Viv Prince, wildman drummer of the 60s has died aged 84. The Pretty Things were at their peak in the 60s and notorious for their behaviour. I saw them in 1972 at the Sundown Mile End Road as the support act for Hawkwind and it was a case of the support blowing the lead band out of sight, they were brilliant and had the place shaking. That was long after Viv had been sacked by the band but showed what a force they were before. Viv's story of the brief years he was drumming was the inspiration for many of the rock nutters that followed, it'll be interesting to see if Jack White can bring his story to fruition. RIP Viv... https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/sep/12/the-pretty-things-drummer-viv-prince
please log in to view this image Farewell Spaceman. You could say another one gone too soon but Ace lived life to the full and it is amazing he survived this long. He rock and rolled all night and partied every day. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj41vwgv47no
Failing like domino’s lately….. All the great muso’s & actors etc of our time. Unfortunately, time waits for no one. So many now in the 75-85 age bracket.
I remember that day seeing the evening news on TV which was in black & white, some things you see never leave you and that was certainly one of them. Hard to imagine just how devastated a community could be after that. RIP all who lost their lives...
I was chatting yesterday with a former South Wales Police District Commander for the Neath Area. When my wife asked him how he was, he replied ‘Not good…’ He said that he never is at this time of year. John went on to explain at that time he was on beat in Neath Town Centre and all the PCs in the Neath Station were called in and put on a bus. They were not told where they were going - in fact it wasn’t until they got to Glynneath 10 miles away that the driver mentioned that they were going to a place called Aberfan but no one knew why. John was there for 3 days: the wailing and crying (his words) of the parents, uncles, aunties and grandparents have stayed, and will stay, with him all his life. Moreover, the bodies of the children were taken to a temporary morgue (a chapel I think he said) and the bodies needed to be identified: it was John’s and his colleagues’ ‘job’ to wash the coal dust away from their faces to enable identification…..
That must have been a truly harrowing experience for John and his colleagues, and of course everyone involved in this tragic event. Incidents such as this mentally scar a lot of people for the remainder of their lives and my thoughts are with them all. I remember seeing the awful pictures on the TV when I got home from school, I was 11 at the time.
Hoops - I’ve known John for a number of years. He is a strong man - both physically and mentally, yet I’ve never seen him so vulnerable and emotional as he was yesterday. It seemed like he wanted and needed to talk to someone about it. I was 8 at the time. A couple of years later my parents took my sister and I to pay our respects at the graveyard. My mother started crying as she looked at one grave - it contained a brother and sister named Stephen and Angela: the same names as ours and they were of similar ages to us.
