The RIP Famous Person Thread

[harrybarracuda]

'Mississippi Burning' judge dies
Jerry Mitchell, The Clarion-Ledger 5:13 p.m. CDT May 26, 2016



Retired Circuit Judge Marcus D. Gordon, who oversaw the 2005 murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen in the FBI’s “Mississippi Burning” case, died Thursday.

He retired in March from the Eighth District Circuit Court of Leake, Neshoba, Newton and Scott counties because of his health. He said then that neuropathy had impaired his ability to walk.

“I thank the people who let me have this office and stay in this office as long as I have,” Gordon said. “They gave me their trust, and I am confident that in no fashion did I ever let that trust be violated.”

A month after retiring, Gordon fell and broke his hip while at his second home in northern Arkansas. He died at 5:30 a.m. Thursday at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson.

At the time of his resignation, Gordon, 84, of Union was the longest-serving trial judge in Mississippi. He served as circuit judge for more than 36 years.

Gordon submitted his resignation on the anniversary of his appointment to the bench.

On March 4, 1977, Gov. Cliff Finch appointed Gordon as circuit judge of the Eighth Circuit District after Judge O.H. Barnett resigned.

Gordon left the bench and returned to private law practice for about three years in the late 1980s, practicing law with his nephew.

He previously served as district attorney for 6½ years in the Eighth Circuit District. He was county prosecutor for Newton County for four years.

Gordon was admitted to the bar in 1959. As a lawyer in private practice, he represented the Newton County Board of Supervisors as well as municipalities, school boards and hospitals.

He attended East Central Junior College in Decatur, now East Central Community College. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Mississippi and a law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

He served four years in the Air Force as an airplane mechanic assigned to the Strategic Air Command.

In 2005, Gordon presided over the trial of Killen, accused of orchestrating the killings of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, on June 21, 1964, in Neshoba County.

The judge had crossed Killen's path in the past. Killen spoke at the funerals of Gordon's parents, and Gordon, as a district attorney in 1976, had prosecuted Killen for a threatening phone call.

In 2005, Gordon drew praise for his handling of the Killen trial, which aired live on Court TV and has since played on C-SPAN.

In a compromise verdict, a jury convicted Killen on three counts of manslaughter, and Gordon sentenced him to the maximum 60 years in prison. Killen is now serving that time in the State Penitentiary at Parchman.

Gordon drew criticism in October when, in an interview with Fault Lines, he said, “People charged with crimes, they are criminals.”

William L. Waller Jr., chief justice for the state Supreme Court, praised Gordon.

“He will be missed by all,” Waller said. “He courageously presided over many very difficult cases, including the prosecution of Edgar Ray Killen.”

Neshoba County Circuit Clerk Patti Duncan Lee called Gordon “one of a kind,” running a firm but fair courtroom.

“By his presence, he commanded respect. He treated everybody the same,” she said. “If he thought you needed to do something different, he sure didn’t mind telling you so.

[harrybarracuda]

Quite remarkable this. The Bismarck had already sunk Britain's flagship, HMS Hood, and if it had been allowed to get to France, repaired and sent out again with the appropriate protection, it could have completely cut Britain off and forced its surrender. Without Britain, the US would have had no bridgehead for the D-Day invasion.

A significant moment in world history.

Jane Fawcett, British codebreaker during World War II, dies at 95
By Matt Schudel
The Washington Post
Published: May 29, 2016



Jane Fawcett, a British codebreaker during World War II who deciphered a key German message that led to the sinking of the battleship Bismarck - one of Britain's greatest naval victories during the war - died May 21 at her home in Oxford, England. She was 95.

Her death was first reported by the Telegraph newspaper in Britain. The cause was not disclosed.

Fawcett was still in her teens when she received a letter from a friend in February 1940, in the early months of the war.

"I'm at Bletchley and it's perfectly frightful," her friend wrote. "We're so overworked, so desperately busy. You must come and join us."

Fluent in German and driven by curiosity, Fawcett - then known by her maiden name, Jane Hughes - found work at Britain's top-secret code-breaking facility at Bletchley Park, about 50 miles northwest of London. Of the 12,000 people who worked there, about 8,000 were women.

Bletchley Park later became renowned as the place where mathematician Alan Turing and others solved the puzzle of the German military's "Enigma machine," depicted in the 2014 film "The Imitation Game."

