Father Abraham - d. November 8th 2022

Where are you all going to?

Off to write more songs for you.

What’s the point of all these songs?

Simple tunes are never wrong.

When will we hear you again?

Sadly I do not know when. 

Why does your death make me sad?

You remembered me. I’m glad.

Read about Pierre Kartner (‘Father Abraham’) here

Maxi Jazz - d. December 24th 2022

God has drawn up his sad setlist:

you are on it, toasting epic poems

until the breakdown of all things.

Better get some sleep, get ready for 

the long dark all-nighter of the soul.

Read about Maxi Jazz here

Thom Bell - d. December 22nd 2022

Consider this mind blown,

strung out by strings, buried

under layers of silken brass. 

 

Consider this heart stopped,

this soul soothed by a look,

these ears yours at one listen.

Read about Thom Bell here

Mike Hodges - d. December 17th 2022

Let me go north again to seedy towns, 

dark as anthracite, where casinos throb 

and men circle like hawks. My life is a

tracking shot in saturated colour; for you

it’s a full-time job. Now, behave yourself.

Read about Mike Hodges here

Terry Hall - d. December 19th 2022

How I wanted to be you, tonic suit 

and sad eyes, playing Jerry's songs, 

blank expressions of a hollow world. 

The town has changed; you wouldn't

know it these days, not now that 

your band don't play no more.

Read about Terry Hall here

Angelo Badalamenti - d. December 11th 2022

I hear the strangest music;

out-of-focus, out-of-frame,

the score for a world slowed

down, spaces sounding louder

than notes, broken instruments

played by a band of bad angels.

Read about Angelo Badalamenti here

Chris Boucher - d. December 11th 2022

I heard the rumours of death,
thought I saw a corpse-marker
on his cold body: a writer killed
by his own imagination, his final
script all pyrotechnics and betrayal
...and yet, I never saw him die.

Read about Chris Boucher here

Herbert Deutsch - d. December 9th 2022

VCO to LFO to Pulse Width 

to Frequency to Resonance

to Modulation to Cutoff

to Square Wave to Sine Wave

to Synthesis to Synapse to Song

to Sensation; this is the great 

Patch Sequence of the world.

Read about Herbert Deutsch here

Ruth Madoc - d. December 9th 2022

We assemble all in yellow,

to mourn and play bingo.

We go down on our knees,

knobbly as they are. Tears

drip like 50’s drizzle; the toll

is three notes on a xylophone.

Read about Ruth Madoc here

Jet Black - d. December 6th 2022

A grizzled hulk haunts the riser,

picks up a pair of sharpened sticks,

pounds his kit till it is only splinters 

and spittle. The rhythm of anger  

is not reserved for youth, and besides,

we are already too old to die young.

Read about Jet Black here

Kirstie Alley - d. December 5th 2022

Life is a Kobayashi Maru test:

a no-win scenario, with oblivion

the only endgame. Smart people

re-programme their world, face 

death, rescue themselves from

obscurity, the great Neutral Zone.

Read about Kirstie Alley here

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