Stan Bowles – d. February 24th 2024

We love our mavericks; deft,
defiant, playing impudent one-twos
with two fingers in the air,
a betting slip and a phone number
hidden in their wrinkled sock. 

Read about Stan Bowles here

Pamela Salem – d. February 21st 2024

I stumbled across you in the labyrinth
of childhood; serpentine, seductive,
waiting around the corner in a place
where television was a two-way mirror,
and yearning was love without a script. 

Read about Pamela Salem here

John Savident – d. February 21st 2024

Here are roses and a meat cleaver,
Scotch & Threat and hearty laughter,
a slug of pain for a luckless lover.
Life is large, but you were larger.

Read about John Savident here

Ewen MacIntosh – d. February 19th 2024

Have you met him yet?
The empty man at the empty desk,
gloriously flat, outrageously bland,
playing a ‘Don’t Know’ in a slough
of ‘Strongly Disagrees’. 

Read about Ewen MacIntosh

Alexei Navalny – d. February 16th 2024

If you would speak up, know this;
the right word is a wedging of doors,
a filling of lamps, a bending of bars,
a flare shot into the sky, a hand
raised to say no more, a tuning fork
before the choir sings, maybe not
today or tomorrow, but sometime. 

Read about Alexei Navalny here

Steve Wright – d. February 12th 2024

A celestial On Air light blinks
and the airwaves open up.
The music is drowned out
by the wild sounds of a zoo
where animals cannot sing
and the jocks are not serious.

Read about Steve Wright here

Damo Suzuki – d. February 9th 2024

Here is a song sung in code,
in chant, howl, shriek, moan,
sung as in future days, old
now but once new, stoned
yet stone cold sober. Don’t
turn the light on; leave it alone.

Read about Damo Suzuki here

Michael Jayston – d. February 5th 2024

The screen role demands
a particular Englishness;
weary, morose, soft hands
but hard eyes, finesse
but not flash. I wonder who
might fit the part? You. 

Read about Michael Jayston here

Barry John - d. February 4th 2024

Daw'r chwalfa; mae bob amser yn ei wneud.
I fyny yn mynd y Garryowen; daw'r bêl lawr
mewn dimensiwn arall, yn wrthwynebol ymlaen
wedi'i rendro'n ddiffrwyth, yn ansymudol.
Blink, ac mae'r oes aur wedi diflannu.

The breakdown comes; it always does.
Up goes the Garryowen; the ball comes
down in another dimension, opposing
forwards rendered limbless, immobile.
Blink, and the golden age is gone.

Read about Barry John here
 

Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett – d. February 3rd 2024

What your bass taught me:
it is felt before it is heard;
it is conjured from smoke;
it is organiser and upsetter;
it is soul, spine and culture. 

Read about Aston 'Family Man' Barrett here

Ian Lavender – d. February 2nd 2024

Who did you think you were kidding?
You were always a week away from
your call-up, juvenile lead in the
rustic drama of memory, mourning
an old movie and a dead soldier
for every sad stitch in your scarf. 

Read about Ian Lavender here

Wayne Kramer – d. February 2nd 2024

I saw Detroit aflame again tonight,
from Twelfth Street to the Ballroom.
They said it was a stray spark from
an incendiary guitar, played fast by
a hostile witness to the apocalypse.

Read about Wayne Kramer here