themaninblack

And the name! Big shame. His 1970 album with "the Whole World", which included a teenage Mike Oldfield is one of my favourite albums of all time...

Of course going further back, Tony Hancock done himself in at 44 and two years before Arthur Haynes, whose naturalised delivery would not look out of place today, died aged 52...

...all the usual suspects! Unusually, he wasn't mentioned on DL at all last year. I guess everybody hoped no one else had noticed he was dying. Yes. Most unwell celebs are mentioned but there are the occasional one no-one wants to mention...

...all the usual suspects!

The only two I can remember dying young were Bill Hicks and Sam Kinnison...

Er, isn't she a bit...old for that sort of thing. 11/12/13 yeah but 15? Rock music must be really shit at the moment if they're not turning heads anymore. Same goes for Hip Hop...

6 days older than Baker don't you know. It's sad that Briers has passed away but the day Baker goes, you'd have to times that by 1,000,000...

I think you are getting the 1960s mixed up with the 1990s, which is an understandable mistake seeing as it was a replay of it in many respects. It's that bit I don't get. I could be wrong, but I get the funny feeling you are under 30 years old. Who were these "traditionally appealing" bands in 1963/4? Trad jazz? Skiffle? Balladeers like Sinatra? Elvis? The Beatles were no doubt overrated but their impact on music for good or ill was pervasive. To dismiss that is to cut off your nose to spite your face. The Beatles were an influence on Glam Rock for instance (listen to Roxy Music's opener from their debut album and it's a rip off of 'Daytripper' from 1965. Bowie pretty much stole McCartney's DESH style music on stuff like "Changes") who were in turn an influence on Nick Cave. The very notion of a band or artist using the album format, complete with "concept" (such as cover art, themes and contemporary reference) was one the Beatles were at the forefront of in the 1960s, with albums such as 'Revolver' and 'Sgt. Pepper'. Don't sound much like 1 Direction to me. They were indeed the "boyband" of their day, but that was then, a very different pop landscape. This argument smacks of the kind of naive, elitist tight-arseness I long abandoned as I've got older...

Funnily enough, Richard Briers was on record as saying he disliked his character, Tom Good. But he played him so charismatically. Interestingly, his later character of Martin in 'Ever Decreasing Circles', might be on the surface a more sympathetic character (he couldn't really help being what he was), but Briers plays him very unsympathetically. Very good actor, Briers so I shall miss him. And of course he was Rhoobarb and Custard as well and if that doesn't guarantee immortality, nothing will!

Not listened to the White Album then, have you? Is that the one with "Ob La Di Ob La Da" on? Yes. And 29 other tracks...

I thought Paradise Towers was a decent, quirky story. Briers was fine enough as the Chief Caretaker but he's a touch OTT as the transformed Kroagnon...

Not listened to the White Album then, have you?

They were so bad that they inspired more than one generation of kids to go and form bands like Oasis. Oscar Wilde died peniless because he was from an earlier time. Im pretty sure, legalities or not, had he been around a the time of the swinging 60s, his influence on British culture would have been such that he would have died a very rich man indeed. Possibly. Yes, I read somewhere the other day that 'without the Beatles, there would be no 1 Direction, JLS or The Wanted'. It made me want a time machine and Mark Chapman's telephone number. Must have been a Ladybird book seeing as its such a simplistic reading of Rock history...

He was in the top 6. You're gonna put him ahead of Tony Sheridan, Billy Preston, Jeff Lynne and George Best? Hang on... GEORGE Best???! Best was refrerred to as "the Fifth Beatle" by the Portugese press after his brilliant performance against Benfica in 1966... I thought it was 1968 when Man Utd beat Benfica 4-1 Nope. Definitely 1966 after the quarter final...

Mumsnet should get fucking nuked!!!! There was some tosser on the Jeremy Vine show last week, another rent a quote, from a Dads version of m**snet. The fuggin handwringing and utter horseshit that is being spouted, Fucking hell, the kids will need to give their parents counselling such is the fucked up, false reality they live in. Kids are quite capable of noting AND dealing with the fact that somebody has gone from hero to zero without the need of a parent. Bunch of cock suckers, the lot of em. Everything you have said is correct except that last sentence... ;-)

He was in the top 6. You're gonna put him ahead of Tony Sheridan, Billy Preston, Jeff Lynne and George Best? Hang on... GEORGE Best???! Best was refrerred to as "the Fifth Beatle" by the Portugese press after his brilliant performance against Benfica in 1966...

Shutting down for two years for "repairs".

The French must be pissing themselves with laughter over this. While here it's big "Mark Austin wagging his finger in disappointment" horror news, I bet French TV news treat this story as an "..and finally" piece worthy of the skateboarding duck!

Depends on what you mean by good? It's pretty dated now (as is any television from the 1970s) both in look and feel (all this dystopian worldview is very much of it's time). However, I've got the first series on DVD and I enjoyed it (I'm only old enough to remember when it had Avon as the leader not Blake and subsequently being confused by the title!) and I hope to get the second series in the not too distant future... I'll give it a go then. Also, I think you'll find that the first series is up on youtube. I started watching it last Sunday and now I'm up to Series 1 Episode 7. I think it's brilliant. I love the downbeat tetchiness and the strong characterisation. I agree that the special-effects are very, very dated but if you can get past that there is a lot there.The politics are quite complicated too. The only small problem I've got is that I already know what happens at the very end from having seen it on lots of clip shows.But even that is not a problem because the characters are so interesting that you want to see how they get there and what happens along the way. I highly recommend it and I'm usually only a mild sci-fi fan. Avon's cool, isn't he?

Don't think that was ever on the cards. I think the mistaken burglar theory was just thrown out there by some apologists who loved Pistorius. Indeed, it looks like a a long stretch for the Bladerunner...

The ballistics report may be the key here. If she was judged to have died by shots from a fair distance, and/or from the side/behind, it might add credence to the "mistaken burglar" theory...

If that goes to court he wont have a leg to stand on...

Probably not the one you just liked...

It makes you want there to be a God just to the expression on his face when he meets St. Peter...

Huzzah! That makes up for missing out on Gilmore...