[Oldmanmatt]

54!!!. 

He's had massive problems with addiction throughout his life. I can't imagine this doing wonders for your body.

Drowning, apparently.
A habit for intoxication and a villa with a pool. Bad combo.
A year older than me.

[andy popp]

Wait till you're in your sixties!

Just under three months away for me ...

[Dingdong]

54!!!. 

He's had massive problems with addiction throughout his life. I can't imagine this doing wonders for your body.

Drowning, apparently.
A habit for intoxication and a villa with a pool. Bad combo.
A year older than me.

You can faint quite easy standing up if you’ve been in a jacuzzi, there’s loads of places that will only let you go in one if you have someone with you for this reason - best not to make any assumptions before an official statement is released by the coroners

[sherlock]

Shane McGowan, Pogues. 65.
Alistair Darling, 70
Henry Kissinger 100.
 There's a queue at the Pearly Gates today.Or maybe not.....

[jwi]

I almost heard Shane MacGowan sing live in  ... eh ... 1990, just after the release of "Hell's Ditch". With three friends I had taken a flight to Stockholm to see The Pouges at 'Hovet' (mostly thanks to the strength of 'If I Should Fall from Grace with God'). The Pouges played, but MacGowan was nowhere to be seen. Spider Stacy sung. The audience chanted "we want Shane, we want Shane".Stacy screamed "fuck Shane" every now and then. (Don't quote me on this, Stacey might have screamed something else, the audience might have chanted something else. It was a long time ago. My English was intermediate.) After about half of the playlist MacGowan showed up, leaned silently against the microphone stand interspersed with sitting on the drum riser. The band played some music. MacGowan remained silent. After a while he left. The band played a few more songs.

[MarkJ]

Henry Kissinger 100.
 There's a queue at the Pearly Gates today.Or maybe not.....

Hopefully he's been sent to the downstairs place.

[mrjonathanr]

Let’s hope Kissinger doesn’t run into too many South Americans wherever he goes, he may not be received warmly.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/30/henry-kissinger-chile-argentina-south-america

[MarkJ]

.. or anyone from Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor in Indonesia, or Greece.

[JamieG]

Henry Kissinger 100.
 There's a queue at the Pearly Gates today.Or maybe not.....

Hopefully he's been sent to the downstairs place.

In my house that is where the board lives . . . is that heaven or hell?

[Dingdong]

https://youtu.be/eyj8uKiSX6E?si=LI9m7SGVXjjHLCOU

[Fatboyslimfast2]

https://youtu.be/GOFJWzjKpFQ?si=wmGm1iHPW72185w7
pogues at Glasto in 86, I was close by to this person filming, it was for an outdoor gig bonkers. Unbeknown to me my wife to be is off to the left...but we hadnt actually met yet

[andy popp]

Benjamin Zephaniah, at 65, from a brain tumour discovered just weeks ago. What utterly, utterly crap news.

[sherlock]

Benjamin Zephaniah, at 65, from a brain tumour discovered just weeks ago. What utterly, utterly crap news.

Yeah, think it was 8 weeks from initial diagnosis. A terrible loss indeed.
And he told them where to stick the OBE.Walked the walk.

[chriss]

Benjamin Zephaniah, at 65, from a brain tumour discovered just weeks ago. What utterly, utterly crap news.

Yeah, think it was 8 weeks from initial diagnosis. A terrible loss indeed.
And he told them where to stick the OBE.Walked the walk.

Was listening to Craig Charles on 6 music. He played some interviews, told someone stories, very sad news.

[mrjonathanr]

 JPR Williams 
https://youtu.be/UY-4DM8OhkA?t=67

[Hoseyb]

Just heard Annie Nightingale died.
Didn't listen to her much, but I loved that she was impossible to pin an age on, and always played new music

[cheque]

Neil Kulkarni

[duncan]

Neil Kulkarni

  Thanks Mike. He was great, thought-provoking and entertaining in equal measure (Stone Roses fans may wish to look away now).

Enjoyed his take on the current live music scene with its pension-plan tours and corporate 'festivals', if only to support my decisions about all the bands I've chosen to not see in the last few years. (£50 for Orbital do the Green and Brown albums?  I think I'll just hold on to my memory of them at the Southwark Free Festival c.'92).

Best of all, his writings inspired a very enjoyable musical evening down various YouTube rabbit holes.

[sherlock]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/28/erwin-james-obituary
For those who remember his columns bitd, this is a shock.
A reminder that there's no such thing as black and white.

[Nails]

Hadn't heard of Erwin James, so thankyou for this post. Fascinating if brutal life, but also very inspiring.

Great quote: “Learn to live where you are, and not where you think you want to be.”

[sherlock]

Yep, his newspaper columns were exceptional, truly eye opening and beautifully written.

[mrjonathanr]

Hadn't heard of Erwin James, so thankyou for this post. Fascinating if brutal life, but also very inspiring.

Great quote: “Learn to live where you are, and not where you think you want to be.”

Yeah, that struck me too. Pure Zen.

[Oldmanmatt]

Hadn't heard of Erwin James, so thankyou for this post. Fascinating if brutal life, but also very inspiring.

Great quote: “Learn to live where you are, and not where you think you want to be.”

Yeah, that struck me too. Pure Zen.

It is.

But, honestly, I live by the “don’t like it here/bored now, gonna fuck off somewhere else” philosophy and it works for me.
Still, I have admiration for those who don’t need to move on continuously.

[Mike Highbury]

Still, I have admiration for those who don’t need to move on continuously.

Yeh, doing life for horrifying murders can do that to a man.

This is all a little too romantic for me.

[spidermonkey09]

I guess it depends what one thinks about 'the possibility that even people who have done the most terrible things can turn their lives around in prison and earn a second chance at life ...he challenged our assumptions ... about those who commit the most heinous crimes.' - Ian Katz, who employed him at the Guardian.