Vesty

I’m in a cemetery today. I don’t want to be. Anyone who knows me will know one of my favourite jokes, considering my passion for cemeteries as museums of people, is to ‘threaten’ people with a blog post. “I’ll be writing about you one day!” I say, tongue in cheek. Earlier this month, it finally […]

The Music of Patrick Cowley

Cowley was instrumental in developing dance music in the late 70s/early 80s – and his death from AIDS in 1981 robbed the queer community one of its most promising talents Late night editing for Queerly Departed had my Spotify playlist deliver an unexpected tune that slaps. I liked the sound of it, turned up the […]

The Tortoise & The Opera Singer

What on earth an opera singer has to do with a tortoise? We all know about Conchita from Eurovision but there’s another you should know about, whose unique grave resembles something from a Terry Prachett novel. Back in March I discovered the above image and the tag line ‘Opera Singer‘. The smile, the enthusiam, the […]

Rust in Vrede: A Trip to Zorgvlied Cemetery

Take a trip to an historic cemetery just outside central Amsterdam and see where peacocks and Dutch celebrities reside hand in hand I’m in Amsterdam once a month nowadays and like any good cemetery enthusiast, I’m loving the opportunity to explore another city’s past and its dead. I took a tram to Amsterdam RAI and […]

Mr Marie Lloyd

In last week’s post you lucky readers were treated to a cockney singalong about an exhibition of strength that cemented the reputation of the first proper celebrity bodybuilder. This week we take a look at a man who sung the song and, for decades, has been nothing more than an aside compared to his far […]

Put On Your Red Shoes and Dance The Blues – A Bowie Tribute.

by Sheldon & Christina (Written yesterday, on 11/01/2016, after meeting at the Three Tuns pub, now Zizzi’s Beckenham, where Bowie started his musical career) Sheldon It was the news, first thing on Monday morning, when the context of Blackstar clicked into place as the 28th and final entry into Bowie’s catalogue. Upon its release, the jarring, stark, melancholy album of […]

A Touch of Class In Hampstead Cemetery

After a short walk from West Hampstead tube and cutting through Fortune Green, my first experience of this garden of the dead was through a narrow alleyway, I was then presented with a choice: left or right. The alleyway splits the cemetery in two, so I had to choose carefully… Hampstead Cemetery has always been […]

Britain’s Forgotten Mixed Race Composer

A mixed black composer whose work was admired by the likes of US President Roosevelt fought racial prejudice all of his life Bandon Hill is a Cemetery I’ve known since I was a boy as the Goodman family plot is there. Unbenownst to me, so was the last resting place of a man who despite […]

Outside London – Going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee

by Christina People make pilgrimages all the time. Some people make religious pilgrimages, but I am not particularly religious (I go to church sometimes, and have done since I was 9. My Grandpa was a Reverend, and my mother is one too. And I’ve been to Jerusalem, and stood at the Wailing Wall, and written […]

The Lost Boys

by Sheldon One of my passions as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, is singing. I’ve been singing in a choir for two years now, which is a feat in itself, as after my voice broke at the age of fourteen I thought I’d never be able to sing again. In my boyhood I spent […]