The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (399 page)

Ari Up and hop to it!

Three years later, The Slits had improved enough to make a splendid debut with
Cut
(Island, 1979), a Top Forty album produced by reggae guitarist Dennis Bovell, which also featured vocal contributions by an unknown singer named Neneh Cherry. This collection housed a series of priceless tracks including the single ‘Typical Girls’, which–backed with a memorable version of ‘I Heard It through the Grapevine’–remained the nearest the band was to come to a hit. The record’s stark sleeve design (which depicted the group naked and muddy) was too much for Palmolive, who left and joined The Raincoats. She was replaced by the group’s first male members, Budgie (Peter Clark, later of Siouxsie & The Banshees), and then Bruce Smith of Bristol’s The Pop Group. Despite continued acclaim, two further albums and a host of singles, commercial recognition remained foreign to The Slits. Ari broke up the band in 1981 and joined The New Age Steppers, an impressive conglomerate that also included Bim Sherman, Mark Stewart of The Pop Group and, once again, Cherry. Up also recorded solo and with various other acts, including Talking Heads, upon whose
Fear of Music
(1979) she had played the congas. The artist subsequently relocated to Jamaica with her husband and twin children.

Up and Pollitt reformed The Slits in 2005–with help from ex-Pistol Paul Cook and former Adam & The Ants guitarist Marco Pirroni–and the group was ongoing until the singer’s death. According to Johnny Rotten’s website–the first source to break the news–Ari Up died at her mother’s LA home, following a ‘serious illness’, believed to have been cancer.

Monday 25

Gregory Isaacs

(Kingston, Jamaica, 15 July 1951)

(The Concords)

Regarded by many as possessor of the most mellifluous voice to emerge in Jamaican reggae, Gregory Isaacs almost singlehandedly created the subgenre of Lovers’ Rock. The Fletcher’s Land-born singer forged a name via the talentshow circuit–not always considered the most accurate barometer for genuine ability–but it was apparent that Isaacs stood head-and-shoulders above his opponents.

Acceptance proved a little slow in arriving, Isaacs continuing to make his early living as an electrician and cabinet-maker. His first 45, ‘Another Heartache’ (1968–in duet with Winston Sinclair) won the singer praise, but disappeared into the ether–despite some fine production by Byron Lee. Then, as one-third of The Concords (with local singers Penroe and Bramwell Brown), Isaacs found himself backing some major artists such as Rupie Edwards (who recorded them on his Success label) and the legendary Prince Buster. By the end of 1970, Isaacs’s pure tones still had not found a home, and the group folded.

Keen to make things happen, Isaacs–with considerable help from his friend, the cheery reggae artist Errol Dunkley–set up his own label and record shop, African Museum. This inadvertently became the birthplace of Lovers’ Rock; the company’s first release was Isaacs’s own ‘My Only Lover’ (1973), which was considered the first example of this field. Such was the soothing power of his solo voice, Isaacs found himself with a major radio hit. The singer sensed a breakthrough, promptly recording the searching ‘Love Is Overdue’ (1974): this Jamaican chart-topper also gained him airplay in Europe and helped the singer’s 1975 album
In Person
to shift a remarkable 45,000 indigenous copies. The label itself also performed well, thanks to Isaacs’s workaholic nature. The rising star recorded side after side for African Museum, and his use of virtually every producer in Jamaica kept relations good elsewhere.

By 1978, Virgin offshoot Front Line Records came after his signature, and Isaacs moved to Britain where he was beginning to muster a significant following. Four years later came the singer’s best-remembered tune, the classic ‘Night Nurse’, and its parent album (Island, 1982, UK Top Forty). With the support of British broadcasters such as John Peel (who died exactly six years to the day before him
(
October 2004
)), Isaacs created a vast European fanbase, playing events such as Reggae Sunsplash on an almost-yearly basis. Had he not suffered from a drug addiction, Gregory Isaacs would likely have boasted far greater international sales; he was nonetheless a prolific artist, recording an astonishing sixty-plus albums in his lifetime.