Turing worked in Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, while Fawcett was assigned to Hut 6. She was part of an all-female team whose job was to monitor messages from the German army and air force. Conditions in the single-story wooden buildings were hardly ideal.

"It was just horrid; there were very leaky windows," Mrs. Fawcett recalled in a 2015 interview with the Telegraph, "so it was very cold with just a frightful old stove in the middle of the room that let out lots of fumes but not much heat, and just one electric bulb hanging on a string, which was quite inadequate. We were always working against time, there was always a crisis, a lot of stress and a lot of excitement."

In May 1941, the British navy was searching for Germany's most formidable battleship, the Bismarck, which had last been seen near Norway. Fawcett was transcribing an intercepted message from the headquarters of the Luftwaffe, or German air force, when she noticed a reference to the French city of Brest.

In a reply to a Luftwaffe general whose son was aboard the Bismarck, a German officer noted that the battleship was headed to Brest for repairs.

Fawcett relayed her discovery to her supervisors, and within a day the Bismarck was spotted by the U.S. Navy in the Atlantic Ocean, about 700 miles off the coast of Brittany. British warplanes and naval vessels descended on the Bismarck, which was sunk on May 27, 1941. More than 2,000 German crew members were killed.

The sinking of the Bismarck marked the first time that British codebreakers had decrypted a message that led directly to a victory in battle. Cheers erupted among the staff at Bletchley Park, but their celebration remained private.

Fawcett's work was not made public for decades. Along with everyone else at Bletchley Park, she agreed to comply with Britain's Official Secrets Act, which imposed a lifetime prohibition on revealing any code-breaking activities. It wasn't until the late 1990s that her role in the sinking of the Bismarck began to come to light.

"My husband had been in the navy and done all these heroic things in every quarter, so of course we all talked about him and those brilliant young adventurers who saved Britain - well, saved the world," Fawcett said last year.

"So when everything we had done, which we knew had been very hard work and incredibly demanding, suddenly showed its head and we were being asked to talk about it, it felt quite overwhelming. I'd never told a soul, not even my husband. My grandchildren were very surprised."

Janet Caroline Hughes was born March 4, 1921, and grew up in London. Her father was a lawyer.

Fawcett, who dropped the final letter in her first name, studied at a school called Miss Ironside's and was a promising ballet dancer until she grew too tall. She then studied German in Switzerland before returning to England.

After working at Bletchley Park for five years,. Fawcett attended the Royal Academy of Music and had a 15-year career as an opera singer and recital soloist. In the 1960s, she began working at the Victorian Society, an organization devoted to preserving architecture from that era.

She was a passionate champion of the sturdy and ornate 19th-century buildings, with a particular interest in train stations slated for demolition by the British rail service. Railway officials dubbed her "the furious Mrs. Fawcett."

Her most significant victory came in 1967, when she successfully led an effort to save London's St. Pancras station and a nearby hotel.

Her husband of 66 years, Edward Fawcett, died in 2013. Survivors include two children and five grandchildren.

In 2014, Fawcett returned to Bletchley Park for the opening of a museum honoring the lives and work of the codebreakers. She took the hand of Kate Middleton, the duchess of Cambridge, while describing her work during the war.

"I still feel that what we did at Bletchley," she said in 2015, "was the most significant thing we ever did in our lives."

Jane Fawcett, British codebreaker during World War II, dies at 95 - Europe - Stripes

[Sumbitch]

Without Britain, the US would have had no bridgehead for the D-Day invasion.

That is one fucking scary thought, that is. A Nazi UK. I believe the U.S. would have signed some kind of surrender document. It prolly would have been pretty sweet-looking at that point.

RIP, Jane.

[Sumbitch]

^ Jesus, when I think of it, would the Nazis have left the Japanese out of any surrender by the U.S.?

[harrybarracuda]

^ Jesus, when I think of it, would the Nazis have left the Japanese out of any surrender by the U.S.?

Er.... what?

[Sumbitch]

^ Sorry. Thinking ahead of my typing.

The Japanese and the Germans were allies. It's hard to imagine the U.S. capitulating to the Japanese in any way, shape or form. Also, of course, the U.S. was at war with the Nazis. I was imagining, given your speculation of no beach head in France, that the U.S. would have tried to sign a separate peace treaty with Germany, leaving Japan out of it. In that scenario, if Hitler insisted that the U.S. include Japan as a signatory to the treaty, then fook all, eh?

