Mandela heard the tribute while in prison, and later asked to meet Zephaniah. He also released a number of albums, and was the first person to record with the Wailers after the death of Bob Marley in a tribute to Nelson Mandela. His work, which appeared on the national curriculum, was heavily influenced by Jamaican music and poetry, and he was often classified as a dub poet. In 1999, he wrote What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us as part of the campaign to find the murderers of the 18-year-old south-east Londoner. In 1990, he published Rasta Time in Palestine, containing poetry and travelogue based on a visit to the Palestinian occupied territories. His second poetry collection, The Dread Affair, was published in 1985 and featured a number of poems attacking the British legal system. His poetry often directly responded to historical and current events. We are a multicultural society but the institutions have to catch up with us,” he said in 2019. “I was a big protester, not just against racism but also apartheid. He began performing at demonstrations, youth gatherings and outside police stations. In 1979, he moved to London, and his first collection, Pen Rhythm, was published. He had dyslexia, and he left school aged 14. He began performing poetry locally in his early teenage years. Zephaniah was born April 1958 in Handsworth, Birmingham, which he thought of as a “cold suburb of Kingston, Jamaica”. Upon hearing the news of his death, co-star Cillian Murphy said that he was “so saddened” by his news, adding: “Benjamin was a truly gifted and beautiful human being – a generational poet, writer, musician and activist. Zephaniah also played the role of Jeremiah “Jimmy” Jesus in Peaky Blinders, appearing in 14 episodes. “Rise in Power Benjamin Zephaniah.” Comedian Frankie Boyle added that “the world has lost a strong, strong human being”. Brum legend,” said author Kehinde Andrews. Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour party leader, said that he was “a devoted friend of the marginalised and dispossessed,” “a beacon of hope” and an “inspiration”. Author Bernardine Evaristo wrote that he was a “trailblazing poet” and “force of nature” in a post on X. Writers, poets, musicians and politicians posted tributes to Zephaniah on social media following the news. In the Russell Mulcahy episode of the series Music Video Exposed, Mulcahy says of the making of this video, “If you sit down with Elton, it’s more of an event.” Indeed.Benjamin Zephaniah in 2004. Thank you, Duran Duran.” He goes on to say, perhaps unnecessarily, “I can’t really remember the rest of the video.” I had destroyed one of the rooms and completely blacked out. All the time he was demanding that the camera continued to run on-and it was all Simon’s fault.”Īnd here’s Elton’s version of events: “I woke up the next morning and I had all these cuts and bruises all over me. … The next time I saw Russell he said, ‘What the fuck did you do to Elton?’ Apparently Elton had come back from the bar and then proceeded to do these elaborate stripteases in front of the camera, rolling around on the floor naked, then running off, changing into the most outlandish costumes, coming back and doing another extraordinary striptease. “When we got there, Simon (Le Bon) went off with Elton for a chat and got him absolutely pissed-this was when Elton was a complete fiend. Per Marcelo Anciano, Mulcahy’s assistant director (who would also later direct Arcadia’s excellent “Goodbye is Forever” video), here’s what went down: Hey, speaking of the Durans: David Buckley’s Elton: The Biography recounts how Elton met up with Duran Duran in Cannes in the middle of filming this video. And I may or may not* be sipping champagne to get in the proper spirit of things. In honor of Elton, I’m wearing my own tiara while writing this. I would expect no less from the man who famously packs two tiaras whenever he travels: one formal, one casual. Throughout the course of this video, he’ll undergo multiple wardrobe changes and don a gazillion different pairs of sunglasses. Sir Elton drives along the French Riviera in his flashy convertible, singing up a storm and looking like a million bucks. And, like, “Rio,” it doesn’t have much of a plot. “I’m Still Standing” was directed by Russell Mulcahy, and stylistically, it’s very similar to the work Mulcahy did on Duran Duran’s “Rio,” what with all the body paint and brightly-colored pop-art imagery. I speak, of course, of Elton John’s 1983 video for “I’m Still Standing.” Let’s shake things up a bit here and move slightly away from Duran Duran for a second to examine one of the most cheerful, colorful, glorious videos of the 1980s.
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