Celebrity Deaths

[oldjamfan1]

Terrific actor was Bernard. RIP.

[arbitro]

15 hours ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Terrific actor was Bernard. RIP.

I watched Boys from the Blackstuff again recently and the social commentary at the time was eye opening. It had everything in it and Yosser was the main character. I'd seen him previously in a series called Fox and thought he was a really food actor then. This was iconic:

 

RIP Bernard.

Edited May 6 by arbitro

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

54 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I watched Boys from the Blackstuff again recently and the social commentary at the time was eye opening. It had everything in it and Yosser was the main character. I'd seen him previously in a series called Fox and thought he was a really food actor then. This was iconic:

 

RIP Bernard.

Not much has changed since then.

[oldjamfan1]

3 hours ago, arbitro said:

I watched Boys from the Blackstuff again recently and the social commentary at the time was eye opening. It had everything in it and Yosser was the main character. I'd seen him previously in a series called Fox and thought he was a really food actor then. This was iconic:

 

RIP Bernard.

My favourite scene was the heartbreaking but hilarious confessional scene.

Yozzer: “I’m desperate Father”

Priest: “Please, call me Dan.”

Yozzer: “I’m desperate, Dan!”

[arbitro]

26 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

My favourite scene was the heartbreaking but hilarious confessional scene.

Yozzer: “I’m desperate Father”

Priest: “Please, call me Dan.”

Yozzer: “I’m desperate, Dan!”

And he then head butts the grille in the confessional box several times 😂.

Brilliant.

 

[Gav]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/articles/c2qqwvwzp5zo

Sad news today that Rob Burrow has passed away after a 5yrs battle with motor neurone disease, he was only 41.

My thoughts are with Rob and his family and with his best mate Kevin Sinfield.

RIP Rob, a rugby league great.

[arbitro]

13 hours ago, Gav said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/articles/c2qqwvwzp5zo

Sad news today that Rob Burrow has passed away after a 5yrs battle with motor neurone disease, he was only 41.

My thoughts are with Rob and his family and with his best mate Kevin Sinfield.

RIP Rob, a rugby league great.

I fully endorse that Gav. Seeing the tributes to Rob last night was so emotional and the recurring word that they all used was brave. That one word more than any other summed him up.

RIP Rob Burrows.

[oldjamfan1]

One of the last surviving members of The Beatles inner circle, Tony Bramwell, has died. Not a 'celebrity' as such but how about this for a list of achievements:

1. He was best friends with George Harrison as a child and they used to see Paul McCartney at weekends.

2. He was there when Paul first met John Lennon and when they played together for the first time.

3. He became the Beatles Road Manager by chance after meeting his old pal George Harrison on the Number 61 bus on the way to the Beatles first gig after they came back from Hamburg and offering to carry his guitar in to get in for free. After doing this a few times John Lennon said to him “If you’re carrying George’s you can carry mine too”. “Mine as well” Paul McCartney said. When Brian Epstein became their manager he offered Tony the job as Road Manager full time. Tony almost turned it down as he had a good job at Ford’s as a clerk.

4. He got an award from MTV for his pioneer work in the very early days of pop videos. As The Beatles got lots of requests to appear and it was difficult for them to go out anyway, it made sense to make little films with the songs for distribution. This was how the pop video began. The first pop videos like Day Tripper and We can Work It Out cost £200 to make and they were told they had overspent. Later on when they spent £700 making the video for Strawberry Fields Forever, they were told they had gone right over the top. What would they be worth now?

5. Tony was Beatles manager, Brian Epstein’s, talent scout. He discovered James Taylor and tried to sell a young Paul Simon, years before he became famous with Simon and Garfunkel, to Brian Epstein but was told “He’s too small and too Jewish looking (Epstein was Jewish himself). I can’t sell him”. Another one that got rejected after his recommendation, years before they became famous, was Queen.

In later years he discovered Eva Cassidy who sold 7m albums after her death. A film is to be made of her life with Nicole Kidman as Eva Cassidy and Bill Nighe as Tony. Robert Redford will be the Producer and his daughter will be Director.

6. Tony was the PR guy for The Beatles and every act in Brian Epstein’s stable.

7. Brian Epstein bought the Saville Theatre in Piccadilly in London and put Tony in charge of it and getting the musical acts for it. Tony put on Jimi Hendrix’s first ever UK gig on – before he was famous in either the US or UK. The gig was a huge success and made Hendrix a huge name. His manager Chas Chandler (ex of The Animals) was a good friend of Tony’s. While he was there, Tony, John and Paul took Jimi to the Cromwellian where Cream were playing. When Eric Clapton took a break, Jimi asked for a shot of his guitar. Even though as a left hander he was playing backwards and upside down, Hendrix blew them off the stage.

8. When the Saville Theatre (which was also used for recording) was being knocked down Tony was passing by and saw a whole load of tapes on a skip. He went inside and asked the workers about them. The workers said they sent the ones they knew to the artists they knew and then threw the rest out. Included there were tapes of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix etc. Tony took them home with him and, as he knew the guys, gave the tapes to them. Many of the tracks have now been used in subsequent CDs and even films. Tony gave the Hendrix tapes to Chas Chandler Hendrix’s manager, who died soon after, so Tony doesn’t know what happened to them. However, he said that there were many tracks that he didn’t recognise – so out there are tapes with mainly unreleased material from Hendrix.