[harrybarracuda]

Carla Lane - the TV writer who dared to make women funny - dies aged 87
PUBLISHED
01/06/2016 | 06:26



Television writer Carla Lane - who created several popular sitcoms including The Liver Birds - has died aged 87.
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Her family paid tribute to their "darling Carla" who "brought Liverpool to life".
They said: "With heavy hearts we said goodbye to our darling Carla today. But with smiles on our faces we also take this opportunity to reflect on her incredible achievements, all of which make us so unbelievably proud to be part of her family.

"We were very lucky that her quick wit, determination and passion brought Liverpool to life on screen for others to share."
Lane, who was born Romana Barrack, died at Stapely Care Home in her home town Liverpool on Tuesday.

Her sitcoms, which also included Butterflies, Bread and The Mistress, established Lane as one of the country's best-loved writers. Much of her work focused on women's lives - with characters ranging from frustrated housewives to working class matriarchs.
The Liver Birds series - based on flat-sharing Liverpudlian women - made famous the line: "'You dancing?', 'You asking?', 'I'm asking!', 'I'm dancing!'"

She continued writing into the 1990s and produced as well as wrote the BBC series Luv in 1993.
Lane was also a keen animal rights activist and had an animal rescue centre named after her three years ago near Liverpool.

Fran Ellis, founder and trustee at the Carla Lane Animals in Need Sanctuary in Melling, Merseyside, paid tribute to a "champion of animal welfare".
She said: " Carla was our friend but above all she was a passionate friend and ally to abused and abandoned animals.

"The world of animal welfare will be all the poorer for the loss of such a talented individual.
"We changed the name of our charity to recognise the work done by this special lady, her name will live on in all we do."

Lane transformed her home in West Sussex into a sanctuary for a variety of animals - looking after rescued farm animals, homeless cats and dogs and injured wildlife.
Ms Ellis said the writer and activist had moved back to her home town because she was unable to continue her work in West Sussex due to ill health.

She said: "Carla's sons Nigel and Carl gave her the greatest support and were determined that she would be able to carry on doing the work she loved so much. Saving the lives of vulnerable animals."
Lane received an OBE for services to writing in 1989 but returned it to Tony Blair in 2002 in disgust at animal cruelty.

In 1995, Lane was given a Royal Television Society award for her Outstanding Contribution to British Television.

She was also a close friend of Sir Paul McCartney's late wife Linda.
She once described their friendship as like that of "identical twins". Lane told the Observer in 2008: "We were friendship-struck from moment one. We used to sit on the lawn with our two puppies, kicking leaves, and looking at them.

"We were like two scientists trying to find out why people don't like animals, and what we'd do to them, if we only could."

Mark Linsey, director of BBC Studios, said: "Carla Lane was a supremely gifted writer of bitter-sweet family comedies, loved by generations.
"Her legacy is extraordinary. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this time."
Press Association

[kmart]

^She was very prolific in the 70's-80's. "Bread" was also a pretty good sitcom for the time. RIP.

[harrybarracuda]

There are cups of tea being spilt all over Middle England.

Alan Devereux Dead: ‘The Archers’ Actor, Who Played Sid Perks, Dies Aged 75
He starred on the BBC Radio 4 soap for nearly five decades.
01/06/2016 08:29

‘The Archers‘ actor Alan Devereux has died at the age of 75.



The veteran star of the BBC Radio 4 soap, who played Sid Perks for nearly 50 years, died from natural causes following a short illness on Sunday (29 May), the BBC reported.

Alan landed the role of teenage tearaway Sid in September 1963, and the character later went on to become the landlord of The Bull pub.

He remained on the show until the Sid’s death in 2010.

The show’s editor, Sean O’Connor, paid tribute to Alan, saying his voice was “instantly recognisable and full of rich character”.

“As an actor Alan was adept at both intense drama as well as dead-pan comedy. He was a wonderful member of The Archers’ family,” he said.

Former editor Vanessa Whitburn added: “Alan was a consummate and brilliant radio actor.

“Always a delight to work with, his versatility as publican Sid Perks meant that he created superb partnerships with the actresses who played all three of his wives.

“A modest man, I don’t think he knew just how talented he was.”

