Paul Ryder - d. July 15th 2022

In a place called Chaos, 

a house band plays; all 

sidemen like you, beyond

form and performance 

in and out of shadows,

fixed on funk, punk, glam,

ever open to misadventure.

Read about Paul Ryder here

David Warner - d. July 24th 2022

Another film, another jag-jawed villain,

another unsuitable case. And yet, glance

in the mirror and there you are, marked

by Satan for gruesome death, sad head 

spinning into nightmares, time after time.

Read about David Warner here

Monty Norman - d. July 11th 2022

Just notes on a score, yes,

but oh, the thrill of the kill,

the shrill squeal of tyres,

the bullet in the barrel,

the fist, the kiss, the cruelty,

mystery, glamour, death, in 

a hundred and eight seconds.

Read about Monty Norman here

John Gwynne - d. July 9th 2022

Into injury time at

Deepdale, Spotlands, 

Boundary Park. 

Elsewhere it is game 

shot and match, game

shot and match. 

There is drama 

in everything 

and nothing goes 

without saying.

Read about John Gwynn here

Tony Sirico - d. July 8th 2022

I’ll make this short and sweet: gone

is the peevish prince of New Jersey,

reptilian in loafers and cream slacks.

A defrocked priest welcomes him to

purgatory, where saints give blowjobs

and even archangels get whacked.

Read about Tony Sirico here

James Caan - d. July 6th 2022

This time I’ll drive us both,

over the causeway, through 

the tolls without stopping,

past the skatepark and the 

bloodthirsty crowds. We’ll go 

to the mattresses, one last time.

Read about James Caan here

Graham Skidmore - d. December 21st 2022

Will it be number one,

the man who’s 90% chuckle,

number two, comfortable as a 

dralon sofa, or number three, 

the warden of Camp Kitsch.

The choice…is yours!

Read about Graham Skidmore here

Frank Williams - d. June 26th 2022

A bell tolls at St Aldhelms,

late gothic and moribund,

uncertain of its boundaries.

A toothsome cleric sighs, 

mounts the peeling pulpit.

Having nothing to say, he says 

nothing, and yet so much. 

Read about Frank Williams here

Matt Zimmerman - d. June 9th 2022

I heard Tin-Tin crying late at night, 

looking for a red streak in the sky.

A star-soaked voice crackled 

from the radio in Father's study,

and a swimming pool rippled. 

Read about Matt Zimmerman here

Patricia Brake - d. May 28th 2022

I am not worthy of you, my Venus 

in fake furs, scripted and portrayed

as heir apparent to the throne of 

Muswell Hill, bursting onto set and 

out of it, bristling at lags and lechers,

all spit and spine beneath that sweater.

Read about Patricia Brake here

Julee Cruise - d. June 9th 2022

I heard a voice on the wind,

a falling angel, echoing 

from canyon to cantina,

part child, part woman,

breathing in strangeness,

breathing out romance.

Read about Julee Cruise here

Bruce Kent - d. June 8th 2022

Not for the powerful but for the weak.

Not to tolerate horror but to face it.

Not to bear arms but to offer a cheek.

Not to wait for peace but to proclaim it.

Not for the bellicose but for the meek.

Not to inherit the world but to save it.

Read about Bruce Kent here

Paula Rego - d. June 8th 2022

You choose your rebel canvas,

paint what is partially there

but wholly felt, knowing a duty

of art is to defy and to confess.

Now you are a collage of air,

assembled from shocking beauty.

Read about Paula Rego here

Dave Smith - d. May 31st 2022

The imagination talks

to a click track which talks 

to a drum machine which

talks to a bassline which

talks to a sequencer which

triggers a sample which 

triggers a groove which 

triggers feet, heart, head, 

triggers an imagination.

Read about Dave Smith here

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