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Age brings periods of reflection, & I was thinking back over a lifetime of those who departed suddenly & unexpexctedly.

I can remember precisely where I was, & who I was with, & what I was doing, when.....

1) J F Kennedy was assassinated. A friday nignt, at home, I was a kid. He was a huge hero to me, an icon. Presidents were all old & ugly, with blue-rinse wives. He was smart, handsome, with a beautiful missus., He had rhetoric (I was so naive then about the Kennedy Clan) & I idolised him. How could they shoot him. I read, in the years to come, every Kennedy Assassination book but even then, I spurned the crackpot conspiracy theorists.

2) John Lennon. I heard it on the radio, 4.30 in the morning, as I drove out of Nottingham where I had stayed overnight on business. I was on the A52, at Bardills Island. I still think "Lennon" every time I drive over that roundabout. In the next few days, it was Lennon-music non-stop on the radio. Fine, but suddenly he became the world's nicest man, which annoyed the hell out of me. He was not nice, not at all, he was a selfish, inconsiderate man, though, I'll concede, a good Father. I mean, as an adolescent, half the reason I idolised him was because he was so horrible, so non-conformist, he had long hair, he swore a lot (neither of which were the norm in those days) & now, suddenly, they were making him "nice". His music was just the best, then & now, his lyrics astionishingly easy to understand, but still perceptive. And he done drugs, which was then, outrageous, & I thought that made him super-cool. (And boy oh boy, how my views on drug abuse have changed down the years, but don't start me on THAT). So my "anti-hero" became a Hero, & I began a life-long loathing of the Media for their hypocrisy. They'd slated him when he was alive, now they loved him. Yuk. And his Yoko phase, how we all loathed her, until, to me, his time in New York, when he became just a regular Dad, & they interviewed him on Old Grey Whistle Test, with his hair scraped back, & an old-fashioned but oh-so-cool hat on. I truly loved the guy, partly because The Beatles were "my" generation. In time, I came to dislike McCartney, (Wings were SO naff) was ambivelant about Ringo, & Harrision became a huge hero.

3) Robert Maxwell. What an extraordinary story HE was. No bigger crook ever lived, he robbed everryone, openly!, & nobody ever suspected. What a dreadful man, but his death remains an unsolved mystery in my mind. Hard to believe he fell overboard from a yacht in the middle of the night, & he never had the guts to commit suicide, no matter how much of a mess he was in. And I don't buy conspiracy theory rubbish.

4) Princess Diana

Got home from a comp, 4am, saw it on teletext - she's injured/badly injured/dead. Never sunk in really, until they cancelled the football, which made me furious - at the time I was spread betting footie big time, & you know how selfish gamblers are. The funeral hoohah was extraordinary, but the anti-Royal stuff in the papers sickened me. Jeez, I hate the printed press.

5) Two Soldiers in Northern Ireland......

....beaten to death. I stlll have nightmares about it. I was seeing a girl from Crich at the time, we went to her house for whatever on the Sturday afternoon, & it came on the 5pm news on BBC. Two undcercover Soldiers, in a car - a Golf I think - somehow got mixed up with a funeral cortege from the "other side". Tried -desperately to back out, no joy. Door opened, struggle, gun in hand, passenger dragged out, disappears in baying lynch mob, film stops. Cut to two dead bodies, stripped to underpants, bruised & bloodied. Oh my God. Every death in NI ws a tragedy, for both sides, & my God, there were some horrible ones. Hard to imagine a worse death than being beaten to a pulp, a car/plane/train crash, or a fall, must be a walk in the park compared to that. So, so, sad.

6) The Queen Mum. Strangely, I recall nothing of her passing, even though I adored her.

I exempt Parents from this really, that's different. I remember Dad passing away as if it were this morning, but it's cool now, we talk every day. I don''t call how/when or why my Step Mum died, I can't forgive her even at this time of my life. The mind is a weird & wonderful thing.

What deaths do YOU remember particularly?

Take it the changeover is going a bit rough so you thought you would cheer us all up a bit..


My one most vivid is the space shuttle discovery

walked into a chinese takeaway after playin football for the college and saw it on the screen. never been able to forget the sight of the explosion and wondered if the crew were aware of if it they were completely unaware they were approaching their last seconds alive. hope it was the latter.

Princess Di


going to work v early on Sunday morning ,about 0630 am

turned radio on ,getting strange music wotever station i chose...

couldnt quite work out why!!!

a whole 15 minutes of driving passed with strange ,sad music,until the news came on

I only remember princess Diana's death.

