pulphack

well that does rather change things... not a nice guy, but more importantly a boozer. that does cut his chances somewhat, although oddly smoking doesn't seem to (he smokes, so does this guy i mentioned who is 99). i'll have to try and check this with the aforementioned assesor, but i think such habits statistically are less likely to claim them in their nineties. which doesn't sound right as i type, but i do recall being astonished when he told me this. of course, i was the one who thought they'd taken gullible out of the dictionary. two things struck me in that abuse report. one: rick allen? not sure whether to be admonishing or admiring of a one-armed man managing that! two: kept looking for harry potter, not harry morgan. it's early and i haven't had any caffeine yet, ok?

the problem here is not the number of units you need to break even per se: with laser printing, it's gotten ridiculously small, so anyone can produce a book (john mackie - my glory fruit'n'veg year at the o's). however, it's the amount you spend on publicity, the amount you pay to the biographer/ghost, and the amount you pay to the celeb involved if it's a ghosted title. oh, and the photos if they don't come from cheap archives or the celeb's own collection. there are dubious ways round this (i know of one small publisher who does film books, makes out they have a huge collection of transparencies, and justs scans them from other books hoping they won't get caught out), but it depends on the publisher. having had one very iffy experience with ghosting years ago, i have to say that i wouldn't risk my sanity unless the publisher was willing to cough. i dare say dickie's a nice enough guy, but there are always things that are contentious. that's when you console yourself with the advance! and again, where could you sell it? if it's a cult celeb, then can you get overseas and translation deals? ok, so with the net a lot of people would just google and amazon it, but the foreign rights advances are music to the publisher's ears. with carlisle, everyone was up for it and you'd have a guaranteed sale (paul simpson's mum, karl hawley's granny, etc). dickie is a bit of a shot in the dark - unless they could flog serial rights in advance to a tabloid. you can tell i'm trying to work out a strategy even as i type...

i wish she shopped in my waitrose, i'd do the job for all of us. horrible woman. when she was making lots of dosh writing sagas in the late 80's, early 90's (and if you look in the backs of old paperbacks like i do - too much time on my hands - you'll see that her romances were filed under 'gothic' by corgi) i had a friend who was a royalties accountant at macdonald (later littlebrown) who were her publishers. she was unutterably rude, and bested only be her weasley little husband (my friend's words) who was also her business manager, and used to moan if the royalty statements were a day late (usually the post!), and quibbled over the slightest discrepancy to do with foreign rights. ok, so he may have been entitled to question it, but he did it in a rude and offensive manner, and despite the number of times he was put right he still bothered my mate instead of the foreign rights manager. so stupid as well as rude, then. he's dead, which may be why she's quieter, as he seemd to get her work for her. er, was all that wings stuff by notapotato a reference to david baddiel's diatribe against her many years ago? no one picked up on it, but maybe it's just me (if it was, i got it in the end!) jessie wallace and some actress who was in family affairs but whose name i don't know shop in my waitrose - on the whole, i think i'd prefer claire!

ok, have pm'd you on this. but i've been thinking about dickie - uh, let me rephrase that - i've been pondering mr o'sullivan. havin a quick look back at the thread, it seems like he is at least informed about our interest. maybe he would be interested in a biog, as he covers a period that is retro hot at the moment, and he may have a few stories to tell. a line to brinsworth house may be in order. incidentally, on the subject of retro hot - the krankies have published an autobiography! can't wait for that to hit the remainder shops. it probably isn't, but it SHOULD be way weird...

blimey - happy birthday harry! cracking character actor and sounds like an all-round nice guy. i suspect that with no major health problems he may not be as much of a candidate as we think. i was talking to a friend of mine who used to be an assesor for an insurance company about this guy we know who's 99 and in good health. apparently, the insurance company my chum worked for employed someone to work out the risk on insuring ancient types (i think they all have such assesors, but their actual job title escapes me). anyway, once they get past 90 and they have good health, their chances of pressing on to a 100 are greatly on the up. it's only once they get past 100 - apparently they tend to drop off the perch really quickly - yeah, i know, but i mean REALLY quickly, as though once the subconscious target is reached, everything relaxes a little too much. so perhaps we should only be looking at him as a serious candidate in 2015! incidentally, some francis x. bushman trivia - his last film, as far as i can see, was The Ghost In the Invisible Bikini, alongside nancy sinatra, basil rathbone, patsy kelly, and boris karloff. what a way to go...

