The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (313 page)

Tuesday 29

Sean Jenkins

(Kidderminster, England, 10 May 1945)

The Elastic Band

Henry Cow

The Shakedown Sound

(Various acts)

For journeyman drummer Sean Jenkins, it was too often a case of ‘wrong man, wrong time.’ His career appeared to have begun well, however, Jenkins playing behind The Shakedown Sound (previously The Zodiacs) – some of whom had backed future reggae star Jimmy Cliff. Here, the drummer lined up with Mick Ralphs (guitar), Pete Overend Watts (bass) and Verden Allen (organ). However, Jenkins was replaced on drums in early 1968 by Buffin (Dale Griffin) and – without him – the nucleus of Mott the Hoople was in place.

No matter: from the ashes of Welsh soul act The Silverstone Set, emerged a rather different proposition in psychedelic misfits, The Elastic Band. This very British-sounding group – Gus Eadon (aka Ted Yeadon – vox/various instruments), Andy Scott (guitar) and his brother Mike (bass/saxophone), plus Jenkins on percussion – issued a remarkable debut,
Expansions On Life
(1969), and even opened for Jimi Hendrix in Manchester. Sadly, the band faltered when Eadon replaced singer Steve Ellis in former chart-regulars Love Affair. (Andy Scott, meanwhile, went on to great success with glam stars, The Sweet.)

Unruffled, Jenkins found himself new berths with Mayfield’s Mule, and then avant-rock legends Henry Cow, the band that was later to boast the talents of singer Dagmar Krause and guitarist Peter Blegvad. This earlier version of the group, however, had less appeal and no money, thus Jenkins – who’d had to commute from Wales to play with them in Cambridge – lost interest within a couple of years. (A brief stint with his old pal Eadon in Love Affair did little to change his or the band’s fortunes.)

Sean Jenkins’s final tenure of note was with City Lights, though by the end of the 1980s, he had left the industry. He died in Yorkshire, following a lengthy illness.

JUNE

Friday 1

Tony Thompson

(Waco, Texas, 2 September 1975)

Hi-Five

Former Oklahoma City choirboy Tony Thompson was a shoe-in for Hi-Five – the teen pin-up troupe put together by Jive Records in 1990. A confident soloist, Thompson was good-looking and charismatic, thus pushed to the fore of the Waco, Texas quintet, and supported by Rod ‘Pooh’ Clark, Russell Neal, Marcus Sanders and Toriano Easley (who was replaced by Treston Irby in 1991). Hi-Five were an instant success, scoring a Billboard R & B Top Ten entry with the Teddy Riley-produced debut single, ‘I Just Can’t Handle It’ (1990). Although this cut didn’t puncture the pop listings, the follow-up ‘I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)’ went all the way to US number one, paving the way for a succession of similar-sounding New Jack Swing-flavoured hits, including the Top Ten ‘I Can’t Wait Another Minute’ (1991) and ‘She’s Playing Hard to Get’ (1992).

By the group’s third long-player, however, audiences had by-and-large moved on (presumably to Boys II Men) and the law of diminishing returns saw to it that Hi-Five were no longer a going concern by the end of 1994. Thompson was still considered a marketable commodity, however, Warner subsidiary Giant Records issuing his debut solo effort,
Sexsational,
the following year – though a flagship single ‘I Wanna Love Like That’ failed to make an impact. After something of a hiatus, the singer – having started his own label, N’Depth – returned with a new-look Hi-Five in 2006.

What long-term impact this new initiative might have had will now never be known. Aged just thirty-one, Tony Thompson was found dead outside an apartment block in his hometown. The initial supposition that drugs were to blame was overturned by medical experts in Dallas, who determined that Thompson had suffered the toxic effects of chlorodifluoromethane – this likely the result of deliberately inhaling Freon, a hydrocarbon utilised mainly in refrigerators or air-conditioning systems.

Golden Oldies #49

Freddie Scott

(Providence, Rhode Island, 24 April 1933)

Soul crooner Freddie Scott is probably best-recalled for two songs, the Billboard pop and R & B Top Ten hit, ‘Hey, Girl’ and the swoonsome R & B chart-topper ‘Are You Lonely for Me?’.

