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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 4, 2020 20:42:16 GMT -5
Bassist and singer Steve Priest of the Glam Rock band, Sweet, has passed away, at 72 Priest was one of the founding members of Sweet in 1968 and remained with the band after singer Brian Connolly left, in 1979. The band split in 1982 and Priest went his own way, declining to join a revived version, with guitarist Andy Scott. He formed a new band, the Allies, though, apart from a song in the movie Fast Food, had little success. He mostly retired from performing, though did venture out on a few gigs, before forming his own version of Sweet in 2008. Priest was noted for high pitched vocals on some of Sweet's songs, trading off with Connolly in sections and providing backing vocals in others. He was also the more flamboyant member of the band, appearing in costumes, capes and other clothes that pushed the Glam element further than his other band mates. In the wake of Suicide Squad, this video of "Ballroom Blitz" showed him in an extremely androgynous look... Decked out in his headdress for Wigwam Bam... Pushing gender barriers in Little Willy, in the early days... One of Gen Hunt's favorites, Blockbuster.... and one of the favorites of Peter Quills mother, Fox on the Run... Priest was preceded in death by singer Brian Connolly, in 1997, and drummer Mick Tucker, in 2002. Guitarist Andy Scott is the only surviving member of the classic line-up.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 4, 2020 20:43:22 GMT -5
Beat me by a couple of minutes, while I checked on dates for the other's of the band who had passed before him.
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Post by beccabear67 on Jun 5, 2020 12:36:17 GMT -5
I like The Sweet almost as much as Slade sometimes, Fox On the Run seems very Slade-ish to me. I think they might have even done better than Slade in the U.S.; I remember seeing that Desolation Boulevard LP around a lot! I gave up on getting that one book about them titled Blockbuster however. R.I.P. Steve Priest.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 5, 2020 20:32:20 GMT -5
Sweet did much better than Slade, in the US. That is, until Quiet Riot made a career of doing Slade covers.... Loves me some Slade, too. Gotta admit though, Noddy Holder's wardrobe was rather frightening.... Not that the rest of the band was stylin' and profilin'..... I do recall in the late 80s/early 90s, the Merry-Go-Round stores (trendy clothing though crap selection from anyone with less than a 34" inseam, if you were looking for trousers) had commercials with the original Slade "Cum on Feel the Noize," while the radio only played the Quiet Riot cover.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 7, 2020 10:05:55 GMT -5
RIP to gymnast and Gymkata master Kurt Thomas, from a stroke (age 64).... Thomas was a member of the 1976 US Olympic Team and won World Championships in 1978 and 1979; the first American male to win a gold medal at the World Championships, for the Floor Exercise. In 1979 he won a total of six medals: Gold for Floor Exercise and Horizontal Bar; Silver for All-Around, Parallel Bars, Pommel Horse; Bronze for Team Competition). He was the heavy favorite to win Gold for Floor exercise and possibly Pommel Horse and, potentially, All-Around, going into the 1980 Olympics; but, the US boycott ended those hopes. Financial offers were too much to turn down and he did not remain an amateur for the 1984 games. He did come back in '92, when professionals were allowed; but, time had passed him by. In 1985, he starred in the unintentionally hilarious action movie, Gymkata, where he uses gymnastics moves in street fights, to laughable ends, winning a Razzie Award, as a result. He was a featured commentator for gymnastics at ABC Sports and ESPN (who drew from the ABC Sports ranks, when it launched). Speaking as a 53 year-old, 64 is pretty darn young!
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 7, 2020 15:45:12 GMT -5
RIP to gymnast and Gymkata master Kurt Thomas, from a stroke (age 64).... He introduced a new move to gymnastics that's known as the Thomas Flair. Speaking as a 63 year old, yikes!
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Post by Calidore on Jun 7, 2020 21:25:23 GMT -5
In 1985, he starred in the unintentionally hilarious action movie, Gymkata, where he uses gymnastics moves in street fights, to laughable ends, winning a Razzie Award, as a result. I've never seen Gymkata but remember its reception. Now I'm thinking about They Live, which had a fight scene featuring pro wrestling moves that's considered a classic, and wondering why Gymkata's gymnastic fights failed so miserably. Was it maybe that the former was somewhat tongue-in-cheek while the latter was too serious? He introduced a new move to gymnastics that's known as the Thomas Flair. The Chicago Tribune obituary also mentions his innovative floor exercise move, the “Thomas Salto” dismount, which conversely "was considered so dangerous it was eventually banned from competition." I wonder if that came entirely from the powers that be or from frustrated competitors. I also love that in gymnastics, you can somehow dismount from the floor.
