[andy popp]

I'm sure I remember that too. Capes was on the telly all the time back in the 80s.

[mrjonathanr]

Phil Lesh, bassist with The Grayeful Dead.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/25/phil-lesh-grateful-dead-dies

For all the aging hippies out there, singing Box of Rain:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OBFhHNlrM3o&pp=ygULQm94IG9mIHJhaW4%3D

[remus]

Armando Menocal, founder of the Access Fund in the US.

https://www.climbing.com/people/remembering-armando-menocal/

[Will Hunt]

Allan Austin

Western Front in the 50s. Wall of Horrors in the earthly 60s. Stacks of other ground-breaking ascents on grit and lime.

[andy popp]

Thanks for sharing that Will. I've been aware of Austin since I began climbing, someone spoken of with awe, but he was always a much more shadowy figure than Brown and Whillans - a true dark horse - so much so that I was really taken aback when his voice appeared on Martin Wood's "Lines of Flight". It hadn't occurred to me that he was still around. Was there ever an auto/biography?

[webbo]

Met him a few times at the original Leeds wall. A real legend.
Sad times.

[Will Hunt]

No biography that I know of but there was an interview in Yorkshire Grit vol1. I'll try and post it later.

[Fiend]

No biography that I know of but there was a bloody excellent interview in Yorkshire Grit vol1, one of the most characterful in the book. I'll try and post it later.

RIP.

[duncan]

AA soloing Frankland’s Green Crack at Almscliff and brief interview (from 8’ 22”) from the Rock Athlete series.

[andy popp]

He was pretty much the living embodiment of jumpers for goalposts!

Lines of Flight, Austin speaking from about 13.40 (apologies, also contains me blathering on about stuff).

[remus]

I've reproduced the interview from yorkshire grit volume 1 here. Lovely stuff.

https://climbing-history.org/climber/1213/allan-austin

[andy popp]

Thanks Remus - that's really great stuff!

[SA Chris]

Thanks Remus, and whoever organised the interview in the first place. Has a Yorkshire Rock book (like Peak Rock) ever been discussed?

[cheque]

Austin’s associated most with Yorkshire but as a Peak climber I first became aware of him when looking up the development of Bamford Edge. On the 4th of April 1957 he made the first ascents of Neb Buttress, Undercut Crack, Wrinkled Wall, Möglichkeit and Dead Mouse Crack. A decent day out today but he’d have only had the thread on Undercut Crack, the big chockstone halfway on Neb Buttress  for runners, wearing plimsolls on scrittly untouched rock at a time when most climbers aspired to climb Severe.

When you climb in the lower-mid grades on grit you constantly see the name Allan Austin next to the routes you loved doing. Must have been amazing to be like him, Brown, Allen, Dawes etc., far enough ahead of anyone else climbing that you can just go out and do the first ascent of great obvious lines all the time.

[cheque]

Quincy Jones

[jwi]

One of the really great. He had a long life and was involved in new music almost until his last day. Produced what is likely the greatest pop record of all time, etc. A life well worth celebrating.

[jwi]

[cheque]

His autobiography, Q, is really interesting. It’s amazing how hard he worked as an arranger in the 60s, at one point he describes coming up with a system to keep cold water running across his wrists as he wrote out charts by hand all night without falling asleep…

One of those behind-the-scenes musicians who you think did one or two famous things but then gradually  learn that that’s the tip of the iceberg.

Bonus Quincy Jones’ family facts I never get tired of sharing: his son did the music for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (Quincy produced the show and played the cab driver in the opening credits) and one of his daughters (with Peggy Lipton from Twin Peaks) played Ann in Parks & Rec and Karen in the American version of the Office.

[Dolly]

Legend is an overused word
But he just was

[andy popp]

The inimitable John Prescott:

https://x.com/WilliamJHague/status/1859540353465880768