Coffee-Table Notes

Alvin Lucier – Composer Born May 14, 1931; died December 1, 2021   Alvin Lucier, who has died aged 90, was a pioneering composer, whose boundless curiosity set down a template for generations of sound artists and sonic architects who followed in his wake. His explorations of the physical properties of sound were quietly radical and endlessly inquisitive in his extrapolation of sound from non-traditional sources. These included brain sensors, pencils and teapots.   Key works include I Am Sitting in a Room (1969), in which Lucier recorded himself talking as he explained what he was about to do. Lucier then played back the speech and re-recorded it, repeating the process until his words blur into the void, and only resonant frequencies remain. The influence of a room’s architecture and acoustic properties were key to Lucier’s work, and it was the unpredictability of the end result that intrigued him. In this sense, Lucier’s experimental approach was rooted in science as much as sound.   T

Bob Baker – Television writer Born July 26, 1939; died November 3, 2021    Bob Baker, who has died aged 82, was a television writer, who helped bring to life two of the small screen’s most iconic creations. Along with his writing partner Dave Martin, who died in 2007, Baker co-penned thirty-eight episodes of Doctor Who (1971-1979) during the children’s SF show’s 1970s golden age. Known as the Bristol Boys, the duo’s work began with The Claws of Axos (1971), and, over eight stories, straddled the regeneration of Jon Pertwee’s third Doctor into Tom Baker’s fourth incarnation of the eccentric Time Lord.    This included the programme’s tenth anniversary story, The Three Doctors (1972-1973), which saw the first and second Doctors, played respectively by William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, join forces with Pertwee in a battle to save Time. Baker and Martin’s tenure on Doctor Who also saw them create K9, the pompous dog-based mobile computer that went on to have a series of its own. Bake

David McKail – Actor, writer,   Born March 13,1938; died December 6, 2021   David McKail, who has died aged 83, was an actor best known for his long running role as police surgeon Dr McKenzie in TV drama, A Touch of Frost (1992-2008). Beyond that, he was a long standing stalwart of theatre in Scotland and beyond. In the guise of Frederic Mohr, he was also an accomplished playwright. This nom de plume was drawn from his German grandfather’s name out of a desire for his writing to stand on its own terms. All this made McKail a proudly Scottish renaissance man, possessed with a vast intelligence and a mischievous wit.    David Fredrick Mohr McKail   was born  in Glasgow, the youngest of three children to David and Janetta McKail (nee Mohr). He grew up in Bridgeton, and, as a war child, spent three years in Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae. He attended John Street Elementary School, then John Street Senior Secondary School for a term before moving to Allan Glen's School.    While his fa

Robbie Shakespeare – bass guitarist, record producer Born September 27, 1953; died December 8, 2021    Robbie Shakespeare, who has died aged 68, was one of the greatest bass guitarists of the last half-century. His muscular but laidback style saw him form a long-term creative partnership with drummer Sly Dunbar that led to them becoming one of the most in-demand rhythm sections in the world.    The duo released six albums under their own name, and played crucial roles as the rhythmic spine of records by numerous other artists. These ranged from key reggae classics by the likes of Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Black Uhuru and Burning Spear, to playing with Grace Jones during her early 1980s peak.    As part of Island Records’ Nassau based studio band, the Compass Point All Stars, Sly and Robbie worked on a trilogy of albums by Jones. Led by the vocalist’s ice-cool delivery, Warm Leatherette (1980), Nightclubbing (1981) and Living My Life (1982) fused reggae, funk and electronics, Shakespeare’

Janice Long – Broadcaster Born April 5, 1955; died December 25, 2021    Janice Long, who has died aged 66 following a short illness, was a radio presenter who broke the mould several times over. She was the first woman to have her own daily show on BBC Radio One, and the first woman to be a regular presenter on Top of the Pops. She was also one of the main presenters of Live Aid in 1985.   Arriving on national radio during a period of mainstream blandness, Long was a passionate music fan, whose Liverpool roots saw her champion her home city’s thriving 1980s music scene, as well as a welter of independent artists across the UK.   Long did this first on her Sunday night BBC Radio Merseyside show, Streetlife, then on Radio One, initially on Saturday afternoons, before being moved to a prestigious weekday evening slot. She also presented Friday teatime review show, Singled Out.    Whenever she presented Top of the Pops, it was no coincidence that she was paired with the late John Peel. Tog

Richard Rogers, Lord Rogers of Riverside – Architect   Born July 23, 1933; died December 18, 2021    Richard Rogers, who has died aged 88, was an architect of towering ambition, whose creations transformed urban landscapes in major cities across the world. His buildings include the Pompidou Centre in Paris, designed with Italian architect Renzo Piano, and which opened in 1977; the Lloyd’s of London building, completed in 1986; and the Millennium Dome, the symbol of New Labour triumphalism that opened to the public on New Year’s Day 2000, and which evolved into the O2 venue.   Other key buildings by Rogers included the Leadenhall Building (2013), situated across the street from Lloyd’s, and which became known as the Cheesegrater. He also designed the law courts in Bordeaux (1998) and Antwerp (2005), the National Assembly in Wales (2005), and Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport (2008). This was eventually built following a labyrinthine public inquiry and associated objections and protests, an

Mary Collinson – Actress, model Born July 22, 1952; died November 23, 2021    Mary Collinson, who has died of bronchopneumonia aged 69, was an actress and model, who, for a brief period at the start of the 1970s, captured the imaginations of B-movie film producers and softcore men’s magazine editors. This was done in tandem with her identical twin sister Madeleine. The siblings’ highest profile came when they took the title roles in Twins of Evil (1971).    Director John Hough and screenwriter Tudor Gates’ film was produced by horror specialist Hammer Films, and was the third part of the studio’s Karnstein trilogy, which began with The Vampire Lovers (1970), followed by Lust for a Vampire. While the first film was loosely based on Carmilla (1872), J Sheridan Le Fanu’s gothic yarn about a female vampire, as the titles of the films suggest, the studio’s commercial instincts saw them taking an increasingly sexualised tone in their depictions of Sapphic creatures of the night.    Set in se