Picture created by Chris Barker @Christhebarker
It's quite a morbid subject for Christmas Eve I'll admit, but I was in the pub two days ago with Mandi and my dad having our traditional Christmas Eve drinks and the conversation turned round to all the famous people we have lost this year. My dad has it in his head that someone always goes on Christmas Day, but that isn't always the case. I had a look at famous deaths on Christmas Day on Google and although there was a name for every year there wasn't a huge amount of what you would call 'celebrity' buckets kicked on the 25th of December. Charlie Chaplin in 1977, Dean Martin in 1995, James Brown in 2006 and Eartha Kitt in 2008 are probably the biggest showbiz names.
Obviously this year has been quite a big one for the deaths of famous people, and what makes it sad is that they have all been well loved and respected names, no balance was provided by Gary Glitter or Rolf Harris popping their clogs, we lost the good ones this year. The outpouring of grief at David Bowie's passing in January was on a scale that I personally haven't seen since Princess Diana was murdered by the in-laws and I doubt that anyone will provoke such a response again. Not to disparage any of the others of course, I was saddened by the news of Ronnie Corbett's death and Terry Wogan was one of my favourite radio presenters. On the night Victoria Wood died we watched two of her live stand up videos in tribute, not quite believing that it could be real. Caroline Aherne was another surprise death, followed a few months later by her on screen grandmother Liz Smith, who we had recently watched in two different film versions of A Christmas Carol.
To go back to our pub conversation there was the obvious secrecy surrounding the Queen, has she already died but the Palace want to wait until until after Christmas to break the news? Or maybe they don't want her adding to the above illustration. There was also the matter of some elderly entertainers knocking about and still going strong, Barry Cryer for example or indeed any of the members of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, or what about David Jason? Only Fools and Horses still has an association with Christmas so his death would be quite a headline grabber. There are obviously too many people to choose from and not a single person that we of course wanted it to happen to, and my dad suggested that this Christmas the big show business death would be a rank outsider from the obvious suspects, which of course opened the field considerably.
On the way home I looked at my phone to see what I had missed and saw that Rick Parfitt had died. I know he has had health issues in the past and these had influenced his decision to leave Status Quo, but I didn't see that coming at all. Quo were never a cool band (at least not in my lifetime) yet they are a band I have always liked mainly because they always looked like they were enjoying themselves with two fingers firmly stuck up to the likes of the NME. Admittedly their fans could be rather odd but if standing in front of the stage playing air guitar to the band is your thing then go for your life, if you don't give a shit how daft you look then neither should anyone else.
So there you have it, 2016 wasn't brilliant but Rick Parfitt is surely the last to go and there won't be a big surprise.
Christmas Day was lovely, even for me who doesn't really like Christmas yet have been feeling oddly festive this year for some reason. We went to my dad's for lunch (after I had released the podcast - it was a Sunday after all) and in the evening we had tea at ours. As there wasn't really a great deal on television we ended up watching a countdown of Christmas songs with all the usual suspects being played - Shakin' Stevens, Mud, Slade, and Wham! 'Last Christmas' is a beautiful song and especially poignant because it was held off the Christmas number one by the original Band Aid (that was shown too, we still enjoy naming people, including Rick Parfitt who I think is the only dead person in the video - so far), and George Michael donated the money from his song to the Feed the World charity. Once that was finished my dad left the house and I went out for a cigarette while having a check on my phone. My dad was out of sight so I couldn't shout after him so I phoned him to tell him that his rank outsider prediction had come true.
I didn't think that the death of someone I didn't know could shock me as much as David Bowie, or cause as much grief and upset among fans. That was before George Michael's death was announced towards the end of Christmas Day. Nobody could have seen that coming and I think it caused genuine shock as he was only young. Although outwardly one of the indie kids when I was younger, I did of course do my apprenticeship through the charts, Radio 1 and Top of the Pops and Wham! were brilliant. Not quite as cool as Duran Duran but certainly a cut above some of the gunk that was out there at the time. The Make It Big album is one that I have on vinyl and listening to it recently it sounds as fresh and relevant as it did in 1984.
2016 really saved itself for a finale, only Her Majesty can top this.
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