I was 15/16 and staying at my mates house we'd had a party and i remember waking up early in the morning and watching it on the news i was the only one awake, as a very irreverent young man i never had much of a countenance for figures in the public eye but i remember being quite shocked.

the following weekend(the weekend of her funeral) me, my pal and two girls went to margate beach on the day of her funeral, middle of summer, must have been only 20 people on the beach, it was so strange!

No, it's just that old folks tend to reflect more & more with time.

Me and the missus went to the pictures and watched the Full Monty. Dunno why nothing against the girl but had got a bit much by then.

you are old??


well I never!! nobody ever mentioned that, always thought that was you grandad in the avatar.

same here.  Was dropping my wife off (gf then) at work and couldn't get anything decent to listen to on the radio.  Got home and was looking forward to the Liverpool v Newcastle game on the tele when I heard the news.

I remember when Freddie Mercury died too but can't remember what I was doing at the time. I was just gutted.

Princess Diana

Was in bed August 31st when my then little boy Kalem came bounding in saying iTS MY BIRTHDAY !!! AND Princess Diana is dead !!  "  
Very sad day , one  that Kalem will not forget .

I was watching Sky News on the night Diana died.

Just after 1am, the newsreader said something along the lines of 'Princess Diana has been involved in a traffic accident in Paris.' One sentence, read out every couple of minutes for the next hour, between each report, as the rest of the news continued as normal. Admittedly is was 1am on a Sunday morning, but I did think it was odd that there was no mention on the BBC for an hour (after 2am, when they broke into their programme for a News Report).

Details were sketchy, not much information was around (or it was, but was being suppressed). Then a couple of eyewitness reports came in - one of the men in the car was dead, but the lady was OK - she was conscious and not badly injured. Crisis was over - I went to bed.

Woke up in the morning, turned on the radio and heard the national anthem being played over and over...

Freddie Mercury - was listening to John Peel's radio show in bed. The news that he had AIDS had only been announced the day before. John handed over to the newsreader, who announced the death, then John played 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love'.

Princess Diana

Was in NZ at the time - my gf (now wife) and I were in a restaurant with 2 friends and we had seen 4 rotations of dinners come and go as we drank wine and light bites from midday until late that night - overlooking Mission Bay towards Rangitoto Island. We heard the news in the early evening when the UK would have been waking up soon.

Put a dampner on what was a very nice chilled out day.

Princess Di - My g/f was on holiday and I was staying overnight at a friend's place.  We had been planning to go cycling that morning.  We got a call from a friend of a friend to say what had happened.  We turned on the telly and just watched it gobsmacked for the next 2 hours.

As an aside, a few days later, my g/f was on a beach with a friend somewhere in former Yugoslavia.  They has seen photos of Di in the papers, but didn't understand what they were saying as it was all in Cyrillic alphabet.  They saw a large boat in the sea and kept joking it was Dodi & Di, then an Italian guy came up to them and told them.  They had gone about 3 days without knowing what had happened.

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World Trade Center - We were on holiday in Tuscany and started getting texts from friends as to what had happened.  We had trouble getting the tv to work initially, but then someone plugged the ariel in.  We did wonder whether we'd get home (and in some ways we're hoping we couldn't).  We also had with us a friend who was scared of flying, and it took us years to get him to pluck up the courage to come with us on holiday - this that happened!!!

Tikay  where were you when Tribeca  died???

Oh yes, that's another - the World Trade Centre. Mixed emotions & feelings on that. So awful for the innocent civilians, heart-wrenching, but best not start me on the American Government......

Think I was mid humpy-pumpy.

Mercifully quick then.

Princess Diana, I was on holiday in a holiday cottage in Norfolk. I was feeding my then one month old son, 4am feed from the bottle while my wife slept.

Switched on news to keep me awake while I fed the baby! and there it was, remember it as clear as day..There I was caring for this beautiful baby and several hundred miles away a huge story about someone losing their life was unfolding.

Others I remember....

I was coming out of a concert at Old Trafford when I heard that Marc-Viven Foe the footballer had collapsed and died while playing. Walking down the road with complete strangers I can visualise their faces in detail to this day.

I lived literally 100 yards as a boy from the spot where Marc Bolan crashed his mini into a tree...I was ten. Still remember being told that night like it was yesterday.

September 11th I can remember the clothes I was wearing whilst I watched the coverage!

I don't remember the Queen Mum moment either!

I have such a poor long trerm memory bu thte two that stand out for me both involved coming home from school or college.

The world Trade Centre and the Commencement of The second war in iraq. Watched the telly for hours eyes just glued to the screen and i never miss a programme or documentary that comes out on either now!

And anything to do with space, love that too!

The one that shocked me the most was Jill Dando.. was driving back from the golf course and almost crashed my car... felt numb for hours, which is strange considering i never knew her

As for the WTC, I was working on the equity desk in a trading house in London and it was absolute bedlam, markets were like a straight line down, then closed, clients who were trading on 1% margins ended up owing £10k on positions that only required nominal balances , and then had to move into the backoffice temporarily to try and get settlement on all the accounts with deficit balances.. the craziest week of work I ever encountered. Glad thats over now.

Diana I had to wake up at 6:30am to play the final of my Club Championship matchplay, and heard it on the radio.. my opponent was a staunch royalist so i thank her royal highness everytime I look at the trophy and reminisce on the 7&5 thrashing I gave the poor soul.

I remember where I was on 9/11.
Was living in a house without a telly. Hearing the unbelivable on the radio.

My mate phoned me, he said you have to come over here. The second plane hit as I was walking over, he phoned me again and told me to hurry up.

You just have to rubber neck whenever "Breaking News" comes on the television, it's human nature. As you watch people jump out of burning buildings and the similar horrors of that day though, you  feel sick, but you can't stop watching either. Why is that?

It was an awful afternoon, you didn't know when it was going to stop.

I had the day off work on Sept 11th and had gone into town to Tesco. I popped into Dixons for a browse round on my way up (as you do) and the TVs had News 24 on showing one of the towers with smoke coming out and the 'Plane crashes into World Trade Centre' message across the screen. There was no sound on the TV so I didn't realise the magnitude of what had happened - the tower was so big that it just looked like a light aircraft had crashed into it - just an accident.

On my way back from Tesco I walked past and saw all the staff stood in front of the TVs - watching an image which was quite clearly only showing half as many World Trade Centre towers as there had been previously. I practically ran home to watch it on the TV. I saw the sceond tower fall live - it was clear the reporters were having real trouble coming to terms with the magnitude of what they were seeing. At the time, there were conflicting reports of how many people were in the towers when the planes struck - some estimates put the figure at 50,000 per tower.

Watching something, knowing you've just seen thousands of people dying right before your eyes is a reality-twisting moment - it's difficult to come up with an emotion as it is just so far removed from the usual world of experience.

Elvis............had been to visit family friends in Hemsby.As soon as we heard the news, the heavens oponed and the most ferocious rainstorm erupted.

Diana.........was in bed waiting for my ex to bring my breakfast for me.when she told me that she had died, my first response was to ask if she had od'd

World Trade Centre.....driving along the A14 near Bury ST Edmunds,with a lorry load of washing machines bound for Ireland .heard the terrible news on the radio and rang my mother to ask her to videotape the news for me,little realising the full extent of the horror until the next days newspapers.

Freddie Mercury....like AndrewT , i was listening to John Peel when the terrible news broke.horrible horrible time.

Tighty's reference to football reminds me of Hillsborough, I know the exact where & when I was for that, ditto the Bradford stadium fire.

Ditto Ayrton Senna, I was big into F1 at the time, & we watched him die, literally, on TV. It was clear he was dead by the trackside pics, but he was not "officialy" announced as dead for 6 or 7 hours. Italian law, or some such. A huge hero.

John Surtees too (not a racing accident), Stirling Moss's huge Goodwood shunt (not fatal), Niki Lauda's inferno, (ditto), and worst of all, the Le Mans tragedy in 195x, in which so many specctators died.

I was into motor bike racing, too, & well remember Derek Minter - "King of Brands" tangling with Paul Dunstall (Dunstall Domiracer, a Norton/Triumph hybrid, ahh those lovely names) at 180mph along that straight just before Clearways, as it was then called,. (Brands Hatch changed the names of all the corners since, damn them). Dunstall was inches ahead of Minter, when an oil pipe burst, covered his back tyre, & The Mint, and Paul, down they both came. Paul died. A boyhood hero dies in front of one's eyes, & a teenager cries.

I was eleven and had been out witha friend one saturady afternnon

when i got back my dad told me what had happened at hillsbrough

will always remember him sitting me down and explaining it to me


9/11   i had just bought a new tv  i turned it on tuned it in and first thing i saw was a plane crashing into the tower

Jill Dando, I never quite "got" that, though I don't really watch TV. Seemed a lovely girl, & it was vey sad, but the damn Press blew it up too much for me.