Scott had emerged out of the gospel circuit in the mid-1950s, giving up a promising career in medicine to pen the hit ‘I’ll Be Spinning’ for Bronx duo Johnnie & Joe (1957 - of which a fast cover version by Ricky Nelson proved lucrative for the young singer and songwriter). The artist returned from military service to join a prestigious band of composers at the Brill Building: here, collaboration with Carole King and Gerry Goffin resulted in ‘Hey, Girl’ (1963, US #10), Scott only making the cut (in both senses) when original singer Chuck Jackson failed to show at the studio. The artist followed this later in the year with another much-played tune in Ray Charles’s ‘I Got a Woman’. Scott was not a prolific hitmaker, however, and it took four years before ‘Are You Lonesome for Me?’ gave him an R & B number one.

Soon after, Freddie Scott - who’d frequently jumped labels - found himself without a record contract for some time, and, despite brief deals (including with Probe and Vanguard), contented himself with writing jingles and playing the circuit for much of the remainder of his career. The singer - who died in Queens after a long illness on 4 June 2007 - had made a return to recording during the early part of the millennium.

Friday 8

Lynne Randell

(Lynne Randall - Liverpool, England, 14 December 1949)

After Lynne Randall emigrated to Australia as a youngster with her parents, celebrity hairdresser Lillian Frank, for whom she worked as a teenager in Melbourne, ‘discovered’ the apparent vocal prodigy. Frank, in turn, recommended her to publicist Carol West, who managed several Australian bands, such as The Spinning Wheels, and was a regular customer. One small amendment to the spelling of her surname saw Lynne Randell vaulted into the spotlight, the singer quitting school and signing with EMI at just fifteen years of age.

Randell’s fame was immediate: her first pair of singles – a cover of Lulu’s ‘I’ll Come Running Over’ and the gentler ‘A Love Like You’ (both 1965) – were substantial regional hits, finding the singer regular bookings on such television hours as
The Go!! Show,
where she rubbed shoulders with established Australian acts, and other newcomers like Olivia Newton-John. Finding a better contract with CBS, Randell – now also something of a mod fashion icon – scored a national hit (1966’s ‘Goin’ Out of My Head’) and went off to tour the world. A trip to the USA brought about a tour with the newly-huge Monkees, others on the somewhat eclectic bill including Ike & Tina Turner and Jimi Hendrix – the latter walking out of the tour after enduring nights of screaming teenyboppers. (At this point, Randell endured her own first brush with notoriety during a brief affair with Davy Jones.) The single ‘Ciao Baby’ (1967) became Randell’s biggest hit – and is also believed to be the first Australian release accompanied by a colour promo.

The first of Lynne Randell’s health scares occurred, however, after she moved to the US in 1968, the singer suffering from peritonitis and glandular fever. This precipitated a slowing in her tour schedule, which eventually came to a halt as Randell began taking work on the industry side. The singer married Atlantic executive Abe Hoch, then gave birth to their son. The marriage began to falter, however, after Randell – concerned about her escalating weight – developed a dependency on methamphetamine and prescription medication while living in London (where Koch was now manager of Swan Song Records). Divorce at the end of the decade prompted the former star to pursue work in Australia, and then in New York, where she became PA to Seymour Stein at Sire.

Concerns about Randell’s wellbeing reached new levels at the start of the millennium, the erstwhile singer going public with her addictions, also admitting that her adrenal glands had all but ceased functioning. Randell was unable to beat her dependency, however. The troubled star was found deceased at her Toorak apartment. Although there were no suspicious circumstances, Randell had left individual notes and gifts for her family – and had even gone to the trouble of packing away her belongings in boxes.

In an equally tragic postscript, her son Jamieson Hoch died from a brain haemorrhage just three days after his mother’s memorial.

Davy Jonespassed away in February 2012.

Monday 11

Stack Bundles

(Rayquon Maurice-Lee Elliott - Queens, New York, 21 October 1982)