Has the death of a 'celebrity' ever really affected you?
 

having read the nastiness by certain members on here regarding Gene Pitney's death and the general mocking towards the original poster, it got me thinking, has the death of a well known person ever really affected you?

i can say that the death of someone in the public eye has never affected me, can't really understand it, but there you go.

please keep this a sensible.

Nope

But I have respect for peoples posts on such subjects

My son's life is now music which means I am much more into it than I used to be. The more I see and learn about Hendrix the more frustrated and saddened I am that he died so young although one could argue that by then he had burnt himself out. So I can't say that it seriously affects me but it brings more than a twinge of sadness.

Not really moved at all by other stuff, Princess Di or whatever. More touched by some young unknown kid killed in a car crash.

I am sickened though that someone can make a joke about Pitney resting in piss. I would like to hit the person hard. dl

Id have to admit that it has a little. I genuinely felt that I knew John Peel (I didnt actually although friends did and a nicer more self-effacing man you couldnt wish for) and I think that his death was a great loss to popular music.

I was shocked to hear of the deaths of a number of road racers too, particularly Ronnie Smith and Gus Scott, as well as the better known Joey Dunlop and Dave Jefferies. They werent celebrities of course but still.....

Nope, other than family, the only death that's affected me is chrisp's who I only met through Scoobynet and wasn't matey mates with, but we always had a chat at meets if we bumped into each other.

He was such a likeable nice chap and I think that's why it actually touched and affected me when I heard of his death :(

In answer to your question in the title.

NO :D

YES!!! I fecking hate that Elton John song he did!!!

David,

please don't take this thread as a dig at you, in fact, its the complete reverse.

couldn't believe the hate and bile that was directed at you and Pitney.

that was the the whole point of this thread, losing a relative, friend, work mate etc is bad, but i can't understand why (in the case of Diana/George Best, etc) whole cities can come to a stand still

I was saddened by the deaths of Michael Park and Richard Burns last year :(

I think the death of anyone is sad, when you hear about it, but there is obvioulsy a wide scale, ranging from "Oh that's sad" and a split second thought to the devestation of losing someone close to you.

As there is a scale and range, different people have different emotions, and millions and millions of people feel a connection to celebrities, especially musicians, which is the whole point of the industry, where as many people can own a record and not give a second thought to the artist.

People can react strongly to the death of a famous person as they feel they have a connection, to the degree where they know so much about that person and follow their lives so closely, and admire and like them. Plus the music, or sport, or whatever they do can affect your daily life, and will no doubt be linked to other memories......

It's fair to say that we all know that millions of people were affected by the deaths of Lennon, Elvis, Diana (I lived on the funeral route at the time and there were twenty thousand people sobbing on Gloucester Place in my view)

Personally I haven't been affected to any level higher than "Oh, that's sad," apart from when Diana died when I rang my brother to tell him as he was living with an aristocrat at the time.

GC8 do i know you?

Ronnie, DJ and in particular hamster face i knew very well from racing against/instructing and partying with. I shed a few when Gus was killed :cry:

as above, and in a similiar vein to Hendrix, when Kurt cobain killed himself i was not DEEPLY affected but certainly thought about it a lot and still do whenever i hear his music.

Hey Nigel - I didn't take it that way at all :) David

Watching the crash of Ayrton Senna and waiting for news to surface eventually that it killed him bought a tear to my eye :(

While not celebrities, I was pretty shocked by the Columbia disaster.

I didnt actually know Simon Smith or Ian Scott in person Mark; only from PB. Both of their deaths seemed particularly unneccessary though.


Simon

Bambi's mum dying affected me for years...I'm still not completely recovered even now.

That and the poor rabbits of watership down :(

Can't say the death of a celeb has ever really affected me as such. I've been sorry to hear when certian people have died - Richard Burns, Christopher Reeve etc. Just people I admired in general really. I don't have any problem with people feeling more deeply affected - you feel what you feel - whether it's transposed grief or not - it's still an outlet for something.

What I've never understood is this whole "never speak ill of the dead" thing. If you didn't like someone when they were alive then don't change your tune just because they've died. You should be sensitive to the feelings of those who feel differently though - just as you should have been when whoever it was was alive. Does any here remember a classic Smith & Jones sketch (might have been NTNOCN) where they played 2 politicians having a massive row on TV until one collapsed and died of a heart attack?

People who feel a need to mock the dead and those that grieve simply for the sake of it are, IMHO, emotionally immature and we really shouldn't let them bother us.

Aryton Sennas death as he was my hero.

Chip

John Peel. It really was like losing an old friend when he so unexpectedly died. Still miss him now. He's left a musical and cultural void that nobody else will ever be able to fill. :(

The assassination of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown will have great affect on me ;)

:luxhello:

Do you mean assasination Ali.:p

Maz

Doh.

My "S" key is on the blink (Anyone with an old Dell Latitude will back me up on this ;) )

Yep I would say that about nails it, I dont feel upset because I didnt know the person but thats not to say I dont think about the death of that person and remember what they brought us. I have to be honest and say I cant really understand why the public have such an out-pouring of grief for someone they have never met and dont know, the princess Di situation immediately springs to mind, sad yes, life changing for the masses, well not really.

Gary

I must admit, I never really "got" the Dianna mass-mourning either. And I still don't. I remember catching some of the funeral on TV and being completely dumbfounded by the mass hysteria.

A death in the family or friends that were personal to me, are the only times I have ever shed a tear out of grief.

John Lennon, Tommy Vance, John Peel and even Fred Dibnah.

I was a mere teen when Hendrix died and I cried. Since then I haven't spilled any tears over celebs, but as said before, they do leave a gaping hole in the strata of things. There'll never be another Peel, Pitney, et al.
So I do feel a sense of loss.
To see idiots leaving posts such as mentioned earlier, is gross disrespect , not to mention very infantile.
I do think all the show of mourning for Diana was a tad mass hysteria. Yes she was loved by many and missed by many, but it seemed like everyone was jumping on a band wagon there.
Yve

Bruce Lee :(

here here