The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (403 page)

‘Oh, those Russians.’ Alfonso ‘Bobby’ Farrell, recalled by most as front man of Boney M, passed away while on tour in St Petersburg. The irony of this was not lost on fans of a group that recorded a memorable singalong about ‘Rasputin’–whom the singer was eerily to emulate by dying on the same date and in the same city.

Except, of course, Antilles-born Farrell
didn’t
sing on any of the pop/disco unit’s many hits–he mimed them. However, his lithe, balletic figure and athletic build, plus an uncanny knack for gurning and posing, made him the ideal foil to an otherwise all-female troupe. Boney M were the brainchild of German producer/entrepreneur Franz ‘Frank’ Farian, former DJ Farrell plucked out of obscurity in 1975 to front the group, which was completed by ‘real’ singers Marcia Barrett, Liz Mitchell and Maizie Williams. From ‘Daddy Cool’ (1976, UK Top Ten; US Hot 100), to ‘Rasputin’ (1978, UK number two) to ‘Gotta Go Home’ (1979), the group clocked up ten consecutive British Top Twenty entries in a little under three years. The biggest by far were ‘Rivers Of Babylon’ (1978, UK number one; US Top Forty) and ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ (1978, UK number one; US Hot 100) during an extraordinary twelve months that saw the group shift almost four million singles in Britain alone. These two records
still
rank among the UK’s ten biggest sellers of all time. (Boney M also shifted over twenty million albums worldwide and scored an impressive eight number-one singles in Germany.)

That Farrell–and indeed Williams–mimed to the group’s hits was only revealed a few years ago. Farian himself recorded much of the vocal input, as US music-buyers will recall that he did with later ‘success’, Milli Vanilli. The deception came back to haunt Farrell when he started a solo career after Boney M’s split in 1981. This reaped only moderate success, while various attempts to reunite the group have similarly proved fitful in terms of reception.

Bobby Farrell was reported to have had ‘breathing problems’ the night before his passing. The performer was found in his hotel room, the official cause of his death later announced as heart failure. He is survived by his daughter, Zanillya, a hip-hop artist based in the Netherlands.

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 2010:

Jimmy O Barikad
(Haitian hip-hop artist who led The Barikad Crew–he collaborated with Wyclef Jean; born Jean Jimmy Alexandre, Port-au-Prince, 9/3/1974; he was crushed to death inside his car during the Haiti earthquake, 12/1–three earlier members of his crew had also died in a 2008 car crash)

Melvin Bliss
(US R & B ‘innovator’ whose 1973 hit ‘Synthetic Substitution’ has been sampled on at least 100 hip-hop recordings by artists of the calibre of Run DMC, Ultramagnetic MCs, The Wu-Tang Clan, 2Pac, De La Soul and Public Enemy; born c 1935; natural causes, 26/7)

Ken Brown
(UK rock ‘n’ roll singer/guitarist with The Les Stewart Quartet, The Blackjacks and The Quarrymen–where of course he played alongside George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon; born 1940; emphysema, in Essex, 9/6)

Chilly B
(US member of old-skool hip-hop/electro collective Newcleus whose ‘Jam On It’ gave them a hit twice over; born Robert Crafton III, Brooklyn, New York, 1962; stroke, 23/2)

Tony Clarke
(popular UK pop/rock session guitarist who went on to become the producer that changed the fortunes of The Moody Blues; born Coventry, England, 21/8/1941; emphysema, Brighton, 4/1)

Hank Cochran
(noted US country/rockabilly guitarist who played with unrelated Eddie Cochran and composed a series of classic tunes, including Patsy Cline’s ‘I Fall to Pieces’ and Ray Price’s ‘Make the World Go Away’; born Garland Perry Cochran, Isola, Mississippi, 2/8/1935; pancreatic cancer, Hendersonville, Tennessee, 15/7)

Herb Cohen
(respected but uncompromising US manager of Frank Zappa, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Tim Buckley, Alice Cooper, Linda Ronstadt and Tom Waits–he also ran clubs and co-owned several labels; born New York, 30/12/1932; cancer, 16/3)

Jimmy Dean
(revered US country singer who topped the chart with 1961’s ‘Big Bad John’, scoring other hits like ‘PT-109’–his career lasted into the eighties, the singer also fronting a successful sausage company; born Olton, Texas, 10/8/1928; natural causes, Varina, Virginia, 13/6)

Eddie Fisher
(hugely popular pre-rock ‘n’ roll crooner who scored dozens of hits and four number ones, including 1953’s ‘Oh! My Papa’; born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 10/8/1928; complications from hip surgery, Berkeley, California, 22/9)

Billy Francis
(US keyboardist who was the longest-serving member of Dr Hook & The Medicine Show–he enjoyed several million-sellers and a 1979 UK #1 with ‘When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman’; born Sacramento, California, 16/1/1942; cancer, Seymour, Missouri, 23/5–the fourth band member to pass on)

