Bless him. He must be so bored playing sold-out gigs to punters who just want to hear the old stuff.

And he's under doctors' orders not to climb any more trees. What happened to all the fun in the world?

Nothing illustrates the western discomfort with death better than a pot of ashes and the combination of Richards and the cremains of his deceased father are pure comedy. And if Keef just wanted to be a little closer to him then it is also a little touching. Rodney and Del Boy know all about the urn's tragi-comedic value as do Ben Stiller and Robert de Niro in the hilarious movie Meet The Parents. We still don't know how to deal with death so we laugh heartily.

These days cremations are hot. I mean cool. You know what I mean. Their popularity has risen in inverse proportion to the popularity of the Catholic church, which has long discouraged if not banned the practice. Many now choose the crematorium for a variety of reasons; they don't like the thought of decomposition; or for purely economic/space reasons . . . it's cheaper and you don't need to choose a plot. Plus, you can have a lot more ritual fun. Most folk scatter them about the place, or deposit them from a plane. Some send them to artificial gem-makers where the heavily carbon-based substance can be compressed into a diamond. Others have them sent to space, used them to make fireworks or loaded them up in canons.

Cremations also appear to be more environmentally friendly. Interment involves heavy wood coffins, mercury from dental work and embalming fluids; cremation boils down to the simple matter of fossil fuel emissions issues.

But snorting the remains could well be the perfect way of squaring the circle. By the time the cremains have been reduced to less than 3% of the original body mass, with most of it being vapourised, the only matter left is calcium phosphates and assorted minerals. Perhaps the 63-year-old Rolling Stone is practicing his own form of defence against osteoporosis.