Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 07:32 AM

·
end of an era - Cilla won't be on TV in the afternoon with offers of a free biro if you take out an insurance policy. sad to think she won't be irreplaceable in that role. I wonder who the next one will be. Perhaps Gerry out of the Pacemakers? A biro for inquiring, a dvd player for signing up.....worth a poem......
                Poem for Cilla
With this biro I'l write upon you DVD
And the envelope in which I'll house yer
The biro was donated by Cilla Black
Who lived and died a Scouser


(some days seamus Heaney and ted Highes must be feel their immortality threayened when I get the mus)

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 08:19 AM

Cilla Black - Queen of Light Entertainment? Or should it have been Queen of Dark Entertainment? Geddit?

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 08:35 AM

Like a lot of working class people who found success in showbiz and quickly became rich, she immediately became a Thatcher supporter, another class traitor IMHO.

Norra lorra lorra sympathy from me

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 08:35 AM

Like a lot of working class people who found success in showbiz, as soon as she became wealthy she became a Thatcher supporter.

Not a lorra lorra sympathy from me.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Megan L
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 10:40 AM

Ah the milk of human kindness flows freely in mudcat. She gave pleasure to many and will be missed

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 11:35 AM

She was a breath of fresh air when she broke on to the music scene in the mid-60s. And she could sing.

A good businesswoman who reinvented herself when her pop-star waned.

I'd prefer that she didn't support the Beast of Grantham, but it's a free country and we can all have whatever political beliefs we wish. It doesn't detract from her undoubted talents as a singer and entertainer.

RIP Cilla.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 11:42 AM

With Megan, here.

Does being a really mean arsehole make you feel good, Dave Hanson?

RIP, Cilla

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: GUEST,Jezza
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 11:42 AM

Like many young lads born in the 1950s, I had a poster of her on my wardrobe and was in love - unrequited of course at the age of twelve!
She was a wonderful singer and fired a lifelong love of singing in me
RIP Cilla

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 01:35 PM

yes! shame on you Dave! after all it was a free Parker pen!

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 01:40 PM

She was really nice to meet. During her later life she was part of the luvey showbiz set, and that overshadowed the cool period when she was a 60's fashion icon.   However, in her day she could sing 'torch ballads with meaning. Listen to 'don't answer me'. For some it is the 'Marmite' factor singing wise. as some some songs were sensitively sung and others could be a bit brash depending on your ears.    There is a great duet on youtube of her and Marc Bolan singing 'Life's a Gas'.

There used to be a story about her appearing in pantomime. Standing axe in hand at the bottom of the beanstalk she shouted out 'How shall we kill the giant children?" a little girl shouted out "Sing to him Cilla!" She later told the story herself, which gives an idea of her sense of humour.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 02:34 PM

Personally I couldn't stand her singing or the shows she used to host. If there is the slightest grain of truth in the assertion that she was a supporter of Thatcher, that really is the end.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 03:19 PM

You really are a little ray of sunshine, aren't you?
If it's any consolation, she told me she couldn't stand you either.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 03:32 PM

"How shall we kill the giant children?"

Not wishing to be Trussite punctuation fascist, but that sentence is just crying out for a comma.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 04:02 PM

Oops! My typing is rubbish! I did mean to put in a comma!
Sorry.   

As for other issues. I did say her singing is like Marmite it will divide opinion. The problem with saturation tributes, is that when it goes OTT it then creates division - and brings out the knockers (if you'll pardon the expression). I had no time for her politics, and wasn't a fan of the later programmes, but that has nothing to do with her earlier music career.

No matter how much money she had, she was still left totally bereft after the death of her husband and turned to a certain lifestyle. For all the luvey glitz and showbiz friends, she still died a lonely soul.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 04:28 PM

I haven't been on mudcat for a few years. I left because there were communist bastards saying disgusting things about a dead woman. I see it hasn't changed. I came back to leave regards for Cilla Black who had more talent in her little finger than most of you dickheads will ever have. I will not be back you sad little idiots.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 04:44 PM

up the revolution!

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 07:49 PM

What has a scouse accent and stomps round Tokyo destroying buildings ?

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 04 Aug 15 - 09:18 PM

I enjoyed her music very much and am sorry that she has gone.
My God, there are some truly nasty people here!

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black
From: Megan L
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 12:52 AM

Small minds small hearts big mouths so sad they spew over obit threads so sad

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 02:47 AM

For any Americans who might be interested in finding out more about Cilla, there was a very entertaining tv biopic movie shown on British tv last year.
I think that it did capture some of the atmosphere of Liverpool in the 60s.
Here's a clip from the film, in a scene where Cilla ( played by the wonderful Sheridan Smith) finds that she's reached the top of the charts.
The movie "Cilla" is available on dvd.