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Post by berkley on Jun 8, 2020 0:47:32 GMT -5
In 1985, he starred in the unintentionally hilarious action movie, Gymkata, where he uses gymnastics moves in street fights, to laughable ends, winning a Razzie Award, as a result. I've never seen Gymkata but remember its reception. Now I'm thinking about They Live, which had a fight scene featuring pro wrestling moves that's considered a classic, and wondering why Gymkata's gymnastic fights failed so miserably. Was it maybe that the former was somewhat tongue-in-cheek while the latter was too serious? He introduced a new move to gymnastics that's known as the Thomas Flair. The Chicago Tribune obituary also mentions his innovative floor exercise move, the “Thomas Salto” dismount, which conversely "was considered so dangerous it was eventually banned from competition." I wonder if that came entirely from the powers that be or from frustrated competitors. I also love that in gymnastics, you can somehow dismount from the floor.
I know, sounds painful, doesn't it - I always picture someone falling flat on their faces from a standing positon.
There's another gymnastics move I remember being banned - I think it was one-armed giant swings on the horizontal bar, something like that: there was a Chinese female competitor who could do them but they thought it was too difficult/dangerous for women's gymnastics and didn't want other people trying to force themselves to do it anyway.
As a long-time fan of of B- and lower grade action movies, I remember wanting to see Gymkata when it came out but I missed it then and have never gotten round to it since. But I still think that gymnasts' skills are something that could be susceptible to exploitation for action flicks, if only someone could figure out the right way to do it, because it's pretty amazing, some of the things they can do. I'd like to see some of the women gymnasts get into movies too. I think athletes in general are under-used in action films - what happened to the days when star Olympians like Buster Crabbe or Johnny Weismuller would be cast as Tarzan, Flash Gordon, etc?
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 8, 2020 10:20:53 GMT -5
In 1985, he starred in the unintentionally hilarious action movie, Gymkata, where he uses gymnastics moves in street fights, to laughable ends, winning a Razzie Award, as a result. I've never seen Gymkata but remember its reception. Now I'm thinking about They Live, which had a fight scene featuring pro wrestling moves that's considered a classic, and wondering why Gymkata's gymnastic fights failed so miserably. Was it maybe that the former was somewhat tongue-in-cheek while the latter was too serious? He introduced a new move to gymnastics that's known as the Thomas Flair. The Chicago Tribune obituary also mentions his innovative floor exercise move, the “Thomas Salto” dismount, which conversely "was considered so dangerous it was eventually banned from competition." I wonder if that came entirely from the powers that be or from frustrated competitors. I also love that in gymnastics, you can somehow dismount from the floor. They Live's pro wrestling moves consisted of,, basically, consist of one back suplex, which is set up with some logic, and a slam, but it consisted of lifting the guy under his back and just driving him down on the pavement. It wasn't the traditional pick the guy up over your head and flip them down onto their back. There is one headlock spot where punches are thrown to the head and a couple of headbutts, which any Glaswegian will tell you is fair game in a fight. For the most part, the fight is punches kicks and things you might see in a street fight, if it got brutal. Piper trained as a boxer and was more of a brawler throughout his wrestling career and he pretty much put the fight together with what was believable but entertaining. Gymkata did things like hide a pommel horse, or have a convenient horizontal bar stretched across an alley, for no logical reason. Using the gymnastic moves was one thing, having gymnastic equipment handy, on the street, was another. Plus, Thomas wasn't an actor (not that Richard Norton is, either, no matter how many movies he's done).
