The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (372 page)

Mary Travers remained prolific, but her five solo efforts for Warners and Chrysalis carried markedly less impact than the trio’s records. With all three members having been politically vociferous since the start of the sixties, Peter, Paul & Mary returned in 1978 to play Yarrow’s Hollywood Bowl benefit,
Survival Sunday.
A subsequent album,
Reunion,
proved to the masses that the three-piece ensemble had lost little of its appeal. Travers - who married on four occasions - continued to work with Yarrow and Stookey until she fell ill during 2004.

Diagnosed with leukaemia, Mary Travers was thought to have conquered the disease, but sadly passed away on 16 September 2009 following chemotherapy treatment at a Connecticut hospital.

Saturday 19

Roc Raida

(Anthony Williams - Harlem, New York, 18 May 1972)

The X-Ecutioners

Originally named The X-Men for their love of Marvel comic superheroes, The X-Ecutioners (renamed to avoid legal issues) became one the most highly regarded crews in hip-hop. In the late eighties, they numbered as many as eleven characters, but this was trimmed down to four by the time of the first album release,
X-Pressions
(1997). ‘Grand Master’ Roc Raida – a first-rate turntablist and producer who had won the DMC World DJ Championships in 1995 – was the mainstay of a crew that reached Billboard’s Top Twenty with its second outing,
Built From Scratch
(2002). But, despite national success, The X-Ecutioners were falling apart: first Mista Sinista, then founder-member Rob Swift departed (to form Ill Insanity), leaving them somewhat depleted after 2004’s
Revolutions.
It was an ignominious demise for a crew that had collaborated with Cypress Hill, Rob Zombie, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and Mike Patton, formerly of Faith No More.

Roc Raida had for many years been a fan and practitioner of the Krav Maga discipline of martial arts: it was as a result of injuries sustained while training that the artist suffered a fatal cardiac arrest at just thirty-seven years of age. The DJ was survived by his wife and three daughters.

Tuesday 29

Greg Ladanyi

(Elkhart, Indiana, 6 July 1952)

Greg Ladanyi was a studio producer and engineer whose death came as he supervised a live event in Cyprus. Ladanyi had first come to prominence as the co-producer of Warren Zevon’s fourth studio album,
Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School
(1980), a post that was to put him into contact with a number of other musicians guesting on the record. One of these was Don Henley, who became another regular client as Ladanyi’s reputation grew: the former Eagle’s international hit ‘Boys of Summer’ (1984) earned him a Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year. In his long career, Ladanyi became most noted for his work with Jackson Browne, engineering or producing six of the artist’s albums starting in 1976. As an established name, Ladanyi also produced Toto (for whose
Toto IV
(1982) he won his sole Grammy), Fleetwood Mac, The Jacksons and Clannad. In more recent years, the producer had worked with Jeff Healey and Type O Negative.

Greg Ladanyi was on tour with popular Greek-Cypriot singer Anna Vissi when he fell some thirteen feet from the stage, fracturing his skull. Sadly, the studio wizard – who had only recently co-founded the Los Angeles Maple Jam Music Group – incurred severe head trauma, passing away later at a hospital in Nicosia.

OCTOBER

Saturday 3

Robert Kirby

(Bishop’s Stortford, England, 16 April 1948)

(The Strawbs)

(Various acts)

Much-respected rock/folk string-arranger Robert Kirby began as a singer with the somewhat gauchely named Gentle Power of Song while a student at Caius College, Cambridge. It ended up being a tutor’s backhanded compliment that gave Kirby the belief that he could achieve great things in music. When told his compositions sounded like corn flake commercials, the musician replied: ‘Really? That good?’

However, any ‘commercial’ return was not to be seen until some time later. Kirby’s friendship with fellow-alumnus Nick Drake was begat while at Caius – Kirby forming an octet (himself, plus seven female string players) to accompany Drake at the university’s May Ball. The relationship continued, with Kirby following Drake in dropping out. At the singer/songwriter’s behest, Kirby then exercised his burgeoning skills as an arranger on Drake’s
Five Leaves Left
(1969) and
Bryter Later
(1970). (It was key to Kirby’s work that all notations were written in long-hand on manuscript – the arranger
never
deigned to use a computer during his career.) Although Drake’s work was largely ignored four decades ago, both albums are, of course, rightly praised today. Drake’s despondency and then death
(
November 1974
) hit Kirby imaginably hard.

Over the next decade, Kirby provided arrangements for a number of like-minded artists including Sandy Denny, Ralph McTell and the young Elton John. For some time he was also a keyboardist with The Strawbs (replacing Rick Wakeman) although this was some time after the band’s chart-success period. (A somewhat lean financial period saw the musician taking a position in market research concurrently to his arranging work.)

In more recent years, the string arranger had worked with Elvis Costello, Paul Weller and The Magic Numbers; in 2005 he revisited his original Nick Drake scores while conducting an eighteen-piece orchestra in Central Park, Manhattan. Robert Kirby died following emergency heart surgery in west London.

See also
Sandy Denny (
April 1978)

Monday 5

Mike Alexander

(London, England, 22 June 1977)

Evile

Mike Alexander was the bass player with British thrash-metallers Evile, joining the band at the start of the millennium. Evile – formed by singer/guitarist Matt Drake and drummer Ben Carter – were one of the new breeds of thrash bands, signed to Nottingham’s Earache Records in 2006 on the strength of their self-released
Hell Demo.

The band decamped to Copenhagen to record their first album,
Enter the Grave
(2007), a typically uncompromising affair overseen by revered (and Grammy-winning) Metallica producer Flemming Rasmussen. This was followed by the equally brutal
Infected Nations
(2009), a record that made a showing on the UK’s Top 100 albums.

Evile were back in Scandinavia to tour the latter record when tragedy struck. Following a performance in Lulea, Sweden, Mike Alexander was rushed to the hospital, where the musician was pronounced dead from a suspected pulmonary embolism. Evile returned some months later with a replacement in former Rise To Addiction bassist Joel Graham.

Wednesday 7

Steve Ferguson

(Louisville, Kentucky, 21 November 1948)

NRBQ (New Rhythm & Blues Quartet)

(Various acts)