RIP Gordon possibly our best ever manager definitely our most innovative. A forward thinker and initiator of the modern game
Certainly one of the most forward thinking coaches of his era. Built most of our greatest team and had the vision to allow TV to coach as well. The progress he oversaw left his successor the perfect platform to play exciting attacking football that was way ahead of it’s time. We owe him so much. RIP...
Really sad news. Laid the foundations of the greatest team we've ever had, they were exciting times to be a hoop. RIP Gordon and thanks for the fantastic memories.
Gordon Jago remembering Stan Bowles in an interview last year ... QPR FC | Gordon Jago remembers Stan Bowles
Nice tribute to Gordan Jago by club historian Chris Guy ... QPR FC | A tribute: Gordon Jago 1932-2025
One of our best ever managers who took us a quantum leap forward and build the foundation our legendary '75/76 team. May he Rest in Peace.
'The Chingford Skinhead', one of Maggie's right hand men. Famously made an arse of himself with his 'Cricket test' where he claimed children born here to immigrant parents should support England, he should have tried England v Windies at the Oval where most of Brixton decamped a mile up the road to produce the best atmosphere you'd ever get at cricket in the 60s & 70s. One of the last of that era to pass away it's a very different England now. RIP...
Connie Francis: Pretty Little Baby singer dies at 87 please log in to view this image Getty Images Connie Francis sold millions of records, and was the first female recording artist to top the US Billboard Charts Connie Francis, who was at one time the world's biggest-selling female artist, has died at the age of 87. The musician, whose hits included Stupid Cupid and Who's Sorry Now, had recently enjoyed a resurgence after her 1962 song Pretty Little Baby went viral on TikTok. Francis had recently been treated for pelvic pain caused by a fracture. During her stay in hospital, she was diagnosed with pneumonia and died on Wednesday night, the president of her record label, Ron Roberts, told BBC News. Roberts had previously announced the star’s death on Facebook, “with a heavy heart and extreme sadness.” "I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news,” he added. please log in to view this image Getty Images The singer had recently been active on Facebook, updating fans about her health The star's death comes just months after Pretty Little Baby became a trending song on TikTok. Millions of people, including Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, lip-synced to the easy listening ballad, while showing off their children and pets, or making displays of affection. One video, by social media influencers Brooke Monk and Sam Dezz, was watched more than 158 million times. ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog also posted the song, saying that Francis had long been her favourite singer. And the actress Gracie Lawrence, who is currently playing Francis in the Broadway musical Just in Time, also shared a video of herself singing the track, while dressed in character. Speaking last month, Francis said she had been surprised by the sudden success of a track that had originally been a b-side. "To tell you the truth, I didn't even remember the song!" she told People magazine. "I had to listen to it to remember. To think that a song I recorded 63 years ago is touching the hearts of millions of people is truly awesome. It is an amazing feeling." please log in to view this image Getty Images The singer was the biggest-selling female artist in the world in the early 1960s Francis was born Concetta Rosemarie Franconero and grew up in a working-class Italian American family in Brooklyn, New York. Encouraged by her father, she started playing the accordion at the age of three. By the time she was a teenager, she had changed her name to Connie Francis, and was making regular appearances on the US TV variety show Startime Kids. Early attempts to launch a singing career were not successful. She was turned down by almost every record label, only securing a contract with MGM Records because her demo song was called Freddy - which happened to be the name of the president's son. Her initial recordings failed to find an audience, and Francis accepted a place to study medicine at university. But she scored a breakout hit with her last contracted