Isaacs–sometimes known as ‘The Lonely Lover’–passed on at his London apartment after a long battle with lung cancer: bedrooms across the globe, however, continue to vibrate to the sound of his cool seduction.

Thursday 28

John Sekula

(Parma, Ohio, 14 January 1969)

Mushroomhead

(State of Conviction)

John Sekula (apparently his real name) was the original guitarist with Ohio-based alt-metal band Mushroomhead–one of the more interesting exponents of the genre to emerge in the mid-nineties. The band was founded by Skinny (Steve Felton, drums), with Sekula (guitar), Mr Murdernickel (Joe Kilcoyne, bass), Jeffrey Nothing (Jeff Hetrick, vocals) and J-Mann (Jason Popson, vocals) among the earliest line-up.

With all members already involved with their own acts, Mushroomhead was initially intended as a side project; however, the group’s unexpected popularity saw most of them ditch their other bands. Mushroomhead’s second-ever show was a 1993 opening slot with established, satirical rockers GWAR, in front of 2,000 baying metalheads. The gig did much to increase the band’s fanbase. Like the main act, Mushroomhead relied heavily on masks and face makeup–Sekula (under his new stage-persona of J J Righteous) opting for a ‘troll’-styled costume. (This ‘look’ was later to cause a conflict with fans of the more-successful Slipknot–who within a few years had a similar style– although all hostilities ceased after the death of Paul Gray (
May 2010).)

Issuing their first album in 1995, Mushroomhead fit easily into the nu-metal/schlock scene. Sekula remained with the group for three further albums, though he had left by the time Mushroomhead signed with Eclipse: he later served with Popson in the altogether funkier State of Conviction. John Sekula is believed to have succumbed to heart failure. Mushroomhead–with a constantly rotating roster–continue to tour and record.

NOVEMBER

Wednesday 3

Jim Clench

(Maritimes, Quebec, 1 May 1949)

Bachman-Turner Overdrive

April Wine

(Various acts)

A bassist and songwriter of some repute, Jim Clench enjoyed successful tenures with both April Wine and Bachman-Turner Overdrive–two of Canada’s top hard-rock draws during the 1970s.

Clench, formerly of Quebec band The Coven, joined the maturing April Wine in 1971, as replacement for founder and bassist Jim Henman, who’d returned to his studies. The new bass player was responsible for co-writing (with leader and guitarist, Myles Goodwyn) almost all of the material he recorded with April Wine, beginning with the band’s sophomore effort
On Record
(1972), and third album,
Electric Jewels
(1973). For
Stand Back
(1975), Clench’s familiar growl could be heard as the lead vocals in ‘Oowatanite’–a song destined to become a group standard.

Despite this record proving an international breakthrough for April Wine, Clench moved on–para-doxically, to a band that were now past their commercial peak. Having taken a hiatus from the industry, Clench was persuaded in 1978 by Fred Turner of Bachman-Turner Overdrive to replace departing co-founder Randy Bachman, who’d quit to form Ironhorse. The two years Clench spent with this band were clearly not their most successful, though he did manage to see the single ‘Heartaches’ (1979, US number sixty) give BTO their first Billboard Hot 100 entry for three years. Clench continued his writing with the band, penning and singing lead vocals to the follow-up 45, ‘Jamaica’ (1979).

By 1980, Clench had moved on again–recording with Bryan Adams, another break-ing Canadian act. He then played for some time with the thrashier 451 Degrees, before rejoining a reformed version of April Wine in 1992. By contrast, this was to prove a longer tenure than the first, Clench touring and recording with April Wine until 2006, when he was replaced by Breen LeBoeuf. By this time, Jim Clench had been diagnosed with lung cancer–from which he died in a Montreal hospital.

Thursday 4