The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (352 page)

In Britain, fourteen singles made the Top Forty between 1965 and 1970, eight of which earned Top Ten status. The biggest by some measure was worldwide million-seller ‘The Legend of Xanadu’ (1968, UK/New Zealand number one; Australia/Germany Top Five), which, despite its distinctive whip-cracks, failed to make the US Hot 100. (Indeed, DD,D,B,M&T never really caught on across the pond, where only their previous outing, ‘Zabadak!’, was to make any real headway.)

Following a split from the group - who continued to record without him - Dee attempted a solo career. This, almost inevitably, was less successful, and Dee the singer faded into obscurity, emerging occasionally to tour with reformed versions of his once-famous group. Dee’s many years in the music business put him in good stead in the long run, however: the former pin-up became head A&R man at WEA, where his sharp ear picked out Gary Numan, Boney M and AC/DC.

Perhaps drawing from even earlier experiences as an enforcer of the law, the former artist latterly became a Justice of the Peace in Cheshire, a post he held until shortly before his death.

Dave Dee - who also found time for considerable charity work throughout his career - succumbed to prostate cancer on 9 January 2009, bravely having battled the disease for some eight years.

Sunday 11

Andy DeMize

(Andrew Martinez - Hacienda Heights, California, 11 March 1983)

Nekromantix

(Various acts)

At the age of twenty-five, Andy DeMize, the Mexican-American drummer of punk/psychobilly outfit Nekromantix, died in a tragic accident.

The young musician – a fan of Led Zeppelin – learned percussion well before his teens, going on to man the kits of fly-by-night California rock bands Up Syndrome and The Rocketz; he recorded the album
Rise of the Undead
(2003) with the latter group. DeMize replaced drummer Francisco Meza in exiled Danish rockers Nekromantix in 2006, the Kim Nekroman–fronted band having found a spiritual home in Los Angeles some years before: the drummer was in place for the (now grimly ironically titled) album
Life Is a Grave – And I Dig It!
(2007).

Having spent almost three years with Nekromantix, DeMize was suddenly killed in Orange County. The believed-intoxicated driver of the 1972 Chevrolet Nova in which the drummer was a passenger was known to be travelling at 85 mph when he crossed all lanes of freeway 57 before exiting the road early on 11 March: the vehicle caught fire, igniting a eucalyptus grove. While the driver and another passenger escaped with critical injuries, DeMize and a third traveller died at the scene.

DeMize, remembered in tribute by all of his previous groups, was nonetheless quickly replaced in Nekromantix by former Mystery Hangup drummer Lux, the band’s first female member.

Monday 12

Alejandro Sokol

(Argentina, 30 January 1960)

Sumo

(Various acts)

First bassist, then drummer with multinational altrockers Sumo, Alejandro Sokol enjoyed several years of cult success before denouncing the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle in the mid-eighties for Mormonism.

Sumo had been founded around 1980 by Italian-born Luca Prodan -briefly an inhabitant of Manchester, England and a close friend of the members of Joy Division (whose style his act somewhat reflected); the band was completed by British drummer Stephanie Nuttal (ex–Manicured Noise). Sumo’s collision of postpunk and dub found them an audience in Britain, although the group were usually based in Buenos Aires, where their desire to sing in English saw them marginalised by Argentine radio. This became even more of a problem during the Falklands Crisis of 1982, at which time Nuttal was forced to return to Britain, Sokol then assuming percussive duties. (Confrontational singer Prodan enjoyed a full-on rock lifestyle, dying from cirrhosis of the liver just before Christmas 1987.)

After his own sabbatical from music, Sokol joined Las Pelotas with former Sumo guitarist Germán Daffunchio. This band lasted almost two decades before Sokol finally formed his own band, El Vuelto SA, which featured his own son, Ismael, on vocals. Aged just forty-eight, Alejandro Sokol apparently passed away from respiratory failure while waiting at a bus depot after visiting his daughter and grandchildren in Traslasierra.

Thursday 15

Leroy Smith

(Kingston, Jamaica, 3 September 1952)

Sweet Sensation

Leroy Smith, born in Jamaica, was founder and keyboardist of the briefly successful Sweet Sensation, the Manchester-based pop/soul combo who, in autumn 1974, topped the UK charts with ‘Sad Sweet Dreamer’, which also crashed the US Top Twenty the following spring. Discovered via British television’s
New Faces
talent show, Sweet Sensation had just one other hit (‘Purely By Coincidence’, 1975), before a run of bad luck saw their apparent popularity diminish. (Among the group’s problems was fourth single ‘Mr Cool’ suffering unlikely rejection by the influential BBC for being ‘badly mixed’, while an attempt at representing the UK at the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest failed, resulting in the group’s dropping by Pye.)

Sweet Sensation – who should not be confused with the Puerto Rican dance troupe from New York – disbanded later that year. While bassist Barry Johnson went on to join charttopping reggae outfit Aswad, tragedy was to beset other members of his former band. Lead singer Marcel King went on to a low-key solo career with Factory Records before his own premature death in 1995, his teenage son Zeus also dying two years later in a gangland shooting. Little had been heard from Leroy Smith until he was found dead at his home from bronchopneumonia, aged fifty-six.

Thursday 22

Charles Cooper

(Louisiana, 12 April 1977)

Telefon Tel Aviv

Louisiana musicians Charles Cooper and Joshua Eustis formed highly rated techno act Telefon Tel Aviv in 1999. Falling under the banner of what is sometimes called IDM (‘intelligent dance music’), Telefon Tel Aviv relocated to Chicago, Illinois, emerging with an impressive debut record in
Fahrenheit Fair Enough
(Hefty, 2001). The duo had already produced remixes for altrock giants Nine Inch Nails and experimentalist Phil Ranelin – and were to continue to do so for others throughout the decade. By 2009, TTA had moved to the BPitch Control label, a third full-length album,
Immolate Yourself,
achieving Top Twenty status on Billboard’s Electronic chart. However, two days after its release, the ‘duo’ was merely Eustis.

Cooper, having returned from some unannounced time back home in Louisiana, was known to have had a major domestic dispute with his girlfriend in Chicago on 21 January 2009. With nothing heard from the musician for five days, Cooper was now declared missing: his body was found at an unnamed apartment by authorities on 26 January. Eustis’s website announced that his musical partner had died four days previously.

While speculation was rife that Charles Cooper had committed suicide, this was never proven, although an autopsy showed that he had expired having ingested a lethal combination of alcohol and sleeping pills.

Sunday 25

Corey Daum

(Butler, Pennsylvania, 14 June 1969)

Lizzy Borden

A talented musician who could also play fiddle, mandolin and drums, guitarist Corey James Daum began a short career in rock ‘n’ roll after graduating from the Musicians’ Institute in California.

On leaving further education, Daum joined popular shock-rockers Lizzy Borden – the band named after the infamous pariah acquitted of murdering her parents with an axe in 1892. This Lizzy Borden (also the name of the group’s vocalist) had bought wholesale into the mid-eighties vogue for glam-metal, the group locating itself in Los Angeles, the scene’s spiritual home. Daum joined a second-wave version of the band, playing on their most successful record
Master of Disguise;
he then toured with Borden throughout 1989. The guitarist remained with Lizzy Borden for seven years, though had left before any more material could be released. The band, however, came to an abrupt halt following the death of guitarist Alex Nelson, who lost his life in a headon collision in April 2004. But – as with the tale that inspired the band’s name – there was to be a second, similar tragedy surrounding Lizzy Borden …