Billy Lee Riley passes on

Billy Lee Riley, one of the original wildmen of rockabilly, has died of cancer aged 75. Best known for his Sun hits Flying Saucers Rock and Roll and Red Hot, Billy was born in Arkansas and was signed by Sam Phillips at Sun in 1955. Record sales were disappointing as Sam concentrated on promoting Jerry Lee Lewis instead but Billy's band the Little Green Men became Sun's house band with Billy playing a variety of instruments. He left Sun in 1960, forming the Rita label, which had a hit with Harold Dorman's Mountain of Love. He continued to record during the 60s and was a session musician in LA. Following the rockabilly revival he was rediscovered and made a Grammy nominated album Hot Damn! in 1997 and performed at the Barbican's Memphis season in 2005. Here's his obituary in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/aug/03/billy-lee-riley-obituary And this one in The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6740338.ece

A word too in memory of the first gentleman of football Sir Bobby Robson, former England and successful club manager both in England and overseas. No one has ever seemed to have a bad word to say about Sir Bobby and his death from cancer at the age of 76 has been much mourned.