Farewell Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti died today and we've been hearing those 'magnificent pipes' all day on the radio!! It's hard to be excited that you had his name in your 2007 Dead Pool entry BUT so be it!!

While Opera is not my normal territory this bloke was a 'one off' who had a significant connection with Australia as he credited Dame Joan Sutherland as being the one who 'taught him how to breathe' while here in the mid 60s!!

People annoyed by U2 would be upset if I didn't mention his collaboration on 'Miss Sarajevo' which Bono actually has a crack at himself nowadays... owning up to inheriting his 'pipes' from his old man!!

Howzat!!

The song is a haunting soundtrack to any footage of the gunplay and people scurrying from building to building that is so often a feature of any news story about that conflict!!

During the ZOO TV Tour when Bono took on the Mephisto character he would mischievously phone someone each night while channel flicking on the giant screens on stage. One night he phoned a person in Sarajevo who ended up asking what 'he' was going to do about their plight... that after he hung up, unless something changed they would probably end up dead... it was a remarkable and uncomfortable media moment!!