TISM: (He'll never be an) Ol' Man River

TISM stands for This Is Serious Mum and is pronounced "tis-um". They were an alternative, anonymous Australian band who flourished in the Eighties and Nineties.

This song, which was recorded in 1995, satirises our obsession with celebrity deaths and manages to foretell the death of Michael Jackson years in advance.

River was River Phoenix. The older brother of Joaquin Phoenix, he killed himself with drugs in 1993.

He had been a successful child actor, notably in Stand By Me, and was making his way in adult roles. Despite his squeaky clean image, he had long been struggling with drink and drugs.

Several of the roles he had been due to play were given after his death to Leonardo DiCaprio, with results we see around us to this day.

Oh, and if you are worried that TISM are not playing any instruments in the video above, here they are playing the same song on traditional Greek instruments.