Not Italian law at all - it was simply that Bernie Ecclestone had decreed that no racing driver would die at the track - they were to die 'on their way to the hospital'.

Horrible, nasty piece of work.

You are so right - why DO we rubber-neck? Motorway Accident, we ALL have to look. I do wonder why, but I'm as guilty as the next man.

I am not sure I buy that, but knowing Mr Ecclestone, I guess you could be right. I just went by contemporary news reports. News Media re always right, eh?

It was because there were too many similarities to Diana (young, blonde, pretty, violent death) - in death she became an ersatz People's Princess.

One more - Anna Nicole Smith. I seem to recall I was on here, posting bad taste jokes...

JFK - I was a (considerably younger [than TK]) kid also... talking at the next door neighbours window when a newsflash came on the TV.

Elvis Presley - In a pub on the way to Swindon (Moonrakers) for a night out.

Princess Di - Up at 3am to go fishing and put the TV to see the weather.

9/11 - For some reason not at work and round the pub!! This particularly memorable for me as my daughter was at the WTC exactly one week earlier... after cutting her 'round the world trip' short by one week, due to running low on money.

Arton Senna  was my sisters b'day  may 1st  remember that one vividly as well

John Lennon

I was sixteen, still at school, and I remember this being the first death, celebrity or otherwise, that had a real impact on me.  I wasn't a particular John Lennon or even Beatles fan but just something about the nature of his death and the general reaction really hit home.

I always look back at this time as being the end of a certain innocence that I had up to that point in my life.  Things have always been a little bit darker since that day.

And the bombing of a building in America - was it Kansas City, when they destroyed an agency Building? The Americans arrested every Muslin in sight, & it turned out to be a some weirdo redneck local was responsible. Relegated to the inside pages then of course....

April 1989, my last year at University...5 of us were celebrating the birthday of my housemate (Bolton fan) by watching Fulham v Bolton, Divsion 4, at Craven Cottage and then hitting the town

We couldn't understand why the FA Cup semi latest score didn't come over the tannoy. We didn't go out on the town when we found out, the car broke down on the way back to University.

My girlfirend at the time was a Forest fan and was at the far end of Hillsborugh as it unfolded. It scarred her for a long long time afterwards.

Absolutely it was life-changing for me. How could they shoot John, surely a mistake, I kept thinking.?

I think it shocked me because it was the first celebrity murder I had experienced, and I had a schoolboy crush on her.

When I was a very small boy of about 5 or 6, we often used to stop near a railway embankment behind a pub called The Arrow. Near to where we stopped, there was a tumbledown wooden cottage occupied by an doddering white haired old gentleman called Mr Flyn.

I spent countless hours tormenting Mr Flyn, I rang his doorbell and ran away, I knocked his outside loo /bucket and chuckit over, I sat on and broke all the cabbages in his vegetable plot, I caught wasps and posted them through his letterbox, etc etc.

He would lay in wait and ambush me. He would growl and wave his stick and I would squeal as he chased me almost all the way home every day. He threatened me with indescribable violence,  but strangely, on the odd occasions when he caught me, I always managed to slip away unscathed. Sometimes I would see him talking to my father, but it never occurred to me to wondered why he didn't report my misdemeanors

One day I went to his cottage to cause some mischief, and I saw an ambulance crew stretchering a blanket covered figure down the path. I knew straight away that it was Mr Flyn, and I knew that he was dead.

I knew at that moment that I loved him, what's more, I realised that he loved me too.

Tom, that is so moving.

A mate of mine was working in the BBC news library that day and it was absolute bedlam. They have obituary packages ready for old celebrities (or those who have recently been ill) along with those prone to assasinations (politicians). For Jill Dando they had nothing and it was a mad rush trying to cut together old clips from Crimewatch to show.

The flip side of this was the Queen Mother. Her death had been so widely expected that the BBC had made a programme interviewing people who talked about her in the past tense, to be shown on the day she died. Unfortunately for the BBC, by the time it was shown it was hopelessly out of date - it had clearly been made in the late 1970s and nearly all of the people reminiscing about the Queen Mum had long since died themselves.

Sad thread this, got me rembering some nasty stuff.

One of my earliest memories was being told to look out of the window across the North Sea, the flames burning from the Piper Alpha were visible from my bedroom. 167 men died that day. Everybody seemed to know a relative of one of those who perished.
It was the same year as the Lockerbie disaster, but I can't remember that.
Certainly not a good year for Scotland

Despite a bit of stick from my peers about being a tank engine, I can never remeber being ashamed of my name. Except one day in '96. Thomas Hamilton gunned down a class full of pupils and their teacher in Dunblane, at a Primary school ffs.

