Lester Piggott - d. May 29th 2022

Your peers knew better the shape 

of your backside than your face, 

kept like a well-tended grave.

This was the long and short of it all;

a rustle of silks, the rumbling pall

of hooves, the going good, the fall.

Read about Lester Piggott here

Andy Fletcher - d. May 26th 2022

You came up from the underground

to bring a new disease. 

Your faith and devotion was to sound

and the spell it weaves.

The studio mute, the tape is rewound;

all silent when you leave.

Read about Andy Fletcher here

Ray Liotta - d. May 26th 2022

As far back as I remember

I always loved a gangster

movie, their abrupt horror,

the unconscionable banter

in the coldness of murder,

such appalling splendour.

Read about Ray Liotta here

Colin Cantwell - d. May 21st 2022

You pre-imagined the life beyond this, 

conceptualised in deathless detail

the gleaming craft that would take us 

there, sketched faraway galaxies, 

developed from imagination to hand,

hand to screen, screen to eye.

Read about Colin Cantwell here

Vangelis Papathanassíou - d. May 17th 2022

You are hoisted on the shoulders

of replicants and runners, carried

from the studio of this world, 

your body now a sweep of strings, 

the lush chords of a grand heaven.

Read about Vangelis here

Cynthia ‘Plaster Caster’ Albritton - d. April 21st 2022

I heard of your little death,

how they cast your stiff form

to preserve the likeness of 

that final excitement, joy 

at leaving hard evidence,

something solid at the end.

Read about Cynthia Plaster Caster here

Kay Mellor - d. May 15th 2022

Here’s to golden stories, 

the kind where people do 

what people do, 

say what people say

in voice and vernacular

as familiar as furniture.

Read about Kay Mellor here

Denis Waterman - d. May 8th 2022

Met an old snout in Mario’s caff
Mile End blag’s off he said, tell your 

guvnor - mark of respect for your DS. 

Slipped him a score for his trouble.

Sweet. Condolences to his missus.

Read about Dennis Waterman here

Régine Zylberberg - d. May 1st 2022

I tried in vain to get into the clubs

from Juan-les-Pins to Jupiter -

Sorry sir,  too scruffy, too dumb, 

too normal. I saw the Queen 

of the Night, movie star on each arm,

laughing as she exited by a side door.

Read about Régine Zylberberg

Klaus Schulze - d. April 26th 2022

Stars pulse for you in sine waves,

square waves, sawtooth waves, 

aligning, interlocking, sequencing.

Background radiation is a drone 

of ambience, the sound of an 

old synth played by cold fingers.

Read about Klaus Schulze here

Harrison Birtwistle - d. April 18th 2022

Life is not a simple sonata

playing in another room; it 

follows rules that cannot be

explained, or no rules at all.

It is both hush and cacophony.

Play it. You will be heard.

Read about Harrison Birtwistle

David McKee - d. April 6th 2022

I’m walking down Festive Road, 

a place that surely must exist, 

wondering where I’ll go, not sure 

who I’ve been. But what’s this, 

deep in my pocket? A pen. 

It will help me remember.

Read about David McKee here

'Jordan' (Pamela Rooke) - d. April 3rd 2022

There is style and there is your style,

a look no catwalk could ever steal.

Leather and anarchy can never stale.

You ripped the scene. It's ripped still.

Read about Pamela Rooke here

C. W. McCall - d. April 1st 2022

Some cortège, buddy

Peterbilts and Macks

wall to wall all along 

the Interstate, 

listening out

for your handle. 

Silence, then 

10-10 till we do it again.

Read about C. W. McCall here

June Brown - d. April 3rd 2022

To play reality

you must be real.

To carry the story

you must know the story.

To craft a character

you must have character.

To show a heart

you must have a heart.

Read about June Brown here

Peter Bowles - d. March 17th 2022

For he is too English, 

12th Baron Bounderdom

in black tie or tweeds

of the ageless gentry, 

played not only for laughs, 

not remotely to be trusted.

Read about Peter Bowles here

William Hurt - d. March 13th 2022

You have given up your body 

to the screen. It swelters 

in a cell, drifts soundlessly 

in flotation tank, falls into frame 

in a suit of menace and lust, 

and everything fades to noir.

Read about William Hurt here

R Dean Taylor - d. January 7th 2022

This house is full of ghosts

and the sad songs they write

with talc and adrenalin. 

They still call your name

from Casino, Mecca 

and Twisted Wheel, 

but Lord, we can’t go back there.

Read about R. Dean Taylor here

Lynda Baron - d. March 2022

Blue is the uniform of the temptress,

too aware of their irresistibility,

slamming the door on old lotharios, 

plotting the downfall of man

from their mystical boudoirs.

Shane Warne - d. March 4th 2022

Two paces in, 

over the wicket,

inscrutable grip, 

pitching in the dirt,

four feet of turn, 

clipping the top

of Gabriel's halo; 

the ineffable

beaten by 

the unplayable.

Read about Shane Warne here