RIPs

[Albion]

Really sad to hear this one.....

Hawkwind guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton has passed away.

http://www.hawkwind.com/

[Third Estate Ned]

There was a documentary about them on BBC 4 last year where Huw was talking about the effects of playing whilst twisted beyond belief on acid. I enjoyed the tale so I thought I'd share it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JzAldD6t-ps#t=889s

A mate of my dad's was at this festival and whenever you mention it his eyes mist over.

[Spikes]

In a truly shocking development to the recent royal prank call by that Australian radio station, it would appear that the nurse who took the call has committed suicide.
Just unbelievably tragic.

[DoomBot]

Really sad to hear this one.....

Hawkwind guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton has passed away.

http://www.hawkwind.com/

Gutted. Hawkwind are a huge part of my life. It's only last year I saw him play and support HAwkwind on tour and he seemed in fine form. 

[Frank]

In a truly shocking development to the recent royal prank call by that Australian radio station, it would appear that the nurse who took the call has committed suicide.
Just unbelievably tragic.

It's another terrible illustration of what happens when ordinary folk find themselves caught up in a news story. The idiots responsible for the prank couldn't have foreseen the consequences of their actions, but something terrible happens as soon as any branch of the media starts treating people as a means to an end.

[Bat King]

Quite so sauchie, no one could really expect a suicide from this. But quite obviously the gaff of talking to the hoaxers would cause a big heap of pressure without it being William & Kate.

It was a silly hoax.

Very sad for the poor nurses family.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

It was a silly hoax.

Yeah - what a wheeze, calling up a hospital and pretending to be an elderly woman enquiring about the medical condition of their pregnant granddaughter.

Not only do the presenters deserve a 'firin (which I believe they have been) but I'd seriously think about criminal prosecution. There's nothing "prank" about a call like that, where's the joke?

[TordelBack]

...where's the joke?

The 'joke' is that yet again the very same people who apparently clamour for every intimate detail of the lives of 'celebrities' are complaining when the media they fund and drive does exactly what they ask it to.  It's no good blaming moronic radio jocks or prurient tabloids for creating misery and death when they keep listening to and buying this shite.

That said, yes, criminal prosecution for malicious fraud and invasion of privacy seems in order.  In a world of even more horrible stories, this may still be the most affecting one I've seen this week.  For fuck's sake, what a waste.

[Colin YNWA]

The thing that really urks me about this story is that the same media channels that were all laughing along with the 'joke' are now rounding on the perpetrators for the terrible consequences. Forgetting that its possible the only reason its become what it has is that they all joined in the puerile fun in the first place, for the same vapid reasons the stunt was pulled to start with.

Sure some of them may have covered the it with a certain sense of how easy this was to pull off, but it was done (in the bits I saw and heard) with this knowing smug wink.

Bloody tragic and doing nothing but continue to expose the hypocrisy of the media.

[Steve Green]

Well, I'm not sure I'd be lobbing any rocks personally over this, even though when the pregnancy was first announced I turned off the TV as it was obviously going to be pored over to the nth detail, and the press/tv coverage would magnify anything.

Looking back at the case of the woman who botched the restoration of that fresco of Christ, it all got out of hand via social media and then the mainstream media.

It could quite easily have lead to a similar tragic situation that we have here.

[TordelBack]

...the hypocrisy of the media.

The media we get are the media we pay for.  And before Troutfire has to say it, 'media' is not some homogenous entity.

[Frank]

Looking back at the case of the woman who botched the restoration of that fresco of Christ, it all got out of hand via social media and then the mainstream media. It could quite easily have lead to a similar tragic situation that we have here.

That was pretty much where my thoughts took me on hearing the news about Jacintha Saldanha; via the McCanns, the family of Milly Dowler, and that woman who stuck a cat in a wheelie bin. There aren't many folk who have the mental resources to handle being feted by their peers, and the number of us who can stand up to being the object of their scorn or ridicule is vanishingly small. When we indulge in either worship or criticism of any individual, famous or not, it involves forgetting or ignoring that they're a fallible and vulnerable human being just like everyone else.

[TordelBack]

S'right.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Seconded. So many people clamour for fame, but don't realise that it can swing both ways.

I remember a lad who became a minor Twitter deity after Kanye West decided to randomly followed him (and he doesn't follow anyone - this is the point) and the world's press were banging on this lad's door and he was like "WHAT?! I didn't ASK Kanye to follow me, GO AWAY!"

I remember them repeatedly asking "Surely you're loving your five minutes?" and him replying "NO! Look, I've got an exam next week - leave me the f**k alone" type thing, people were poring over all his information, critcising everything, dying to know why Kanye would have chosen him of all people to follow. West was just doing it for a laugh. Is THAT a joke?


Anyway - before this swings wildly off topic I've got to say I was gutted about Huw Lloyd Langton I bloody love Hawkwind.

[vzzbux]

The media have a lot to answer for around the world but never want to put their hand up to anything and when it does blow up  in their faces they try to pass the blame.



V