Vinegar Tits

BBC World Service has been saying there are reports that Abe has cardio-something-doodah* issues, ie - possibly dead. *medical term (look, I've got Covid and been up all night)

Doesn't necessarily mean anything. Unless he was commentating (does he commentate at the moment? Not sure) then I didn't expect him to be there. He's not as 'media' as McEnroe, nor does he turn up at legends exhibition events as much as McEnroe, Borg, etc. Same for why I mentioned Graf and Sampras in my earlier post - they've both kept very low profiles since retiring. And no Graf means no Agassi, so not surprised. As I said, Virginia Wade is the big no-show. Everyone there looked in rude health, even Rod Laver looked less frail than he has done in recent years. Ann Jones in particular was positively spritely.

Yes, Martina's got Covid. Welcome fellow Covid sister (I got it on Friday ). Says she's feeling okay onTwitter. All the oldies who attended looked well. A number of the absentees are not surprising (Graf, Sampras for starters) but very interesting, and more significant for us, was that Virginia Wade was missing - though she does apparently live in the States these days, she normally wouldn't miss something like this.

Shocking news. Proper Yorkshire legend. Him and Judith Stamper were the news double act to beat all news teams. RIP.

Her June 2022 photo is even worse. I have little idea who she is as I'm not a 12-year-old Insta-freak but she may get an obit as a 'influencer' or whatever.

Sad news. I saw her with The B-52's when she filled in for Cindy Wilson during her sabbatical; she surprisingly fitted in really well and looked like she was having the time of her life. RIP.

Anyway, sad news, though there is a small part of me counting the months on my fingers and thinking - purely for deadpooling reasons - that it's inconvenient it isn't eight months as that would lead us into January 2023. Sadly even six months is probably optimistic. My dad died of oesophageal cancer so I'm not making light of it. It's a horrible way to go and thoughts are with him, friends and family and the wider footballing community.

Which of the two Andy Gorams is ill? (Sorry, old old joke)

Cathal Coughlan, mainstay of Microdisney and the Fatima Mansions, has died after "a long illness". https://www.rte.ie/culture/2022/0523/1300682-singer-cathal-coughlan-dies-aged-61/

I find her as funny as cold dirty dishwater but I wish her no ill. It's the "now" in the comment that makes me wonder if she's had some very recent bad news. Of course, she may have just posted it in a moment of self-pity, which is fair enough and understandable.

Janey Godley posted this on Twitter a couple of hours ago. Sounds like she's been told her cancer is terminal to me. "The constant fear of waking up in anxiety, the horrible knowledge that cancer will be a part of my life until I die now is overwhelming, I accept I must be brave but is bravery simply being alive and pushing down all the fears to get through the next hour? I’m scared"

Mike Peters of The Alarm has severe pneumonia Not good as he already lives with chronic leukaemia and his immune system has taken a battering in the past.

I was thinking purely on a technical level, in terms of pitch, breathing, etc as well as having an amazing voice.

Sad news but I think it's fair to say in this case she'd had a good innings.

Really sad news. Like most non-Frenchies, I mostly know him from Le Demoiselles De Rochefort and Cinema Paradiso. Not been a good few weeks for French actors, has it?

I hope Boris Johnson comes down with a *very* severe case of Delhi Belly whilst in India.

From a purely technical point of view she's probably the greatest pop singer there's been. An *incredible* voice and she can - and has in her varied career - sing anything, and her pitch and in particular her breathing is always spot on. But yeah, "songwriter" really shouldn't be on her Deathlist description. She's written, what? two songs that were on Hasten Down The Wind and that's about it. She was always an interpreter of songs, not a writer.

I wonder what the new book will say that the first one didn't? She wasn't particularly candid about her private life (she never has been, and she's not like Carly Simon who can write about eroticism in a classy manner without it being tawdry) but said just enough - it was mainly about her childhood and musical inspirations, which this new book also seems to be.

The magnificent and incomparable Chrissy Amphlett left us on this day in 2013

I'm *really* reluctant to add his name here for obvious reasons, but Chris Stein is missing the upcoming Blondie tour due to a heart murmur (atrial fibrillation) which is "tiring as hell". He sat down for most of the last tour a couple of years back so it's obviously not getting better and is becoming an issue. It'll be pretty much the first time (bar the odd PA type appearance) that Debbie Harry won't have Chris by her side since before The Stilettos days!

Damn, that's sad news.

RIP to the One Armed, well, everything. Gosh he milked those roles but they're all bloody great films.

Really sad news. A true trailblazer and icon. Another of my childhood icons gone. RIP.

You might not know the name (and to be honest I'm not actually sure it is her name) but if you're a certain age you'll definitely remember the story... Sheila Rossall was "the girl who [was] allergic to the 20th century" and swapped headlines every week in the News Of The World with Lena Zavaroni as newsworthy ill girls. Formerly the singer of New Pickettywitch - not to be confused with Pickettywitch, though to this day Polly Browne gets asked about her health due to this story - she was last heard of living in an oxygen tank in Texas, with not long to live because the money for her treatment was running out. Whatever happened to her? Did she get better? Did she die? There were rumours that she was a fake but nothing was ever proven. The net has scant information about her, and most of that is people wondering whatever happened to her (including a fair amount of posts from me, because I'm sad like that ). Opening up the gauntlet here - anyone?

Liza does look frail, was shaking a bit and is in a wheelchair, but she's always been a bit nuts so fumbling her words is no big deal. Wonderful to hear her glorious throaty laugh is still intact. She's not looked in great health for a number of years now but didn't seem any worse last night. Definitely one to consider but I'm not sure she's at death's door just yet. Lady Gaga is class.