News you think you'll never hear

I know I'm not alone in wanting to see the back of January.  I feel like that pretty much every year, again, in common with most other people.  But I can't remember another month in my lifetime when so many much-loved public figures have been taken from us.

Lemmy will be missed.  So too Alan Rickman.  And David Bowe's death was a particular low point for his legions of devotees.

I wrote here less than three weeks ago about my personal upset at the passing of Ed "Stewpot" Stewart.  Since then, we've lost Eagles founding member Glenn Frey.  Vanessa and I were hugely fortunate to see the Eagles play live in Leeds 18 months ago.  I've loved the band for years, with Don Henley right up there amongst my favourite ever singers.  But until that night at the First Direct Arena, I didn't fully appreciate just how good Glenn Frey was.  It's now a memory I'll cherish forever.

However, with the greatest possible respect to all of the above, this morning's passing of Sir Terry Wogan has floored me.  I was lucky to once meet and talk to the great man, and recalled it here some years ago.

As so many other people of my generation have said on social media today, Terry's been an ever present and the fact he's gone will take some getting used to.

But, for me, the biggest shock's been the realisation that he was just like the rest of us.  Terry Wogan dying?  Nah!  It'll never happen.  But sadly it has.  And we're all the poorer for it.