dead Sheila Rossall (Infamous Sick Girl From The Seventies)

[Cowboy Ronnie 78]

Such a feelins comin over me, there is wonder in most everything I see, and the reason is clear, it's because you are near, your love's put me on the top of the world.

 

 

If she'd meant a word of that she wouldn't have starved herself to death, would she?

 

Mind you, the all time irony king was George Formby, in the early sixties, out of time, out of touch, widowed and faced with a heart condition that could kill him at any moment he recorded his last minor hit:

 

'Happy Go Lucky Me'

 

Of course she didn't mean it. She didn't ever write it, her tit of of a brother did. How many singers of that time did mean what they singing about anyway?

(Please don't get me started on the Carpenters)

 

Indeed - it's all very creepy. Richard Carpenter clearly had some weird fixation on his sister. He ended up marrying his cousin. Need any more be said?

[Lady Die 63]

Indeed - it's all very creepy. Richard Carpenter clearly had some weird fixation on his sister. He ended up marrying his cousin. Need any more be said?

OMG - I hope they haven't got children?

[Handrejka 1,904]

Indeed - it's all very creepy. Richard Carpenter clearly had some weird fixation on his sister. He ended up marrying his cousin. Need any more be said?

OMG - I hope they haven't got children?

 

They have five children! Four girls and one boy. Oh God, did I just admit to knowing that?

[maryportfuncity 10,657]

Handy, our little Manx minx

 

I think it's time you stopped the repression and shared this Carpenters thing with the group.

 

No pain, no gain and all that!

[Vinegar Tits 606]

Indeed - it's all very creepy. Richard Carpenter clearly had some weird fixation on his sister. He ended up marrying his cousin. Need any more be said?

He freaked out Cynthia Gibb during the making of The Karen Carpenter Story too.

 

I'm not sure about him actually being fixated by Karen though. I'd say it's more massive, though repressed, jealousy - he was arguably the talented one but Karen was the voice and as such I think he realised pretty quickly that without her he'd be nothing. He used to get very peed off about being considered merely Karen's piano player when he was so much more. But ultimately it's Karen's voice that we all remember.

 

I remember Judy Finnigan (it might have been Judi Spiers come to think of it) saying that he seemed "haunted", and I think that sums him up.

 

A most warm welcome Alphonsin, hope you stick around.

[Handrejka 1,904]

Indeed - it's all very creepy. Richard Carpenter clearly had some weird fixation on his sister. He ended up marrying his cousin. Need any more be said?

He freaked out Cynthia Gibb during the making of The Karen Carpenter Story too.

 

I'm not sure about him actually being fixated by Karen though. I'd say it's more massive, though repressed, jealousy - he was arguably the talented one but Karen was the voice and as such I think he realised pretty quickly that without her he'd be nothing. He used to get very peed off about being considered merely Karen's piano player when he was so much more. But ultimately it's Karen's voice that we all remember.

 

I remember Judy Finnigan (it might have been Judi Spiers come to think of it) saying that he seemed "haunted", and I think that sums him up.

 

A most warm welcome Alphonsin, hope you stick around.

 

Is it true they used Karen's actual clothes for that movie and that the ambulance men were the same or is that an urban myth?

[maryportfuncity 10,657]

Dunno, I'll ask our resident Carpenters expert, oh, she's the one who posted the question.

 

Was it just the Carpenters Handy or did you like Donny Osmond and/or David Cassidy as well. As I recall it the nice lasses were Donny fans the ones with a bit of spirit drooled over the obviously more knowing Cassidy. Both of them, oddly, now health conscious and performing well and earning respect. Or summat. Can't see either being a DL contender anytime soon.

[Guest quater]

Blackpool pop star dies

TRAGIC pop star Sheila Rossall, whose career was cut short when she was diagnosed with a rare allergy syndrome, has died.

 

Sheila was the lead singer with 1970's band New Pickettywitch before she was diagnosed with Total Allergy Syndrome in 1980.

For around a decade she lived in what was described as a "protective cocoon" and constantly used an oxygen mask.

