RTP-area local music and culture

[Duncan Murrell <dvmurrell AT nc.rr.com>]

On Jan 6, 2004, at 11:10 AM, Chris Rossi wrote:

> bendy wrote:
> > The penultimate paragraph was even more shocking for me...
> > ===
> > Last week, Davies received royal honors in London. Along with 
> > singer-guitarist Eric Clapton, he was named a Commander of the Order 
> > of the British Empire at a ceremony on New Year's Eve.
> > ===
> > ...I mean, he dismantled pomp and circumstance so well, and so 
> > modestly, it's sad to see him slip into it. Choking on vomit seems to 
> > be the only thing that prevents Brit pop stars from falling for the 
> > trappings of peerage.
> Has anyone in recent history ever turned down royal honors?  Any 
> musicians?  Maybe he doesn't mind a meaningless pat on the back.  It's 
> not like they've given him a feud to lord over.
>
> rossi
>
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene

Lots of people have turned down honors in recent history. Right now 
it's something of a minor scandal in Britain because a few people (the 
poet Benjamin Zephaniah, someone else) came forward last month to 
describe why they're turning down royal honors, and there's also been 
some embarrassing information leaked about how the committee comes up 
with the names. In general, people tend to refuse the honors when 
they're offered under governments -- Labor or Conservative -- they 
dislike, and but many of them go on to accept under governments more to 
their liking.

A list of people who refused:

David Bowie
John Cleese
E.M. Forster
John Galsworthy
Rudyard Kipling
Peter Allis
Francis Bacon (the painter)
Alan Bennett
Isaiah Berlin
Roald Dahl
Albert Finney (has refused under both Labor and Conservative 
governments; another reason to go see Big Fish)
Aldous Huxley
Evelyn Waugh (!!)
Kenneth Branagh

People who refused, who later accepted the same or better award:

Lucian Freud
Graham Greene
Alfred Hitchcock
Doris Lessing
Helen Mirren
V.S. Naipaul
Vanessa Redgrave
Harold Pinter

d

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