People should smile more
Posted by Evelyn I had some lovely good news today about the safe arrival of a very precious baby girl and this song came to my mind. Maybe I can’t change the world…..but today I smiled, people should smile more. People should smile more Im not saying there’s nothing to cry for but you’ve got […]
RIP Browny
Two years ago, Billy Jenkins was interviewed by Ian Brown for his ‘ultimate wasting time’ website Planet Browny. The guitarist instinctively plucked and strummed this 1936 classic from his huge repertoire…. Browny suddenly just passed away in his sleep in the early hours of Saturday the 22nd September 2012. He was 49 years old…..
Mozart v Rogers & Hammerstein
I was at a funeral for a much loved gentleman last week – he wasn’t into opera at all, but had heard Mozart on The Shawshank Redemption and loved it. He was a great believer in daring to dream. The whole room was surprised when we played an excerpt from the Marriage of Figaro as the […]
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Posted by Vale THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF POOR COCK ROBIN Who killed Cock Robin? “I,” said the sparrow, “With my little bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin,” Who saw him die? “I,” said the fly, “With my little eye, I saw him die.” Who caught his blood? “I,” said the fish, “With my […]
Something for the weekend
Posted by Vale I was at a service a little while ago that included this lovely tribute from a wife to a husband: To My Dear Loving Husband – Anne Bradstreet If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee. If ever wife was happy in a […]
Don’t miss Gail’s 30 Day Challenge
I can’t keep up these days, dammit. To my great grief I missed the start of one of the great events of the year, Gail Rubin’s annual 30 Day Challenge. She attends 30 funerals in 30 days, and each day writes each one up in great detail in a values-neutral narrative. Goodness knows where she’s […]
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)’ […]
Brahn Boots – Stanley Holloway
Our Aunt Hanna’s passed away, We ‘ad her funeral today, And it was a posh affair, Had to have two p’licemen there! The ‘earse was luv’ly, all plate glass, And wot a corfin!… oak and brass! We’d fah-sands weepin’, flahers galore, But Jim, our cousin… what d’yer fink ‘e wore? Why, brahn boots! I ask […]