Alan’s character was involved in one of the show’s most controversial moments, when Sid had sex in the shower with Jolene in 2000, with the pair later going on to marry.

Alan’s real-life daughter, Tracy Jane White, also appeared on ‘The Archers’, playing Sid’s offspring Lucy for over 10 years.

Alan Devereux Dead: 'The Archers' Actor, Who Played Sid Perks, Dies Aged 75

[bobo746]

Surfer Blood Guitarist Thomas Fekete Has Died

Surfer Blood guitarist Thomas Fekete has died. The news was shared by his wife, who said he passed away last night. The cause was complications from a rare form of cancer, which Fekete was diagnosed with last year. "I am full of comfort knowing that he is now free, and long for the day I get to be with him again," she wrote on the GoFundMe page established to assist with the costs of treatment. Update (11:31 a.m.): The band paid tribute to Fekete on Twitter. Find that below.
Fekete was a founding member of Surfer Blood, who formed in 2009. Surfer Blood released three studio albums and one EP, all of which Fekete played on. Last year, he left the band after being diagnosed with cancer. In November, the band enlisted Real Estate, Yo La Tengo, Guided by Voices, Yoko Ono, Interpol, and other artists in auctioning off unreleased songs to raise funds. In December, Fekete released Burner, a cassette of solo music.



Surfer Blood Guitarist Thomas Fekete Has Died | Pitchfork

[harrybarracuda]

Muhammad Ali, 'The Greatest of All Time', Dead at 74
by JON SCHUPPE



Muhammad Ali, the silver-tongued boxer and civil rights champion who famously proclaimed himself "The Greatest" and then spent a lifetime living up to the billing, is dead.

Ali died Friday at a Phoenix-area hospital, where he had spent the past few days being treated for respiratory complications, a family spokesman confirmed to NBC News. He was 74.

"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman, told NBC News.

Ali had suffered for three decades from Parkinson's Disease, a progressive neurological condition that slowly robbed him of both his legendary verbal grace and his physical dexterity. A funeral service is planned in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

Even as his health declined, Ali did not shy from politics or controversy, releasing a statement in December criticizing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda," he said.

The remark bookended the life of a man who burst into the national consciousness in the early 1960s, when as a young heavyweight champion he converted to Islam and refused to serve in the Vietnam War, and became an emblem of strength, eloquence, conscience and courage. Ali was an anti-establishment showman who transcended borders and barriers, race and religion. His fights against other men became spectacles, but he embodied much greater battles.

Born Cassius Clay on Jan. 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, to middle-class parents, Ali started boxing when he was 12, winning Golden Gloves titles before heading to the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where he won a gold medal as a light heavyweight.

He turned professional shortly afterward, supported at first by Louisville business owners who guaranteed him an unprecedented 50-50 split in earnings. His knack for talking up his own talents — often in verse — earned him the dismissive nickname "the Louisville Lip," but he backed up his talk with action, relocating to Miami to train with the legendary trainer Angelo Dundee and build a case for getting a shot at the heavyweight title.

As his profile rose, Ali acted out against American racism. After he was refused services at a soda fountain counter, he said, he threw his Olympic gold medal into a river.

Recoiling from the sport's tightly knit community of agents and promoters, Ali found guidance instead from the Nation of Islam, an American Muslim sect that advocated racial separation and rejected the pacifism of most civil rights activism. Inspired by Malcolm X, one of the group's leaders, he converted in 1963. But he kept his new faith a secret until the crown was safely in hand.

That came the following year, when heavyweight champion Sonny Liston agreed to fight Ali. The challenger geared up for the bout with a litany of insults and rhymes, including the line, "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." He beat the fearsome Liston in a sixth-round technical knockout before a stunned Miami Beach crowd. In the ring, Ali proclaimed, "I am the greatest! I am the greatest! I'm the king of the world."

The new champion soon renounced Cassius Clay as his "slave name" and said he would be known from then on as Muhammad Ali — bestowed by Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. He was 22 years old.

The move split sports fans and the broader American public: an American sports champion rejecting his birth name and adopting one that sounded subversive.

Ali successfully defended his title six times, including a rematch with Liston. Then, in 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, Ali was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army.

He'd said previously that the war did not comport with his faith, and that he had "no quarrel" with America's enemy, the Vietcong. He refused to serve.