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 10, 2020 17:23:13 GMT -5
RIP to Johnny Walker, aka Mr. Wrestling II, wrestling superhero and favorite of President Carter's mother Miss Lilian. John Francis Walker was born in 1934, in Charleston, SC. He broke into wrestling in 1955, after being trained by Tony Morelli and future NWA World Heavyweight Champion Pat O'Connor (the man that Nature Boy Buddy Rogers defeated for the title, in front of 37,000 fans at the old Comiskey Park, in Chicago). He wrestled under his own name and was dubbed "the Rubberman" by Houston promoter Paul Boesch, because of his flexibility, as he would wiggle his way out of holds. He would first wrestle under a mask in Florida, as The Grappler. By the early 70s, he was semi-retired and running a gas station, in Tennessee. The Georgia promotion had lost long time favorite Tim Woods, who wrestled under a white mask as Mr Wrestling. Woods was a massively popular hero and booker Jerry Jarrett (promoter of the Memphis territory, a little later and father of wrestler Jeff Jarrett) wanted to duplicate that. He convinced Walker to don a similar mask and become Mr Wrestling II. The rest was Georgia wrestling history. As Mr Wrestling I, Walker became a beloved hero, taking on the likes of masked villains The Assassin (Jody Hamilton) and the Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie, later Ax, of Demolition, in the WWF). he was second in popularity only to Wildfire Tommy Rich, who drew the teenage girls. However, crowds would chant "Two! Two!" during Walker's matches and would explode when he would hit his patented knee lift. Mr Wrestling II was a staple of Georgia Wrestling when it became the highest rated programming on station WTBS, which was owned by brash cable tv entrepreneur Ted Turner. He got his "superstation" added to cable systems that were popping up all over the country, broadcasting his programming via satellite. Georgia Championship Wrestling became one of the highest rated programs on cable television. Even without that, Wrestling II had his devoted Georgia fans, who included Miss Lilian Carter, mother of then-governor and later President Jimmy Carter. While he was governor, Carter had a photo taken of himself and II, during a meeting with the wrestling hero... When Carter was elected president, he invited Walker to the inauguration, offering to let him sit with the family. However, because the Secret Service would require him to be unmasked, he declined (so the story is told), as it would show his face in public and possibly affect his career and privacy. He was able, however, to visit Miss Lilian in her home, masked, and spend a couple of hours talking with her, with staff shewed out of the room. Walker would later turn heel, in an angle for Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling, in Oklahoma and Louisiana. he was paired up with rising young star Terry Allen, aka Magnum TA, as a mentor in a tag team. They did an old angle of the mentor who becomes jealous of his protege (a twist on Larry Zbyszko turning on mentor Bruno Samartino) and leaves him to fend for himself in a match against the hated heel tag-team, The Midnight Express (with manager Jim Cornette). The loser of the match was to receive a whipping, with a leather belt and TA was pinned and took the beating, alone. II then entered a feud with his protege and called himself Mr Wrestling, introducing a new Mr Wrestling II (Ray "Hercules" Hernandez), who was called Wrestling III by magazines and announcers. He later did another heel turn for small Georgia promotion Southern Championship Wrestling. Walker pretty much retired for good, in 1990, living in Hawaii with his wife, Olivia. He came out of retirement in 2007 to wrestle a few matches with new protege, Mr Wrestling III (Steve Corino). Walker was known for his professional, calm demeanor on interviews, except when he was in a heavy feud with a real villain, like the Assassin, when he would deliver fiery promos that were electrifying. His character was sort of that of the old gunfighter, turned town marshal, who faced every new gunman who came to town, looking for a reputation. He didn't start anything, but he by-gum finished it! Walker's wife, Olivia, was a seamstress and she sewed his mask and his beautiful ring robe. Other wrestlers asked her to make robes for them, including world champion Nature Boy Ric Flair, who had one robe, which cost $8,000 with hand placed rhinestones all over. She also made stage costumes for several country music artists, including Porter Wagoner. Edit: I did not know this; but it has come to light that Walker, at the age of 18, was charged in conjunction of a gang rape of a 15 year-old girl, in Hawaii. A little checking found that the John Francis Walker listed in a 1953 newspaper article was, in fact, the future Mr Wrestling II. I have seen nothing of any charges or allegations during his later life. Just goes to show that you can't take a performer's stage persona as "them." Walker played the hero well. Someone else will have to determine if John Francis Walker atoned for his actions, at 18.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 10, 2020 17:51:32 GMT -5
RIP Bonnie Pointer, of the Pointer Sisters, age 69.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 10, 2020 18:53:41 GMT -5
Mark Evanier reports that comic strip/comic book artist Frank Bolle has passed away at the age of 95. Cei-U! I summon the sad tidings!
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Post by brianf on Jun 10, 2020 22:31:44 GMT -5
RIP Paul ChapmanPerhaps best known for his time in UFO in the 1980s
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Post by brutalis on Jun 11, 2020 1:40:36 GMT -5
Mark Evanier reports that comic strip/comic book artist Frank Bolle has passed away at the age of 95. Cei-U! I summon the sad tidings! Really sad news. Enjoying his Red Mask and Black Phantom so much in AC Comics Best of the West reprint series and his Gold Key painted covers are so wonderful. A true master of art. A big loss...
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 11, 2020 11:40:56 GMT -5
RIP Harry Glickman, the founder of my adopted home team, the Portland Trail Blazers, age 95.
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