The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (282 page)

After taking a sabbatical from the relentlessness of Parliament life in 1984, Davis threw himself back into work by joining another funk unit, Zapp, before touring with a revised line-up of The Temptations. Before succumbing to illness, Davis rejoined Clinton and fourteen of his old pals to take ‘The Original P’ back on the road once more. Despite dying from respiratory complications on 5 July 2005 at the relatively young age of sixty-five, Ray Davis still outlived a number of his contemporaries.

See also
Glen Goins (
July 1978); ‘Tiki’ Fulwood (
November 1979); Eddie Hazel (
December 1992); Roger and Larry Troutman (
April 1999); Garry Shider (
June 2010). Davis’s replacement in The Temptations was Harry McGilberry, who died in April 2006. Enduring P-Funk vocalist Mallia Franklin, guitarist ‘Catfish’ Collins, trumpeter Richard ‘Kush’ Griffith and Original P guitarist Billy Mims have also since died.

Wednesday 6

Denis D’Ell

(Denis James Dalziel - Chigwell, Essex, 14 October 1943)

The Honeycombs

(Various acts)

Truck-driver’s son Denis Dalziel was told ‘he could sing a bit’ by his workmates while earning a crust as a railway signalman, so he took their advice and stormed a local talent contest, winding up as singer with an embryonic version of The Honeycombs – D’Ell, Martin Murray (lead guitar), Alan Ward (guitar) and John (bass) and Ann ‘Honey’ Lantree (drums) – as they trawled the spit ‘n’ sawdust of London’s pub scene. The genesis of this band’s (brief) success was one of supreme good fortune, the renamed Denis D’Ell seen as possessing an ideal voice by songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikly, who’d already penned the song that was to become The Honeycombs’ signature tune. Produced in his inimitable way by maverick Joe Meek, ‘Have I the Right?’ – complete with floor-stomping percussion – raced to UK number one in the summer of 1964, having survived an indifferent response from national radio. The real gimmick of The Honeycombs was female drummer Lantree, and it was she, as opposed to D’Ell, who was the main focus when the group took the record into the US Top Five later that year. Further hits proved harder to come by (impossible, in America) and The Honeycombs were effectively just D’Ell and Lantree when one finally arrived in the shape of ‘That’s the Way’ (1965).

His subsequent solo career was a huge disappointment to D’Ell, the singer contriving a thirtieth anniversary get-together for The Honeycombs before eventually fronting unknowns like The Southside Blues Brothers. The singer – whose voice was occasionally compared to the late Gene Pitney’s – died from cancer.

Thursday 14

Michael Dahlquist

(Seattle, Washington, 22 December 1965)

Silkworm

John Glick

(Boston, Massachusetts, 1970)

The Returnables

Douglas Meis

(Montana, 1975)

The Dials

A creative and avid ‘hobbyist’, Michael Dahlquist counted mountaineering and puppetry among his preferred pastimes, though he was surely most admired for his percussion skills with the Seattle rock band Silkworm, an outfit formed in 1987. Without ever cracking a scene that almost literally blew up around them, Silkworm impressed listeners with albums like
L’aire
(1992 – now considered a collector’s item) and
Libertine,
one of two albums issued in 1994. The band were signed to the forward-thinking Matador label thereafter (the splendid
Firewater
(1996) the first album to be issued) but proved unable to make an impact on the scale of contemporary labelmates such as Guided By Voices, Pavement and Yo La Tengo. By the turn of the millennium, Silkworm had been signed by Touch & Go, the band’s last album,
It’ll Be Cool,
arriving in 2004.

The Honeycombs, with Denis D’Ell
(foreground)
- taken during their ‘insurance salesmen’ period

Just months ahead of his fortieth birthday, Michael Dahlquist was one of three musicians to become the unwitting victims of a bizarre incident. After lunch with good friends and fellow rockers John Glick (guitarist with the highly rated Returnables) and Doug Meis (drummer with otherwise all-female punks The Dials), the three – all employed at an Illinois audio-equipment manufacturer – were returning to work by car. As the Honda Civic waited in line at a red light, 23-year-old model/exotic dancer Jeanette Sliwinski rammed them from behind at 70 mph in her Ford Mustang. The Civic was crushed between the Mustang and the car ahead, all three musicians being killed by the impact. It appears the crash was intentional. Sliwinski, who survived the collision with minor injuries, had been using her mobile phone at the time, having had a ‘serious fight’ with her mother following events in her life that left her ‘suicidal’. While local music fans mourned the loss of three great talents, Sliwinski was charged with reckless homicide – a verdict met with shock by the families of her victims. Sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, she was released within half of that term and is believed to have since had her licence reinstated. Surviving Silkworm members Tim Midgett (guitar/vocals) and Andy Cohen (guitar/vocals) went on to form Bottomless Pit.

Golden Oldies #28

Laurel Aitken

(Cuba, 22 April 1927)