Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

Reported on Ben Haggard's FB page that Biff Adam, long-time drummer and bus driver for Merle Haggard and the Strangers passed on the weekend.

Tom Watkins, larger than life manager of the Pet Shop Boys and Bros. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/10/tom-watkins-pop-manager-behind-pet-shop-boys-bros-and-east-17-dies-aged-70

And East 17!

And Electribe 101, apparently and unexpectedly.

His house build was featured in an episode of Grand Designs, it was pretty stunning iirc

poet molly brodak, ~38

Sam the Man Burns at 63. Longtime DC afro-house dj

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/on-dcs-jostling-dance-floors-sam-the-man-burns-was-an-institution/2020/03/09/a9b5f702-61f9-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html

Beloved Philadelphia concert promoter Bryan Dilworth, 51.

Restauranteur Michel Roux

Legendary French chef and restaurateur Michel Roux who was best known for opening 'Le Gavroche' in London in 1967 has died at the age of 79

— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) March 12, 2020

Mal Sharpe, Bay Area broadcaster, 84 (via his daughter).

joshua noles aka sebastian young, gay porn actor and raper of his five year old daughter, in a police shootout

Full obit about Mal Sharpe:
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/03/12/legendary-bay-area-television-personality-comic-musician-mal-sharpe-dies-age-83/

Charles Wuorinen

oh shit, Sharpe of Coyle and Sharpe! RIP

I keep thinking Tesco's Syrup Sponges and Um Bongo are gone but internet says you can still get them. I never see them anymore and probably wont until I can go back to the bigger Supermarkets in a couple of months hopefully.

RIP Um Bongo. They drank it in the Congo.

not pouring one out

Danny Ray Thompson, baritone saxophonist with the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1967.

Radio DJ Pete Mitchell

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-51879429

Shocking, he was doing show and publicising his 10cc book last week!

Anybody else finding a weird amount of food products getting increasingly hard to find?
The syrup sponges of Kipling, Asda, Marks & Spencers and Morrisons are all rubbish. But they might have been the best thing Tesco ever did.

RIP food products

RIP Charles Wuorinen btw.

don't know who that is so I was like "is that Aileen Wuornos' husband?" but uh I guess it isn't now that I've remembered her name

maybe thats the masculine version tho

lmao

Genesis P-Orridge, of leukemia.

oh shit

:(

Ah well, been on the cards for a while, still though.

pour one out

The men’s clothing entrepreneur Herb Goldsmith had an instinct for capturing the public eye.

In the 1950s, when he was working for his father’s apparel company, he was among the first to use celebrities, among them Tony Curtis and Bing Crosby, to sell clothing. In the 1980s, he again used well-known figures to sell his Members Only racing jacket. Soon, stars like Frank Sinatra and Johnny Carson were sporting the jacket, as were Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

Then Mr. Goldsmith did something that few if any brands had ever done: He stopped all conventional advertising of his apparel and devoted his entire ad budget to public service announcements.

The first public service campaign addressed the crack epidemic of the 1980s, using sports figures like Lou Piniella, the manager of the Yankees at the time, and the country singer Larry Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers, who struggled with addiction.

The second campaign urged people to vote by showing footage of Hitler and suggesting that voting was the way “to keep fools like these out of our government.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/fashion/herbert-goldsmith-dead.html

British comedian / actor / presenter Roy Hudd

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/mar/16/roy-hudd-dies-aged-83

RIP.

I always got him mixed up with Rod Hull

Wonder if his "short illness" was the virus?

This is going to be a busy thread this spring I'm afraid.

Never sure what Roy Hudd was famous for, other than this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMIdkWH1c2g

... I know he was on Radio 4 all the time but who listens to that?

Feel like I have spent a significant % of my life with Radio 4 on in the background

This is going to be a busy thread this spring I'm afraid.

Someone please check on Betty White to see if she's getting the proper amount of social distancing and isn't lacking for anything. :(

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/arts/vittorio-gregotti-dies.html

https://www.france24.com/en/20200316-french-actress-suzy-delair-who-won-fame-in-the-1940s-dies-aged-102?fbclid=IwAR30RFGmvkUqmvWp7OdwqrEdHkVtxWjsHlkL8Y4WoB1E5EAlOszF9RZODN8

Actress Suzy Delair, 102

Eduard Limonov.

Hell of a life.

Paul K of Paul K and the Weathermen.

RIP Suzy :(

Lyle Waggoner--he was funny on Carol Burnett (or made the people around him funny, anyway).

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ny-lyle-waggoner-dead-age-84-carol-burnett-show-wonder-woman-20200317-m4myqlvvubbuzbhhukmivd6b2q-story.html

RIP Suzy and Lyle

Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-administrator-statement-on-apollo-astronaut-al-worden

He flew to the Moon as command module pilot aboard Apollo 15. During this time he earned a world record as “most isolated human being" while his crew mates roamed the lunar surface, and he was 2,235 miles away from anyone else.

I never finished your book but RIP anyway.

RIP Al :(

Best part of Al's book:

I extended the mass spectrometer on a large boom, trying to sniff out any hint of lunar atmosphere or escaping volcanic gas. Scientists particularly thought that areas of lunar sunrises and sunsets might concentrate stray gases. They would be extremely tenuous, and that is where we ran into trouble. The spectrometer mostly picked up particles that we brought from Earth. We'd strayed clouds of urine along our flight path all the way to the moon, and these urine dumps continued in lunar orbit. My frozen pee is probably sprinkled all over the moon. Add rocket engine exhaust, and it is no wonder our mass spectrometer had trouble finding anything else.