The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (123 page)

Saturday 4

Trevor Lucas

(Melbourne, Australia, 25 December 1943)

Fairport Convention

Fotheringay

(Eclection)

Severely dyslexic, Trevor Lucas was encouraged by his doctor (via his mother) to ‘use his hands’. Obeying instruction, Lucas became a carpenter and, significantly, a first-rate guitarist, learning the folk standards that were to inform his later compositions. In Melbourne, Lucas was a popular live performer, and recorded his first solo record for East at just twenty. In 1965, the guitarist thought a short jaunt to check out the British scene would be interesting: he ended up staying for ten years, recording with some of the folk crossover scene’s biggest names. After a second solo effort, Lucas joined Eclection for one eponymous album with Elektra, before guesting on Fairport Convention’s album
Unhalfbricking
(1969) – the record the group was touring when young drummer Martin Lamble died
(
May 1969).
Lucas struck up a relationship with mercurial singer/musician Sandy Denny, which resulted in their 1973 marriage. The couple briefly set up Fotheringay, named after one of Denny’s songs, after her departure from Fairport, but the commercial response did not match critical acclaim. The standout cut from their one 1970 album was Lucas’s ‘Ballad of Ned Kelly’.

Lucas played on Denny’s solo records throughout the seventies, and also worked with a variety of other names, Al Stewart and The Strawbs among them. A Fairport Convention reunion proved a less than smooth ride, although two well-received records did come out of the reformation – as well as some very odd rock ‘n’ roll revival items. Tragedy hit Trevor Lucas and young daughter Georgia with estranged wife Denny’s untimely death
(
April 1978), after which the musician returned to Australia to produce indigenous acts. He died in his sleep from a heart attack, having remarried and fathered one further child.

Monday 6

King Tubby

(Osbourne Ruddock - Kingston, Jamaica, 28 January 1941)

King Tubby gained his earliest radio experience as a repairman, his fascination with sounds and gadgets the catalyst for his invention of a whole new genre, Jamaican ‘dub’ – the process of sound splicing within an instrumental break. With outdoor sound systems replacing a lot of conventional dancehall disc jockeying in the sixties, Tubby’s tinkering found an outlet and he could leap up and fix a speaker if an event got out of hand – which happened frequently in Jamaica’s most competitive pastime. Opening his own shop (Home Town Hi-Fi) and then a studio, King Tubby became the first name in Kingston for ‘sound’. His ability to construct and deconstruct not just the hardware but the music that emanated from it was to make him the most sought-after producer in Jamaican reggae. Tubby’s stripped-down tracks and strange sonic effects were used by producers Bunny Lee, Augustus Pablo and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, while he mentored Prince Jammy and The Scientist, two innovative dub artists who would wear Tubby’s not-inconsiderable mantle after his death. In a production capacity, Tubby also oversaw more commercial work by the likes of John Holt, former African Brothers singer Sugar Minott and Delroy Wilson. A brilliant engineer, Tubby continued to make significant customizations, such as adding reverb facilities to mixing boards used by many DJs.

King Tubby’s sudden death remains a mystery. Returning from his studio early in the morning, Tubby was approached by a lone man outside his Duhaney Park home. The dub pioneer was gunned down by the assailant in an apparently motiveless attack, for which nobody has ever been brought to justice.

Tuesday 14

Vincent Crane

(Vincent Cheesman - Reading, 21 May 1943)

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Atomic Rooster

Dexys Midnight Runners

Growing up in Battersea, South London, Vincent Crane’s first musical calling was as a classically trained pianist, graduating from Trinity College in 1964. His real love however was rock ‘n’ roll … Via a series of bands, Crane met the eccentric Arthur Brown in a Fulham house share, and the pair wrote the extraordinary ‘Fire’ (1968), a song that went on to top the UK charts, almost achieving the same in the US. Their album was also a major hit, and all appeared to be going well for the band, particularly as Crane’s onstage antics were claiming almost as many headlines as Brown’s well-documented pyrotechnics. But within a year the novelty was over and, escaping from a mountain of contract problems with Brown’s group, Crane formed Atomic Rooster with drummer Carl Palmer (later of ELP). In this guise, he enjoyed hits with ‘Tomorrow Night’ and ‘Devil’s Answer’ (both 1971).

Vincent Crane had been prone to psychiatric problems since boyhood, and the stress of a rock lifestyle sidelined him for long stretches with depression. He saw numerous line-up changes within Atomic Rooster but few further sales, and in 1984 jacked it in to become an unlikely member of Dexys Midnight Runners, playing on their third album,
Don’t Stand Me Down
(1985). Rumours of an Atomic Rooster reunion were scotched by Crane’s suicide at his Maida Vale home from an overdose of sleeping pills.

See also
John Du Cann (
Golden Oldies #145). Atomic Rooster drummer Paul Hammond died in 1992.

MARCH

Friday 10

Doc Green Jr

(New York, 8 October 1934)

The Drifters

The (Five) Crowns

(The Duvals)

(Various acts)

Harlem-born Doc Green Jr became, in 1958, the latest Drifters baritone in what was widely believed to be the definitive line-up of the many that fans would witness over the years. Green was a street singer, unfazed by confrontation and gifted with a rich voice. In 1952, he founded The Five Crowns (originally The Harmonaires) with close friend Wilbur ‘Yonkie’ Paul, who was eventually adopted by Green’s family. From hereon, the group history becomes somewhat complicated. Suffice to say that six years and many recordings for Rainbow later, the final line-up was Green, James ‘Papa’ Clark (lead), Elsbeary Hobbs (bass), Benjamin Earl Nelson (soon to be Ben E King, lead tenor/baritone) and Charles Thomas (lead tenor). (Vocal singers often switched bands, and Green and Paul also offered their services to The Duvals at this time.) Approached by Drifters manager George Treadwell, The Crowns – with King at the front and minus heavy-drinker Clark – became the ‘new’ Drifters. Within months, mainly spent on the road, the evocative Ben E King-written ‘There Goes My Baby’ (1959) shot to the top of the US R & B charts, stalling only at number two in the pop listings. (Meanwhile, The Duvals became the new Crowns and – well, there aren’t enough hours in the day, frankly …)