The RIP Thread

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
kiwiqpr said:
DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall dies
By Mark Savage BBC music reporter
  • 6 minutes ago
You must log in or register to see images
Image copyrightGetty Images
Image caption The musician found fame as an acid house DJ and forged a stellar career as a producer
Andrew Weatherall, one of the UK's most respected DJs and record producers, has died aged 56.

The musician, who was born in Windsor, rose to fame during the acid house era, and worked with the likes of New Order and Happy Mondays.

His production and remix work on Primal Scream's Screamadelica turned it into an era-defining album, and earned the band the first Mercury Prize in 1992.

Weatherall died in hospital on Monday morning, his spokesman confirmed.

The cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.


"He was being treated in hospital but unfortunately the blood clot reached his heart. His death was swift and peaceful," said a statement.

"His family and friends are profoundly saddened by his death and are taking time to gather their thoughts."

You must log in or register to see images

Media playback is unsupported on your device
BBC 6 Music's Matt Everitt reads tributes to Andrew Weatherall and celebrates the life of a music icon
Exit player

Media captionBBC 6 Music's Matt Everitt reads tributes to Andrew Weatherall and celebrates the life of a music icon
The musician started his career singing with post-punk bands at his local arts centre - but found his feet as a DJ in the late 1980s.

"I saved up all my money and went to London at the weekend to buy records," he told the BBC in 2014. "I just got a really good record collection together to the point where people started to say 'Why don't you play this at our party?', 'Why don't you play this at our club?'"

When the acid house scene started to develop around the Roundshaw Estate in Sutton, he discovered that club nights were playing a lot of the music he already owned.

"I knew I had records as good as that, or even better, that they might not know," he later explained, adding: "I was kind of in the right place at the right time".


As the scene exploded, Weatherall was invited to play at the London nightclub Shoom by DJ Danny Rampling, and helped document rave culture with the fanzine Boys Own - a name he later gave to his own record label.

His DJ career led to Weatherall remixing New Order's Worlds in Motion and, along with Paul Oakenfold, the Happy Mondays' Hallelujah.

As a result, he was sought out by Primal Scream, who asked him to remix their single I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have for the meagre sum of £500.

After an initial attempt on which he "basically slung a kick drum under the original", Weatherall decided to try a much more radical approach.

The result was Loaded, which retained about seven seconds of Primal Scream's song - the bass line and a slide guitar.

Weatherall added vocal samples from the US soul group The Emotions, a drum loop from an Italian bootleg of Edie Brickell's song What I Am, alongside snatches of other Primal Scream songs, and frontman Bobby Gillespie singing a line from Robert Johnson's Terraplane Blues.

Gillespie saw Loaded as being part of the Jamaican tradition of dub records, where songs are deconstructed at the mixing desk, adding new elements and desecrating existing ones.

It propelled the rock band onto the dance floor, and kick-started their career.

"I think it's time to stop saying 'this is a dance record' and 'this is a rock record,'" said Gillespie at the time. "If you can play music, you can do whatever you want. Just use your imagination."

The success of Loaded led to Weatherall being recruited for the whole of Screamadelica, establishing him as one of the UK's most in-demand producers.

You must log in or register to see images
Image copyrightGetty Images
Image caption The musician played his last gig in August 2018
While remixing acts like St Etienne, Beth Orton and My Bloody Valentine, he also held down a DJ slot on London's Kiss FM and ran two club nights in London.

However, he never became a household name like his contemporaries Paul Oakenfold and Fatboy Slim - a career move that was entirely deliberate.

"That sort of carry-on was never for me," he told the Independent in 2016. "It's a lot of work, once you go up that slippery showbiz pole, and it would keep me away from what I like, which is making things."

Instead, he carved out a career on the cutting edge of techno, with projects including Sabres of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen.

'Titan of music'
In 2017, he explained the lure of the dancefloor in an interview with Uncut magazine.

"It's the enduring appeal of transcendent experience, which has been with us for 200,000 years. A room, coloured lights, smoke and music? Over to you, Roman Catholics. There are ancient Greek rituals involving herbal drugs to achieve transcendence.

"People were having transcendent experiences in 1940s dancehalls, dancing to a big band; now we do it with drum machines and electronic technology - it's the same concept. Humanity hasn't changed for 100,000 years, but our technology has."

Musicians paying tribute to Weatherall included Ride guitarist and former Oasis bassist Andy Bell, who described him as "absolute titan of music".

BBC 6 Music DJ Giles Peterson said it was "hard to put into words" the "influence and impact he has had has had on UK culture."

Hacienda DJ and author Dave Haslam tweeted he was "one of the greatest, sweetest, funniest guys I've ever met".

