Mose Allison - d. November 15th 2016

Ever since you stole the blues

we been looking for ‘em.

-  You seen this guy?

Yeah, year or two back,

spent some time,

wrote some songs,
moved on.

Read about Mose Allison here

Leon Russell - d. November 13th 2016

Was that you jamming

with the asylum choir

down at the barrelhouse,

warming the piano stool

all night, voice like a match 

that wouldn't strike?

Read about Leon Russell here

Robert Vaughn - d. November 11th 2016

Mark this the dark day
when the rule was broken,
the hired gun misfired
and Napoleon 
met his Waterloo.

Read about Robert Vaughn here

Leonard Cohen - d. November 7th 2016

In a million bedsits, 
crumpled hearts,
friable souls
will forever call
to the bard of the bruised
to touch 
their imperfect bodies 
with his mind 

Read about Leonard Cohen here

Jimmy Young - d. November 7th 2016

At the top of the hour
comes the handover,
JY saying BFN,
the dimming 
of the On Air light,
and orft you jolly well go.

Read about Jimmy Young here

Carlos Alberto - d. October 25th 2016

I see you, O Capitão,
bombing through
on the overlap,
on legs that never tire,
in a team that never loses,
under a sun that never dims.

Read about Carlos Alberto here

Pete Burns - d. October 23rd 2016

All I know is that, to me, 
you looked like a decade
spun round, spun out,
alive, alive, alive, dead.

Read about Pete Burns here

Bobby Vee - d. October 24th 2016

I saw you 

with my thousand eyes

across the Clear Lake, crawling

from another man's wreckage.

Today you bounced 

one last time,

never came down.

Read about Bobby Vee here

Jimmy Perry - d. October 23rd 2016

We trust history 

to script itself,

but to capture

its platoons of tigers

its malarial troupers,

its faded entertainers,

we volunteered you.

read about Jimmy Perry here

Jean Alexander - d. October 14th 2016

The look

Rosa Klebb in a turban

The stance

Boadicea on a diet of nettles

The sound

A pack of feral Scouse cats

The taste

Woman, Stanley, woman

Read about Jean Alexander here

Rod Temperton - d. October 5th 2016

In the suburbs of sound
your endless groove
was always the best in town,
and if we needed to get up
you helped us get down.

Read about Rod Temperton here

Arnold Palmer - d. September 25th 2016

This poem is 
the flight of a good drive, 
the joy of a good lie,
the match dormie,
the silent gallery 
as the last putt 
drops into the cup.

Read about Arnold Palmer here

Prince Buster - d. September 8th 2016

The rudest of boys
is now ghost dancing, 
issuing his own
Ten Commandments, showing
the company of the skies
how to whine an' grine.

Read about Prince Buster here

Gene Wilder - d. August 29th 2016

You return to a place

in an imagined world

where no-one can shoot straight,

every night is opening night

and every chocolate bar

hides a golden ticket.

Read about Gene Wilder here

Brian Rix - d. August 20th 2016

A door closes

behind a departing seraph.

You burst in

through a different door,

bent halo, wings askew,

raiment round your ankles.

Read about Brian Rix here

Kenny Baker - d. August 13th 2016

In the cosmic hereafter

the voice, the face

will be your own.

Metal will become flesh,

the machine, a man.

Read about Kenny Baker here

Chiyonofuji - d. 31st July 2016

In the sumo ranks 

of the imagination

some rikishi stand 

even above yokozuna.

See, beyond 

the horizontal rope:

The Wolf in wolf's clothing.

Read about Chiyonofuji here

Marni Nixon - d. July 24th 2016

Others were feathered
by Costume
gilded by Makeup
fixed in time by the lens
but when they opened 
their mouths
it was you, it was you.

Read about Marni Nixon here

Alan Vega - d. July 16th 2016

They say
prophets go unrecognised,
particularly in New York. 
The truth?
Frankie Teardrop died
and America is still
killing its youth.

Read about Alan Vega here

Robin Hardy - d. July 2nd 2016

Where you are going
the crops do not fail,
the sun does not set.
We kept our appointment;
it is time to keep yours.

Read about Robin Hardy here