The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (267 page)

For a start, Quine was clearly too good a player for the likes of the ramshackle Richard Hell & The Voidoids, but the uneasy marriage spawned some memorable work as the guitarist – already in his mid thirties and going bald – outshone all the spike-tops on stage at CBGB’s. The Voidoids – Hell (vocals/bass), Quine (guitar/noise), Ivan Julian (guitar) and Marc Bell (ex-Wayne County & The Electric Chairs, drums) – were not to last long in this incarnation, but nonetheless gave the world a definitive punk album in
Blank Generation
(1977), highlighted by Quine’s input. With Hell seemingly losing the battle with heroin, though, other members became bored: ‘He couldn’t decide whether to be a rock star or just go die’ was a typically acerbic observation from Quine, who once claimed to have been put off hard drugs by watching
Dragnet
on television. The guitarist was not one to suffer fools gladly, so future work was always going to be selective. In Lydia Lunch, Quine found a kindred spirit and a similar refusal to compromise: he added his idiosyncratic sonic slashes to the New York art-punk’s album
Queen Of Siam
(1979). From here on, Robert Quine’s resumé offers a bewildering array of collaborations, from popular songwriters Lloyd Cole and Green Gartside (Scritti Politti) to avantgarde jazz saxophonist John Zorn, taking in Tom Waits, Matthew Sweet and Ikue Mori on the way. Quine also spent four years recording and touring with hero-turned-buddy Lou Reed during the early eighties, while dishing out a few albums of his own material.

Robert Quine’s suicide was a touch baffling, the contents of a note left behind remaining undisclosed, though friends had described him as unhappy, even angry, in the year following the death of his wife Alice. The guitarist’s body was found at his New York apartment by friend and guitar-maker Rick Kelly during the Memorial Day holidays. It was confirmed that, yes, a heroin overdose was the cause of death. Richard Hell was unavailable for comment.

‘Robert Quine was … an original and innovative tyro of the vintage beast.’

Lou Reed extols Quine’s guitar talent as a guitarist

Golden Oldies #20

Ray Charles

(Ray Charles Robinson - Albany, Georgia, 23 September 1930)

Frank Sinatra called him ‘the only genius in the business’ and it would be hard to contradict this tribute to a man whose inner vision shaped soul, R & B and perhaps the whole popular culture of his day. Ray Charles’s blindness was not a birth defect: his sight diminished in childhood - possibly as a result of glaucoma. The future musician then tragically lost both parents and his baby brother within a couple of years while still an infant himself. As a young man, he learned Braille and music at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, moving to Washington at sixteen, where his talents as a soulful singer and pianist flourished quickly. Mastering country, swing and jazz, the former gospel singer then courted controversy by composing his own secular lyrics to songs of worship.

Having performed with several bands, Charles signed as a solo artist first with Atlantic then ABC, as his hit R & B tunes began to cross over to the mainstream pop listings: he logged over thirty US Top Forty hits, including the number ones ‘Georgia on My Mind’ (1960 - the Hoagy Carmichael song appropriated by Charles’s home state as its official anthem in 1979), ‘Hit the Road Jack’ (1961) and the near-spiritual ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ (1962). Despite his hero status, Charles had frequent brushes with the authorities: on the up side, drawing huge attention to the issue of racial segregation (despite a baffling agreement to play in South Africa in 1981); on the downside, through his well-documented heroin addiction. The singer was also a notorious womanizer - he fathered twelve children by seven different ladies.

The great Ray Charles: Hit the road for the last time …

His death from a persistent liver complaint on 10 June 2004 robbed the world of a man as charismatic as he was urbane - but Ray Charles nevertheless left behind a vault of priceless treasures.

Thursday 10

Graeme Kelling

(Paisley, Scotland, 4 April 1957)

Deacon Blue

(Tune Cookies)

A band with a fervent following at home, ‘The Blue’ – Ricky Ross (vocals/guitar), Graeme Kelling (ex-Tune Cookies, guitar), James Prime (keyboards), Ewan Vernal (bass) and Dougie Vipond (drums) – emerged from the Glasgow area with perhaps more ambition than artistic integrity, early critics dismissing them as ‘Prefab Sprout lite’. They were, however, set for far greater commercial success than Paddy McAloon’s group: after a few aborted attempts at chart domination, Deacon Blue (it’s a corruption of the Steely Dan song title) cracked things with the platinum album
Raintown
(1987) and hit singles ‘Real Gone Kid’ (1988), ‘Wages Day’ and ‘Fergus Sings the Blues’ (both 1989). By the end of the decade, the band had a millionselling album with the smugly titled
When the World Knows Your Name
(1989), despite committing the cardinal sin of inviting Ross’s girlfriend Lorraine McIntosh in as full-time singer. To their credit, Deacon Blue did well in America and continued the trend of big-selling albums and the odd hit single until a split in 1994.

Deacon Blue reformed in 1999 for a series of well-attended dates, but sadly for family man Graeme Kelling, diagnosis with pancreatic cancer a year later kept further projects to a minimum. He made a final appearance with the band, however, three months before his death from the disease. Deacon Blue continue.

Monday 28

Ryan Noel

(New York, 1975)

ARE Weapons

(Clikatat Ikatowi)

ARE Weapons were the hottest new band to emerge in 2001 from the rock movement known as ‘electroclash’: the sound was intense and visceral, with little attempt made to disguise its ramshackle approach. Signed to Rough Trade on the recommendation of ex-Pulp man Jarvis Cocker, the band – Brian McPeck (vocals), Paul Sevigny (synth/manager – brother of actress Chloe Sevigny), Ryan Noel (guitar) and Matthew McCauley (bass) – made short work of placing themselves into every available press column. A couple of decent albums, plus singles such as ‘Street Gang’, ‘New York Muscle’ (both 2001) and ‘Hey World’ (2003), suggested that ARE Weapons would live up to their potential. Ryan Noel – who was also a semi-pro skateboarder – divided his time between this band and New York scenesters Clikatat Ikatowi. A premature end arrived, though, when the guitarist’s body was found at his band’s Soho studio. Noel, who was believed to be ‘clean’, had died from a heroin overdose.

JULY

Tuesday 6

Syreeta

(Syreeta Wright - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 3 August 1946)

Known more for her higher-profile partnerships than for her solo work, former Motown secretary Syreeta (known as ‘Rita’) was nonetheless a decent singer and songwriter who contributed lyrics to first husband Stevie Wonder’s album
Talking Book
(1972), having married him in what appeared to be a dream union back in 1970. In the event, the couple lasted less than two years before separating. Syreeta – who’d originally been described as ‘promising’ by Brian Holland of the Holland/Dozier/Holland partnership – saw her own recording career pick up after the split and was even, at one stage, considered as a replacement for Diana Ross in The Supremes, until Mary Wilson vetoed the idea. In the US, she struggled to score crossover hits, though reggae bubblegum moment ‘Your Kiss is Sweet’ took her into the UK Top Twenty in 1975 (the much better ‘Spinning and Spinning’ (1974) and ‘Harmour Love’ (1975) also made token chart showings). Syreeta duetted with other major artists in her time – most notably Billy Preston
(
June 2006
), for the smash ballad ‘With You I’m Born Again’ (1980), and Jermaine Jackson. She later backed Michael Bolton, by which time her options had clearly become more limited.