186 replies to this topic

[TAFKAG]

Godot, on 13 April 2006 - 09:12 AM, said:

I guess they have been mentioned elsewhere but what remains of the Dubliners is worth watching. Luke Kelly and Ciaran Bourke have already gone and Ronnie Drew, another one of the originals is still going (as is the band, still touring too). At around 72, that is positively ancient for a Dubliner.

The last surviving founding member, banjo player Barney McKenna, survives no longer.

[Magere Hein]

TAFKAG, on 05 April 2012 - 03:13 PM, said:

The last surviving founding member, banjo player Barney McKenna, survives no longer.

It's the way of all flesh, of course, but what a loss. I saw him (and the Dubliners) play in Rotterdam's De Doelen some five years ago. They weren't exactly sprightly, and mr McKenna did most of his banjo strumming while sitting on a stool. Nevertheless, the old men played as if they'd done nothing else in their lives. Their encore of The Town I Loved So Well moved me to tears.

regards,
Hein

[time]

TAFKAG, on 05 April 2012 - 03:13 PM, said:

Godot, on 13 April 2006 - 09:12 AM, said:

I guess they have been mentioned elsewhere but what remains of the Dubliners is worth watching. Luke Kelly and Ciaran Bourke have already gone and Ronnie Drew, another one of the originals is still going (as is the band, still touring too). At around 72, that is positively ancient for a Dubliner.

The last surviving founding member, banjo player Barney McKenna, survives no longer.

Feck! (as they say) He was going on my DDP team for this year but I forgot him! Feck!

[Grande Pablo]

http://www.nme.com/n...s-artists/63100

Barney McKenna, of The Dubliners

[Spade_Cooley]

Grande Pablo, on 06 April 2012 - 01:32 PM, said:

http://www.nme.com/n...s-artists/63100

Barney McKenna, of The Dubliners

...

[Phantom]

time, on 05 April 2012 - 05:37 PM, said:

TAFKAG, on 05 April 2012 - 03:13 PM, said:

Godot, on 13 April 2006 - 09:12 AM, said:

I guess they have been mentioned elsewhere but what remains of the Dubliners is worth watching. Luke Kelly and Ciaran Bourke have already gone and Ronnie Drew, another one of the originals is still going (as is the band, still touring too). At around 72, that is positively ancient for a Dubliner.

The last surviving founding member, banjo player Barney McKenna, survives no longer.

Feck! (as they say) He was going on my DDP team for this year but I forgot him! Feck!

I forgot to check to see who was still alive after Ronnie Drew died.

[DevonDeathTrip]

No links I'm afraid, but I heard this evening that the slightly obscure folk singer Louisa Jo Killen was diagnosed with lung cancer last August, although I have no information about how she is doing now. She is probably better known (but still not well known enough for a Wikipedia page) as Louis Killen, however she underwent gender re-assignment surgery at the age of 75...

I'm sure she'll get a broadsheet obit when she goes.

[DevonDeathTrip]

maryportfuncity, on 03 July 2009 - 11:01 AM, said:

Doc Watson is still breathing, something I only discovered today. A little more than can be said of his son Merle who died in circumstances suited to a Monty Python sketch in 1985.

Merle was DIYing after midnight - as you do - when a huge splinter became embedded in his arm. He showed awesome powers of calm and pain tolerance, driving his tractor to neighbours who helped him remove the splinter and bandage himself, only for the tractor to lock its brakes on the return journey, throw him off and fall on top of him, crushing him to death in seconds.

Doc Watson is in hospital with pnuemonia and suspected kidney failure, which is never a good thing to have, especially if you happen to be 89 years old.

[adrian0719]

DevonDeathTrip, on 24 May 2012 - 07:14 PM, said:

maryportfuncity, on 03 July 2009 - 11:01 AM, said:

Doc Watson is still breathing, something I only discovered today. A little more than can be said of his son Merle who died in circumstances suited to a Monty Python sketch in 1985.

Merle was DIYing after midnight - as you do - when a huge splinter became embedded in his arm. He showed awesome powers of calm and pain tolerance, driving his tractor to neighbours who helped him remove the splinter and bandage himself, only for the tractor to lock its brakes on the return journey, throw him off and fall on top of him, crushing him to death in seconds.

Doc Watson is in hospital with pnuemonia and suspected kidney failure, which is never a good thing to have, especially if you happen to be 89 years old.

