John Le Carré - d. December 13th 2020

Reading you was my Fall:

before, glam spies in cars; 

after, a drab inner world,

lamplit by career shadows,

pieces on a board, trading

stock and scalps, made real

by the pen of true Control.

Charley Pride - d. December 12th 2020

After you they undrew 

the lines, wedged open

the Opry doors, spun 

both sides of the disc.

This morning an angel

told me you cannot keep 

a song from being sung.

Barbara Windsor - d. December 10th 2020

Spying, Doctor, 

Camping, Again Doctor, 

Henry, Matron, Abroad, 

Girls, Dick, Giggling,

Flirting, Disrobing, 

Pouting, Bitching, 

Barring, Shaaaahting, 

Struggling, Smiling, 

Carrying On.

Read about Barbara Windsor here

Doug Scott - d. December 7th 2020

When I face my own ascent

I pray I'll see you up ahead,

tapping in pitons, belaying  

the rope, pointing out 

the favourable pitch, then

reaching down to haul me

up those final few feet.

Read about Doug Scott here

Chuck Yeager - d. December 7th 2020

A peaceful glide home?

Shoulda gone in '47,

smouldering 

in a burnt-out bullet, 

barrel-rolled or broken 

by unrecoverable spin,  

demon grinning gleefully 

as you hammer 

on those titanium gates.

Read about Chuck Yeager here

Peter Alliss - d. December 6th 2020

In my inner game

I hear that voice -

the amiable duffer, 

unreconstructed,

every observation

underclubbed in an

overclubbed world.

Read about Peter Alliss here

Hugh Keays-Byrne - d. December 1st 2020

Death is the Bronze

you cannot outrun, 

even on the swiftest bike,

down the emptiest road.

I will remember you

when I look up 

at the night sky.

Read about Hugh Keays-Byrne here

David Prowse - d. November 28th 2020

When I reach that final road

I will see the black sentinel
shrugging off his cloak 

revealing the hero in green

and white, who bids me stop, 

looks left, right, left again,

then beckons me to cross.

Read about David Prowse here

Luke Rhinehart - d. November 6th 2020

One says ticket to oblivion
Two says dark ignominy
Three's merely a someone
Four is the fate of memory
Five's a critic's absolution
Six says you live in eternity

Read about Luke Rhinehart here

Diego Maradona - d. November 25th 2020

This is to mark 

the empty space

you swaggered through,

grass rippling in your wake, 

a squat, lengthening shadow,

half angel, half devil,

hands and feet of a God

Read about Diego Maradona here

Des O'Connor - d. November 14th 2020

To entertain is to pretend,
not once, but every night,
to be at one with the air,
to hold the note to the end,
leaving a smile like moonlight
shining on an empty chair. 

Read about Des O'Connor here

Geoffrey Palmer - d. November 6th 2020

Bit of a cock-up
on the being alive front.
I blame the Trotskyists,
Maoists, Guardian readers.
Bleeding hearts. The NHS.  
Bloody foreign surgeons.
Bloodsuckers all.
Bloody disgrace.

Read about Geoffrey Palmer here

John Sessions - d. November 2nd 2020

We leave little behind

as singular as the heavy

tread of our voice. Find

another voice, find many: 

a chorus of ghosts, sign 

of a craft extraordinary.

Read about John Sessions here

Sean Connery - d. October 31st 2020

Kiss. Shrug off the danger.

Kiss. PPK under the pillow.

Bang. A spectre does not knock.

Bang. Licence revoked.

Read about Sean Connery here

Nobby Stiles - d. October 30th 2020

Spit out that song
for the spoilers, short 
on skill, wit, physique,
whose call is to compete, 
to urge, when all is lost. 
Swing that rattle
for the tiny, toothless,
dancing destroyers.

Read about Nobby Stiles here

Bobby Ball - d. October 28th 2020

I seen yer through fug

o Workingmens' smoke,

ole in tha kecks, Medlock 

in tha veins, muck or nettles,

proper monkified, an ah sez

eeyafflaff, dunt yer?

Read about Bobby Ball here

Frank Bough - d. October 21st 2020

Quiet on the studio floor, coming 

to you in five, Frank - ready? 