recording for MGM - a cover of the 1923 song Who's Sorry Now?, that she only recorded at her father's insistence. "I had 18 bomb records," Francis told UPI in 1996. "He wanted me to record a song written in 1923. I said 'Forget about it - the kids on American Bandstand would laugh me right off the show.' "He said, 'If you don't record this song, dummy, the only way you'll get on American Bandstand is to sit on the TV'." It was almost prophetic. In 1958, Dick Clark championed the track on American Bandstand, telling viewers: "There's no doubt about it, she is headed straight for the number one spot." Francis, who was watching at home, had no idea the song was going to feature on the show. "Well, the feeling was cosmic - just cosmic!" she wrote in her diary that night. "Right there in my living-room, it became Mardi Gras-time and New Year's Eve at the turn of the century!" Pop icon turned victims' advocate Over the next couple of years, Francis became a true pop icon. She sold millions of records - including teen hits like Lipstick On Your Collar and Everybody's Somebody's Fool. In 1960, she became the first woman to top the Billboard Top 100, with the bluesy ballad Everybody's Somebody's Fool. Francis also had an affinity for languages, and was one of the first stars to record in multiple dialects. Her title song from the 1961 movie Where the Boys Are, for example, was released in seven different languages - English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Neopolitan and Spanish. In 1963, she also recorded one of the first known charity singles, In The Summer Of His Years, a tribute to the assassinated US president John F Kennedy. Her popularity waned in the mid-60s, as acts like The Beatles and Bob Dylan took over the pop charts; and she briefly lost her voice as a result of nasal surgery. please log in to view this image The singer spoke about her rape in a moving interview with Terry Wogan in 1989 In 1974 Francis mounted a comeback at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, but after the performance she was beaten and raped at knife point in her motel. Traumatised, she became a recluse and spent several spells in psychiatric hospitals (she later said she had been admitted against her will by her father). At her lowest point, the star tried to kill herself with sleeping pills. "I just felt that there was nothing for me to live for," she told Terry Wogan on his BBC One chat show in 1989. "I had this free-floating fear of life in general after the rape, and I just said, 'Well, that's it, I'm going to check out'." Francis said it was her adopted son, Joey, who saved her life. "I was looking at this bottle of sleeping pills... and my son knocked at the door of the bathrooom and he said, 'Mommy, you're the best mommy I ever had'," she told Wogan. "And that was it. I took the pills and threw them right down the toilet." The singer later won $1.5 million (£1.1 million) in a lawsuit against the Howard Johnson's motel chain for failing to provide safe locks on the glass door through which her attacker entered. please log in to view this image Getty Images The musician recorded more than 70 albums over her career Francis had just begun her return to the stage in 1981 when her younger brother George Franconero, who had testified against the mafia, was shot to death in front of his house. The incident plunged her deeper into depression, and she spent much of the next decade receiving treatment, during which time she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. However, she also became a prominent voice in crime victims' advocacy groups, including Women Against Rape, and the Victims' Assistance Legal Organisation, and became a spokesperson for Mental Health America. She resumed her recording career in 1989, and continued to sing for sold-out audiences until she was in her 70s. Earlier this month, she told fans she had been admitted to hospital due to ongoing hip pain, but remained in good spirits. Her death came after a short illness, said her friend and label boss Ron Roberts, adding that more details would be released at a later date. Looking back over her life and career in 2010, she said that "with the exception of my brother's murder, I would do it all over again. "Because although there were some terrible lows, there were also exhilarating highs that I would have never felt in any other profession."