Cilla reaches number one!

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Janet
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 02:52 AM

It kind of amazes me that some people can be so disrespectful in their comments about Cilla Black on the obit. thread. Sure, people have the freedom to say whatever they want but how would you like it if your loved one; your sister, brother, spouse, close friend passed away and people made negative and derogatory comments after hearing about their passing. Even if you did not like or agree with what Cilla Black did, fine, but it so unkind and disrespectful to say all these mean things about her on this obit. notice of her passing.

There are some folk singers who I am huge fans of but don't always agree with their politics. If I read about their passing I would still pay my respects being a fan and just not get into the negative stuff on an obit. thread or anywhere for that matter. It's too bad that some people have to be so mean spirited about her and have such lack of manners.

I am paying my respects to this fine and talented performer.
RIP Cilla Black.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 03:19 AM

I agree there is no need to disrespect the dead. Saying that nothing wrong with talking about the music etc. I can't really remember the 60s so for me Cilla meant 3 things. I knew about her string of 60s hits which were mostly ballads; I watched her early 70s Saturday night programmes on which from what I can remember she performed mostly covers of middle of the road hits of the day; and of course then her move to Blind Date type shows etc. So musically let's say I am not really a fan!

I watched Sheriden Smith in the recent bio and Cilla was shown as an uptempo quite exciting performer who was reluctantly forced down the ballad route by management and producers. That was a surprise to me and had she went back to that vein more I may have had her on my playlist. Here is Sheriden (as Cilla) getting a chance to jump up on stage with The Beatles at The Cavern.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTe8f8bZHl0

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 04:06 AM

Cilla was shown as an uptempo quite exciting performer who was reluctantly forced down the ballad route by management and producers

That said, her version of Lizie Wan was particularly affecting.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Gealt
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 06:40 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33yB1USIy_U

Written by the great Stan Kelly.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/29/stan-bootle-obituary

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 06:52 AM

Of which she changed the words. Folk Process or Political Correctness Gone Mad?

It's a lorra lorra political correctness: Cilla Black rewrites her' belting a child' song

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 09:43 AM

She had no involvement in folk music, can't see why her obituary has any reason to be in this web.
Maybe someone can advise me?

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 09:48 AM

What!
So if Keith Jarrett died today, we couldn't have a thread on his music?
Oh yes, of course I forgot, he once recorded "Shenandoah"!

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 09:58 AM

as already briefly mentioned above;

Cilla's TV duet with Marc Bolan is a very special performance,
which should have been extended and consolidated with proper studio recordings.

In the same way Bowie rescued and resurrected Lulu,
Bolan could have given Cilla an opportunity to reveal her hidden talents
for 'Rock' music in the 1970s...???

Sadly we'll never know - all we have that one low fi bootleg TV recording.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 10:07 AM

To be fair although Cilla was known for big ballads she originally sang Jazzie R & B numbers and crossed genres. Oh and she made one number that qualifies as folk famous - "Liverpool Lullaby"!
She kept that number in her repertoire for donkey's years.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 10:38 AM

look this is our site. we've been here for years.

you know bloody well virtually none of us like tories. none of us like bankers and usurers like she she spent the few years defiling afternoon tv with adverts for. and most of us were driven out of our houses with the gross tv programmes she fronted since her early 20's.

there is no doubt that there is a place for obituaries for the likes of Cilla Black. but it patently isn't here.

yes i remember and lament her early promise when she sang songs by Randy Newman, amongst others. fell in love with her the first time she appeared on Ready Steady Go singing Love of the Loved.

but for a bloody long time she's been a pain in the balls for the general population with an IQ above dogshit.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: akenaton
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 11:02 AM

Well I didn't care for Cilla's voice, or the popular tv shows, but she came across as a straightforward lassie who said it as she saw it.

I heard her do an interview in which she said she had no time for the "luvvies" or luvvie culture which surrounded her, she was happiest among ordinary folk.

It cant be easy for someone who has been a big name in the entertainment business to fit back into real life....I feel sad for her and think she has been used. She ended up alone, a casualty of an empty unfeeling culture.

Regarding her politics....she was a conservative...so what?   Haven't you noticed that there are millions of them and they ain't all bad.

If her politics worry you and make you feel she is less of a person or performer, I'd say the fault is in yourself.

RIP girl, I'm sad to see you go.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,melodeonboy
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 11:17 AM

Farewell to the Liverpool Queen of Hearts
She's off to the pearly gates
She's cheered old dears for years and years
But she's had her last blind date

Meek and mild, just a child
When Epstein was her keeper
But the only date she's got left now
Is with the bloomin' reaper!

