JAZZ STAR MELLY SUFFERING DEMENTIA

British jazz veteran GEORGE MELLY is suffering early stage dementia, his wife has revealed. The 80-year-old prompted concerns for his health after collapsing on stage at a concert in East Sussex, England last month (25JAN07). But his wife DIANA noticed something was wrong in 2005 when he became increasingly forgetful. She says, "I first noticed about two years ago, that his memory was really pretty awful. "He's always been, as it were, the absent minded professor, so a lot of it was not easy to spot, because he's never been able to change a light bulb or do anything that most of us could do. But his memory just got very bad." However, Diana insists the condition will not affect his performances because he still remembers the words to his hits perfectly. The singer has a long history of health problems, including lung cancer and emphysema.