Betty Boothroyd - d. February 26th 2023

The great dance of politics turns

on the fulcrum of sharp women;

one move ahead of the orchestra, 

chiding men who fall out of step,

stifling the popinjay and fascist,

calling out the cant of nonsense.

Read about Betty Boothroyd here

Barbara Bosson - d. February 18th 2023

Beyond the surreal dangers
of the anonymous urban,
there you are; a study 
in neurosis, so real that we 
could smell the fear of
middle age, the woman
drying like ink on a script.

Read about Barbara Bosson here

John Motson - d. February 23rd 2023

I too have stood in the gantry
overlooking theatres of dreams,
theatres of comedy. One voice
brought fire to frosty pitches,
forked the quagmires of glory;
a humble oracle in sheepskin robe. 

Read about John Motson here

Dickie Davies - d. February 19th 2023

Saturday afternoons are lost; 
girls in beige sets typing up 
half-times before we go over 
to Kempton Park for the 3.45,
Mike Marino vs Bert Royal
from Lewisham Baths, a world
where sport is slick, unruffled,
and somehow all that matters.

Read about Dickie Davies here

Dennis Lotis - d. February 8th 2023

A new beginning marks an end,
the fault line dividing austerity
from Rock’n’Roll, where teenage
sweeps its parents from the stage.
Welcome to the Palais of posterity.
where only the gods ride out trends.

Read about Dennis Lotis here

Raquel Welch - d. February 15th 2023

When I was thirteen 
they miniaturised you, 
symbol of your species,
injected it into my veins;
an unfathomable mission, 
not to save my life, 
but to make it sexier.

Read about Raquel Welch here

David Jolicoeur 'Trugoy the Dove' - d. February 12th 2023

Though every age must surely pass,
da innovators stand y’all.
We lay Plug 2 upon the grass;
a dozen doves spread out the pall.
The hero rhymes from three feet under,
and zero? It's the magic number.

Read about Trugoy here

Hugh Hudson - d. February 10th 2023

Show me today’s rushes
of the young men, fired
with hope and elation,
those stilted, distant voices
from faded time, wired
from light and imagination.

Read about Hugh Hudson here

Burt Bacharach - d. February 8th 2023

I heard this guy whistling;

a melody so far beyond familiar

that it felt like the story of his life.

It came at night; climbed the stairs,

turned the key, fell like petals

into his ear, wrote I love you

inside the chambers of his heart.

Read about Burt Bacharach here

Barrett Strong - d. January 28th 2023

I hear your music of love, money

and torment, a conscious groove.

Yours are the anthems of longing,

indelibly alive; now you’re gone, 

all you’ve left us is alone.

Read about Barrett Strong here

Tom Verlaine - d. January 28th 2023

How the darkness doubles now

in the moonless graveyard. 

The guitar goes into the case,

the maestro jumps a Cadillac,

and speeds into sweet oblivion.

Read about Tom Verlaine here

Sylvia Syms - d. January 27th 2023

I still dream of that first drink

with you, soft eyed and smiling,

in a bar that never closes, 

from a time I can’t go back to,

a cool place in a sultry world.

Read about Sylvia Syms here

David Crosby - d. January 18th 2023

Some songs live beyond their high times
to sing melancholy words of sleep.
Some songs show the pain of their writing,
learning to harmonise with disharmony.

Read about David Crosby here

Gina Lollobrigida - d. January 16th 2023

In the city of film
you are always
in the frame,
everywhere,
and all the time.
beautiful, dangerous,
larger than life,
larger than death.

Nella città del cinema
sei sempre
nella cornice,
ovunque,
e tutto il tempo.
bella, pericolosa,
più grande della vita,
più grande della morte.

Read about Gina Lollobrigida here

Yukihiro Takahashi - d. January 11th 2023

Here’s to the solid-state survivor,
both drummer, machine, and neither,
a metronomic hand across cultures,
beating out patterns of the future. 

Read about Yukihiro Takahashi here

Lisa Marie Presley - d. January 12th 2023

What lives are lived in twilight,
in the shadows cast by Gods?
Some will blink themselves
into light of their own; others
only serenade the lost, trying
in vain to duet with the dark.

Read about Lisa Marie Presley here

Jeff Beck - d. January 10th 2023

I heard you through distortion,
the fractured fuzz and buzz
of an overdriven Fender on the
verge of a nervous breakdown.
Once you were everywhere, baby,
but nowhere is where you’re at.

Read about Jeff Beck here

Stephen Greif - d. December 23rd 2022

Summon the mutoids
to bear his shadow,
black-cauled in leather
to a place beyond law
and its disfiguring power.
Launch the Pursuit Ships;
Speed: Time Distort Ten.

Read about Stephen Greif here

Fay Weldon - d. January 4th 2023

The she-writer turns a page,
sets the pen to work. Rage
becomes ambition, resolute
and daring, a devil in a suit
of parables. Men, be afraid;
your world is quickly unmade.

Read about Fay Weldon here

Alan Rankine - d. January 3rd 2023

strangenessandglamourspectacular
musicinnonsensevernacular
chaosandmelodysingular
nothinginsomethingparticular

Read about Alan Rankine here