"My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, some poor, hungry people in the mud, for big powerful America, and shoot them for what?" Ali said in an interview. "They never called me nigger. They never lynched me. They didn't put no dogs on me."

His stand culminated with an April appearance at an Army recruiting station, where he refused to step forward when his name was called. The reaction was swift and harsh. He was stripped of his boxing title, convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison.

Released on appeal but unable to fight or leave the country, Ali turned to the lecture circuit, speaking on college campuses, where he engaged in heated debates, pointing out the hypocrisy of denying rights to blacks even as they were ordered to fight the country's battles abroad.

"My enemy is the white people, not Vietcongs or Chinese or Japanese," Ali told one white student who challenged his draft avoidance. "You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. You won't even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs and you want me to go somewhere and fight but you won't even stand up for me here at home."

Ali's fiery commentary was praised by antiwar activists and black nationalists and vilified by conservatives, including many other athletes and sportswriters.

His appeal took four years to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, which in June 1971 reversed the conviction in a unanimous decision that found the Department of Justice had improperly told the draft board that Ali's stance wasn't motivated by religious belief.

Toward the end of his legal saga, Georgia agreed to issue Ali a boxing license, which allowed him to fight Jerry Quarry, whom he beat. Six months later, at a sold-out Madison Square Garden, he lost to Joe Frazier in a 15-round duel touted as "the fight of the century." It was Ali's first defeat as a pro.

That fight began one of boxing's and sport's greatest rivalries. Ali and Frazier fought again in 1974, after Frazier had lost his crown. This time, Ali won in a unanimous decision, making him the lead challenger for the heavyweight title.

He took it from George Foreman later that year in a fight in Zaire dubbed "The Rumble in the Jungle," a spectacularly hyped bout for which Ali moved to Africa for the summer, followed by crowds of chanting locals wherever he went. A three-day music festival featuring James Brown and B.B. King preceded the fight. Finally, Ali delivered a historic performance in the ring, employing a new strategy dubbed the "rope-a-dope," goading the favored Foreman into attacking him, then leaning back into the ropes in a defensive stance and waiting for Foreman to tire. Ali then went on the attack, knocking out Foreman in the eighth round. The maneuver has been copied by many other champions since.

The third fight in the Ali-Frazier trilogy followed in 1975, the "Thrilla in Manila" that is now regarded as one of the best boxing matches of all time. Ali won in a technical knockout in the 15th round.

Ali successfully defended his title until 1978, when he was beaten by a young Leon Spinks, and then quickly took it back. He retired in 1979, when he was 37, but, seeking to replenish his dwindling personal fortune, returned in 1980 for a title match against Larry Holmes, which he lost. Ali lost again, to Trevor Berbick, the following year. Finally, Ali retired for good.

The following year, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

"I'm in no pain," he told The New York Times. "A slight slurring of my speech, a little tremor. Nothing critical. If I was in perfect health — if I had won my last two fights — if I had no problem, people would be afraid of me. Now they feel sorry for me. They thought I was Superman. Now they can go, 'He's human, like us. He has problems.' ''

Even as his health gradually declined, Ali — who switched to more mainstream branches of Islam — threw himself into humanitarian causes, traveling to Lebanon in 1985 and Iraq in 1990 to seek the release of American hostages. In 1996, he lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, lifting the torch with shaking arms. With each public appearance he seemed more feeble, a stark contrast to his outsized aura. He continued to be one of the most recognizable people in the world.

He traveled incessantly for many years, crisscrossing the globe in appearances in which he made money but also pushed philanthropic causes. He met with presidents, royalty, heads of state, the Pope. He told "People" magazine that his largest regret was not playing a more intimate role in the raising of his children. But he said he did not regret boxing. "If I wasn't a boxer, I wouldn't be famous," he said. "If I wasn't famous, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing now."

In 2005, President George W. Bush honored Ali with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and his hometown of Louisville opened the Muhammad Ali Center, chronicling his life but also as a forum for promoting tolerance and respect.

Divorced three times and the father of nine children — one of whom, Laila, become a boxer — Ali married his last wife, Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams, in 1986; they lived for a long time in Berrien Springs, Michigan, then moved to Arizona.

In recent years, Ali's health began to suffer dramatically. There was a death scare in 2013, and last year he was rushed to the hospital after being found unresponsive. He recovered and returned to his new home in Arizona.

