The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (263 page)

At the start of 2004, the album
The Lost Riots
was near completion at the Wiltshire-based Real World Studios (owned by Peter Gabriel). Around 4 am on 15 January, members of the group found the body of co-founder and former Screwpitch guitarist Jimmi Lawrence hanging from rafters at the building. His friends then had the distressing duty of trying to revive the musician – to no avail. There had been no indication that Lawrence – just a week or so from his twenty-seventh birthday – was considering taking his life. The progress of Hope of the States was understandably subdued following his death: the debut album was well received, however, and further singles, ‘The Red, the White, the Black, the Blue’ and the touching ‘Nehemiah’ (both 2004), charted strongly. A new album,
Left,
was released June 2006, however Hope of the States split for good just two months later..

‘Our last days with Jimmi were the happiest we have ever shared together. He was immensely proud of his work on the record and could not wait for others to hear it.’

Hope of the States

Wednesday 28

‘Dino’ Dines

(Peter Dines - Hertfordshire, 17 December 1944)

T Rex

(Various acts)

Marc Bolan and T Rex had waved their best days goodbye by the time ‘Dino’ Dines joined the depleted line-up in 1974. A respected session keyboardist with bands such as P P Arnold and The Hollies, Dines had been recruited after the singer’s close friend David Bowie – who needed musicians for his ‘Diamond Dogs’ tour in 1974 – had asked Bolan to audition band members for him. Learning that this supposed unknown had also once backed The Beach Boys, Bolan kept Dines for himself. Although Dines was a decent enough musician, he was to face enormous amounts of critical flack as T Rex fell out of favour with the press (who’d described his work as ‘end-of-the-pier tinklings’). There were still hits to be had – ‘New York City’ (1975) and ‘I Love to Boogie’ (1976) both made the Top Twenty – but the glory days of 1971–2 were well gone. Bolan’s death
(
September 1977
) then brought an abrupt and unexpected end to Dines’s latest venture. In his later years, ‘Dino’ crossed the risky line between musician and fan by playing with T Rextasy – one of several Marc Bolan tribute bands. Before his death from a heart attack, Dines had lost count of the times he’d heard: ‘So what was he
really
like?’

See also
Steve Peregrin Took (
October 1980); Steve Currie (
April 1981); Mickey Finn (
January 2003)

FEBRUARY

Wednesday 4

Cornelius Bumpus

(Dallas, Texas, 7 May 1945)

The Doobie Brothers

Steely Dan

(Various acts)

A voluminous figure in every sense, Cornelius Bumpus made the move from jazz to rock, in which guise he was to enhance many big-selling US acts during his career. His first experiences of playing live occurred when he was a 10-year-old alto saxophonist in the school band, Bumpus making the instrument his own in the years to come. As a solo artist, the musician’s commercial appeal was limited to a small but loyal fanbase, but his early dalliances with bands were to change all that. Among others, he played with Moby Grape and Boz Scaggs in the seventies, joining The Doobie Brothers during their ‘Michael McDonald’ phase, though relations turned sour in the late nineties when original Doobies sued Bumpus and others over use of the name. His time with Steely Dan, on the other hand, was highlighted by a Grammy for the comeback album
Two Against Nature
(2000). Indeed, Bumpus remained with Steely Dan until his death from a coronary in 2004. The sax-player suffered the attack while on a flight from New York to California.

See also
Bobby LaKind (
December 1992); Keith Knudsen (
February 2005). Original Doobie Brother Dave Shogren passed away in 1999.

Saturday 21 Les Gray

(Carshalton, Surrey, 9 April 1946)

Mud

(The Mourners)

Amid the spangly garb of rivals The Sweet, T Rex and Gary Glitter, the feather-cut hair and Foster Grant eyewear looked, initially, clunky and misplaced. But, by the end of 1974, Les Gray and Mud – earring-fancier Rob Davis (guitar), Ray Stiles (bass) and Dave Mount (drums) – were outselling all of them.

More unlikely still was the support tour with Jack Jones as the band began making its name after winning a 1968 talent contest – by which time Gray had already played jazz and fronted his younger brother’s skiffle band, The Mourners. It took a few more years to hone the style that won Mud a legion of fans, the Nicky Chinn/Mike Chapman-composed ‘Crazy’, ‘Hypnosis’ and ‘Dynamite!’ establishing the band in the charts during 1973. The following year was, however, Mud’s finest: in 1974, the group began and ended the year at number one, ‘Tiger Feet’ (the year’s biggest-selling UK single) and the fairly dismal Elvis pastiche ‘Lonely This Christmas’ each shifting more than 500,000 copies. And there were many other hits to which to dance ‘the angel’ (that notorious hands-on-hips boogie preferred by hod-carriers in Boots No 7): Mud’s third chart-topper was to be an update of Buddy Holly’s ‘Oh Boy’ (1975), which enhanced their appeal to the nation’s ageing Teds. By 1976, Gray’s pose had begun to wear thin as the glam era died away, Mud choosing to ditch both the Chinnichap composing team and their label, RAK, for Private Stock. Promoting a supposedly maturer sound, the group had become something of a laughing stock by the end of 1975 (‘Show Me You’re a Woman’, anyone?). Gray’s attempts at a solo career also foundered after the Top Forty-bothering ‘Groovy Kind of Love’ (1977), and the nostalgia circuit beckoned. While Gray – who was in debt up until his death – was forced to take ‘Les Gray’s Mud’ out on the road in the nineties, Stiles had joined The Hollies, and Davis cashed in many times over as co-writer (with former dance chanteuse Cathy Dennis) of the million-sellers ‘Groovejet’ (Spiller, 2000) and ‘Can’t Get You out of My Head’ (Kylie, 2001). Dave Mount was working in insurance until his tragic suicide
(
December 2006).