If you're looking for questions that will never get a satisfactory answer... Why would anyone do this?

Sad, yes, but no rain, no rainbow.

Locherbie - yes a dreadful memory, I as in Mombasa, Kenya, it was around Xmas as I recall. On my sadly infrequent trips to Scotland by car, I drive past Locjjrbie, but dare not go into the town.

I know, man unto Man & all that. Imagine how the parents must feel? Next door neighbour's kids, one dies, the other survives, how do the parents, with such mixed emotions, face each other?

This thread is so theraupautic. Poker bad beats? Don't even think about 'em.

Andy Murray, the tennis player, was an 8-year old pupil at the school on the day it happened. When he started his tennis career, his press info would only describe him as coming from Fife, as he and his parents knew that mentioning Dunblane would only lead to endless questions about it.

 :goodpost:  bit of perspective

Senna - Was at the Ex Girlfriends house and they had just got sky, remember Eurosport having a chopper above the site of the crash site and it being very clear he had not survived.  I will always remember the sense of loss, I think it was the first time a non family death had ever had an impact I was about 17, me and the then misses went to the a local river, watched the Sun go down, listening to the news, seems very vivid thinking back.

Peel - This man gave me more in life then most people I have actually known, turned me on to more new (to me) music, festivals, shops, websites and information then all the books I have ever read, then all the people I have ever known.  I was at work when Mrs Kor phoned, had just learnt I had got a new job, the sun was shining and I was listening to early Gogol Bordello as played by JP.  She knew I would be devastated, and I was.  Just didn't get it, it would not sink in, don't think it has still.  The man will always be a legend in my eyes, left work, picked up the misses and drove to his local church in Bury St.  Signed the book of remembrance, left some flowers . . . . . Never forgotten.

As a total contrast to my earlier morose Lennon death post I also recall the death of Elvis just three years earlier.

My memories of that night are like something out of a situation comedy.  

I was on a family camping holiday in August 77 and was happily sleeping away one night in the family tent when I was vigorously shaken and woken up by my father. He had tears in his eyes and was shouting "wake up!!, wake up!!"

Seeing his obvious distress all sorts of thoughts went through my mind....is my mum ok?  is my sister alright?   Has the tent blown away?

Thankfully it was none of these as he managed to blurt out "Son........Elvis is dead!"

Oh Elvis I thought sleepily......oh yes isn't he that fat bloke that hasn't really had any hits since I've been interested in music but apparently was good once?

At this point I caught sight of my green LED wristwatch that showed it was about 3am!!   Despite being woken up to be informed of what was to my 13 year old mind an event of little relevance I could see my dad was looking for a response and so tried to sound sympathetic.

"Sorry to hear that, dad"  I said and rolled over with the intention of resuming my interrupted sleep.  

No such luck though as he gently shook me again and said I should get up as they were now playing Elvis songs all night on Radio Luxembourg as a tribute to the great man.  Clearly an event that was so monumental that it couldn't possibly wait until morning!  ;frustrated;

So I then sat in the main part of the tent and had to listen to hour upon hour of Elvis songs until dawn!  Not just me and dad but also my mum and sister too......and she was only six at the time!!

If I was bemused then heaven only knows what my little sister must have made of it!  I've asked her a few times since but her mind has clearly put up some kind of defence mechanism to block it all out, as she has no recollection of the night at all!

My dad just sat there the whole time the radio was on staring blanky ahead with an occasional mumbling of "Elvis is dead!"

Even when my mum suggested that he should turn down the radio so as not to wake the rest of the field of campers all he could say was............"but Elvis is dead.....the....king........ is dead!" !   :dontask:


My dad said the next day that I would remember that night for the rest of my life................well he wasn't wrong about that!!!     rotflmfao    Bless him !

I don't know if I want to post this or not. It happened a long time ago but still upsets me deeply.

Back in 1993, I heard on the radio at work of a helicopter crash at Llanberis, Snowdonia. It didn't hit home until I realised that my squadron (Bury Air Training Corps) were on summer camp (where they allow cadets to visit RAF bases for a residential week). They were based in Wales....

I phoned a friend, who was in tears, and he told me that our squadron was involved in the crash.... And then he told me who had been killed. I didn't know two of the cadets too well. Then he told me that Amanda had been killed. We were both in the same band together. I was solo trumpeter, she was a tenor drummer. The band at that time was really good. We had won several competitions, and there was a feeling of vibrant energy around the place. I can honestly say it was one of the best times of my life, playing in that band, with the characters there.

