Last week saw the funerals at St George’s Church of two of the ‘nice men’ who had served in Isle of Man politics.

At local authority level, Ritchie McNicholl, who was Mayor of Douglas on four occasions, was remembered.

A beautiful and thoughtful eulogy was presented by Nicola Pitts, covering fun times as well as public service, family, and employment. Many have posted online tributes.

From Trevor Belcher: ‘Sad loss. Went to tech with Ritchie, also worked with him for many years, and I have some great memories—some we didn’t mention often, but what fun times we had.’

From Captain Stephen Carter: ‘Ritchie had a zest for life and a heartfelt desire to both serve the people of Douglas and promote the town.

‘He would have been, I am certain, overjoyed when Douglas gained city status.

‘I knew Ritchie for nearly 60 years. He was a truly distinguished Mayor during his terms of office and a great ambassador for Douglas. He was equally happy presiding over council meetings or being the barman on charity fundraising trips on the Karina.’

I also have happy memories socially with Ritchie at the good old Foresters Arms, the best buffets in Princes Street, and La Cucina, the lovely restaurant on Bucks Road, where Ritchie would lead the singing about Belinda—don’t ask!

Geoff Corkish was born in the best constituency and went on to work as one of the principal assets of the Steam Packet between 1969 and 2006 as communications director.

Elected at the 2006 General Election to the House of Keys for West Douglas and re-elected in 2011, he served one term in the Legislative Council before retiring in 2018.

He is warmly remembered for his contribution to the arts in our island, in particular as winner of the Cleveland Medal in 1983, and his long partnership with several other characters—especially Dot Tilbury—helping raise many thousands of pounds for charity.

He served as chair of the Isle of Man Arts Council, he initiated the successful ‘Festival of Choirs’, which takes place this year between Friday, October 10, and Sunday, October 12 at the Villa Marina.

He was appointed an MBE in 2007 for services to the community of the Isle of Man, and served as a member of both the Departments of Tourism and Leisure and Trade and Industry.

Both were very proud Manxmen who made a significant contribution to Island life, for which we are all grateful, and our thoughts are with their immediate families and friends at this time.

----------------

We often hear these days about ‘fake news’, sometimes from those who often fail the fact-checkers themselves.

There are some dangerous lies masquerading as the truth presently. Anyway, my admission is not as serious as some of those, and I am happy to hold my hands up—it’s always best to do that!

Roxy Music did not appear at the Palace Lido in the 1970s, despite what I thought was a reliable online source. They were due to play in 1973; however, one of the disappointed fans was David Killip.

He tells me that their planned concert was one of six within their UK (and Isle of Man!) tour that were cancelled because of the departure of original band member Brian Eno early in July.

He was subsequently replaced by multi-instrumentalist Eddie Johnson, but Roxy didn’t resume touring until October.

Looking again online, I saw a couple of newspaper adverts saying they were also due to appear in August 1974 at the venue, with Bill Chrisp as DJ support, but they pulled out of that date as well.

Can you believe that last week, on September 26, Bryan Ferry turned 80?

He was born in Washington (no, not that one!) in County Durham and went on to study fine art, worked for a while as a ceramics teacher, and had an early involvement with art school culture. Visual arts had a strong influence on how he later shaped music, presentation, fashion, and more. He founded Roxy Music in 1970—yes, 55 years ago—and launched his solo career in 1973.

I’m sure we all have our favourite songs that contributed to the band being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, but here are my personal highlights, which sound just as fresh today in my opinion: from Roxy Music, their debut single in 1972 Virginia Plain; in 1973 Do the Strand; Love Is the Drug from 1975; the 1979 hit Dance Away, a millennium-year favourite on the Isle of Man that was regularly requested at the Grasmere Hotel; and from Bryan Ferry himself, my favourite has to be Let’s Stick Together from 1976.

Roxy Music are considered pioneers of art pop and glam rock, and highly influential in shaping fashion and LP artwork as well as their fabulous music. They influenced many bands afterwards: in post-punk, new wave, synth-pop, and beyond. Bryan Ferry’s style, with his vocal delivery and suave persona, has been much emulated or admired.

So, what started as an apology has given me the opportunity to do a little more research on Bryan Ferry CBE, who rightly received that honour for his contribution to British music.

In October, one of the gigs I will be attending in the UK will feature another octogenarian whose birthday was this month—Al Stewart.

I will also be seeing Graham Nash again, originally of The Hollies and then Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who is now 83.

Neither, I can safely say, ever appeared at the Palace Lido!

----------------

Bear with me, but I thought, after looking at dates specific to our island, I would take a look at a couple of stories from September 30 and October 1 in history.

Firstly, on September 30, 1955, American actor James Dean died in a car accident in California.

He is mentioned in songs by a number of music artists, such as American Pie by Don McLean (who has appeared at the Villa Marina!), which uses the line ‘in a coat he borrowed from James Dean’ to evoke a sense of 1950s rebellion and style.

Rock On by David Essex features the lyric ‘Jimmy Dean, James Dean’. The Eagles have a song titled ‘James Dean’, which directly addresses the life and death of the actor, incorporating the iconic phrase ‘too fast to live, too young to die’ into its lyrics.

In 1960, on this date, ‘The Flintstones’ first aired—a show still popular today.

Have you watched the exploits of Fred and Wilma with their pet dinosaur Dino, their sabre-toothed tiger Baby Puss, their baby Pebbles, and their neighbours Barney and Betty Rubble?

And how about October 1? In 1908, Henry Ford’s Model T—the first mass-produced affordable car—went on sale.

You could have any colour you wanted, as long as it was black! In 1946, the Nuremberg Trials concluded, with death sentences for 12 Nazi leaders.

Walt Disney World opened in 1971 near Orlando, Florida. I have been, and it’s a great place, but my abiding memory is the length of the queues.

In 1975, Muhammad Ali defeated Joe Frazier in the ‘Thriller in Manila’ to retain his heavyweight title.