tell them the easter bunny stole the chocolate, so they'll learn a few harsh facts of life (no, i don't have kids). if jesus fried on the cross, can he do 5,000 deep fried mar bars for the scots bird flu effort mentioned above? for my part, i'll be hoping for an ester miracle down brisbane road - a win against grimsby to set us up for automatic promotion (behind the rampaging carlisle), and heart-failure for barry hearn (is it really too late to put him on the deathlist for no other reason than i hate him?)... actually, heart failure for me if we manage to avoid the play-offs! of course, just because i don't have kids, it won't stop me buying easter eggs (yes, i am a fat bastard).

don't think i haven't thought of it - but i'm not a journo, i'm a paperback pulp hack. so i'd have to offer to write his biography... i'm not sure he'd be keen by the sound of it, besides finding a publisher to back me up might be difficult. he's not famous enough or cult enough (steady, i DID spell it right), and doesn't have enough infamy or topicality. now if he shagged jade... thanks for the congrats on reaching 50 - i hadn't noticed til you pointed it out! also, i think league 2 is entirely yours. and if we beat grimsby next monday we're in the driving seat for automatic promotion ourselves!

a good idea - actually, if you check out 'the haunted house of horror' (tigon 1968 and on the tigon box set from anchor bay) you'll see that he was quite pale and spectral back then, so it'd be a return to his roots. and is MATH a psychological horror all of its own? discuss...

that's the one... how did it end up there... why is that whole chunk in there? what are the criteria for such shame, and who decides? come to that, who cares? but thanks for pointing me in the right direction. technology is very confusing - i'd be far happier if you could get forever changes as a wax cylinder.

er - what happened to my post about arthurly and his erratic genius, and the prospects of sky, roky, et al also kicking it? was there a reason it was deleted? it must have been there for a while as atj (can i call you that?) starts to talk about sky saxon... and yes, he was bloody awful last year, but then if we're honest didn't we go to watch the freak? anyway, i know it's not really important as such, but if i broke some rules without knowing, can someone tell me so i don't do it again? or did someone find the 'garage rockers need their own dead carpool' joke just too awful to contemplate? anyway, as i was for once totally on topic, can i just add (again) that given lee's past medical history and abuse record, chances of him making it through treatment are poor, to say the least.

shitloads of love, some of which is sh*t... apart from forever changes, it's a mixed bag. even the best of's are erratic. a bit like mr lee - and what was vindicator about? i-am-the-ghost-of-hendrix... right, arthur... but at his best he's great, just that newcomers should tread carefully. he's a good argument for early death or retirement in a career, ala morrison or syd. sad to hear he's ill, but being blunt, given his age and health over the years, he's got to be a good bet not to pull through. so wher does that leave sky saxon and ? of the mysterians? they're getting on a bit. roky erickson seems ok these days, if a little portly. maybe these garage musos need a dead pool of their own. a dead carpool... i'll get me coat.

same for me - feels weird, actually. anyone else know someone on here who's died? makes you feel a little... different about the whole thing. or am i just being soft?

well, as mentioned earlier in the thread, bernard spilsbury's biography is good, and even better if you read it next to sidney smith's autobiography as these eminent pathologists seemed to hate each other, and smith takes great delight in describing a case where spilsbury got it wrong and he got it right. so yah boo sucks, etc. alan clayson's death discs is worth hunting out as a companion to the dave thompson. derek raymond's factory books are particularly good on death and decay, particularly i was dora suarez (or was that just the name of the album? that's a great listen - raymond enunciates about death fruitily over a smoky jazz backing). but i think a necessity is bs johnson - the unfortunates, see the old lady decently, and christie malry's own double entry are all about death, cancer, decay, death, etc. discovered him via jonathon coe's biography (like a fiery elephant) which is also worth a read as johnson was obsessed with death and ended up topping himself. not a jolly read, but fascinating. bet they're not a patch on harry harrison, though...

perhaps it's not nice to celebrate someone's demise - but thank christ landy is dead! vile man. brian wilson is a very fragile, damaged man, and landy saw his chance to cash in - even to the point of getting 'co-composer' credits on wilson songs as well as writing the biography. i doubt many will miss him.