After the phone call, I quickly turned on the television. I watched North West Tonight, and saw the helicopter spiralling out of control, before crashing into the lake. The RAF crew all managed to escape, along with another cadet and bandmember, Sarah.

Still, the full impact of the situation hadn't sunk in. I was very calm.

The next day, I went into work. Evey single newspaper had the image of the helicopter hitting the water on the front page. I still tried to keep cool. I thought that if I could get down stairs and into goods inwards inspection, to be left alone, I would be ok. I didn't make it that far. One guy stopped me on my way downstairs and asked what was wrong. Then I broke down into tears.I was quickly dragged into the first aid room. I couldn't stop crying. It went on for hours. Finally, I managed to regain enough composure to go home.

The most difficult part though, was playing "Last Post" at the funerals. Being a solo trumpeter but tremedous pressure on me to get it right. In fact, I think there were five of us playing (including my dad, who taught me how to play). Amanda's funeral was the last one. It was just too much for me and I ended up splitting a few notes. I really messed it up.

Exactly one month later, at the Battle of Britain parade, they were stuck for a solo trumpeter. I was asked if I would play, even though I was officially retired from the ATC. I agreed and played. I was determined to make up for my previous attempt, and I played the best I've ever played. My Dad wasn't around at the time, but I wished he had heard it. Our bandmaster was conducting, and after I had finished, he just smiled and said "Thanks Joe"

I've never played the trumpet since.

Kurdt Cobain, i was at work and someone told me and i replied, yeah your right?

Princess Di. what was i doing,er..................my girl friend, now my wife......i was doing her.

911 i just got off the beech and the streets were empty and bars were crowded.

Queen mum.... no idea.

 

KeithyB's memories reminded me of my Elvis is Dead holiday in Norfolk. When the news broke my mother became almost hysterical, not because of her love of Elvis, but her best friend Joy, was the biggest, most obsessive Elvis fan ever, her front room was a shrine to the man....well my mum was convinced Joy would do away with herself & we all had to get back to London to save her from her inevitable fate. I can well remember my dad F'ing & blinding all the way home.

Joy, over the years recovered from the shock of her idols death, her whole house became a shrine to Elvis, & her husband left her.

What a wonderfully told, & touching story. I'm so sorry.

Princess Di - I was working as a croupier at the time at the Stakis Chevalier Casino in Glasgow, I had just spun in the number 14 for the 5th time in a row and there was an almighty commotion in the bar area ( thats where the telly was), within seconds there was an announcement made to all guests and staff that the Princess was involved inan accident, The Blackjack tables emptied as did the roulette and most surprisingly the punto banco table was deserted and the bar area was heaving with people watching impatiently for just a little more information.

Sadly by the time my shift had ended and i got home the news confirmed that she had passed on.

9/11 - I was in the car heading to Ikea with my wife, and our oldest daughter, We were stopped at a level crossing when the news broke on Radio 1, reports were sketchy, and there was a general sickening panic about what we had heard, My wife simply said lets go home.  I turned the car around and sped of home.

No sooner had we switched on CNN when the first tower fell, The shock of that moment will stay with me forever.

7/7/2005 - We had just arrived in Las Vegas the night before, When we awoke the next morning ( the TV alarm was set )    the news channels were awash with images of devestation throughout the capital.

It sounds harsh but my immidate thoughts were for my friends and collegues  in London and I was hoping none of there were one of the unfortunate people caught up in the bombings.

Diana - I was a kid and in the car with my family in the early morning hours coming back from seeing relatives who live about 4 hours away. I believe it was a Saturday night and it was around 1am or so. I also remember going to church the next morning and hearing the priest say that our prayers were with Diana and her family, and looking around to see if anyone had not known about it.

9/11 - This was scary. I lived in halls in Uni, second year and I was president of the house. There were some Americans living there and they were beside themselves (as we all were, but them a little more so). What was very scary about that day though was that I had just returned from New York about a week before where I work each summer at a kids sports camp. A girl I met there and was still 'dating' was from Australia and she was flying back to Oz on September 12th. Her flight and destinations were the exact same as the one going from NY - San Fran that was hijacked. She was going to book that flight until the last minute when I mentioned she may like to come to class with me on the Monday, the day classes began, instead of leaving the Sunday as she had intended on. Monday September 10th I walked her to the bus station and she was going to Halifax on the bus, spending Sept 11 there, and onto NY then San Fran the morning of September 12th. She was beside herself.

