So sorry to hear about the death of Dave Myers.

On television, as a hairy biker, he always seemed engaging and a thoroughly nice bloke, very passionate about his twin enthusiasms, cooking and motor bikes.

I knew he was undergoing treatment for cancer but on his latest TV appearances, though he looked frail, he seemed optimistic.

Sad.

David James Myers: 8/9/1957 – 28/2/2024. So it goes.

And now Stan Bowles, the best football player I have seen live,as opposed to on television, has died. He most famously starred for Queen’s Park Rangers, but it was a Carlisle United player that I saw him dominate the midfield in a pre-season friendly against the Sons of the Rock at Boghead in 1972. He just glided over the pitch and past our midfielders as if they weren’t there. It was sublime.

This video kind of speaks for itself in illustrating some of his skills – but it tends to concentrate on him scoring goals. (I note that the person who titled it had a bit of difficulty spelling extraordinaire.)

I see from his biographical information he shared a birthday with me, though he was some years older.

Stanley Bowles: 24/12/1948 – 24/2/2024. So it goes .

One of the finest Scottish footballers of the post-Second World War era, Ian McMillan, has died, at the age of 92.

He started his senior career at Airdrieonians (the original Airdrieonians) for whom he played for ten years before being transferred to Rangers (the original Rangers.)

In his time at Ibrox he was nicknamed “The Wee Prime Minister” for his performances (and also in recognition of the actual Prime Minister at the time) and was part of that semi-legendary forward line Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson (Later Henderson, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.) He won six caps for Scotland, four Scottish League titles, three Scottish Cup finals,  and two Scottish League Cups and played in the 1961 European Cup Winners’ Cup final a year after playing in the European Cup semi-final.

It’s lost in the mists of time but I believe I may have seen him play for Rangers in a League Cup game against Hibs in the early 1960s. (I was very young at the time.)

McMillan returned to Airdrie for  one season before retiring but later became manager of the club.

He has a connection to the Sons of the Rock in that his grandson Iain Russell played for Dumbarton FC in two spells.

John Livingstone “Ian” McMillan: 18/3/1931 – /2/2024. So it goes.

I was shocked yesterday to hear of the death of radio DJ Steve Wright.  It was only on Sunday he presented, as usual, Sunday Love Songs on BBC’s Radio 2 and he sounded in fine fettle (though the show was probably recorded earlier.) But he was only 69.

We have Radio 2 as our radio alarm station and so we listened to him every Sunday.

His DJing style wasn’t always to my taste (in particular I couldn’t stand his Serious Jockin’ segment) and he had a habit of talking over the ends of songs or even adding his own idiosyncratic vocals but he had a legion of fans and will be a miss on Sunday mornings from now on.

Stephen Richard Wright: 26/8/1954 – 12/2/2024. So it goes.

I was shocked to learn of the death of writer Christopher Priest.

Yes he was 80 and it seems he had cancer (but of course I did not know that) but the news nevertheless came as a jolt.

I had followed his blog posts – see my sidebar – but he usually posted intermittently so the lack of recent posts did not seem significant.

I had probably heard of him in the 1960s via short stories but certainly by the time of his first novel (Indoctrinaire, 1970) and I bought and read his books keenly. His work makes up a substantial portion of my SF collection. Typically the reality in his narratives is slippery, with things gradually morphing from the seemingly quotidian to something more other worldly.

He will most probably be remembered for his stories set in the Dream Archipelago, a world recognisably like ours but yet twisted slightly out of true and which evolved over time.

I was lucky enough to meet him a few times at Science Fiction conventions. The last time was at the Harrogate Eastercon (six years ago now) – quite some time since we had last met – and since I am a relatively little known SF writer/reviewer – I was surprised he recognised me. He even remembered I hail from Dumbarton and introduced me to his partner Nina Allan (whom he married last year) as coming from the town. He was unfailingly courteous, friendly and encouraging.

I have of course read most of his books and have reviewed many of them on here (the link is to every mention of Priest on this blog.) His prose never fell below the highest quality. Had his work not been so closely aligned to Science Fiction and the speculative he would undoubtedly have received more praise from the usual literati suspects than he in fact did.

My consolation (if there is one) is that there are still some of his books on my tbr pile.

Christopher Mackenzie Priest: 14/7/1943 – 2/2/2024. So it goes.

Welsh rugby legend -and one of the best rugby players I have ever seen – Barry John, died last week. Despite only winning twenty-five caps (and five more test appearances as a British and Irish Lion) his status as one of the best rugby players of all time is secure. He seemed to be able to glide past opponents as if they weren’t there and was also able to kick accurately from either foot.

Sadly the attention he gained from his fame laid on his mind and he retired from rugby aged only 27.

This film clip contains footage of John in action:-

Barry John: 6/1/1945 – 4/2/2024. So it goes.

Hard on the heels of the news of John’s death came the announcement that the last surviving major cast member of the incomparable BBC comedy series Dad’s Army, Ian Lavender, had also passed away.

Though he made many other film and TV appearances he will be mainly remembered for playing the “stupid boy,” Private Pike, a role which probably overshadowed the rest of his acting career. This sequence contains probably the best joke in the whole run of Dad’s Army. It captured superbly both Pike’s naive exuberance and Captain Mainwaring’s unthinking bumptiousness.

Lavender also had a part in the 2016 film of Dad’s Army as Brigadier Pritchard, a very different character to Private Pike.

Arthur Ian Lavender: 16/2/1946 – 2/2/2024. So it goes

Melanie Safka has also gone.

She first came to notice in the UK with her 1970 cover of the Rolling Stones song Ruby Tuesday, which I featured here.

Her biggest UK hit was Brand New Key, parodied by The Wurzels as The Combine Harvester.

I’ve chosen her second UK hit (no 39 in 1970) What Have They Done to My Song Ma (aka Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma) partly for the verse in French but also since I always wanted to write a parody of it entitled Look What They’ve Done to My Team Ma. (By ‘team’ I meant the mighty Sons of the Rock.) I never got round to that of course.

Melanie: What Have They Done to My Song Ma

Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (Melanie):  3/2/1947 – January 23/1/2024. So it goes.

Pedant’s corner:- Both of the song’s titles surely ought to have a comma after ‘Song’ and the ‘what’ one, a question mark at its end.

Our new granddaughter was born on Tuesday. 7 lb, 8 oz. Mother and child both doing well. Her big sister Isobel is excited!!

Here is Imogen:-

I saw in Saturday’s Guardian that writer D G Compton has also died (in November. They took their time publishing the obituary.)

His was a familiar name on the British SF scene from the 1960s onwards but his work was always a little out of the SF mainstream.

However looking at my records I only seem to have one of his books on my shelves, Nomansland, published in 1993.

David Guy (D G) Compton: 19/8/1930 – 10/11/2023. So it goes.

Gigi Riva, Italy’s all-time top goalscorer, has died.

In all he scored 35 goals for the national team from 42 appearances.

But it was his club career that marked him out. After starting with a local side he moved to Sardinian club Cagliari, then in Serie B, where his goals helped them to promotion in 1964. More astonishingly he took Cagliari to the Scudetto in 1970, the club’s first (and only) Serie A title. Indeed, it was the first time a club from south of Rome had won the title.

His celebration of this goal in the 1970 World Cup semi-final perhaps inspired Marco Tardelli’s in the final in Spain 12 years later.

Luigi (Gigi) Riva: 7 /11/1944 – 22/1/2024. So it goes.