Doc Watson in "critical condition". Daughter says no bones broken, but he's "real sick". http://hosted.ap.org...EMPLATE=DEFAULT

[DevonDeathTrip]

The singer/guitarist Johnny Dickinson, who gets regular air play on Radio 2's folk show, is suffering from a nasty combination of blood cancer and Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

[time]

adrian0719, on 25 May 2012 - 01:14 AM, said:

DevonDeathTrip, on 24 May 2012 - 07:14 PM, said:

maryportfuncity, on 03 July 2009 - 11:01 AM, said:

Doc Watson is still breathing, something I only discovered today. A little more than can be said of his son Merle who died in circumstances suited to a Monty Python sketch in 1985.

Merle was DIYing after midnight - as you do - when a huge splinter became embedded in his arm. He showed awesome powers of calm and pain tolerance, driving his tractor to neighbours who helped him remove the splinter and bandage himself, only for the tractor to lock its brakes on the return journey, throw him off and fall on top of him, crushing him to death in seconds.

Doc Watson is in hospital with pnuemonia and suspected kidney failure, which is never a good thing to have, especially if you happen to be 89 years old.

Doc Watson in "critical condition". Daughter says no bones broken, but he's "real sick". http://hosted.ap.org...EMPLATE=DEFAULT

Doc dead.

[DevonDeathTrip]

This is a tad confusing, so bear with me.

The comedian and folk singer Sid Kipper is apparently in very ill health and will retire after a farewell appearance at the Whitby Folk Festival later this summer. However, the problem here is that Sid is actually a fictional character played by Chris Sugden and I'm not sure if the ill health I've heard about is affecting just Sid, or both of them. Sid was once a member of The Kipper Family with his dad Henry, played by Dick Nudd. That act ceased when Henry was killed off after Dick decided to retire from the music business (s/he is now believed to be living as a woman in Ireland).

So, in summary, I've got no links to suggest a person who doesn't exist in real life - and whose alter ego might not get an obituary anyway - has an unspecified health condition which may or may not be life threatening. Got to be worth a gamble, surely?

[angryGreatness]

DevonDeathTrip, on 23 July 2012 - 09:58 PM, said:

This is a tad confusing, so bear with me.

The comedian and folk singer Sid Kipper is apparently in very ill health and will retire after a farewell appearance at the Whitby Folk Festival later this summer. However, the problem here is that Sid is actually a fictional character played by Chris Sugden and I'm not sure if the ill health I've heard about is affecting just Sid, or both of them. Sid was once a member of The Kipper Family with his dad Henry, played by Dick Nudd. That act ceased when Henry was killed off after Dick decided to retire from the music business (s/he is now believed to be living as a woman in Ireland).

So, in summary, I've got no links to suggest a person who doesn't exist in real life - and whose alter ego might not get an obituary anyway - has an unspecified health condition which may or may not be life threatening. Got to be worth a gamble, surely?

The real-life person probably IS sick, otherwise he'd probably just say he's retiring.
Still pretty convoluted.

[maryportfuncity]

DevonDeathTrip, on 23 July 2012 - 09:58 PM, said:

This is a tad confusing, so bear with me.

The comedian and folk singer Sid Kipper is apparently in very ill health and will retire after a farewell appearance at the Whitby Folk Festival later this summer. However, the problem here is that Sid is actually a fictional character played by Chris Sugden and I'm not sure if the ill health I've heard about is affecting just Sid, or both of them. Sid was once a member of The Kipper Family with his dad Henry, played by Dick Nudd. That act ceased when Henry was killed off after Dick decided to retire from the music business (s/he is now believed to be living as a woman in Ireland).

So, in summary, I've got no links to suggest a person who doesn't exist in real life - and whose alter ego might not get an obituary anyway - has an unspecified health condition which may or may not be life threatening. Got to be worth a gamble, surely?

Hmmm, sounds like a Frank Sidebottom job...can't find much by way of Googling to suggest he's that obit-worthy, mind. Local papers etc count for the Deathrace, so it might be worth anyone likely to enter that competition marking their cards for his demise being reported by BBC North East, or summat.

[time]

Gordon Lightfoot's 'sidekick', the bassist John Stockfish has died aged 69, of natural causes.

[Bibliogryphon]

Mike Harding (b 1944) has been put out to pasture by Radio 2

Not by mutual agreement.

[TAFKAG]

Founding member of the Chieftains, fiddler/boner Martin Fay, has died at 76.

[VSBfromH]

Ian Campbell

Scots folk artist, founder of the folk group which bears his name and father of the Campbell brothers of UB40 fame.

Apologies if already posted elsewhere.

[DevonDeathTrip]

Veteran folkie Meic Stevens - "The Welsh Bob Dylan" - is suffering from throat cancer, estimating his chances of survival to be 50/50.