Tim with Per Jorgensen in Norway, just three weeks before his death.
Photo: Vibeke Johnsen, Nettavisen
Market Harborough: Robert Plant tells Tim backstage that he has just recorded 'Morning Dew' for his new CD, Dreamland. Tim explains why he is laughing: 'I was thinking about the royalties!'
Photo: Trevor Neal
Poster advertising Jacques Laurey's documentary, Where Was I?.
April 2007
Tim Rose in probrably his last recorded performance. Playing 'Tiger In Cages' at the Guildford Festival
Click on the image to view the clip (from YouTube, copyright John Raymond)
October 2006
Five years ago, Tim played one of his last gigs in England. At the Fairfield Hall, Croydon, he supported Procol Harum, who were still going strong with an active fan base. Not Tim's ideal audience, perhaps, but he played his heart out as ever. Rodney Breen was there and shot a brief (18 seconds) clip of Tim playing one of his standards, Morning Dew. If you've not heard Tim play live, this gives some idea of what he was like in full flow - still angry and passionate.
Click on the image to hear the short clip in Real Video format.
February 2004
The Official Tim Rose Website got a mention recently on Boston Folk Music Radio WUMB. The station is a non-commercial radio station licensed to the University of Massachusetts. DJ Barnes Newberry has a show called 'Highway 61 Revisited' on Saturdays from 7-11am, Eastern Time (12pm to 4pm UK time). He has been playing some Tim Rose tracks and now has a collection of Tim's most recent recordings, courtesy of Martin Hughes, who runs our merchandising operation. He promises to play one of Tim's songs on his next show on Saturday 28 February.
If you're a fan of Tim's and want to hear his music played more often, why not email your favourite station and suggest they give him a spin?
Not one but two new recordings of Tim's work have arrived at the Tim Rose website. One is a collection of tracks recorded in London between 1978 and 1998. Masterminded by Tim's friend and collaborator Pierre Tubbs, who was producer of the Haunted album, this CD features unreleased tracks which will be of interest to Rose fans everywhere. It also has liner notes by Mark Brend, whose book American Troubadours (available from the shop page on this website) features a chapter on Tim.
The other recording, Mirage by new folk outfit the Green House Band, features Tim on vocals on one track, a traditional song called The Snows. More details of both of these CDs is available on the Music page, which contains a complete track listing for both.
If you would like to purchase either of these CDs, they are both now available from our shop page.
December 2003
“Snowed In” was a hard, if not near impossible album to make. Producing Tim Rose in his final year was tough – like trying to tame a lion with a rubber chair.” Colin Winston-Fletcher, producer of “Snowed In”.
In the year before he died, Tim Rose worked with composer Colin Winston-Fletcher on a number of recordings. These have now been released by Cherry Red Records as the album 'Snowed In'.
Copies are now available from this site. For details see the shop page.
Jacques Laurey's film Where Was I?, a biography of Tim Rose, was shown at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival and on Dutch TV last year, to considerable acclaim.
Tim's last recording was the video of the song Strange Things Happen for Norwegian band Headwaiter, whose recent album he appeared on. Copies of the CD and VHS copies of the song are now available from our shop page.
Tim Rose went into the Middlesex Hospital, London, on Monday 23 September 2002, which was his 62nd birthday, for an operation on a cancerous tumour. It turned out that the cancer had spread and the operation put severe stress on his heart, which was not strong. Immediately afterwards, he was placed on life support, and the next morning he was taken into surgery again because of internal bleeding. He did not survive the operation and was pronounced dead at around 11.30am.
Tim was buried at Brompton Cemetery in West London, following a funeral mass at the Farm Street Jesuit Church in Mayfair, attended by a large number of friends and fans. John W Gardener, an old friend of Tim's, gave a moving oration which you can read here.
A large group gathered in the afternoon at the Half Moon in Putney that afternoon to remember Tim, to listen to his music and sing some songs to his memory. Plans are afoot to organise a public celebration of his life in due course.
Among Tim's new neighbours at Brompton are the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and the Austrian tenor Richard Tauber. Until a few years ago, the cemetery also held the remains of another American Son, the Sioux chief Long Wolf, who came on tour with Buffalo Bill in 1892 and died of pneumonia. Long Wolf's remains were returned to the US in 1997. Tim would probably have appreciated that.
Messages of support have been flooding into this site and extracts have been placed on the condolences page. Some are from fans, others are personal messages commenting on his warmth, exuberance and generosity. He was well loved by those who knew him.
One thing that was spoken of during his funeral and after was the Tim's many acts of generosity towards others. Friends and fans who would like to commemorate his life and work might wish to make a donation to charity. One which Tim personally supported was the NSPCC. You can make an online donation to them here.
Tim e-mailed some friends before he went into hospital. His sign-off at the end may serve as a farewell to all his friends and fans:
