The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (115 page)

Within five years, though, James was dead: always a big man, he succumbed to a heart attack at just thirty-eight.

Monday 7

Richard Taylor

(Jersey City, New Jersey, 1940)

The Manhattans

The baritone singer with sweet soul/R & B outfit The Manhattans, Richard Taylor had seen the band emerge in 1960 out of the ashes of his US air force-formed Statesmen, a vocal quartet very much in the doo-wop tradition. After finding Floridaborn lead George ‘Smitty’ Smith, The Statesmen located to New York to become The Dulcets, eventually plumping for the more geographical Manhattans in the early sixties. Throughout the rest of the decade, though, this crisp, well-drilled group performed and recorded in relative obscurity, waiting until the seventies for a major commercial breakthrough; by now, though, they had already lost frontman Smith to crippling illness
(
December 1970).

After a host of releases on a variety of labels, The Manhattans sold over a million copies of the part-sung, part-spoken ‘Kiss and Say Goodbye’ (1976) – a tearjerker that stormed to US number one and was also a Top Five hit in the UK (as was the follow-up, a cover of Elvis’s ‘Hurt’). Already very ill, Taylor was forced to leave the group shortly after this burst of activity (though he’d rejoin for the occasional reunion). Converting to Islam, Richard Taylor preferred to be known as Abdul Rashid Talhah for the last ten years of his life. Exact details of his illness have been kept secret, although we know he died in Kansas City.

Wednesday 9

Will Shatter

(Russell Wilkinson - California, 10 June 1956)

Flipper

(Negative Trend)

(Any Three Initials)

As San Francisco recovered from the Sex Pistols’ very public implosion during early 1978, a number of first-wave punk bands began to make themselves heard in the fallout. One such were the largely forgotten Negative Trend, whose bassist/vocalist Will Shatter was still present as the band – Bruce Loose (second bass/lead vocals – already their third singer), Ted Falconi (guitar) and Steve de Pace (drums) – mutated into the wilful, crushing Flipper around 1979, with formerly institutionalized singer Ricky Williams briefly at the fore. Soon after, the band signed with underground label Subterranean. Their sound was primal, with much guitar feedback: a song like ‘Sexbomb’ (1982) was little more than a barrage of noise and some sound effects, with Shatter yelling over it. But they had something.

In 1982,
Album – Generic Flipper
was released (the group were later to take a dig at PIL for apparently lifting the idea) and two years later
Gone Fishin’
(1984) appeared. By now their sound was highly experimental, a kick against the thrash bands that surrounded them. Flipper, though, had already split, and Shatter was now issuing his avant-noise ruminations as one of Any Three Initials (A3I) in 1986. Just a year later, the colourful bassist was dead from the disappointingly obvious method of a heroin overdose. Flipper reformed some seven years after the original line-up had split (thanks in part to fan and Def American label boss Rick Rubin), with John Dougherty playing bass. Ten years after Shatter’s untimely departure, he too died the same way (
October
Friday 25
1997).

See also
Ricky Williams (
November 1992); Rik L Rik (
June 2000)

Monday 21

John Spence

(Orange County, California, 2 February 1969)

No Doubt

Unlikely as it may now seem, No Doubt began life as a buzzing ska-influenced high-school band, put together by friends John Spence (vocals) and Eric Stefani (keyboards), while they sold burgers and desserts at an Anaheim Dairy Queen outlet. Their musical similarities became apparent – both were 2-Tone fans, not as rare in California as one might think – and before long, an eight-strong ska band was in place. ‘No Doubt’ was an expression used constantly by the hyperactive singer, so the name was never going to go away. The group soon trimmed down to become a very popular local draw with their quirky, arhythmic pop rock. By his own admission, Spence was not the strongest vocalist, but his onstage dynamics (backflips and jumps, mainly) captivated the audience so much that the introduction of Stefani’s precocious 16-year-old sister, Gwen, on backing vocals initially went unnoticed.

But all was not well with John Spence. Having contemplated suicide at Thanksgiving, he carried out the deed just before Christmas in an abandoned parking lot in Anaheim. A gun was found at his side. The rest of No Doubt were crushed by his death, but maintained that carrying on with Gwen Stefani as lead vocalist would be what the original singer would have wished. Well, perhaps.

Friday 25

Nat Tarnopol

(Detroit, Michigan, 26 January 1931)

A heavyweight player during the US soul explosion of the early sixties, the formidable Nat Tarnopol was feared and revered in equal measure. As underling to artist manager Al Green, Tarnopol – still in his mid twenties – found himself overseeing the affairs of emerging talent Jackie Wilson when his boss unexpectedly died. Tarnopol’s management techniques were not uncommon in the music industry at this time: while he profited from the sales of Gene Chandler, Barbara Acklin and The Chi-Lites, the artists themselves seldom saw the money their modern counterparts now expect to receive. In his defence, it must be said that Tarnopol kept the wayward Wilson on the straight and narrow. However, Tarnopol spent the last fifteen years of his life fighting both legal charges and some fairly serious allegations from contemporaries. (Brunswick’s vice president Carl Davis once claimed that Tarnopol and others had threatened to have him killed should he try to resign from the company – and Tarnopol was known to be acquainted with notorious music-industry ‘insider’ and alleged mob affiliate Gaetano Vastola.) Many of the legal issues were still unresolved when Nat Tarnopol died suddenly from heart failure on Christmas Day 1987.