Slackhurst Broadcasting

When I was in primary school he was in The Man From UNCLE! Btw I think you mean CSI, unless there's been a TV action show about the Confederation of British Industry.

It's been years since I sat down to watch anything on Channel 4 and Dispatches made me realise why. No doubt Brand was a gross self-indulgent pig, but the whole milieu around him was so degraded - educated middle-class people in the business of selling vulgar trash.

I've always thought Russell Brand was a sort of professional halfwit, and am baffled at people taking him seriously. The idea of the establishment being out to get him is like Timmy Mallett being declared an enemy of the people.

Years ago I wrote for a certain line of magazines and would sometimes do articles from readers' letters or conversations over the phone. At the start the editor/publisher told me that if what people said or wrote wasn't exciting enough it was fine to just make it all up instead. He said he'd learned this when he was a reporter with the Daily Express.

Marcel Proust dead.

Me too. It wasn't helped by one of the cast being the son of a teacher I had at school, as I couldn't see his name without thinking what a twat his father was.

I don't know about class, but David Mitchell is one of those people whose voice sounds like someone's bottom making farting noises against a leather seat.

Christian rocker Mylon LeFevre dead at 78. I always liked this one, from his album with Alvin Lee.

Mike Yarwood was a real household name in the Seventies but time left him behind. When I saw the news I was actually surprised, I thought he'd died quietly years ago. It's surprising again to realise that he was still only in his forties when his career was pretty well over.

One for the amusingly named foreigners thread: German politician Edgar Moron has died aged 82.

With the "I used to be cruel to my woman" verse completely omitted.....

He's gone fat, hasn't he? I remember when Spandau Ballet were the sharp young dandies bringing style back to the drab worthiness of the post-punk scene....

Cilla died after having a fall and hitting her head on the wall. I suppose Elton's wig would cushion him.

Not to mention Rod Hull.

Part of Saturday night in the Seventies...

Another five years, he says on the BBC. Watch out in 2028!

She actually looks quite frightening coming towards you....

Well that's one way of getting people not to notice her face.

The Sex Pistols logo is a design classic by itself. I've often thought that the blackmail-style lettering has been copied innumerable times*, but nobody has ever made it look the way Jamie Reid did. Proof that he was a real artist, I suppose. *Mostly by talentless people, it has to be said, blackmail lettering having become a dimwit's signifier for "punk."

You've only got to listen to the Glitter Band's singles to hear the difference that Gary made. The Glitter sound was certainly originated by Mike Leander, but it wouldn't have been the same without the Leader and his grotesque presence.

If Diane Abbott had cancer I can't see her not making a song and dance about it in the media.

He'd had cancer for several years and kept it private.

I don't suppose Mike Read is going to die shortly, but when I see him on Talking Pictures I always think he looks like he's been embalmed.

The other surviving original Animals, Eric Burdon and John Steel, are both 82. Candidates for extinction in a few years' time?

Not yet being reported on the BBC website. Also no word about the cause of death? I'm a bit shocked to see it.