Up to Eddie Waring in Oldham, 

in the cold of the Watersheddings

where both hookers are called Bert

and the lines are just fresh paint.

Read about Frank Bough here

James Randi - d. October 20th 2020

I won’t believe he’s really dead. Take

his pulse. Is he holding his breath? Fake.

A trick. Misdirection or suggestion. Wake

him up because I have questions. I’ll make

him talk. Look, he’s laughing, for God’s sake.

Read about James Randi here

Herbert Kretzmer - d. October 14th 2020

Despite the chill
that autumn brings
and those bitter tears,
heavy on my tongue,
I smile for you, when
I hear the people sing
your songs of yesterday,
when you were young.

Read about Herbert Kretzmer here

Bunny 'Striker' Lee - d. October 7th 2020

Drum roll for the keeper
of the keys to the kingdom
of bass, that treasured isle.
Flying the flag of low-freq,
deep symbol of eternal echo,
striker of the sharpest snare,
now and forever be.

In Dub
Drum roll
           keys
    bass
Flying
          cymbal                echo
                                     snare
                    rever b

Read about Bunny Lee here

Johnny Nash - d. October 6th 2020

How does your voice
stir up the sunshine?
Why does your song
pour sugar on me?
The more I find out
the less I know.

Read about Johnny Nash here

Eddie Van Halen - d. October 6th 2020

The earth shakes,
an eruption of magma,
power chords.
A figure stands alone
on molten rock,
fretboard aflame:
Frankenstrat's Monster.

Read about Eddie Van Halen here

Helen Reddy - d. September 29th 2020

The DJ spins a manifesto,

too impassioned to ignore,

how strong begets strong,

invincible, and more.

Tell the radio goodnight,

but not before you roar.

Read about Helen Reddy here

Mac Davis - September 29th 2020

A crowd gathers round

a smart young man,

a singular pen among

the drunks and cheaters,

an unlikely conscience.

And his mama cries.

Read about Mac Davis here

Juliette Grèco - d. September 23rd 2020

Ta voix est une boucle de fumée,

une page avec un million de poèmes,

toute délicatesse, souplesse, doigteé,

la chanson qui brûle,

et le fera toujours.

Your voice is a wisp of smoke,
a page with a million poems, 
all delicacy, suppleness, skill,
the song that burns, 
and always will.

Read about Juliette Gréco here

Michael Lonsdale - d. September 21st 2020

Death is the unloved season:

it is the draught that blows 

through the unholy labyrinth, 

the tyranny of empty space,

the harm that comes to all.

Read about Michael Lonsdale here

 

Shere Hite - d. September 9th 2020

Light flares, skin hums,
and the universe centres
on this place, this now.
You wrote freedom anew,
independence, adventure,
opened up the life to come.

Read about Shere Hite here

Frederick 'Toots' Hibbert - d.11th September 2020

When I do the reggay
I do the right thing -
righteous rocksteady,
gospel style, pyramid
label, forty-five. That's
always been my number.

Read about Toots Hibbert here

Diana Rigg - d. September 10th 2020

How I craved a Queen of Sin,
catsuited and a snug gun 
down the boot. A hidden
tiger, an impossible girl
to find, even if you had all
the time in the world.

Read about Diana Rigg here

Ronald Bell - d. September 9th 2020

When I awoke
you had received your calling,
a column of dry ice,
mirrorball still spinning.
Good times, always,
a life to celebrate. Come on!

Read about Ronald Bell here

David Bryant - d. August 27th 2020

This is the final end:
feel the perfect line 
from hand to jack, weigh 
the bias of the world
in your soft palm,
draw to a hair's breadth,
then ascend in a haze
of grit and tobacco.

Read about David Bryant here

Chadwick Boseman - d. August 28th 2020

Run forever, hero,
hand in hand with Bast
and Sekhmet, across
the endless veld,
where beautiful men
drop to one knee, bow,
and are held up to the sky.

Read about Chadwick Boseman here

Julian Bream - d. August 14th 2020

Come heavy sleep
and still the strings,
the squeak of frets,
the brush of fingertips,
the memory of timbre:
all else is resonance.

