The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (148 page)

(Barbie’s Dream Car)

Often lumped with two postpunk movements, the Seattle grunge scene and the Foxcore/Riot Grrl movement, 7 Year Bitch were in fact closer to a band like L7 in their distinctly ‘rock’ outlook. The band – formed in 1990 by ex-Barbie’s Dream Car members Stefanie Sargent (guitar), Selene Vigil (vocals) and Valerie Agnew (drums) – recruited Elizabeth Davis (bass) and immediately hit censorship problems, first and foremost for their name (this
was
the US, remember), and also for song titles such as ‘No Fucking War’ (1992), written at the start of the first Gulf conflict. Opening for happening Seattle punks The Gits, 7 Year Bitch put out
Sick ‘Em
(1992), a debut album, on small imprint C/Z Records – but tragedy was to occur before the record hit the shelves. After also drinking heavily, Sargent was found dead from an apparent heroin overdose: a needle was found next to her body.

With new guitarist Roisin Dunne on board, the band produced a second album,
jViva Zapata!
(1994), which understandably expressed more personal sentiments than its predecessor, and featured the song ‘Rockabye’, written in Sargent’s memory. The record title itself alluded to murdered friend and Gits singer Mia Zapata. As a result of the appalling crime that brought about Zapata’s death
(
July 1993),
members of 7 Year Bitch were instrumental in setting up Home Alive – an anti-violence project promoting self-defence for young women. After a move to Atlantic proved unrewarding, however, 7 Year Bitch ended in 1997.

JULY

Sunday 5

Paul Hackman

(Kitchener, Ontario, 1953)

Helix

Helix came into being as early as 1975, and guitarist Paul Hackman joined the Ontario-based band three years later, after they had become quite a local attraction. Built around the vocals of Brian Vollmer and the guitar and drums of twins Brian and Brent Doerner, Helix peddled a familiar brand of late-seventies pomp metal, pulling in a loyal fanbase without ever really break-ing into the upper echelon. Hackman became a core figure in the line-up, playing on eight albums over the next decade or so as the band toured the world with just about every major metal name of the day.

Returning from a Vancouver show at around 8 am, one of two Helix tour vans failed to negotiate a hairpin bend and left the road near Kamloops on the Coquihalla Highway, rolling forty feet down an embankment. Sound engineer Al Craig and crew members Alan Russell (who had fallen asleep while driving) and Mike Palmer suffered minor injuries; Paul Hackman, however, had been thrown clear of the van and was badly hurt. Bassist Daryl Gray attempted to flag down help – apparently, some twenty vehicles ignored the injured musician before a doctor pulled up. (The second Helix van was unaware of the accident.) Hackman later died in hospital from severe internal injuries. The shattered band issued a single, ‘That Day is Gonna Come’, in honour of the late guitarist, with a promotional video featuring Super-8 footage of him on tour with Helix. Said Craig, ‘The guy was the most harmless human being. It’s hard to fathom that he’s not here any more.’

Sunday 26

Mary Wells

(Detroit, Michigan, 13 May 1943)

Mary Wells’s success as Tamla Motown’s first solo chart-topper almost never happened: born into a single-parent household, Wells was stricken with spinal meningitis which left her temporarily crippled, partially sighted and semi-deaf. Despite this disability, she sang regularly at her local church, and taught herself to walk again at the age of five. Just over a decade later, the young singer so impressed Berry Gordy with a vocal rendition of her own song ‘Bye Bye Baby’ (apparently composed for her hero, Jackie Wilson) that the wily Motown head signed her on the spot. Wells recorded the tune herself and scored a Top Ten R & B hit in 1960; the record also managed a very respectable forty-five on the pop listings. Another of her songs, ‘I Don’t Want to Take a Chance’, then made the US Top Forty. It was under Smokey Robinson’s guidance that Wells became Queen of Motown, however. She had a string of major US hits, penned by the star, over the next four years; the biggest by some way was ‘My Guy’ (1964) – a number one that stopped just short of the million mark in America and also took her to number five in Britain (her only significant hit that side of the Atlantic). Her business friendships blossomed, with Marvin Gaye selecting her for duets and The Beatles naming her as their favourite US chanteuse, offering her a number of songs for an album – in return for which she dedicated the record to the Liverpool foursome. Wells was prolific in other ways, too: she produced six children with second husband Cecil Womack (and later married his brother, Curtis). She had previously tied the knot with songwriter Herman Griffin, who, believing she was being exploited by Motown, encouraged her to sue Gordy in 1965. Although she was successful in this action, Wells found scoring hits on other labels difficult, and left the business during the seventies to concentrate on her by now substantial family.

Mary Wells: ‘Miss Motown’ in ‘Gordy’ attire

In 1990, Mary Wells – enjoying something of a revival on the tour circuit – learned the devastating news that she had cancer of the larynx, promoted by a forty-a-day cigarette habit. Without major health insurance, she then suffered the ignominy of having to sell her vast home. An array of music stars, led by Martha Reeves, former Supremes Diana Ross and Mary Wilson (with whom Wells is often confused), plus Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart, offered assistance to this popular performer. But Wells’s health was weakening: yielding to a bout of pneumonia, she died two years later at the Kenneth Norris Jr Cancer Center at UCLA.

AUGUST

Wednesday 5

Jeff Porcaro

(Hartford, Connecticut, 1 April 1954)

Toto

Steely Dan

(Various acts)

If an
Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars
award existed for most apocryphal death tale, then that of drummer Jeff Porcaro would likely give Cass Elliot
(
July 1974)
a close run. Porcaro was born into a musical dynasty: his father Joe was a traditional percussionist and brothers Mike (born 1955) and Steve (born 1957) – with whom he would later play in Toto – were a bassist and keyboardist respectively. Jeff was probably the most widely respected Porcaro, however. While still at Grant High School in California, he landed a job as inhouse drummer on CBS’s
Sonny & Cher
television show – a position that caused him to abandon his studies but put him in touch with some of the top names in music. When he was just nineteen, Porcaro was recruited by Steely Dan for a lengthy tour; the New Yorkers then kept him on for three big-selling albums,
Pretzel Logic
(1974),
Katy Lied
(1975) and
Gaucho
(1980). His reputation had flourished by now and as FM rock’s most sought-after session drummer, Porcaro added the names of Boz Scaggs, Barbra Streisand and Warren Zevon to his address book by the end of the seventies. With Toto, Porcaro moved into US music’s major league, the band soon becoming one of those select ‘logo’ acts (see Chicago, Foreigner, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Styx, etc) who can shift dinosaur-sized units of AOR confection with nary the twitch of the eyelid. Their bestselling album was
Toto IV
(1983), with offerings like ‘Rosanna’ and the admittedly rather engaging ‘Africa’ (a US number one) likewise doing pretty smart business on the world’s singles charts. And it didn’t end there: during the decade Porcaro rubbed shoulders with most blue-chip names, contributing to records by Dire Straits, Hall & Oates, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Randy Newman, Pink Floyd, Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, with whom he co-wrote ‘Human Nature’.