The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (147 page)

A drummer on the fertile British postpunk scene of the early eighties, Nigel Preston was as well known for his party-animal image as for his shortlived tenures with some of that era’s top leftfield bands. Beginning his career with Kirk Brandon’s Theatre of Hate, Preston found himself on
Top of the Pops
with the excellent Top Forty-scraping ‘Do You Believe in the Westworld?’ (1982). His career levelled off with art-goth scenesters Sex Gang Children during 1983, but the journeyman drummer was soon to bed down with much-touted Bradford rockers The Southern Death Cult – who could boast their own ‘Glimmer Twins’ in singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy (bassist at the time was Jamie Stewart). Gradually trimming their name down to The Cult (via Death Cult), the band placed two albums on the UK charts during 1983 and 1984. However, just prior to The Cult’s 1985 Top Twenty singles breakthrough, Preston was sacked because of his increasingly wayward lifestyle.

Unperturbed, the percussionist formed his own punk band, Baby Snakes, and also joined Jeffrey Lee Pierce – a punk- and blues-obsessed Californian now living in London – and his band The Gun Club for a European tour in the late eighties. The two musicians were both strong personalities and constantly at one another’s throats, Preston finding Pierce’s rigid work ethic hilarious. Tellingly, both were also heroin users. Although exact details are not known, Nigel Preston appears to have died from an overdose of the drug while staying in Brixton. Pierce apparently refused to contribute to a tribute record for the late drummer.

See also
Rob Graves (
January 1991); Jeffrey Lee Pierce (
March 1996); Nick Sanderson (
June 2008)

Friday 15

Barbara Lee Jones

(Barbara Lee - The Bronx, New York, 16 May 1947)

The Chiffons

The Chiffons – 14-year-olds Judy Craig (lead) and Sylvia Peterson, with 13-year-olds Barbara Lee and Patricia Bennett – were the consummate girl group, forming while at New York’s James Monroe High School. Their first manager was Ronnie Mack, who gave the group their name and in 1960 put the girls up against New Jersey rivals The Shirelles with a recording of the latter’s ‘Tonight’s the Night’: although they lost this particular battle (to a pretty formidable opponent), The Chiffons’ day would come two years later. Topping the chart with ‘He’s So Fine’ (1963), the group was now part of a wave of East Coast female acts – which also included Brooklyn’s The Crystals – cleaning up in the US. ‘One Fine Day’ was hastily released after the
real
follow-up stiffed, and also sold shedloads, though the group had to wait until 1966 for a third and final Top Ten entry with the Motown-esque ‘Sweet Talkin’ Guy’. In the seventies, the group – by then without their own deal – were caught up in a plagiarism case against George Harrison, who, it was ruled, had taken the melody for his 1971 number one ‘My Sweet Lord’ from the girls’ Mack-penned chart-topper. Which set the ex-Beatle back over $500K.

The Chiffons: Please pleat me

With hits and television work drying up for the quartet, Barbara Lee settled into married life and a more regular existence. The former teen star died suddenly from a heart attack the night before her forty-fifth birthday. After her death, Craig – who had left in 1969 – returned to the Chiffons for tours and public appearances with Patricia Bennett.

Friday 29

Ollie Halsall

(Peter Halsall - Southport, England, 14 March 1949)

Timebox/Patto (Take 5) Boxer

(Various acts)

Ollie Halsall was very much an unsung hero – a British guitarist who played left-handed, his fluid style lighting up many a recording over two decades. As a child, he showed promise on piano and drums as well as the instrument for which he would become best known, and even joined his first band, Take 5, as vibes-player. Changing the band’s name first to Timebox – under which they managed a Top Forty single with The Four Seasons’ ‘Beggin’’ (1968) – the group then became Patto, in deference to singer/guitarist Mike Patto. By now Halsall was wielding his familiar white Gibson, and also moonlighting as instrumentalist Rusty Springs. Nonplussed by Patto’s musical direction, Halsall left to become singer (and now also synth-player!) with hard-rock band Tempest, though this too was to prove unsatisfactory. Over the next few years he played with some great British names – Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Brian Eno and Viv Stanshall – and for a while in the band Boxer, again with Patto. In 1977, Halsall hooked up with another Bonzo Dog member, Neil Innes, to record the Beatle spoof
The Rutles,
his musicianship and speeded-up vocal aping Paul McCartney
(Monty Python’s
Eric Idle played the onscreen character).

Ollie Halsall was back playing with Kevin Ayers when he died suddenly from an unexpected heart attack in his Madrid apartment. It later emerged that the musician had become hooked on heroin around 1989, while attempting to assist a member of the band Radio Futura who was an addict. Although unsullied by any association with drugs throughout his career, Halsall had blown the last of his earnings on a fix that was to kill him in his sleep. His ashes were scattered at Cala Deia in Mallorca, and Halsall’s dedicated fans positioned a volume control on his headstone.

See also
Mike Patto (
March 1979); Greg Ridley (
November 2003)

JUNE

Saturday 27

Stefanie Sargent

(Seattle, Washington, 8 June 1968)

7 Year Bitch