SwissAir Disaster - This was quite scary as it crashed just off the coast of Peggy's Cove Nova Scotia, which is about 3 hours from where I live in Sydney Nova Scotia. I remember watching the news and seeing fishing boats going through the water picking up debris and in once case seeing a fisherman holding an arm. Totally devastating.

7/7/05 - Was in NY at my sports camp and I was talking to my friend from Birmingham about London getting the Olympics as he was opening BBC.co.uk, and he just stopped talking. I looked over at the screen and couldnt believe it. It was crazy to see all the Brits calling home to get news.

I was in Vegas when 7/7/05 happened, and it was a bit odd for me.

I was, obviously, a bit distractedly, walking along that long corridor in the Rio, to do a 425 Interview, & then the Live Update with Jen.

I had never, at that time, had much time for Americans, I'm sorry, but that's the way it was. I was still steaming about the Gulf War, & the WMD farce, their meddling in the Middle East, I despised the Watergate crew, &, well, they were not my favourite people, wrong as that may seem, & indeed was.

I knew a lot of the American players, and that Rio coridor is a long & crowded walk, maybe 10 minutes.

The walk took me over an hour that morning, as, one after another, Americans stopped me.

"We are with you all the way buddy".

We'll get trhem for ya".

"Hope the folks back home are OK mate"

"We are in this together, don't worry, we will nail those ******'s"

I was in tears by the time I got to the end of the corridor, & since that day, my respect for the American people has been what it should always have been. Their Government, no way, never ever, but the people are, really, golden.

i remember 9-11,  just after id left school was playing online  cribbage not poker and it came on the news, about the first plane crash and then the 2nd one struck while they was filming live, it was extrodiary i will never forget that seeing a plane crash into a buliding in front of my eyes,  i remember phoneing a family member and they though i was takeing the piss

Ayrton Senna .  I loved watching this guy and followed everything he did .  When he died I was watching the race and enjoying his battle with Schumacher.  I remember it being a strange atmosphere before the race as Ratzenberger had died in qualifying the day before. When he crashed it was obvious the accident was serious, but I didn't find out until later as I missed the later stages of the race due to a friends birthday party.  Very sad day .  His nephew Bruno Senna will be in F1 within three years, so keep a look out for him. There are some Bruno video's on youtube , he is very similar in appearance to Aryton Senna and with virtually no racing experience has come along in the last few years and is already racing at a very high level. Natural talent like his Uncle

Another racing driver that sticks in my mind was a Canadian Indy Car driver called Greg Moore. He died during a race in 1999 at only 24 years old. He was a rising star and was set to join the largest Indy Car team in the World ( Penske racing ) the following year. It was obvious the minute he crashed that he wasn't going to walk away from it.  He was so talented and many believe he would have gone onto being one of the all time greats.  There are some moving tributes to his career on youtube  .

Kurt Cobain.  I was out on my bike training and had to stop to fix a gear that had broken.  An old guy walked past and said a famous pop star had died.  All the way move I was wondering who it was and checked on BBC when I got in the house.  It was a shame, I liked their music.

River Phoenix.  He was only 23 when he died and I think I heard about it while out camping with some mates. 

Never mind all that Sark - are you coming to Luton???

Seconded. He HAS to come. Him, Bolt, Totalise, & The God that is Nem.

Sir, that was very moving.

I remember fetching the Sun from the letterbox as a 7 year old and my mum saying to my dad 'Elvis is dead' and they both cried.

I was never a fan of Diana and the morning she died I came home from a night at the dogs/casino and saw it on the news at about 4 am, I went upstairs and told my mum and dad and they both cried.

I am a Sheffield lad and was working in a Hills shop in the city centre on the day of the Hillsboro disaster, it was awful. At about 4.30 we stated getting loads of Liverpool fans coming into the shop clearly distressed and many in shock. We got a few requests from people asking if they could use the phone to ring their families and tell them they were ok and as the phone was one with a long cord we stretched it over the counter and one of the staff spent the rest of the evening ringing numbers and letting the people speak to their families.

Being unaware until then that this tragedy had happened it was gut wrenching to listen to every persons story of what had happened and what they had seen. Myself and the other staff were in tears and the most awful moment came when one guy was telling his wife he couldn't find his son in the ground and there he was, about 20 stone and shaking with rage and tears, he could barely speak but he finally told her he had gone to the police room and found him sitting on the floor with a flag wrapped around him.We rang the area manager and told him what was happening and he told us to make sure everybody got a cuppa and something to eat and anyone that wanted to phone home could, so we stayed open til about 9 pm that night looking after these football fans. I went home that night and just couldn't believe what I saw on TV.