would a megadeth thread be acceptable, with only heavy metal musos featured? anyway, got right off the point of nikki sudden, didn't it? i didn't find this the other day, and only came to it via godot (thank you, kind sir) after mentioning nikki elsewhere. to those of you who said 'i've never heard of him', well, i haven't heard of half the people mentioned as kicking it, but it's all educational. the swell maps had a brief moment of importance for demystifying making records back in the late seventies. they kickstarted the whole diy/lo-fi thing, which has spread with the net and is now not just about that kind of music but about a democratisation of music making away from majors - in a lot of ways, the arctic monkeys et al wouldn't have been possible without the maps, and neither would nirvana and grunge. certainly it wuld have been different. i can hear the serious buggers harrumphing about how the explosion of 'crap' music it caused is a bad thing - quality, etc - but the point is that it encouraged people to make rather than just consume. nikki couldn't sing that well, and his songs wer always the same few chords, but you could say that of a lot of people. he did have charm, and his love of just playing was infectious. he also used to start the day with a methadone and cherry brandy cocktail, so it's amazing he lasted as long as he did! incidentally, his brother epic soundtracks is another dead drummer...

who cares? he probably did... although, he's drummer, and probably hasn't noticed yet. incidentally, the wonder stuff's bassist died a few years back. two down...

absolutely spot on. syd has had, in 'hero' terms, the best career of the lot of 'em: three great albums, then retire whilst still young and not having released any crap. (let's leave his illness to him and his privacy) long may he be happy as possible in retirement and seclusion. gilmour comes off a pretty creditable second: the new album is a bit patchy, but it has some lovely moments and his post-floyd career (including pseudo-floyd) has been unembarrassing if not brilliant. plus he's a nice bloke who flogs £6m houses and gives the money away. meanwhile, our rog has had at least three mid-life crises (hitchhiking, kaos, and the bloody opera) and is still lost without dave - note that although the wall is 'mine, all mine' rog, it's dave's guitar on confortably numb that everyone remembers... speaking of mine all mine , the baseball bat thing was ME, dammit - i don't often have good ideas, so i like to claim credit! anyway, rog is keen to be an artist, but is still an architecture student at heart. whereas syd was effortlessly, and dave is an artisan with no (it seems) illusions. but what of nick? give him a car and he's happy. it says everything that his 'solo' album back in the 70's was him using his name to get carla bley and robert wyatt together with a good budget. top bloke!

i suspect the great mr sallis has a lot of mileage. the apparent frailty is probabaly due to the macular degeneration, which is a weird one. it's a build up of pigment at the back of the eye, and is inoperable. apparently, if you've got it then you get a large black spot in the centre of your vision, with distortion around the spot, and clear vision still possible at the corners of the eye. my mum (87) has it, and sometimes watches TV sideways on as she can actually see more this way! so walking in unfamiliar surroundings can be a problem, because of not being able to see obstacles rather than any physical infirmity. however, it's not in the least life threatening... unless you miss the top of the stairs, or don't see the bus coming, of course... i believe eric sykes has md as well.

nonononononono.... are you being served has lost its humour now that graham norton is everywhere! what made it funny was that it was completely under the arm. now it just looks desperate. mind you, that's taste for you. i like MATH more now than when i was a kid because it doesn't rely on camp so much. (and because i have strange yearnings for yootha joyce that may be about me hitting 40) camp WAS wonderful, and now it's just everywher and so becomes devalued and dull - i mean, when is the aforementioned graham norton (who was good guesting in father ted) going to get a joke OTHER than 'hello i'm gay'? matt lucas' daffydd works because it has the layers of a)daffydd ISN'T gay, and b)lucas IS. having said that, mollie is one of those actors who get under-rated because they spend so much of their careers in shite to pay the rent. it's a bit like peter cushing - i like crappy old horror movies, but in truth he always shines above the level of the material and, unlike christopher lee, never gives the impression of slumming it. truth of the matter is that when it comes to old sit-com actors, all you have to do is keep an eye on the soaps and last of the summer wine. if they turn up there then they're still going. if they leave, order the wreath... still, saw graham stark and hugh lloyd on a hancock doc a little while back, made last year, and they looked pretty spry for their ages.