Seen on fb just now. Brought me to tears. Hello all, firstly I am going to get the awkwardness out the way. I am a Chelsea fan, but have always had a soft spot for QPR due to my Grandad being a lifelong fan. Well that soft spot has now grown to complete admiration and appreciation. I will now go into the story, it’s a long read and before abusing me for being Chelscum, I would ask you to please take the time to read. There is no hate for QPR coming from me. At the start of the year my Grandad got diagnosed with cancer, wasn’t nothing to worry about 3-4 years before it was a concern is what they said. Well roll on a month and what was years went to months. He was refused surgeries due to his age so he came to terms and was making arrangements and one request was to be cremated in his QPR shirt, as he said he came into this world a QPR fan and he will leave it the same way. Well fast forward a short time later and what went from months went to days, if he didn’t have a surgery he was initially to old for. He had the surgery and all looked well. Some severe failings of the NHS for putting him on the wrong treatment wards but that’s not for this post, that’s for my mum to deal with in due course. 9 weeks have passed since the surgery and my Grandad sadly passed away on Monday. Unfortunately I was on holiday and my family didn’t want to ruin it for me or my kids so kept it from me until today. However in the time it went to days left unless surgery was performed, I got in contact with QPR and asked if they could do a 1 off print on one of the 1982 fa cup final shirts, to which is the greatest football day of my grandads life and he was around for the 66 World Cup. Not only was the communication fabulous from QPR I think it was a lovely gesture that I was only charged for the shirt and there is a lot of writing on it and they got it to me the very next day. It does me a lot to us as he was the number 1 husband to my nan, number 1 dad (Daddy to my mum) to his children, number 1 grandad to us grandkids and number 1 gramps (great grandad) to his great grand children. We are biased of course. Again just such appreciation for the team shop and QPR in general to get this done as quick as they did and never a mention of can’t do it, it was always we will make it work. So the final reason for my post. After your next game if you could raise a glass to John Lomasney a Die hard QPR fan or even better if you could start a chant of his name in the stands (I know a long shot but you never know) and get a video so I can share with my mum it would be amazing. The only downside it would be sad he wouldn’t get to see it. Anyway thanks for reading, please hold the Chelsea abuse
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, The Cosby Show star, dies aged 54 please log in to view this image Variety via Getty Images Malcolm-Jamal Warner in June 2023 Malcolm-Jamal Warner, an actor best known for his role as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died. Warner, who was 54, drowned on Sunday while on vacation in Costa Rica. Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Agency confirmed the death in a news release. Warner appears to have been dragged out to sea by a swift ocean current while swimming at Playa Grande around 14:00 local time in Cocles, a town in the province of Limón, local authorities said. Warner played the son of Bill Cosby on the massively-popular US sitcom from 1984-1992. Authorities said bystanders rescued Warner and brought him to shore, where the Costa Rican Red Cross tried to treat him, but he was declared dead at the scene. He is survived by his wife and daughter. Warner was Emmy-nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a comedy series for his work on The Cosby Show in 1986. He was handpicked for his breakout role by Cosby on the final day of a nationwide audition. "I was literally the last person they saw," he recalled in a 2023 interview. The Cosby Show ranked as the number one TV show for five seasons from 1985 to 1990. It portrayed a cosy middle-class family - a relatively rare depiction at the time of black Americans on television. please log in to view this image Jacques M. Chenet/Corbis via Getty Images "When the show first came out, there were white people and black people talking about (how) the Huxtables don't really exist, black people don't really live like that," Warner said in a 2013 interview. "Meanwhile, we were getting tens of thousands of fan letters from people saying, 'Thank you so much for this show.'" After The Cosby Show, Warner appeared in several other television programmes including Malcom & Eddie, alongside comedian Eddie Griffin. Griffin paid respects to him on social media after his death, writing "R.I.P. King" and "My big little brother". He had guest appearances on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Sesame Street. More recently, he played AJ Austin, a cardio-thoracic surgeon on the medical drama series The Resident. Warner also won a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance in 2015, alongside Robert Glasper and Lalah Hathaway for their cover of Stevie Wonder's song Jesus Children of America. His spoken word album "Hiding In Plain View" garnered him another Grammy nomination in 2023. Last year, he started a podcast - "Not All Hood" - which discussed mental health in the black community. Former co-stars and fans has been posting their tributes to him online. Basketball star Magic Johnson, who appeared in an AIDS awareness video directed by Warner, wrote that he and his wife were "both super fans of the hit Cosby Show and continued to follow his career" over the years. "Every time I ran into Malcolm, we would have deep and fun conversations about basketball, life, and business. He will truly be missed," Johnson wrote. Tracee Ellis Ross, who starred with Warner on Reed Between the Lines, also mourned him, writing: "My heart is so so sad. What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant. You made the world a brighter place. "Sending so much love to your family. I'm so sorry for this unimaginable loss." Actress Niecy Nash posted that she had just spoken to Warner. "We talked about how happy we both were in our marriages. Damn friend. You were cornerstone of The Cosby Show. We all loved Theo! Never to be forgotten. You will be missed. Rest Easy." Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock also praised him, writing in a post: "For me and so many in my generation, Malcolm-Jamal Warner was a part of our childhood, a brother whose character 'Theo' felt like one of my own. "May God grant peace to his soul, strength and grace to his grieving family."
