Gordon in the morning: Rolling Stones told they're old

At last. Someone's suggesting that maybe The Rolling Stones glory days are behind them by quite a distance:

“I think there’s a point when you’ve got to say, ‘Enough’s enough’. I just think they’re old, they’re old f*rts. I just think they ain’t rock ’n’ roll any more."

It's a good point - although arguably they might very well be rock and roll, and it's just rock that has got old and slow and tired.

Tell us, Gordon, who is this young buck calling for the old guard to roll over and let the kids through?

POP loudmouth PETE WATERMAN has blasted THE ROLLING STONES as “old f*rts” who are too ancient to tour.

Oh, yes. Young Pete Waterman.

Gordon Smart, of course, is not going to entertain the idea that once creaky old figureheads who've lost their vim should not be allowed to hang around making vast sums of money for subpar performances. Not with his boss.

So he sets about taking apart Waterman's grasp of facts:

The former Pop Idol judge, who managed RICK ASTLEY, ranted: “I’m 66 and I wouldn’t go and play. They’re 76. Them at Glastonbury – not for me."

Gordon presses his big red button.

Pete needs to get his facts straight. None of the Stones are near 76.

Charlie Watts will be 72 by the time Glastonbury starts, which is fairly near 76. But, to be fair, Ronnie Wood is actually younger than Pete Waterman.

What else you got, Pete?

“You wouldn’t see ANDY WILLIAMS at Glastonbury, would ya?”

Gordon, I see you have an objection.

And you’re unlikely to see Andy at Glasto – he died last year.

That's a good point, but unfortunately it's the wrong point. Andy Williams was supposed to play Glastonbury in 2010 - when he was 82, and thus older than any of the current Rolling Stones by a good decade - but (presumably due to his failing health) never made it.

And also: seeing Andy Williams play would have been more exciting and vital than the Stones' tax-balanced schtick, surely?

Legendobit: Andy Williams

As you'd expect, there's a lot of love online for Andy Williams today.

Edward Eveld in the Kanasa City Star visits his home of Branson, Missouri:

Raeanne Presley, Branson mayor and a member of the family that owns Presleys’ Country Jubilee, said Wednesday was a sad day for the city, which lost both a legendary entertainer and a staunch Branson supporter.
[...]
“Around town he always had a wonderful smile that looked like he knew a little bit of a secret,” Presley said. “He was the snappiest dresser in town, always wearing some cool tennis shoes.”

Williams grew enamored with Branson in 1991 on a visit to see his friend, Ray Stevens. Soon after he built a 48,000-square-foot theater building that won a state conservation award for its setting. The Williams family built a home overlooking Lake Taneycomo and also had a home in La Quinta, Calif.

Williams had chosen to move to Branson in 1991; Ray Stevens was already living there and introduced him to the town.

It's not just where he lived at the end that he was adored. The Aiken Standard gathered memories from the town he left in 1985:

Former S.C. Rep. Skipper Perry worked at Houndslake's Country Club in the '70s the first time he met Williams. When Perry purchased Palmetto Package Shop downtown, the two reconnected when Williams started shopping there.
"My experiences with him were, No. 1, he was a gentlemen; No. 2, he drank good wine and champagne and No. 3, Aiken was a place where people wouldn't bother him," Perry said.
Aiken resident Rosamund McDuffie met Williams during his time in Aiken, as well.
"We will all miss him terribly," McDuffie said. "I do appreciate the fact that he was here ... He was a very honorable character. He was very good and easy to be around."

For the Star Tribune, Barry ZeVan recalled a backstage encounter in 1970:

Bob said I should just go backstage, knock on Andy's dressing room door and we could have the meeting. I did what Bob suggested. In those days, security was a little less stringent, and because of my television visibility, the security guards kindly recognized me and allowed us to get right to Andy's dressing room door. I knocked. Andy answered in about 10 seconds, "Yeah? What do you want", he asked. I said, "I'm a friend of Bob Finkel, and Bob said he thought it would be okay if my daughters and I said hello to you in person after tonight's show". He immediately (warmly, with a very big smile) welcomed us into his dressing room, he asked me about my history with Bob, the girls got his autograph, we had a nice, short visit, and left. That was that, and I never saw Andy face-to-face again.

What comes across in all of the small, personal stories is a man who made time to make other people feel special. These little, passing tales of kind words and making time probably explain as much about why he was still performing, still popular after such a long career as all the other analysis of his talents.

But, clearly, the voice helped as well.

Andy Williams dodged the bullet

There are some strange nearly moments in history, and - amongst the strangest - is that Andy Williams was meant to be having dinner with Bobby Kennedy on the night he got killed. Williams felt guilty (and, we suspect, a little relieved - who wouldn't?) about having blown Kennedy out on the night he got blown away, and so said sorry with a tie:

"By the time I got to him, he was already dead... there was blood all over Bobby's clothes, on everything. So I went back to the Beverly Hills Hotel where he was staying, and got him a shirt and suit. But there was no tie. So I took off my own - a black one - and they dressed him in the fresh clothes and my tie for the flight back to New York on Air Force Two.

"And I sang The Battle Hymn Of The Republic at the funeral. We chose that song because he used it on the campaign trail. He had a terrible voice but he loved to sing that song. The only way I got through singing in church that day was by saying, 'This is my job. I can't let emotion get in the way of the song.' I really concentrated on not thinking about him."

Williams chose not to pull an Elton John and release the funeral song as a single, for charity or otherwise.