the more that things change, eh? haven't looked at the list for ages, and find we're still all talking complete crap about dicky, except for that appalling person who actually put someFACTS in there! still, nice to see that the old boy is feeling chipper. rather negates the point of this thread, though. (there's a POINT?) just a few random thoughts about some of the other stuff mentioned - leslie crowther and dickei henderson did flanagan and allen impressions, but didn't bernie winters take the place of henderson in a play about f&a that appeared on itv, early eighties? speaking of old relics, orient have started scoring, but the supremacy of carlisle (apart from today's result) will ensure we can only make the playoffs - i bow to the goal machine that is karl hawley. light ent is a funny business. today's funny is tomorrows 'eh?'. having seen some REAL dross lately (love thy neighbour, on the buses, are you being served, even - god help me - a recording of robin askwith's bottle boys that was purely for research and was frankly too painful for words) it strikes me that we are sometimes too harsh on the likes of dickie - he may not have been great, but he's still FAR less embarrassing to watch now than much of the seventies and eighties. it's a kind of testament to the human spirit that a tenth rate comic actor made enough of an impression on a generation to both be remembered and to be a catalyst for reminsience about others who are either dead or pretty damn' close. and those idiots who still put their heads round the door to snipe really need to get a life - we're on this thread because we enjoy it, no matter how trivial it is. they're here and don't like it... draw your own conclusion. finally, two thoughts. one: never trust a producer who turns up to a vital meeting late, and with his face covered in carpet burns. two: no mention of it anywhere on the list or forums i could see, but nikki sudden passed away last weekend at 49. a minor talent singer-songwriter in essence, he was important becasue when he was in the swell maps nearly everyone who bought one of their records went out and made a record of their own, and the whole lo-fi/diy thing is in part down to him. knew him for over 20 years, and he'll be missed. oh, and laura palmer ain't nowhere near as cool as mr king, pooka...

very poetic, and also very true. he has become emblematic of a vanishing age; his own slow decline is representative of the twilight of an era in media. as such, those who orbit around this sun that is slowly imploding are also as worthy of note before they, too, are snuffed out. oh yes, i can do pretentious as well as the next man. having said that, i've just dressed up a bit of truth: dickie has become a focus for an age and a field of which he was so much a part. i think that, and the fact that he had little in the way of talent, import or note compared to some of the political, intellectual, and socially impactive figures on the list, is why this thread goes seemingly off-topic so much. that and the fact the fact that he was a light entertainment figure lends itself to people F*****g about a lot more readily than if he was, say, sharon or hamza.

Les Paul - greatest innovator of the electronic music medium still alive, and frankly i'm more likely to peg it this year than him. enough of the topic - bloody carlisle fans. for various reasons i didn't get an Orient season ticket this year and they're doing better than they have for years. i've been to see them twice, and each time they shipped four goals (home to rochdale, away to wycombe) so i figure if i stay away they might get out of the basement. perhaps if they do barry hearne will drop dead with excitement. i'd likehim to be on deathlist, but shamefully only for reasons of spite...

'now i want you to fill that jar, fletcher.' 'what, from here?' ok so you need the visual, too, but he follows it with : 'with these feet?' the feet gag being a great running one (!) in the first episode. true there aren't many great lines from sit-com in the seventies, but that's surely because most UK sit-com with memorable lines was derived from radio, and tv execs wanted an emphasis on silly sight gags in tv comedy. how much of it was about physical comedy and faces? eric sykes being an example of the higher end, benny hill of the lower. and yes, i know his shows weren't sit-com, but his co-writer dave freeman wrote a LOT of sit-com episodes for different series, and was typical of the time. 'dad's army' had some better lines because the cast were a bit too old for pratfalls (mostly), and cleese was a law unto himself. dickie was just the middle-class robin askwith. discuss (or not)

i think that's a fair summation. unless it's suicide, it's unlikely to be a fatal jail attack. he'll just linger at taxpayers expense, and as a human being isn't worthy even of this much attention

the thing about wiki is... (oh no, not again) it'd be fine if it wasn't purporting to be a bloody encyclopaedia! of course people are going to mes about with it if they have the chance. and of course no-one should take it as gospel. but people DO, which is why it has to be careful about what it purports to be. i do like the idea of diki, though - except it's already been done, hasn't it, as that's how most history is written anyway. always the winners, etc. but of course it's accurate about history and science, and only crap on the not serious stuff. yeah, but how do you KNOW...