In his final years, Ali was barely able to speak. Asked to share his personal philosophy with NPR in 2009, Ali let his wife read his essay:

"I never thought of the possibility of failing, only of the fame and glory I was going to get when I won," Ali wrote. "I could see it. I could almost feel it. When I proclaimed that I was the greatest of all time, I believed in myself, and I still do."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/m...ead-74-n584776

[Davis Knowlton]

^Sad news, but he had a rough road for years. RIP.

[PeeCoffee]

RIP to the "Greatest of All Time."

[kmart]

RIP. True hero.

[crocman]

I remember when in my early teens playing truant from school to watch the "Thriller in Manila" and the "Rumble in the Jungle".

The fight in Zaire was the first fight I watched on colour TV.

Didn't understand the mans conversion to Islam but in 1974 I didn't really give a shit about his beliefs as long as he could "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee".

RIP Mr Clay.

[Troy]

R.I.P. to an all time favourite.

He'd been suffering for a while....

[AntRobertson]

'I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong—no Viet Cong ever called me nigger'.

[Happy As Larry]

Dave Swarbrick, born April 5 1941, died June 3 2016

Dave Swarbrick, the violinist and singer, who has died aged 75, was one of the most influential folk musicians of the 1970s and 1980s, especially with the group Fairport Convention; in 1999 however, he joined a list of people, including Bob Hope, Mark Twain and Alfred Nobel, whose deaths have been announced prematurely – in Swarbrick’s case in a Daily Telegraph obituary.

The Telegraph, Swarbrick’s paper of choice (“I’m not a Tory but have always had a soft spot for its gung-ho attitude”), had received erroneous information that he had died in his home city of Coventry. When informed that the musician was still alive (though recovering in hospital from a bout of emphysema) the obituaries editor and his staff were said to be “distraught”. Luckily the piece made flattering reading, describing Swarbrick as “a small, dynamic, charismatic figure, cigarette perched precariously on his bottom lip, unruly hair flapping over his face, pint of beer ever at hand, who could electrify an audience with a single frenzied sweep of his bow”

After the initial shock and apologies Swarbrick could see the funny side, coming out with the priceless one-liner: “It’s not the first time I’ve died in Coventry.”

“After all, I’d enjoyed the text of the obit – it was very complimentary,” he explained. “And it had answered a question I’d often asked myself: whether any paper would bother when I died.” His wife, Jill, said: “He read the obituary and didn’t quarrel with any of the spellings or the facts – apart from the obvious one.”

In fact Swarbrick, or “Swarb” as he was known, went on to turn the newspaper’s error to his advantage, admitting that “I never got half as much attention playing as by dying.”

“In fact,” he told the Oxford Times in 2014, “I photocopied the obits, took them to gigs, signed them “RIP Dave Swarbrick” and sold them for £1. After all, where else are you going to get a signed obituary? I had to stop, though, when The Telegraph got in touch and told me I couldn’t do it as they had the copyright.”


In 2004, following two SwarbAid charity concerts by his Fairport Convention colleague Dave Pegg, Swarbrick received a double lung transplant and subsequently confounded both the press and medical profession by returning as a leading light on the British folk scene.

David Swarbrick was born at New Malden, Surrey, on April 5 1941. He was first drawn to folk music after taking up the guitar during the skiffle boom of the late 1950s. When he was 16, the pianist Beryl Marriott heard him at a skiffle event and invited him to join a ceilidh dance band. She also persuaded him to have another crack at the fiddle, which he had played as a child but which he had long since consigned to the attic.

In the 1960s Swarbrick was invited to play in some of the sessions of Ewan MacColl’s and Charles Parker’s Radio Ballads — setting stories about Britain’s fishermen, roadbuilders, miners, boxers and travellers to music. Through these he was introduced to Ian Campbell, a Scotsman who was turning his sights on the British folk tradition.

Swarbrick joined the Ian Campbell Folk Group in time to play on their first record, EP Ceilidh At The Crown (1962); he went on to help establish them as stars of the emerging folk club scene. The group had a minor hit with the first British cover of a Dylan song, The Times They Are A Changing. Swarbrick’s reputation rose rapidly, and in 1965 he was invited to play on Martin Carthy’s first album.

