Weebl

As I write this, we are now in the closing hours of 2016, and what a year it's been - the news has dominated by celebrity deaths, terrorism, and of course the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit vote and the as yet unknown consequences of these political developments. The most significant thing to happen in the UK in the year 2016 was of course the vote to leave the European Union, and without Nigel Farage and UKIP, it is highly unlikely that the whole Brexit thing would ever have happened in the first place, as Cameron gave in to pressure to allow a referendum. Now whatever your opinions on Farage, although the man may only be 52 years old, he is well worth watching from a Deathlist perspective. Reasons include: He survived testicular cancer in 1986 at the age of 24. As a result, he only has one testicle. He survived a plane crash in 2010. Of course he lived, but this can't have done his body much good. He also survived a car crash in 1985. The man is a heavy smoker and drinks daily. This can't be good for his health at all. Although he has now retired as leader of UKIP, he had a high profile and high stress political job for many years. Being a controversial politician who is despised by many is likely to have increased his stress levels. He has previously said that he has got the body of a 70 year old due to the plane crash, the stress of his job, and drinking and smoking, and being a cancer survivor. Particularly after the Brexit vote, he can't go out in public without a bodyguard due to the very real risk of being physically assaulted or even assassinated - hell, if it could happen to someone as innocuous as Jo Cox, surely a more controversial and influential figure like Farage is a much more of a target? Do I think Farage is likely to die next year? No, I do not. Do I think he may well die within the next 10-15 years? It really isn't that unlikely at all. I welcome your thoughts...

I can see that there's a thread for Genesis members, as well as one for pop stars in general, and one about hard rock/heavy metal musicians. So it's time for a thread exclusively devoted to prog rockers, if I might say so myself. As progressive rock was most popular from the late sixties through to the mid Seventies, many of these musicians are aging and almost all musicians from the classic era of prog rock are now over 60, and most are considerably older than that. Generally speaking, prog rockers have not tended to abuse hard drugs like heroin and cocaine, unlike many other musicians from the same era. Nonetheless, age is surely catching up with them and in years to come, there will be more and more potential for DL hits. Of course, the same will be true of other musicians from the sixties and seventies to a large extent, but progressive rock is a distinctly recognisable genre that reached a peak at a certain time then went away again and never really regained its significance after the punks came along. Hopefully, this can serve as a "broad-church" thread for all musicians whose work is on the progressive / avantgarde / bloated / pretentious side of things. Thus in addition to regular prog rock, it could also include musicians working in subgenres like krautrock and Canterbury scene. This year alone, we've lost Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream, David Allen of Gong, and Chris Squire of Yes. None of these would have been particularly bad DL picks. All are notable enough to have been reported by the UK media. Even the death of Glenn Cornick, an early bassist in Jethro Tull, was reported by the BBC last year. So there's no question that most prog musicians at least from the more prominent bands would get an obituary. I've stated that one to watch is John Wetton of King Crimson / Asia with his cancer (and a history of other health problems). Whether you like this genre of music or not (and I'm well aware that while many despise it, there are many that love it), one thing's for sure: there's a lot of potential for DL hits here that will only grow as the years go by. Thoughts?

With the death of Sir Roger Moore on the same day as news of the Manchester bombing broke, I thought to myself that it's unfortunate that he had to die when he did as his death would have been a bigger news story if it had happened on a different day. Aside from Roger Moore, what other badly timed celebrity deaths have there been? As in, ones that conflict with a major news event or disaster? Joe Cocker's death conflicted with the Glasgow bin lorry crash and was 3 days before Christmas which wasn't great timing. Any others?

Anyone else watch the grand final last night? Here it is on iPlayer - if you've got a spare hour today and you're even remotely interested in metal machines smashing each other up you won't want to miss this... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08n8t6h That Carbide is an absolute beast of a machine - known for its infamous "death hum". Hmm, that seems appropriate on this forum. Some people think Robot Wars is just for kids but these machines are more than powerful enough to kill a human being and some of them can even rip through bulletproof material. New series is being filmed in Glasgow next month.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/little-richard-dead-48505/ RIP Little Richard This leaves Jerry Lee Lewis as the last major 50s rocker still living

A quick glance at Wikipedia's recent deaths page shows that many people who are considered Wikipedia notable are now falling victim to COVID-19

Took him long enough I thought he was at death's door in like 2011 and that was 9 years ago

Reddit and Twitter are going crazy tonight over this 2020 so far has actually had quite a lot of prominent deaths so far given that we're only a month and a half into the year This one is truly shocking We knew she was troubled, but we didn't expect this

You said it

I have no memory of posting this at all, nor of who this person is

One thing you notice is that it's the "silly" picks (those that are chosen on a whim based on some spurious information about the person's activities that put them at risk of death) that tend to be the last survivors of lists Shaun Ryder and Mr. T are good examples of what I'm talking about

The Committee are complete muppets for leaving Parsons off the main list, they honestly have no clue Definitely a better bet than Shane MacGowan as well as some of the other questionable picks

I don't know as much about Rush as I do about other progressive rock bands like Yes and King Crimson, but every time I've heard their music I've really enjoyed it and from everything that I'm aware he was a really talented drummer and this is a major loss to the music world

In a huge surprise to ... absolutely no one

I thought it was Love Island that was cursed, not Celebrity Big Brother

How did I manage to forget that one?

Only the good die young

Dylan and McCartney will be in their 80s within the next few years Provided they both live that long of course Jagger and Richards will soon follow, and ditto for them as well

Agree, I even said that myself once Frank Sinatra was the most important musician who died in the 90s, but not the most important musical death of the 90s as his death wasn't the most relevant at the time But then again the same could be argued about Bowie in the 10s The most important death of the 70s could be Jim Morrison or Jimi Hendrix, but it could also be Elvis even though he was past his prime And also McCartney is still one of the most important musicians of all time, and he's headlining Glastonbury this year I think

If John Lennon was the biggest musical death of the 80s, Kurt Cobain the biggest in the 90s, Michael Jackson in the 00s and David Bowie in the 10s, then surely Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney are the strongest candidates to become the biggest musical deaths of the 20s? There's a chance McCartney could see 2030 but Dylan on the other hand has at most 5 years left imho Then on the other hand there's also Jagger and Richards as well, I think we're all stunned Richards is still alive now never mind 2030

Javier, this time

Gorbachev and Little Richard should not have been dropped Nicholas Parsons and Desmond Morris should have been on Bill Gates' dad is not really a deathlisty name and some of the other picks are questionable But overall a good list

If Bill Gates Sr and Ruby Muhammad are celeb enough, anyone is

Worst pick since Ruby Muhammad, imho Not a person who is widely known for a great deal in terms of real international fame except the achievements of his son as far as I'm aware

Interesting thread concept, particularly seeing predictions from 2005 and 2006. We should do one about who will still be alive in 2030 and beyond