9/11 I was working as a football odds compiler for Hills and it was  champions league football that night so we were bang under the cosh. Someone took a call and said a plane has crashed into a building in America and we turned on to see the 2nd plane strike. I will never ever forget those scenes of people jumping out of windows to avoid being burned to death.

 
Am I the only one that is near to tears on reading some of these? That Hillsborough story by Bobby, of the 20 stone Dad.....

i remember where i was the day the king died,elvis that is .

i was at the donny rovers v sheff wednesday match ,cant even remember the result .

but a freind ov mine played the last post ,it was weird 10,000 wednesday fans standing in silence while  this went on.

the wonderfull lady di ,i was on holiday with my family ,very sad day .

as luck would have it, at the time of the funeral I found myself in the scottish borders at the wheel of an insanely fast sports car. Since I seemed to be the only car on the road, I had the best two hour drive of my life.

cheers Di

 :)up

I'm very interested as an old ex-dope+ smoking hippy, as to how and why your views have changed.

PS

How could you leave out Hendrix, Joplin, Phil Lynott and many others ?

Hendrix, Janis, Lynott, sorry, just did not do it for me.

Drugs? I used to think, as most youngsters do, that they were cool, though I never once went there.

But now, I am violently "anti". I've seen how it's wrecked so many lives, so unnecessarily. What % of street crime is down to drugs?

I have pals now, who's behaviour swings from wonderful to dreadful, just because they can't handle drugs. And what's the point?, it's a temporary "kick", who needs that? Look around, life is just fantastic, without drugs or alcohol. When I'm with a roomful of spaced out or bladdered folks, nothing, for me, could be more uncomfortable, to watch them all making fools of themselves. I'm quite partial to Liquorice Allsorts, mind.

A typical "mature" gents view I guess, I assume you share it Ralph....

I may not be able to attend this event.  The day falls on the same date as the 135th Nebraska Arbor Day Celebration . This is the national tree-planting holiday in Nebraska.  Before the advent of the Internet, I had to keep up to date with the happenings of this event through outdated newspaper reports, however now I am able to keep up to date with the latest news from this festival by checking on Google.  I am also in money saving mode right now  :D

Hmmmm........ old hippys never die, rather like old golfers they just lose their balls...

Tikay your not the only one pal.

I lost my 3 best friends in a car crash when I was 17. They were hit by a drunk driver who came round the corner on the wrong side of the road.He got 2 fcuking years"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boy do I miss them lads, and not afraid to say I have tears in my eyes as I am writing this

Will leave it at that I think

Princess Diana-

The day before i had gone to watch Norwich at Sunderland, where incidentally Norwich were the first away team to win at the stadium of light. On the way back on the train me and my mate got talking to these female Portuguese students (it would be rude not to) and the one i was talking to was saying how much she was looking forward to sight seeing in London (Newcastle to London train) and how much she liked Princess Di. I have to admit i said i didn't have much time for her and couldn't see what the fuss was about, I still think this BTW. Next morning i get up and to my horror she had died, i wouldn't wish it on anyone.

I like tikay remember them cancelling the footie the next day, i was a bit miffed to be honest as we had just got sky for the first time and there was no football to watch.

Hillsborough-

I was at the other semi final on this tragic day, Norwich vs Everton at Villa Park. I was only 9 at the time and Norwich had never made it to an FA cup final (still haven't). I was devastated at the 1 0 loss but it paled into insignificance even for a 9 yr old football addict when news of hillsborough filtered through. The only silver lining is that British football woke up to itself and tackled a long standing problem (pardon the pun). Not that the families 96 have ever got justice or that I'm against terracing.

One of my housemates now was actually at the game, he couldn't get a ticket for the liverpool end. So ended with the forest fans at the kop end, it still haunts him to this day.

World trade centre bombings-

I was a student in Sheffield and had just come back from a summer working at home. Me and couple of mates decided we would come back a few weeks early and just doss about and go the pub, aah those were the days. Me and my housemate Neil were sat in the house watching neighbours i believe and deciding what to do with the afternoon/evening, the pub was massive favourite at this stage. Neighbours had just finished and the bbc newsflash came on and i thought geez what an awful accident. When the 2nd plane hit i was just gobsmacked spent the whole day sat in shock watching the tv, never did get to the pub.

As an aside one of my mates at uni was on holiday in the us at the time and when he got back he had photo of himself stood outside the twin towers on September 10th. It was spooky to say the least.