d had many more collaborations released.

RIP Gandini, the Miura will always be my dream lottery-win car.
https://www.sportscarmarket.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1971-lamborghini-miura-p400-sv-front.jpg

classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9CijRPex7A

Larry H Parker, Los Angeles personal injury lawyer, "He will no longer fight for YOUUUU"

https://laist.com/brief/news/larry-h-parker-la-billboard-lawyer-icon-has-died

Dorie Ladner, Unheralded Civil Rights Heroine, Dies at 81
She risked arrest and worse in pursuit of her goals of integration and voting rights

Farewell Ms. Dorie (as she was called when I first heard her voice on WPFW radio). I first learned about Dorie Ladner, Mississippi civil rights activist, from her weekly appearances in recent years every Saturday morning on Lance Reynolds radio show on WPFW (he is paying tribute to her now). She talked about her courageous days as a participant with the movement, her current daily life, the ongoing political and civil rights struggles of today, her favorite music, and relations between women and men. She was always wise, feisty, and graceful, and sometimes funny. She survived attempts on her life and lived a strong one until age 81

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/15/us/dorie-ladner-dead.html

Steve Harley

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/steve-harley-death-cockney-rebel-make-me-smile-b2513960.html

Schneider's happy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ5Ra-sln-s

RIP, those first two Cockney Rebel albums have some great tracks on them.

RIP

Love those records.

really great Scars cover worth revisiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXNABzNVlu8

12 year-old me loved The Human Menagerie and The Psychomodo, and having revisited both of them this year, they still hold up well.

As an American, I expected a band with a name like Cockney Rebel to sound like GBH or Discharge, so hearing Harley's actual music was a little baffling.

Posted about him on facebook with the comment "english people of a certain generation" and have gotten two responses from members of Happy Refugees both saying "I was really into him when I was 12".

never heard the album but 'come up and see me...' is probably my mum and dad's most played song* along with 'baker street' and 'maggie may'

*entire works of dire straits excepted

The Golden Age of Cockney Rebel is twelve.

As an American, I expected a band with a name like Cockney Rebel to sound like GBH or Discharge, so hearing Harley's actual music was a little baffling.

Getting them mixed up with Cockney Rejects perhaps?

Probably

Seems like the album covers would tip you off about the style

https://wtop.com/national/2024/03/astronaut-thomas-stafford-commander-of-apollo-10-has-died-at-age-93/

Astronaut Thomas Stafford, 93

As an American, I expected a band with a name like Cockney Rebel to sound like GBH or Discharge

Lol, same here.. the name sounds more menacing than the band

considering the band has no electric guitar but has a violin, and the lead singer wears a red velvet frock coat and bowler hat, I'd say pretty much anything is more menacing than Cockney Rebel.

I had the opposite feeling about Blue Oyster Cult, where I saw the art and the band's name and I thought they much be the most evil sounding band in the world.. then I heard Burnin' for You and they were weren't as vile and satanic as I'd hoped

(I'm not sure I thought Cockney Rebel was gonna sound like GBH, but I assumed it'd be more like Dr. Feelgood or Eddie & The Hot Rods, some kinda hard-edged pub rock.. alas it was not to be)

Ha, great comparison, AtG.

The great M. Emmet Walsh

https://www.etonline.com/m-emmet-walsh-blade-runner-and-knives-out-actor-dead-at-88-222071

noooo

No! RIP to a true hero

Oh bollocks, RIP MEW.

https://marsingemini.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/walsh_blood_simple_blue_blu-ray_2x-600w.jpg

RIP to the Stanton-Walsh Rule

Had no idea he was still alive. Does that make Bruce McGill the last great American character actor standing? (I feel like Ed Harris is just one rung higher on the ladder, having had actual lead roles — Walker, Pollock.)

More people should see Straight Time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RzaZC6DchU

RIP

I always thought Straight Time is one of Hoffman's best, if not THE best

at the baggage claim in the burlington vermont airport I found myself standing next to m. emmet walsh and said to him, “I love your movies.” he looked at me, slightly annoyed, and without missing a beat, replied “you should try reading books.” https://t.co/zCzilBZpWH

— alex blagg (@alexblagg) September 23, 2023

No version of BLADE RUNNER would work without him. As written, a key character for noir stakes-setting and exposition. As performed, Walsh delivers the rancid affability of a mid grade authority impressed with himself for deciding who's human. Acting that creates the world. RIP pic.twitter.com/f1Fp57jMQI

— Candygram for Mongo (@spencer_parsons) March 20, 2024

Does that make Bruce McGill the last great American character actor standing?

james hong is still with us at 95