9. Tony, without realising it, as he only knew her as Christine, went out with the girl at the centre of the Profumo Affair, which brought down the Minister for War, John Profumo, and nearly the Conservative Government at the time. When he discovered who she was he packed her in and went out with the American Miss World of the time.

10. Tony became joint head of Apple Records, the Beatles record company.

11. Tony also became head of Apple Films.

12. When the radio stations went crazy and said that Paul McCartney was dead and said that the album cover of Abbey Road proved it, Tony decided to take matters into his own hands to put an end to the pandemonium at the Apple offices as Paul was in Scotland and wasn’t interested. He sounds very like Paul McCartney over the phone as he comes from the same part of Liverpool. Tony called up a radio station in America and pretended to be Paul saying he was fine and was just having a cup of tea. However, the radio station had the voice analysed against the real voice of Paul McCartney and the word went out that Paul McCartney really was dead and that this proved it, and a double had been covering for him for months.

13. After The Beatles split up he went on to become head of Polydor Records which had Slade, The Jam and Roxy Music (with Brian Ferry and Brian Eno) in his stable of artists. He was The Jam's plugger for the first couple of years of their recording career.

14. Just three days before John Lennon’s death he put a call through to Tony Bramwell. Tony had been in touch with him by post and he thinks the contact may have been for him to get involved with a new album that he was working on (what became the posthumous Milk and Honey). The guy on the desk where Tony lived called Tony and said “there’s a Mr Lennon on the phone for you. Shall I put him through?”. The guy then lost the call and Lennon was never put through. Three days later Tony was woken up at 4am by a DJ in America and asked “What do you think of John Lennon’s death?”

 

Edited June 4 by oldjamfan1

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Speaking of The Beatles, I used to go every years to that Beatles weekend in Liverpool on the August bank holiday weekend. It was brilliant, loads of live stages with bands playing from all over the world. Plus lots of old time Liverpool bands like The Undertakers and Karl Terry and the Cruisers  playing in the pubs. Then they moved it all out to Sefton Park and I’ve never been since then.

When it was still in the city centre it used to get hammered. Massive crowds of people from all over the place. I remember making my way slowly up Mathew Street and I noticed a bloke walking towards me with a minder in tow. It was Pete Best. Surrounded by hundreds of people who didn’t know who he was. He was to speak at some Beatles book signing. How different his life could have been ! 

Incidentally that was where I saw “ The Jamm “ , they were great. Another really good tribute band back then “ The Maximum Who “. 

Edited June 4 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[oldjamfan1]

13 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Speaking of The Beatles, I used to go every years to that Beatles weekend in Liverpool on the August bank holiday weekend. It was brilliant, loads of live stages with bands playing from all over the world. Plus lots of old time Liverpool bands like The Undertakers and Karl Terry and the Cruisers  playing in the pubs. Then they moved it all out to Sefton Park and I’ve never been since then.

When it was still in the city centre it used to get hammered. Massive crowds of people from all over the place. I remember making my way slowly up Mathew Street and I noticed a bloke walking towards me with a minder in tow. It was Pete Best. Surrounded by hundreds of people who didn’t know who he was. He was to speak at some Beatles book signing. How different his life could have been ! 

Incidentally that was where I saw “ The Jamm “ , they were great. Another really good tribute band back then “ The Maximum Who “. 

I'm pretty sure the 'Paul Weller' out of that tribute band was a bloke called John Southern, an american lad. Sadly he died very young but yeah you're right Tyrone, they are up there with the best I've seen.

Pretty Green and Band Called Malice are currently the torch bearers.

 

Pete Best did alright in the end - circa £4 million when the 'Anthology' series was released in the 90s.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

I'm pretty sure the 'Paul Weller' out of that tribute band was a bloke called John Southern, an american lad. Sadly he died very young but yeah you're right Tyrone, they are up there with the best I've seen.

Pretty Green and Band Called Malice are currently the torch bearers.

 

Pete Best did alright in the end - circa £4 million when the 'Anthology' series was released in the 90s.

I’ve got a large framed photograph of the Beatles playing back in the early Cavern days. It’s on my stairs wall. Best is on the drums and he’s autographed the bass drum skin. I bought it years ago in a fancy modern art gallery in the Northern Quarter in Manchester. They specialised in posters and photos of bands.

Regarding “ The Jamm “ - they were really good in that they had more than one singer so they sounded better than the real thing.

Edited June 4 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[oldjamfan1]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I’ve got a large framed photograph of the Beatles playing back in the early Cavern days. It’s on my stairs wall. Best is on the drums and he’s autographed the bass drum skin. I bought it years ago in a fancy modern art gallery in the Northern Quarterin Manchester. They specialised in posters and photos of bands.

I've got his autobiography, also signed. He worked in his local job centre for many years until the anthology money came in. I think him and his young brother (the one fathered by Neil Aspinall) have a touring band but I'm guessing he's knocking on a bit now?

[Gav]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c722j5gp65jo.amp

I’m sure anyone who has followed the Dave Myers tributes this weekend couldn’t help but be touched by the scenes.

It’s estimated that around 20,000 bikes arrived in Barrow on Saturday afternoon for ‘Dave Day’, many had started out for Ace Cafe in London. Cheered on by thousands of people who lined the route, cheering from motorway bridges, tremendous scenes.

RIP Dave Myers, a national treasure who is already sorely missed.