My Father’s House
Awdri and Allan Doyle are funeral directors in Galashiels. Their new business has been open for just a year. You can read what we think of them here. When Awdri’s Dad died in October, Awdri wanted Amazing Grace at the funeral — the tune rather than the words. She says, “Some hymn tunes are lovely […]
Thank You For Being My Dad
Surprisingly, perhaps, this is not more popular at funerals. Simple and catchy. A son rarely tells his Father How he really feels, A handshake or a pat on the back is all that he reveals, I’d like to right that wrong, Here in this little song. Thank you for shaping my life, Thank you for […]
In Memory
Andras Schram, the maker, says: 7 years ago I lost my grand father, I was unable to make it to his funeral as I was travelling. The first moment I had a chance I visited his grave. It was late fall in Hungary and as I looked around I saw how beautiful the light was […]
Threnody: a progress report
Posted by Tim Clark Threnody is a group of people mostly drawn from the ranks of Bangor Community Choir. We are ready to sing at funerals in places that don’t normally have choral singing, particularly at crematoria. Charles has already been kind enough to feature us here, and I felt it might be time for an […]
Soundtrack to your funeral, anyone?
A charming email arrives from Phil Smith. Phil is the founder of Soundtracktoyour.com. “Soundtracktoyour-dot-com??” we hollered at the hunched and desperate-eyed GFG galley-slaves. Answer came there none. Never heard of it. Phil says: We at Soundtracktoyour.com are pleased to be announce that in October this month our site moves to Open Beta! The reason I […]
Sea la vie
From the Guardian, 1 July 2011: For three soothing weeks in autumn, the endless roaring traffic on London’s Euston Road, one of the most choked and grime-polluted in the capital, will have competition: the sound of waves breaking and pebbles crunching, relayed live from Chesil beach in Dorset and wrapped in a sound sculpture around the […]
Ain’t Going Yet
Billy Jenkins is a guitarist, composer, bandleader, performer & humanist funeral officiant in London. These are his funeral wishes: Simple cremation for me From Poppy’s. No funeral. No music – for when a musician dies, there is nothing but Silence….. If anyone wishes to: Choose just one of my pieces of music. Play loud. Really listen […]
Striking the right note
John Graham leaves St Andrew’s United Reformed Church in his Fender Stratocaster coffin fashioned by — who else? — Crazy Coffins. The lifelong rocker came out to the strains of the Shadows’ Wonderful Land. Read the full story in the Mail here. Note: the Mail misattributes the making of the coffin to the funeral director.
Goodbye to you my trusted friend
Posted by Richard Rawlinson, our funeral music correspondent. It’s 1974, there are three day weeks in Britain due to fuel shortages, and, across the Pond, President Richard Nixon is resigning over the Watergate scandal. And the radio soundtrack to these troubled times includes some of the cheesiest treatments of death in pop history: Gilbert O’Sulivan’s ‘Alone Again (Naturally)’ […]
New Orleans comes to London
Posted by Vale Celebrant Kim Farley went to Abram Wilson’s memorial service a week or so ago. He was a young American Jazz Musician who died unexpectedly aged just 38. She writes: ‘There was a procession from the South Bank to St John’s in Waterloo and once inside the relative cool of the packed church, […]