Pauly Fuemana
(New Zealand-born singer who was 50% of the duo OMC (Otara Millionaires’ Club) who scored a home chart-topper and UK Top 5 hit with ‘How Bizarre’ in the mid-1990s; born 8/2/1969; he died following a short illness, 31/1)

Eddie Jackson
(US R & B singer/guitarist/songwriter with Brenda & The Tabulations with whom he scored the hits ‘Dry Your Eyes’ and ‘Right on the Tip of My Tongue’; born 1946; brain aneurysm, 3/5)

Dorothy Jones Johnson
(US R & B vocalist with The Cookies who had a 1963 Top 10 hit with ‘Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad (About My Baby)’–she also sang as one of Ray Charles’s Raelettes; born Dorothy Jones, South Carolina, 13/5/1934; Alzheimer’s disease, Columbus, Ohio, 25/12)

Richard ‘Scar’ Lopez
(US pop/R & B singer with Bobby & The Classics and the better-known Cannibal & The Headhunters, of ‘Land of 1000 Dances’ fame; born Los Angeles, California, 18/5/1945; lung cancer, Garden Grove, 30/7–guitarist Joe ‘YoYo’ Jamarillo died ten years beforehand)

Mitch Miller
(genial ‘king of the singalong’ who produced many of the hits of Frankie Laine, Guy Mitchell and Johnnys Mathis and Ray–he scored his own million-seller with 1955’s ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’; born Rochester, New York, 4/7/1911; short illness, 31/7)

Will Owsley
(US pop/country guitarist who formed The Semantics alongside Zak Starkey–he went on to tour with The Neville Brothers, Amy Grant and Shania Twain, also issuing his own acclaimed material; born Anniston, Alabama, 6/3/1966; suicide, Franklin, Tennessee, 30/4)

Don Partridge
(UK ‘king of the buskers’ pop singer/musician who scored a pair of Top 5 hits in 1968 with ‘Rosie’ and ‘Blue Eyes’–he also formed the band Accolade with Gordon Giltrap; born Bournemouth, England, 27/10/1941; heart attack, 21/9)

Phillip Petty
(US rock bassist with Point Blank, who scored a Top 40 hit with ‘Nicole’ in 1981; born 1951; stomach cancer, 7/6)

Sonia Pottinger
(revered Jamaican producer of acts such as The Ethiopians, Errol Dunkley, Culture, U Roy, Big Youth, Toots & The Maytals, Roland Alphonso and Marcia Griffiths; born St Thomas, 6/1931; Alzheimer’s disease, 3/11)

Nick Santo
(original US lead singer with enduring doo-wop quartet The Capris, who scored a 1960 million-seller with ‘There’s a Moon Out Tonight’–he later , worked for the NYPD before returning to the group; born Nick Santamaria, New York, 10/11/1941; cancer/heart failure, 30/12)

Sylvia Shemwell
(US R & B vocalist with sixties hitmakers The Sweet Inspirations–she also performed in The Gospelaires and with her sister Judy Clay and Cissy Houston in The Drinkard Singers; born Fayetteville, North Carolina, 30/6/41; complications following a stroke, Los Angeles, California, 13/2)

Malcolm Vaughan
(British trad pop singer who scored UK Top 5 hits with ‘Ev’ry Day of My Life’, ‘St Theresa of the Roses’, ‘My Special Angel’ and ‘More Than Ever (Come Prima)’–he led The Welsh Street Singers; born Malcolm James Thomas, Abercynon, South Wales, 22/3/1929; natural causes, Eastbourne, England, 9/2)

2011

JANUARY

Tuesday 4

Mick Karn

(Andonis Michaelides - Nicosia, Cyprus, 24 July 1958)

Japan

(Various acts)

Musician and songwriter Mick Karn was especially notable for his distinctive fretless bass playing with eighties art-rock band Japan. He was born to a family of Greek Cypriots, and was just three years old when the clan relocated to England. Despite a poor academic showing at Catford Boys’ School in south east London, Karn revealed a marked talent as a musician, mastering both woodwind and violin. But, when the young man’s clarinet was stolen and his school refused to replace it, Karn rebelled by dropping classical music for rock. Purchasing a bass guitar for five pounds, he thus formed the artsy Japan with school friends David Sylvian (David Batt, vocals/guitar), Richard Barbieri (keyboards) and Steve Jansen (Stephen Batt, drums – Sylvian’s brother). With the steadily improving group shortly fleshed-out by guitarist Rob Dean (who left in 1981), Japan signed with German label, Hansa. Initial reaction was tepid; the critics that didn’t dismiss Japan as Roxy Music-copyists believed that they were little more than a warmed-over New York Dolls. However, over the next decade, Japan were to become regarded as perhaps the most versatile musicians of the UK’s post-new wave movement.