Fans donated £65,000 to a "Save Sheila Fund" for treatment in America.

She died in a Blackpool nursing home last week, aged 57, after what her family described as a long illness. Her funeral will take place at Christ The King Church in Grange Park on Thursday.

 

 

 

07 November 2006

[maryportfuncity 10,657]

Good spot; I'm guessing there's quite a story to come out about her life.

 

 

Sourced in Blackpool local press.

[Tempus Fugit 214]

Good spot; I'm guessing there's quite a story to come out about her life.

 

 

Sourced in Blackpool local press.

I wonder if she'll get an obit in a national paper, can't see it myself, she's pretty much forgotten. Maybe the Guardian will.

[maryportfuncity 10,657]

Doubt she'll get much, the musical career was desperate on a good day. This is a good spot since a Google search on her death turns up nowt and without the link above we could have revived this thread and prattled on not realising she was brown bread.

[Phantom 2,535]

I'm surprised that GMTV haven't run a special report on her.

[Vinegar Tits 606]

Perhaps she wasn't faking it afterall...

 

Gawd, another piece of my childhood gone

[maryportfuncity 10,657]

Chill VT, we all die at some point. She was on television in the early eighties staring blankly ahead and saying; 'Only death is left now.'

 

Took her a quarter of a century to get there mind, despite being allergic to EVERYTHING!

 

Assuming a healthy person laid in bed and waited for death with attendant muscle wasting and the rest they'd die that quick.

 

Drama queen, IMHO.

[themaninblack 2,112]

Probably psychosomatic...I vaguely remember something about this...

 

..or was it Joey Deacon?

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

Deacon (right) seen here Grooming

Probably psychosomatic...I vaguely remember something about this...

 

..or was it Joey Deacon?

[maryportfuncity 10,657]

Not for those easily offended but if anyone needs updating on the legend that was Joey Deacon they'll find more than enough here.

[One shot Paddy 1,206]

Not for those easily offended but if anyone needs updating on the legend that was Joey Deacon they'll find more than enough here.

 

That takes me back!

[Paul Bearer 6,109]

I can't remember it

[Handrejka 1,904]

I can't remember it

 

 

Me neither and I'm in that age bracket.

[Guest Never you mind.]

I remember seeing her on - I think - Nationwide where they discussed her condition and she sat there blank eyed at one point and said something like: 'Only death is left now.' That's why I reckoned she was part drama queen.

 

VT, I think you're right, I have that same old feeling it was Pickettywitch. Oddly, the usually flawless tome on sixties to mid seventies bands 'The Tapestry of Delights' omits to mention her in its entry on the band.

 

Sheila Rossall died on November the 2nd this year. She was a talented and unique individual who suffered for over 30 years with mental illness and towards the end died from cancer. She may have appeared a drama queen and potentially a fake but in truth had fought for many years against a relentless mental illness and suffered tremendously because of this. Her life was tragic, lonely and cut far too short.

 

I for one do not condone people being ridiculed or judged simply because they are not well. Sheila was a caring person who struggled to cope with everyday life. She should have been emphathised with - rather than scorned. Visit http://www.mind.org.uk/ for more information about battling with mental illness and perhaps that will open your mind.

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

Maybe she was finally caught by the Pickettywitch Finder General?

[maryportfuncity 10,657]

I for one do not condone people being ridiculed or judged simply because they are not well

 

So yer okay with us speculating on when they're likely to die? Cheers.

[Guest humboldt]

From the site Dead Rock Stars

 

Sheila Rossall - Died 11-?-2006 in Blackpool - After a long illness ( Folk ) She was 57 years old - Singer - Was a member of New Pickettywitch (They did, "Love Me Just A Little Bit More" and "Sudden") - Her career was cut short after being diagnosed with a rare allergy syndrome in 1980.

[Guest Pam King]

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?

 

 

I used to share a flat with Sheila Rossall during her hey day for attention. She smoked, drank and sat in front of a gas fire all day, eating!!!