back to article Boney M frontman checks out at 61

Boney M frontman, Bobby Farrell, has died while on tour in Russia. The BBC reports that the 70s disco star was found dead in a hotel room in St Petersburg, Russia, where he had been performing. His agent, John Seine, confirmed that Farrell, 61, had complained of breathing problems before and after a gig on Wednesday. But the …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anomalous Cowturd
    Dead Vulture

    Frontman?

    He used to stand at the back...

    R.I.P. Mr. Farrell

  2. Gashead

    Same Date And City As Rasputin...

    ..who died in the then Petrograd in 1916.

  3. Number6

    He said it himself

    "Oh those Russians"

    1. Winkypop Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Ohhhh

      ... beat me by thaaaaaaat much..

  4. Jusme
    Unhappy

    Oh, those Russians...

    Ra Ra Rasputin...

    RIP.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    IT?

    Is lip-sync a technology?

  6. Mike Shepherd
    IT Angle

    Never heard of him

    Maybe he was an expert on server virtualisation?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    So was he...

    ... poisoned, stabbed, shot, strangled and then drowned?

    (Walks off singing "Ra-Ra-Rasputin...")

  8. Dalen
    Stop

    There was supposed to be a bad Rasputin joke here.

    But then, the guy's dead, and it's a damn shame. I liked their stuff.

  9. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    Oh those Russians...

    Sad to hear he has died. Not a greatly talented pop group really, but you can't help smiling when 'Rasputin' plays.

    RIP.

  10. The Jase
    Flame

    Rivers of Babylon

    Rivers of Babylon - A song by the Melodians played by Boney M.

    It was based on Psalm 137 which finishes with:

    "O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

    Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. "

    The rather cheerful subject of bashing your enemy's children to death on rocks.

    Ain't religion sweet...

    1. Winkypop Silver badge
      Alien

      The bible is the literal truth

      No it's not!

      Yes it is!

      repeat....fight....argue....kill....stone...

      1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

        This is not an argument

        this is plain contradiction!

        No it isn't!

        Can we have a Monty Python icon?

    2. John 62

      Dashing little ones

      The Psalms are there to allow humans to be honest with God. Jesus himself asked God "Why have you forsaken me?", which was a quote from Psalm 22.

      Wishing destruction upon another may not be nice but at least it might also be honest. Also, I don't know if any Jews did actually dash any children against any rocks or if anyone else was encouraged to do so specifically because of this one Jewish song.

      If you're going to go further around the Bible, I grant you I don't like the command given to Joshua to destroy Jericho, though it is also possible to point out that Achan was not condemned for disobeying the command by sparing any lives, but for hoarding booty (similarly for Saul), which makes you wonder about people.

  11. AnonymousLee

    Did he fall or was he putsched?

    You never really die in Russia, you just don't quite finish your sentenc...

  12. Colonel Mad

    Odd

    Rasputin was murdered in St Petersburg on the 29th of December

  13. Rogerborg
    IT Angle

    <-- Icon

    That is all.

  14. ShaggyDoggy

    Weird

    This is beyond weird - he dies on the same date in the same city as someone he famously sang about - hmmm

  15. Lukin Brewer
    Joke

    From a future edition of Hellboy...

    Rasputin: Robert Farrell... You use *my* name, make it - make *me* - the subject of a facile, cretinous ballad. You make of me a straw puppet in your shambolic culture, and paint my name across the lips of carousing fools. Then you presume to journey to Russia's sacred soil - to stand in the locale where I departed from this world, if only briefly, and, on the day of that death, repeat your insult? Do you wonder that I am come to deal with you and your effrontery? I will see you choke your last here, little entertainer, and give your bones to Baba Yaga to play on!

  16. Sceptical Bastard
    IT Angle

    @ ShaggyDoggy

    "This is beyond weird"? No it isn't, it is merely a coincidence. Get a grip, man.

    Like other commentards I can't see any IT angle in that press release about the death of a minor pop performer.

    Captain Beefheart (a much more significant, talented and influential musician and artist) died last week and I didn't see anything about that on El Reg.

    1. adnim

      I wasn't aware of that.

      "Captain Beefheart (a much more significant, talented and influential musician and artist) died last week and I didn't see anything about that on El Reg."

      The thing is, deep and meaningful appeals to a small percentage of those who engage in music and therefore rarely grabs the attention of the media who only really pander to the shallow majority. Superficial, empty and throwaway is all that really appeals to a majority that normally have a sub 1 minute attention span.

      RIP Don van Vliet.

      My head is my only house unless it rains, a place where I can watch the candle mambo from a clear spot beside those long neck bottles whilst listening to lazy music. Here I am as safe as milk and ah feel like ahcid to view the cardboard cut out sundown because it's the best batch yet.

      My formative years were much influenced by the music of Beefheart and Zappa. Perhaps that explains my lack of reverence for anything that isn't alive, and my tenuous and ever shifting grasp on reality.

  17. John 62
    Headmaster

    where was he performing?

    "The BBC reports that the 70s disco star was found dead in a hotel room in St Petersburg, Russia, where he had been performing."

    While hotel room could mean one of the larger rooms some hotels have for putting on concerts, idiomatically, it normally means a bedroom in a hotel, so that could have been a pretty intimate gig.

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