Maybe this should go under the grumpy thread, but, what the hell. In 1975, an American family came to live 2 doors away from us for a year. One day, one of their sons who was about the same age as me asked me if I wanted to go to see somebody called Leonard Skinner in concert. Ok, I replied, I've heard of him. The same mistake as everybody else. The he was actually Lynyrd Skynyrd. We saw them supporting Golden Earring at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester and again the following year at the same venue and also at Knebworth a few weeks later. On 20th October 1977 their chartered aircraft crashed in swampland at McComb Mississippi killing both pilots, Ronnie Van Zant the lead singer, Dean Kilpatrick the Road Manager, guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister Cassie Gaines a backing singer. In 1986 Allen Collins one of the 3 original guitarists is paralysed and his girlfriend killed in a car crash. In 1990 he died of respiratory failure caused by pneumonia, a complication of his paralysis. A decade after the crash the band reformed from the remaining members plus some "old boys" like Ed King one of the original 3 guitarists. The drummer Artimus Pyle left the group in 1992 citing professional differences and at some stage went to prison for statuory rape. In 2001, bassist Leon Wilkeson, the Cat in the Hat died in his sleep as a result of chronic lung and liver disease. On the 28th January 2009, keyboard player Billy Powell died of heart failure. He had cancelled an appointment with a heart specialist the previous day. The only remaining member of the band that were on that plane, apart from the drummer, who's possibly in prison is Gary Rossington. It's funny, but when you stand up for the second encore in 1975, never, in your wildest dreams do you think a trail of disaster like that will follow your idols. Oddly enough, I was "talking" to Gary and Billy via the band's web site and they were saying how much they were looking forward to coming back the the UK in 2009.