The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (253 page)

The Bee Gees - Maurice, Robin and Barry Gibb: It’s a tragedy

During the eighties, Maurice Gibb admitted to alcohol dependence. Via Alcoholics Anonymous, he conquered the addiction, but some believe the damage to his liver was to prove critical in the years to come. Despite the thrill of an unexpected number one in 1987 (the indifferent ‘You Win Again’), it was a difficult time for The Bee Gees in general: Barry had his own medical problems, as did Andy, who died aged only thirty (
March 1988).
Maurice responded by throwing himself into the role of musical director for the final few Bee Gees albums, but it was obvious by the end of the millennium that his health was also failing. Maurice Gibb died from complications during surgery to mend a twisted intestine – believed to be a birth defect – a recently awarded CBE accepted in 2004 on his behalf by his beloved son Adam.

Perhaps one of Gibb’s most telling quotes came when walking off UK television host Clive Anderson’s live show in 1997: abandoned on set by his infuriated brothers, Maurice baldly stated, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t do impressions!’ before making his exit.

FEBRUARY

Thursday 20

Ty Longley

(Sharon, Pennsylvania, 4 September 1971)

Great White

It was rock’s biggest disaster – ever. For the families of those who perished in the Station nightclub, Rhode Island, the nightmare that occurred on 20 February 2003 will continue indefinitely; for veteran metal act Great White, it represents a macabre legacy with which none of the band’s music can ever compete.

Great White were a hard-rock/hair-metal outfit formed by singer Jack Russell back in 1981, but the band had to wait almost a decade for mainstream success. After a series of lukewarmly received albums, the band – Russell, Mark Kendall (guitar), Tony Montana (bass), Michael Lardie (keyboards) and Audie Desbrow (drums) – finally achieved a hit with their cover of the Ian Hunter tune ‘Once Bitten Twice Shy’ (1989). This and its parent album
Twice Shy
gave them a boost: although Great White were not to repeat the success, association with the album was to increase future concert attendances tenfold. By the end of the next decade, the band had a greatly different line-up, now featuring a new lead guitarist in Pennsylvanian-born Ty Longley. At the start of 2003, Longley had extra reason to be excited, as he looked forward to the birth of his first child.

A concert at the 300-capacity Station nightclub, West Warwick, Rhode Island, would not normally be considered a major event, but with Great White having wound things down a fraction, it was to be their last show for the foreseeable future. By 9.30 pm, the first band of the evening, hard-rockers Fathead, had finished their set and the expected surge to see the main event, Great White, had begun. By the time the band took to the stage, The Station was almost 50 per cent over capacity. As the group struck up chords and poses before their eager crowd, a series of ‘gerbs’ (small indoor pyrotechnics in ‘flashpots’) ignited around the stage – a typical rock-concert side attraction. The effect seemed more impressive than had been expected, until the audience began to realize that this firework display was
not
what had been planned. Within seconds, the band’s backdrop was ablaze, soundproofing foam used within the wall cavities proving highly flammable. Within minutes, the entire venue was engulfed in flame and smoke visible for miles. Attendees turned and fled, but with so many exiting so small a venue, it was never going to be possible to prevent casualties, many being trampled in the crush. Emergency services were fast to the scene and worked hard to clear the club. By morning, the extent of the disaster became harrowingly clear to all: more than eighty were confirmed dead (a figure that was to increase), with over 150 injured, ranging from the slight to twenty listed as critical.

Rhode Island – 20/2/03

Exactly 100 people were killed in what has since been confirmed as the US’s fourth-deadliest nightclub inferno. Apart from the Great White guitarist, a number of other members of their extended fraternity were killed as a result of that fateful evening on Rhode Island.

Forty-year-old DJ and WHJY radio presenter Mike ‘Dr Metal’ Gonsalves (who had been hosting the show) was one of the first confirmed deceased; cousins 34-year-old Keith Mancini (bass) and 39-year-old Steven Mancini were members of opening band Fathead, while the latter’s bandmate from another rock act, Nightfall, guitarist Scott Griffith, thirty-one, was in the audience and perished. Guitarist Thomas Marion, 45-year-old Dale Latulippe - drummer with Rhode Island band Ball & Chain - and 17-year-old Shryne guitarist Nicky O’Neill also died as onlookers. Among the crew who perished were Jeff Rader (who had toured with Alice Cooper) and Bob ‘Hairball’ Roger.

Ty Longley was one of those confirmed deceased on Monday 24th, his shattered girlfriend and family travelling to the site along with four hundred other relatives of the dead. In the aftermath, a fierce argument blew up between representatives of Great White and the club owners, brothers Jeffrey (who’d been present and had assisted in the evacuation of the building) and Michael Derderian– both of whom maintained that no provision for a pyrotechnic show had been requested by the band nor indeed been granted. Great White inevitably testified otherwise, Russell telling CNN that ‘obviously there (had been) some sort of miscommunica-tion’. As the legal row raged on, it was revealed that the rider in Great White’s contract made
no
reference to the use of fireworks in their show. Another nightclub owner, Dominic Santana, confirmed that the band had also failed to gain permission before using pyrotechnics at
his
club (New Jersey’s popular Stone Pony) just a week before– though it should be added that other club owners were equally quick to support the band, claiming permission had been both sought and granted. (Remarkably, a film crew had been on location at the Station to make a documentary about club safety, following a stampede that had led to twenty-one deaths at a club in Chicago earlier the same week. The cameramen managed to capture vital footage as the fire began to burn out of control.)

That December, the Derderians were charged on two hundred counts of involuntary manslaughter (two per death) – though this would have been only small comfort to bereft Heidi Peralta, who’d given birth to ‘Acey’ Ty Longley Jr that August. Despite this ruling, at the end of 2005 the case still remained unresolved, lawyers for the Derderian brothers asking for new information to be taken into consideration.

Sunday 23

Howie Epstein

(Norman Howard Epstein - Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 21 July 1955)

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

One of the most respected bass-players in American rock for two decades, Howie Epstein was best remembered as the foil to US guitar hero Tom Petty, with whose vocals he was to harmonize on The Heartbreakers’ biggest songs. Originally, Epstein had played mandolin, one of the younger exponents of the instrument during the seventies folk boom – an attribute that also drew him to the attention of Bob Dylan, upon whose albums he played during the following decade. Epstein joined forces with Petty in 1982 – by which time The Heartbreakers were well established – first contributing bass to the Top Ten album
Long After Dark
(1982). While working with Petty, Epstein also began a relationship, both professional and personal, with country singer Carlene Carter (Johnny Cash’s stepdaughter), for whom he produced two albums, including the Grammy-nominated
I Fell in Love
(1990). The couple remained lovers for fifteen years, the relationship ending only after a heroin bust in 2001, as a result of which Carter was sentenced to a year’s probation.

With no small irony, it appears to have been heroin that put paid to Howie Epstein. The bassist had been in poor health, suffering from influenza, stomach problems and a leg abscess (probably exacerbated by his status as a user). Rushed to hospital by his latest girlfriend, who described the comatose Epstein as ‘under distress’, the musician died from a suspected heroin overdose in hospital near his home in Santa Fe. ‘I’m devastated,’ commented his former lover Carter, adding, ‘My kids thought of Howie as their father.’ (Carter was to suffer further losses just months later with the deaths of her mother June Carter Cash, stepfather Johnny Cash (
Golden Oldies 6)
and half-sister Rosey Nix Adams (
October 2003).)

MARCH

Thursday 6