The next year he suddenly decided to emigrate to Denmark and marry his Danish girlfriend. With little money and no return ticket, he was detained at the Hook of Holland by customs, and promptly sent home again.

He ended up staying in London with Martin Carthy, with whom he went on to develop an important partnership. The intuitive interplay between Carthy’s guitar and Swarbrick’s fiddle was something entirely new. Their albums, Byker Hill (1967), But Two Came By (1968) and Prince Heathen (1969) broke the mould of traditional song arrangement and opened the door for the fusion of folk and rock.


When he was asked to play on a session for Fairport Convention in 1969, however, Swarbrick had never even heard of the band. At that time the idea of an electrified violin was so novel that, in order to create the desired effect, a telephone handset was taped to Swarbrick’s fiddle and connected to an amplifier.

Swarbrick was initially booked for one number only, but he ended up playing on four tracks on Fairport’s Unhalfbricking album (1969) and was invited to join the band full time.

His first album as a fully fledged member of Fairport Convention was Liege & Lief (1969), which broke new ground in marrying traditional songs with rock. Two members of the band, Sandy Denny and Ashley Hutchings, walked out after disputes about the direction of their music. This left Swarbrick and the guitarist Richard Thompson to take their place at the core of the band.

Over the next 15 years Fairport Convention undertook world tours and made more than a dozen albums.After Richard Thompson’s departure in 1970, Swarbrick developed into a surprisingly sensitive songwriter, and also took on the role of lead singer. In 1971 he was the prime creative drive behind Fairport Convention’s most ambitious project, Babbacombe Lee, an album based on the story of John Lee, a convicted murderer who was reprieved after three attempts to hang him at Exeter in 1885 had failed.

Swarbrick remained a constant presence throughout the numerous internal disputes which disrupted Fairport. But continual playing of the electric violin left him virtually deaf in one ear, and in 1984 he decided to retire. During his Fairport years he had also realeased three well- received solo albums, Swarbrick (1976), Swarbrick 2 (1977) and Lift the Lid and Listen (1978).

I’m always amazed to listen to my Fairport stuff. It’s so fast. What was I on?
Dave Swarbrick
He now reverted to the acoustic violin as he returned to folk clubs with fellow Fairport member Simon Nicol. In 1986 he formed a new band, Whippersnapper. He also made occasional returns to the Fairport fold, playing at their annual Cropredy Reunion Festival in Oxfordshire. “I’m always amazed to listen to my Fairport stuff,” he said in 2014. “It’s so fast. What was I on?”

In 1988 Swarbrick linked up again with Martin Carthy. They made some successful tours, and produced a couple of fine albums, Life and Limb (1990) and Skin and Bone (1992). He made cameo appearances in several films, including Far From The Madding Crowd, while his musical adaptation of Babbacombe Lee became the subject of a television documentary. He also spent some years in Australia, working with the guitarist and singer Alistair Hulett, with whom he recorded the impressive The Cold Grey Light (1998), before returning home.

After his double lung transplant, in 2006 Swarbrick started touring again with fellow ex-Fairporter, Maartin Allcock, and Kevin Dempsey – calling themselves, with a wink to the Telegraph’s premature obituary, Swarb’s Lazarus, producing the album Live and Kicking (2006) and appearing at the Cropredy Festival. He played fiddle for Steve Ashley, John Kirkpatrick, Bert Jansch, Pete Hawkes, and the Canadian reggae artist Jason Wilson and his band (an album, Lion Rampant, was released in 2014). He also reignited his partnership with Martin Carthy, with whom in later years he regularly hit the road for an autumn tour.

In 2007 Swarbrick joined the 1969 Fairport Convention line-up, with Chris While standing in for the late Sandy Denny, to perform the whole of the album Liege & Lief, and three years later, in 2010, he joined Fairport Convention on stage for an impromptu performance of Sir Patrick Spens.

In 2010, backed by a stellar array of guest musicians, he released Raison d’être, his first solo album for nearly 20 years. It was reviewed in more than 20 publications, the English Folk Dance and Song Society Magazine describing it as “the work of a fine fiddler who simply refuses to lie down and rest on his not inconsiderable laurels”.

Swarbrick did much work with up-and-coming artists, becoming patron of the Folkstock Foundation, set up to promote young acoustic talent. In April and May 2014, at his personal request, he did a 17-venue tour of Britain, organised by Helen Meissner of the Foundation, supported by the folk trio Said the Maiden, and also featuring young folk artists.

