The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (335 page)

Saturday 17

Margo Davidson

(Simcoe, Ontario, 28 September 1957)

The Parachute Club

(Various acts)

The Parachute Club was a Canadian pop/dance ensemble formed in 1982 by Lorraine Segato (vocals/guitar), Dave Gray (guitar), Steve Webster (bass), Lauri Conger (keyboards), Billy Bryans (drums), Julie Masi (vocals/ percussion) and Margo Davidson (saxophone). Davidson had already gained industry experience in Ontario with The Wells-Davidson Band and Kid Rainbow (the band of noted singer/songwriter Gary O’Connor).

Davidson’s natural ability on the sax lifted live renditions of cuts like ‘Rise Up’ (1983, Canada #9; US Dance #26), The Parachute Club’s first and biggest single. This major hit earned the group a prestigious Juno Award the following year – defeating such internationally recognised countrymen as Bryan Adams and Men Without Hats. Of course, they were then expected to crack the US charts. Despite another big Canadian hit with the beguiling ‘Dancing at the Feet of the Moon’ (1984, Canada #11), however, no international breakthrough proved imminent and, following a disappointingly received third album (co-produced by John Oates), the Club quickly began to shed its members. (Davidson did not join the Parachute Club reunion in 2005.)

Although she played briefly with Toronto band Bratty & The Babysitters, Davidson elected to eschew the music business after 1988, instead becoming an advocate for the homeless, offering help with life skills and personal management. In later years, Margo Davidson became dependent upon alcohol: no official cause of death has been made public, however it is believed that this addiction played a significant part in her untimely demise.

Saturday 21

Michelle Meldrum

(Detroit, Michigan, 28 September 1968)

Phantom Blue

Meldrum

(Wargod)

Their shared birthday notwithstanding, thrash-metal guitarist Michelle Meldrum could not have been more different from Margo Davidson. Meldrum, born in Detroit, found a thriving scene in Los Angeles that catered to her musical tastes, which were influenced by artists like The Scorpions whose albums she learned back-to-front as a teenager. The young guitarist’s first band was Wargod, a no-nonsense thrash act that also featured drummer Gene Hoglan (later of Dark Angel, Testament, and Fear Factory). In 1987, she moved on to Hollywood rockers Phantom Blue – an all-female metal band featuring singer Gigi Hangach, a second guitarist and songwriter in Nicole Couch, bassist Debra Armstrong, and drummer Linda McDonald. This powerful group signed with Shrapnel and Roadrunner to record a self-titled debut album (1989). Leaving behind their glam leanings, a rawer version of Phantom Blue returned on Geffen four years later with an amended line-up (Kim Nielsen had replaced Armstrong, with Couch making way for Karen Kreutzer), with the acclaimed second album
Built to Perform
(1993), and some assistance from former Europe guitarist John Norum (whom Meldrum was to marry in 1995).

Meldrum left the group in 1996, moving with her husband to his homeland of Sweden. Here, she eventually formed a new act, Meldrum, which boasted a multinational roster and often opened its doors to guest musicians – one of whom was former Thin Lizzy axeman Brian Robertson. In a stop-start career, Meldrum (the band) released two albums and toured Europe (the continent) with Motorhead, Sepultura, and Danzig.

Michelle Meldrum had returned to California and was in the process of completing the writing of her band’s third album when, on 18 May 2008, she was rushed to a Burbank hospital in a critical condition. Tragically she had fallen into a coma, induced by a cerebral haemorrhage. The lack of oxygen to her brain caused her to pass away three days later. Meldrum’s bereft bandmates strengthened their resolve to finish the album
Lifer,
which duly emerged at the end of the year.

Golden Oldies #67

Hugh Jarrett

(Nashville, Tennessee, 11 October 1929)

The Jordanaires

A former barbershop-quartet bass, Hugh Jarrett joined The Jordanaires back in 1954. Although his tenure was to last just four years, it was during this time that his career intersected with the rise of Elvis Presley, when The King used this group as his first backing band. Jarrett’s distinctive voice can be heard on early Elvis smashes such as ‘Don’t Be Cruel/Hound Dog’ (1956, US #1; UK #2), ‘Teddy Bear’ (1957, US #1; UK #3), ‘Jailhouse Rock’ (1957, US #1; UK #1) and ‘Hard Headed Woman’ (1958, US #1; UK #2). Jarrett and his fellow Jordanaires played countless dates (for which he often also served as emcee) and television specials throughout 1957 as Presley rose to become the world’s top musical attraction. The backing singer can also been seen in the movies
Loving You
(1957) and
King Creole
(1958).

Jarrett was officially let go by The Jordanaires in 1958 and was replaced by Ray Walker, the singer remaining tight-lipped about his exclusion until death half a century later. In the meantime, recovering from this disappointment, Jarrett found himself a niche as a disc jockey in Nashville, and restyled as ‘Hugh Baby’, introducing his faithful WLAC listeners to rockabilly. However, his racy humour eventually got him fired for a series of live product endorsements that were laced with innuendo. In his final years, Jarrett admitted that the biggest slight of all was not being invited to join other surviving Jordanaires on their 2001 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame - despite his having witnessed Presleymania first hand.

At the age of seventy-eight, a serious car accident on 25 March left Jarrett hospitalized in Atlanta until his passing two months later on 31 May 2008.

See also
Elvis Presley (
August 1977). Former Jordanaires Hoyt Hawkins (baritone, d 1982), Neal Matthews (lead, d 2000) and Duane West (baritone, d 2002) have also passed away.

JUNE

Golden Oldies #68

Bo Diddley

(Ellas Otha Bates - McComb, Mississippi, 30 December 1928)

(Various acts)

His had been a long and challenging road, with more than a few ‘bompa-bomps’ along the way; however, just six months ahead of his eightieth birthday, Bo Diddley - whose musical persistence had forged a navigable thoroughfare some fifty years before - was finally at rest. In his long career, Diddley and his rectangular guitar had left an indelible mark not only on the majority of acts that really mattered, but also on rock ‘n’ roll itself. After his passing, accolades poured out from The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin, The Who, B B King, The Animals, Tom Petty, Little Richard, George Thorogood, Elvis Costello … and there’d have been a fair few others, had Diddley not outlived them all.

Bo Diddley: Magic sprung from his box of tricks

‘He said I was the first colored boy t’ ever double-cross him–said I wouldn’t last six months!’

Bo Diddley, on his 1955 ‘showdown’ with TV host Ed Sullivan

The musician had been adopted and brought up by his aunt, Gussie McDaniel, and took on her last name in his early years. Once a promising violinist, Ellas McDaniel, as he was then known, had his perspective changed by the music and rhythms of bluesman John Lee Hooker. His early accomplices included (at various times) guitarist and childhood friend Earl Hooker, bass man Roosevelt Jackson and maracas player Jerome Green. By 1951, the audacious performer had landed himself a house slot at Chicago’s 708 Club, but McDaniel had to wait four more years for his debut disc to see the light of day. Rerecorded at Chess studios with an auspicious backing group of Green, Otis Spann (piano), Lester Davenport (harmonica) and Frank Kirkland (drums), ‘I’m a Man/Bo Diddley’ (1955, US R & B number one) emerged on the Checker imprint to a rapturous ovation. And the b-side not only gave the bespectacled artist his first (and biggest) hit, but also offered up - at last - a viable stage name.