And Tim Burgess from The Charlatans wrote he was "shocked and saddened to hear that cosmic traveller Andrew Weatherall has left the building".
Click to expand...

Gutted. His work on Screamadelica was a pivotal moment in my musical journey .

RIP Andrew
 
  • Like
Reactions: UTRs, Ninj and kiwiqpr
no
not mr cut and paste

Larry Tesler: Computer scientist behind cut, copy and paste dies aged 74
  • 20 February 2020
You must log in or register to see images
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Larry Tesler, pictured at the PC Forum in 1989, worked to make computers more accessible
Larry Tesler, an icon of early computing, has died at the age of 74.

Mr Tesler started working in Silicon Valley in the early 1960s, at a time when computers were inaccessible to the vast majority of people.

It was thanks to his innovations - which included the "cut", "copy" and "paste" commands - that the personal computer became simple to learn and use.

Xerox, where Mr Tesler spent part of his career, paid tribute to him.

"The inventor of cut/copy & paste, find & replace, and more, was former Xerox researcher Larry Tesler," the company tweeted. "Your workday is easier thanks to his revolutionary ideas."

Mr Tesler was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1945, and studied at Stanford University in California.

After graduating, he specialised in user interface design - that is, making computer systems more user-friendly.

He worked for a number of major tech firms during his long career. He started at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Parc), before Steve Jobs poached him for Apple, where he spent 17 years and rose to chief scientist.

After leaving Apple he set up an education start-up, and worked for brief periods at Amazon and Yahoo.


Media captionIn 2012, Larry Tesler spoke with the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones
In 2012, he told the BBC of Silicon Valley: "There's almost a rite of passage - after you've made some money, you don't just retire, you spend your time funding other companies.

"There's a very strong element of excitement, of being able to share what you've learned with the next generation."

'A counterculture vision'
Possibly Mr Tesler's most famous innovation, the cut and paste command, was reportedly based on the old method of editing in which people would physically cut portions of printed text and glue them elsewhere.

The command was incorporated in Apple's software on the Lisa computer in 1983, and the original Macintosh that was released the following year.

You must log in or register to see images
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Mr Tesler, pictured in 1991, was an avowed opponent of computer "modes"
One of Mr Tesler's firmest beliefs was that computer systems should stop using "modes", which were common in software design at the time.

Modes allow users to switch between functions on software and apps but make computers both time-consuming and complicated.

So strong was this belief that Mr Tesler's website was called "nomodes.com", his Twitter handle was "@nomodes", and even his car's registration plate was "No Modes".

Silicon Valley's Computer History Museum said Mr Tesler "combined computer science training with a counterculture vision that computers should be for everyone".
 
  • Like
Reactions: UTRs, Ninj, Steelmonkey and 1 other person
QPR999 said:
Never watched Eggheads Jeff? Great show if you like quizzes.

You must log in or register to see media

He also won £250,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

You must log in or register to see media
Click to expand...
No that quiz show didn’t appeal
 
Veteran radio DJ Pete Mitchell, who championed a generation of indie bands, has died aged 61.
The former BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music broadcaster, originally from Crumpsall in Manchester, collapsed while walking near his home in Stockport on Thursday.
A statement from family friend Jo Houlcroft confirmed the father-of-two's death.
Across a 34-year career, Mitchell championed dozens of acts from his home city, as well as The Charlatans.
"Pete collapsed whilst out walking near his home in Stockport, the cause of his death is still unknown but he was not thought to be displaying any signs of illness," Ms Houlcroft said.
"He was knowledgeable and passionate about music of all genres, discovering and supporting many bands and was a huge part of the Manchester music scene.
"His wife Helen and two grown-up sons Adam and Sean are devastated by their loss."
The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess tweeted that Mitchell was "one of the first DJs to play and champion The Charlatans".

Mitchell, who began his career as a cricket commentator at Red Rose Radio in Lancashire, held posts at stations including Manchester's Piccadilly Radio, Radio X and Absolute Radio, and was one half of the duo Pete And Geoff, with Geoff Lloyd, on Virgin Radio.
IQ, his specialist weekend programme on Key 103 in the 1990s, became an important platform for rising acts such as Oasis, 808 State and Happy Mondays.
BBC Radio 6 Music presenter Chris Hawkins said: "Pete Mitchell was not only a brilliant and passionate DJ but a really honest bloke and a lovely, supportive person."
A statement from BBC Radio 2 said: "We are saddened to hear of the passing of the much respected music radio presenter Pete Mitchell."

RIP. Pete.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Steelmonkey and kiwiqpr
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back