Blunt, funny and charming, after his premature demise Swarbrick went on a receive a clutch of awards. In 2003 he received the Gold Badge from the English Folk Dance and Song Society and the Gold Badge of Merit from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.

In 2004 he received a lifetime achievement award in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and in 2006 Fairport’s Liege & Lief album was voted “Most Influential Folk Album of All Time” by Radio 2 listeners. At the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, he and Martin Carthy won the “Best Duo” Award. In 2012 he received another lifetime achievement award at the 2012 Fatea awards.

Swarbrick, who was married several times, is survived by his wife, the painter Jill Swarbrick-Banks, whom he married in 1999, and by a son and two daughters.

[Sumbitch]

RIP Muhammad Ali.

[Cujo]

So we can only hero worship the dead then and none of them ever put a foot wrong, and if they did we can't mention it. Pathetically PC and boring, not even TV stoops to such hysterical censorship. Just for the next death then- they were a genius, icon, saint, legend and the whole world loved them and we will all live happily ever after. Free speech as long as you agree with the majority of idolizing fans is not free speech.

FFS are you retarded. If you want to DISCUSS the individual, start a thread, just don't start a discussion on here.

[Gazza]

RIP Dave Swarbrick (again)

[philw]

"Them doughnuts are really vicious..........."

Nice one Carla and thanks to all the above who have moved on but enriched our lives.

Gotta love Ali's attitude.

[harrybarracuda]

Peter Shaffer, 'Amadeus' and 'Equus' playwright and Oscar winner, dies at 90



Peter Shaffer, the Academy Award-winning British playwright whose stage dramas "Amadeus" and "Equus" were turned into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 90.

Shaffer died early Monday at the Marymount hospice in County Cork, Ireland, according to a statement from his agents at Macnaughton Lord Representation in London. He was traveling in Ireland with friends and family to celebrate his birthday last month.

Shaffer experienced a short illness, the agency said, but it didn't provide a cause of death.

Shaffer achieved his greatest popular success with "Amadeus," his account of the rivalry between composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

"Amadeus" premiered in London, where it opened in 1979 at the National Theatre. It transferred to Broadway in 1980, where it won the Tony Award for best play and ran for three years.

The play was turned into a movie by director Milos Forman in 1984. It won eight Oscars, including one for Shaffer for adapted screenplay and one for best picture.


Shaffer also received an Oscar nomination in 1977 for his adaptation of "Equus," which tells the story of a disturbed stable boy who has an extreme obsession with horses.

The playwright's twin brother, Anthony Shaffer, was also an acclaimed writer who penned the drama "Sleuth." Anthony Shaffer died in 2001.

[email protected]

Peter Shaffer, 'Amadeus' and 'Equus' playwright and Oscar winner, dies at 90 - LA Times

[Troy]

Chess legend Korchnoi dies in Switzerland aged 85

Chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, who defected from Russia to the West in 1976, has died in Switzerland aged 85.Born in 1931 in what is now St Petersburg, Korchnoi survived the siege of Leningrad during World War Two and is seen as one of the best players never to be World Champion.
He was a four-time USSR champion and ranked number one in the world in 1965.
However, he became convinced he had to leave the Soviet Union after being banned from playing internationally.
He played three matches against Soviet rival Anatoly Karpov, losing the 1974 final of the Candidates Tournament - which determines the challenger to play the world champion.


Mr Karpov became world champion in 1975 after the American Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title.
Korchnoi was then allowed by the Soviet authorities to compete internationally again the following year and sought political asylum in the Netherlands after a tournament there.
He later progressed to the World Championship final in 1978 and 1981, but lost to Mr Karpov on both occasions.
Korchnoi continued playing chess well into old age.
He was the oldest active chess grandmaster on the international tournament circuit for many years and won the World Senior Chess Championship in 2006

Chess legend Korchnoi dies in Switzerland aged 85 - BBC News

I have a couple of his books on the King's Gambit, an opening that initially filled me with dread (I preferred Queen's Gambit or Spanish openings) but once learnt is a 'must have'.

R.I.P. -- Good innings

[blue]

was a great player I remember him well from the cold war days of the 1970s.
long before computers spoilt chess