The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (100 page)

A namesake of Bono, Dragon’s Paul Hewson was, in his homeland, almost as revered as U2’s frontman. Hewson was a strong keyboardist and songwriter who had already made a name for himself on the ‘Down Under’ rock scene with the bands (Marble) Arch – playing alongside his bassist brother, John – and the heavier Cruise Lane, whom he joined in 1970. Hewson flew to Sydney in 1975 to join Todd and Marc Hunter’s melodic rock band Dragon, who had just relocated from Auckland; here, he was to experience a bizarre series of ups and downs. The first major event was that the cash-strapped band had all their equipment stolen, before CBS came in and offered a deal, helping to establish the group on Sydney’s rock stations. Just as all seemed to be back on an even keel, drummer Neal Storey died from a heroin overdose, choking on his own vomit. Even then, the band rallied, with Hewson’s songs very much the driving force, and scored a gold record with the album
Sunshine
(1977). In November of that year, the band’s ‘April Sun in Cuba’ single was only kept from the Australian number-one slot by Paul McCartney’s somehow all-conquering ‘Mull Of Kintyre’; the following year, though, they reached the very summit with ‘Are You Old Enough?’ Dragon’s appeal had now become broader, the band opening for big US acts like Boz Scaggs and Johnny Winter – but few lessons had been learned on the drug front. Along with singer Marc Hunter, Hewson had developed a serious habit of his own.

Dragon sold steadily until 1979, then imploded, largely due to the wayward behaviour of frontman Hunter. The group reformed three years on, but with chart positions slipping by 1985, Hewson – who suffered from scoliosis – decided to call it quits. Returning to New Zealand for a break from the constant touring and partying, the keyboardist played live dates with local acts The Pink Flamingos and The AllStars, which proved far less demanding. It was on a night out with members of The AllStars that Paul Hewson fell victim to a final, fatal heroin overdose. Deciding to spend the night in a friend’s car, he took one last hit and drifted into an endless sleep.

See also
Marc Hunter
(
July 1998)

Friday 25

Bill Pickering

(Murchinson, Texas, 5 April 1927)

The Picks

Was 25 January 1985 ‘the day the music died’? Some might argue so, for it marked the passing of Bill Pickering who – unknown to many – sang backup on many of the original Buddy Holly & The Crickets recordings. While Holly’s legacy lives on decades after his horrific death (
Pre-1965),
the names of Pickering, his brother, John, and their friend Bob Lapham – The Picks – remain relatively obscure.

The brothers had begun singing with their parents as the Pickering Family Quartet during the forties, Bill encouraged to stand on an apple crate to help project his voice. Through their music, the brothers befriended the Holly family and Lubbock pianist Norman Petty. Bill Pickering later served in the navy and worked as a DJ – he was the first jockey to play Buddy Holly’s solo release ‘Blue Days, Black Nights’ (1956). One year later, he made an unheralded reacquaintance with the singer. With The Crickets’ ’That’ll be the Day’ ready to hit the market that July, Petty – now the group’s producer/manager – decided that the backing vocals to another recently recorded future classic, ‘Oh Boy!’, needed a touch of ‘pepping up’. Thus, in came The Pickering Brothers (now nicknamed The Picks) to provide overdubs – a favour they would also do for eight further songs (including ‘Maybe Baby’) the following October. By this time Holly and his band were the biggest name in town, and Petty saw no need to credit the boys for their vocals. With enough material in the bag for a first album and a series of hit singles, The Picks were never to work on Holly’s songs again; when the legendary singer died, however, Pickering attended – and sang – at his friend’s funeral. The Picks found it hard to forge a path on their own, separating into other lines of work before Bill and John reconvened as The Pickering Brothers and headed to Nashville in 1969. (In a strange twist, one of the A & R men they encountered there was Tommy Allsup, the former guitarist who had missed the Holly plane crash by the toss of a coin.) The brothers’ career as a duo was effectively ended in 1974 by Bill Pickering’s first aneurysm, which left him blinded for almost two years. Partially recovered, Pickering returned with his brother to the studio ten years on, after a chance conversation with Holly’s widow, Maria Elena Santiago, revealed that her late husband had wanted to record with The Picks again. So, producing another set of overdubs, the brothers sang once more with their late friend. (This time, there was no Petty in attendance – long retired, he passed away at the beginning of the project
(
August 1984).)
The resultant recordings were finally issued to the public as a 1998 Charly boxset, The Picks now inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame for their part in Holly’s legend.

Poignantly, the 1984 overdubs were Bill Pickering’s last professional move. Suffering a further aneurysm, he died the following January in Lubbock, Texas, Holly’s birthplace.

John Pickering died in February 2011, following a stroke.

Monday 28

Dennis Parker

(New York, 28 October 1955)

A smalltime porn-movie actor who went by the stage name of Wade Nichols, Dennis Parker was discovered by renowned disco producers Henri Belolo and Jacques Morali (The Village People, Ritchie Family), who saw in the moustachioed hunk a potential new star for the burgeoning gay market. In 1978, an album,
Like an Eagle,
emerged on Casablanca, and spawned two club hits the following year. This increased profile helped the singer/actor to land the part of Police Chief Mallory on CBS daily soap
The Edge of Night.
At the same time, Parker continued to work on adult films while attempting, unsuccessfully, to repeat his recording success.

Learning that he had AIDS in 1984, Dennis Parker became despondent, his depression preventing him from working for much of the time. To avoid the long-term ravages of the disease, Parker ended his own life by gunshot at his home.

Thursday 31

Barbara Cowsill

(Barbara C Russell - Newport, Rhode Island, 12 July 1928)

The Cowsills

Marketed as a sort of real-life Partridge Family (before the TV group emerged to steal their thunder), the whiter-than-white Cowsills enjoyed two years of US chart success during the last few years of the sixties. The band was made up of five brothers, Bill and Bob (both guitars), Paul (keyboards), Barry (bass) and John (drums), sister Susan (percussion) and mom Barbara (lead vocals) – the wife and children of naval officer/singer Bud Cowsill. Barbara Cowsill had been encouraged to join the group at thirty-eight by producer Artie Kornfeld, who promoted her on the debut hit, ‘The Rain, the Park and Other Things’ (1967). The single was a smash, selling over a million copies in the States, and was only prevented from hitting number one by The Monkees. More hits came in the shape of ‘We Can Fly’, ‘Indian Lake’ (both 1968) and the theme from
Hair
– another million-seller (1969).