Christine McVie - d. November 30th 2022

Welcome to Sausalito-in-the-Sky,

where the walls of an old studio

ring with reverb, sunset ballads 

we all know but cannot sing, songs

some of us need like never before.

Read about Christine McVie here

Doddie Weir - d. November 26th 2022

My name’s Dauntless.
My name’s Dig in and drive.
My name’s Defence into attack,
Defeat into victory, Dark into light.
My name’s Dogged. Dreadnought. 
Die-hard. Dare. Defy. Dream. 
My name’s Deathless.

Irene Cara - d. November 25th 2022

Live forever? Maybe through a song,

a move, a moment of sad sunshine.

Fame is not that they remember

your name; it is that they remember

who they were when they heard it.

Wilko Johnson - d. November 21st 2022

It’s tense by the jetty, down in the delta

where waters seethe with chemicals.

We set afloat a bluesman and guitar,

a man who could not bear to stand still,

a man we thought could not be killed.

Read about Wilko Johnson here

 

Atarah Ben-Tovim - d. October 20th 2022

I wake in a tuneless limbo

among the tin-eared dead.

A woman speaks giocoso,

opens up an instrument case,

hands me Joshua’s trumpet;

Go on, blow. You never know.

Read about Atarah Ben-Tovim here

Keith Levene - d. November 11th 2022

What’s your name? It is more 

than angry noise and image,

more than unlearned chords.

It is the sound of the edge

coming in to smash the centre.

Read about Keith Levene here

Bill Treacher - d. November 8th 2022

Let us come along with you,

up the Allotment, down the Vic,

or wherever families fall in front

of the telly, wondering how a story

might end, yours and ours. 

A Christmas is coming,

and we will all pay for it.

Read about Bill Treacher here

Leslie Phillips - d. November 7th 2022

This world was once just a lark,

an excuse for calculated charm, 

the carrying on of carrying on,

and silly was a serious business. 

But lumme, is that the time?

He-llo. And yes, good-bye.

Read about Leslie Phillips here

Jerry Lee Lewis - d. October 28th 2022

I have one foot up on the keyboard

as I type this. I am pure trouble, bad 

to my Louisiana bones, and when 

I’m gone all that will be left is a shot

of whisky, a glissando and a loaded gun.

Read about Jerry Lee Lewis here

James McDivitt - d. October 13th 2022

The surly bonds of earth slip away,

and stars breathe themselves awake.

Quietly the best version of a man,

you step outside the capsule of yourself 

and swim out into all that darkness.

Read about James McDivitt here

Austin Stoker - d. October 18th 2022

Bravery is at its sternest

in its quietest moments;

to be it or to play it, both

light up the unlit scene.

I saw you laugh off the cholo;

now, it would be a privilege

if you'd walk outside with me.

Read about Austin Stoker here

Wolfgang Petersen - d. August 12th 2022

Alarm! Alarm! Spannung entdeckt 
Richtung eins neun acht eins. 
Bring uns runter, Chief, runter 
unter der Oberfläche der Geschichte 
dann wieder runter, tiefer, bis 
wir halten keinen druck mehr aus.

Alarm! Alarm! Tension discovered
direction one nine eight one.
Take us down, chief, down
beneath the surface of history
then back down, deeper, until
we can't take any more pressure. 

Read about Wolfgang Petersen

Stu Allan - d. September 22nd 2022

You set my young city on fire,
busted a new sound straight 
from warehouse to your house 
to my house, brought the noise 
from Brooklyn to Moss Side
Chicago to Salford to the phuture.

Read about Stu Allan here

Robbie Coltrane - d. October 14th 2022

Life is tragicomedy, played
not for laughs but for depth
and breadth. Keep it smart,
tender, real, heart weighed
against mind even in death.
Be big, always, as is your art.

Read about Robbie Coltrane here

Angela Lansbury - d. October 11th 2022

It's all there on exposed stock;

sand running through a glass, 

a different face on each grain

as they pass through the neck 

that separates the golden age 

from the age of not believing. 

Read about Angela Lansbury here

Kitten Natividad - d. September 24th 2022

Into the last valley, honey;

a place for trash pussycats,

ultra-vivid and super-fixated,

shaking what mama gave you

and the surgeons enhanced,

faking it in tassels and a pout. 

Read about Kitten Natividad here

 

Loretta Lynn - d. October 4th 2022

Life hands round some bitter pills;

a black lung and a blue voice,

three slices of poor for one of rich,

but here's a number you may know;

we call it heartache. Are you woman

enough to sing it through to the end?

Read about Loretta Lynn here

Coolio - d. September 28th 2022

Not many gangstas in my hood,

and yet you gave this boy a taste

of paradise - like hell with beats.

I take a look at my life and realise

there's not much left, though I’d be

dead as a shadow on your streets.

Read about Coolio here

Hilary Mantel - d. September 22nd 2022

I drink to literature as an ear,

eavesdropping in the dark.

I drink to literature as an eye,

sharpening what is vague.

I drink to literature as a hand,

overpainting the faded.

I drink to the past as a present.

Read about Hilary Mantel here

Eddie Butler - d. September 15th 2022

This will be the final phase;

no time now for rolling maul,

but a cool head, a tap-and-go,

Yet here's a voice to take the ball,

sure as the Pontypool Front Row

or the whistle blown at end of play.

Read about Eddie Butler here