Michael Parkinson - d. August 16th 2023

You perfected the craft of the question;
not to ask but to leave the door open.
The breeze of jazz blows one last time
and you step from the wings to talk
with titans, where boxer and emu wait.

Read about Michael Parkinson here

Robbie Shepherd - d. August 1st 2023

Come awa an daunce wi us eence mair

birl oot aa the pattrens o the leid
in yer mither tongue, that wull niver dee
gin you an yer like keep it in mait.
The fleer is yer ain. The wird is oors.

 
(Doric translation by Sheila Templeton)

Come and dance with us again,
birl those sequences of language
in a tongue that cannot die
while such as you are feeding it.
The floor is yours. The word is ours.

Read about Robbie Shepherd here

Robbie Robertson - d. August 9th 2023

Down in the basement,
feeling half past dead,
yet you are jamming still,
rags and shuffles, no frills,
just rock’s blank canvas:
saturated pinks and blues. 

Read about Robbie Robertson here

Jamie Reid - d. August 8th 2023

Didn’t you design the
rebellion? More than a
page, a record label,
all that bollocks,
it was gob and wit and
razor blades. Oh yes,
I knew your type.

Read about Jamie Reid here

William Friedkin - d. August 7th 2023

There is a demon in the reels,
directed by a voice behind the lens.
It is bloody and profane, demanding
my eyes, my ears, my imagination.
I need only see it once to know
it will possess me till I too am dead.

Read about William Friedkin here

Carl Davis - d. August 3rd 2023

Music learns from its subject,
pitching the anguish of war,
the machinery of heartbreak,
quaint delicacies of manners,
seeking subtleties of the lens
to score sound direct from light.

Read about Carl Davis here

Adrian Street - d. July 24th 2023

Hail to the heel, sadist in sequins,
the glamourous and the grotesque,
the menace and the mince, kissing
a foe’s forehead, half-man, half-nelson,
your whole life a public warning. 

Read about Adrian Street here

Sinéad O'Connor - d. July 26th 2023

A song stands against violence,
turns the unsayable into art.
Sing it now; they cannot silence
what was truth from the start,
the tenderness and defiance
that made you thief of my heart. 

Read about Sinéad O'Connor here

Trevor Francis - d. July 24th 2023

In a flash, he is where the ball is,
almost disbelieving in himself
as the goal sucks in man and ball
and spits both out. The game goes
from simple to complicated in a
moment, and for a million reasons.

Read about Trevor Francis here

George Alagiah - d. July 24th 2023

A familiar face checks into my motel
in another place I cannot pronounce.
Channels jostle - Fox, Bloomberg,
CNN - and there you are, at ease
in an awkward moment, speaking
like sunshine in service of the world. 

Read about George Alagiah here

Vince Hill - d. July 22nd 2023

For one night only you are the Palladium,
the Talk of the Town, cuffed and ruffed
and smooth as velour. Maybe your songs
don’t matter now, but they are the sound
of stage lights dimming, clean and bright,
almost ready to be forgotten, but not quite.

Read about Vince Hill here

Tony Bennett - d. July 21st 2023

You made life so glamorous;
a voice like brandy and cigars,
jolting standards out of sleep
with jazz, and the unexpected.
That world passes, but not before
you climb halfway to the stars.

Read about Tony Bennett here

Jane Birkin - d. July 16th 2023

Life is a dream made of breath,
an ecstatic song. Love is a fever
with no cure except a little death,
but we loved you…me neither. 

Read about Jane Birkin here

Alan Arkin - d. June 29th 2023

No-one plays bemusement like you
these days; a look like milk turning.
You open your mouth and I never know 

if it’s going to be filth or philosophy,
little murders of language and light.

Read about Alan Arkin here

Ann Leslie - d. June 25th 2023

She moves from front line to front page,
using drunken hacks for cover, running
with warlords and rebels, keeping men
out of a job with unspikeable stories.

Read about Ann Leslie here

Barry Newman - d. June 11th 2023

Yes, there were scripted cases,
acquittals, legal escapology,
but let me tell the whole truth:
you were the sum of bricks,
a screen dream of a house,
a career, a vanishing point. 

Read about Barry Newman here

Angela Thorne - d. June 16th 2023

Comedy empires fall and rise,
leaving superannuated troupes
full of Frobishers and Truscotts
to surface on Dave and UK Gold,
each a dim mimeograph of you,
approximate in feed, line and cue.

Read about Angela Thorne here

Glenda Jackson - d. June 15th 2023

The role calls for make-up; no need
when you already inhabit the face,
the gesture, the manner; acting as fact.
 
The role calls for dialogue; no need
when you already speak strength,
tragedy, comedy, conscience; a class act.

Read about Glenda Jackson here

Cormac McCarthy - d. June 13th 2023

Write me the joys of privation
or mutilation where words are
limbs made to be pulled apart
and gnawed upon and show me
a gun loaded with two ideas
one for you and one for me. 

Read about Cormac McCarthy here

Silvio Berlusconi - d. June 12th 2023

È su ogni canale -
in seguito; tini
di olio d'oliva, montagne
di Viagra, soldi, ragazze.
La festa è finita,
anche se per alcuni
Non finisce mai.

It’s on every channel -

the aftermath; vats
of olive oil, mountains
of Viagra, money, girls.
The party’s over,
though for some
it never ends.

Read about Silvio Berlusconi here