Read about Julian Bream here

Ben Cross - d. August 18th 2020

The screen life affords
just ten lonely seconds
to justify your existence,
to take arrows of desire,
speed, passion, elegance,
and secure them in time. 

Read about Ben Cross here

Wayne Fontana - d. August 6th 2020

After the game concludes

come the impossible years,

the impossible decades,

6-minute slots to deaf ears,

where groovy turns to gravy,

and yet, and yet, you were here.

Read about Wayne Fontana here

C P Lee - d. July 25th 2020

I learned to write this gibberish

in your mindless classroom - 

you, fluent in every language 

(except the serious ones), all

in sub-dialects of Mancunian,

words and music made bonkers,

blown like snuff into the world.

Read about C P Lee here

Alan Parker - d. July 31st 2020

Before the main feature

we sit in our own darkness,

waiting for someone to take us

where the dreamers go: versions

of hell, of history, of childhood,

the places, true and untrue,

beyond the cinema doors.

Read about Alan Parker here

'Rollerball' Mark Rocco - d. July 30th 2020

There is a chapter

in the Grapple Manual

dedicated to brawlers

and pocket battleships.

Its pages are red and blue, 

studded with white stars,

explosions of energy,

character, showmanship.

Read about Mark Rocco here

Sydney Lotterby - d. July 30th 2020

A ragged queue is forming

at your door; three old men,

grocer and boy, a brace of 

supercilious civil servants,

an old lag. They say they're

waiting for you to come home. 

I told them to naff orf.

Read about Sydney Lotterby here

Denise Johnson - d. July 27th 2020

Welcome to Downsville,

where streets are so wide

there are sister brothers

standing on every side,

every soul is 27 forever, and 

even funeral parties are wild.

Read about Denise Johnson here

John Saxon - d. July 25th 2020

I saw you in the fusion

of strength and appetite,

shoulder to broad shoulder

with a long-dead dragon, 

finally arriving at the point

that you will not go beyond.

Read about John Saxon here

Peter Green - d. July 25th 2020

Shall I tell them about your life?

The peerless broken blues,

the anxious nights so black,

the days that strummed you,

whispered through every bad trip

there must be more than this.

Read about Peter Green here

 

Olivia de Haviland - d. July 25th 2020

Dim the lights of this town,

a snake pit draped in tinsel,

reinvent those old stories,

dress the set anew, check

the lens, stay on the face,

the heavy eyes now draining

into lonely black and white.

Read about Olivia de Havilland here

Zizi Jeanmaire - d. July 17th 2020

Les étapes sont définies 

et ne peuvent pas changer,

mais là où il y a mouvement, 

il y a danger,

car qu'est-ce que la vie 

si nous ne pouvons pas danser?

Read about Zizi Jeanmaire here

The steps are set and cannot change,

but where there is movement there is danger,

for what is life if we cannot dance?

Maurice Röeves - d. July 15th 2020

We know you: in the cast,

heavy, or sergeant-major,

neither first name nor last.

Your act was to decöeve,

wear someone else’s story,

trust the watcher to belöeve.

Read about Maurice Roëves here

Jack Charlton - d. July 10th 2020

I found you at the riverbank

to tell you of your own death.

The tranny hissed a commentary:

Italy vs Ireland. You shrugged,

blunt as a thigh-high tackle,

You disturbed me to tell me that?

Read about Jack Charlton here

Ennio Morricone - d. July 6th 2020

Listen! Those soaring buttes

of string, mariachi trumpet, 

the sound of a desert on fire,

of gunshot, gulch and canyon, 

the kind of music that people

make movies to accompany.

Read about Ennio Morricone here

Earl Cameron - d. July 3rd 2020

Many read for your part,

a realist plot simmering

with a deeper history,

but someone had to be

the first to be cast,

the first in the credits.

Read about Earl Cameron here

 

Carl Reiner - d. June 29th 2020

They called you

about a new show of shows,

confident

that you would enter, laughing. 

They asked you 

when will the scripts be ready?

I heard you say

In about two thousand years.

Read about Carl Reiner here

Margarita Pracatan - d. June 23rd 2020

No sombre ceremony

could fete you: that would be wrong,

wrong as the memory

of melody you learned for too long,

rendered unsingable. We

mourn your approximation of song.

Read about Margarita Pracatan here