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 11:23 AM

Well said Akenaton. The point I tried to make earlier is that no matter what her politics, values etc. and how she surrounded herself with the showbiz set, she still died a sad woman. Many rich showbiz people just go and find another partner - but she was totally bereft.   
It doesn't matter that she died in a Spanish villa, Cilla died alone and frail on a floor.

I hated her later TV work, but in her day she could sing a good heartstrung ballad. That should have been it, leave it at that. Move on.

Let it rest.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 11:57 AM

Nasty negative tone creeping into this thread.

If people want to express how little they cared for Cilla's politics & her particularly rancid brand of popular mediocrity they should be allowed to do so without judgement.

If you like her, say so. But please, don't pour scorn on others for feeling as they do.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 12:13 PM

here's a good 'un...

a what if Cilla had gone soft rock contemporary folkie instead of really crap showbiz kinda vibe...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVHvi-bmms8

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 12:17 PM

Mind I'm not so sure Bolan could have saved anyone's recording career in rock music at that time. His own was starting on the slide by then. If his appearance on Cilla was the end of Jan73 then he'd just released Tanx which was a bit of a turkey compared with his previous two albums . He was on the verge of releasing his last real classic single "20th Century Boy" and after that he would only visit the UK singles Top 10 one more time and apart from greatest hits was never again to visit the Album Top 10.

By the time Lulu recorded with Bowie he had long eclipsed his former rival but even at that apart from the single itself it doesn't seem to have helped her recording career commercially. She didn't hit the Top 30 again for another 12 years and even when she did it was a re-release of Shout that made it for her. She later had another No 1 but that was with Take That! I think Lulu is a real wasted talent though. Great singer who went down the light entertainment road the same as Cilla.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 12:27 PM

yeah - too many wasted talents seduced by the evils of saturday night telly culture...

At least Tom Jones was finally directed into recording those terrific gritty blues CDs in his late 60s early 70s...

[btw... I am a sucker for all Bolan's LPs.. even the duff coked up career down the drain period..]

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Aug 15 - 12:42 PM

One of my biggest regrets? Going to see The Damned at Newcastle City Hall on March 10th 1977 and NOT sticking around for the main attraction.

Dady in the Underworld : UK Tour

When asked how they wanted to portray him he replied 'they saw me as a Donny Osmond, and I see myself as Maria Callas' (the famous opera singer Maria Callas led a troubled life and died on 16th September 1977 - the same day as Marc).

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 03:09 AM

The Daily Mail right enough reported that a bottle was found next to her. A bottle of sun cream though! It seems she fell back on her chair whilst sun bathing and hit her head which caused a stroke. She then lay in the heat of the Spanish sun for 5 hours before she was found! No mention of her being drunk.....

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 03:09 AM

Her story had a sad ending, poor health and a lost partner. You have to remember with humanity how devoted she was to her late husband. McCartney re-married (twice), Cilla never went down that route. So just remember that when you are taking the P... out of her. I'm only a fan of some of her music, and not the politics or showbiz luvvey set. But for goodness sake, have some compassion and leave it at that.

The moderators of the site should bring this thread to an end as its just getting irrelevant now to the music and going round.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 03:18 AM

Well said guest! Though when various people are just posting as Guest it is hard to know who is saying what.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: Megan L
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 03:45 AM

Those who throw mud often have the most to hide.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: JJ
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 08:17 AM

What? No love for her acting opposite David Warner in the 1968 film, "Work Is a 4-Letter Word," directed by Peter Hall? She also sang the title song.

I saw this in the USA at a revival house that specialized in the REALLY offbeat.

Fun fact: Based on the play, "Eh?" by Henry Livings, the American edition of which features a cover photo of Dustin Hoffman being punched in the face.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 08:35 AM

well thanks for the reminder - but sadly it's one of too many interesting movies
to add to the list
that have just disappeared without trace....

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,pete from seven stars link
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 11:01 AM

I bought back then the vinyl jingle ...conversations ..., still have it, and think I played it quite recently. both sides, a good one cilla !

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 11:23 AM

"Those who throw mud often have the most to hide. "
and most hide behind registered pseudonyms.

Subject: RE: Obit: Cilla Black (1943-2015)
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 06 Aug 15 - 05:30 PM

I grew up with Cilla Black from the early pop days, the commercials she made, her own television show and then later as a presenter so it was a shock to hear this news. She had such a strong personality which is why it is such a shock to any age group who knew her for the different stages in her career. Like many popular singers of that time there were songs that were amazing and a few that did not do it for me but that is mainly due to changes in music taste as I grew older. Cilla will be missed and sympathy to her sons who are grieving for their mother. RIP.