The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (423 page)

The guitarist left Pentangle in 1973, although a new version of the band - in which Jansch and McShee were the only original members - returned during the 1980s. In his later years, Jansch collaborated with contemporary acts from across the spectrum of popular music, including Devendra Banhart, Beth Orton and even the notorious Pete Doherty of The Libertines/Babyshambles, of whom he was something of a fan. During 2010 - by which time he’d been diagnosed with cancer - Jansch opened for Eric Clapton and Neil Young, reunited with Pentangle at Glastonbury and played his final solo concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Despite making an initial recovery, Bert Jansch died from his condition at a Hampstead hospice on 5 October 2011. He is today recognised as one of the most influential British guitarists of the past fifty years - and was even described by none other than Neil Young as being on a par with Jimi Hendrix.

Golden Oldies #152

Donald Banks

(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1939*)

The Tymes

Smooth bass Donald Banks was a founding member of The Tymes, the Philadelphia-based R & B vocal act that scored number one singles on either side of the Atlantic.

Performing as The Latineers, the group - Banks, plus Albert Berry, Norman Burnett, George Hilliard and (eventually) lead singer George Williams - sold a million copies of their swoonsome first hit ‘So Much in Love’ (1963, US number one) which also prompted a Top Twenty placement for their similarly titled album. The Tymes were simultaneously on the Hot 100 as The Jewels, backing vocalists to singer Billy Abbott, while a triumphant 1963 continued with more big-selling tracks entitled ‘Wonderful! Wonderful!’ (US Top Ten) and ‘Somewhere’ (US Top Twenty).

From hereon, the group experienced hits more sporadically - their song ‘People’ (1968, US Top Forty; 1969, UK Top Twenty) being the next to make an impact. (‘People’ was a bigger seller for Barbra Streisand, as it was featured in her
Funny Girl
movie.) By the mid-seventies, The Tymes had replaced Hilliard and Berry with Terri Gonzales and Melanie Moore, to give the group more ‘appeal’. This appeared to work, as the group leapt back into the Top Twenty on both sides of the Atlantic with the infuriatingly catchy ‘You Little Trustmaker’ (1974); this was followed by a UK chart-topper at the beginning of 1975 in ‘Ms Grace’ (1974, US Hot 100). Banks left the group in 1977, apparently to run his own fast-food diner - which one hopes might have been called Lunch Tymes.

Donald Banks returned for the nostalgia circuit during the eighties, earning induction into the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame. The singer died on 7 October 2011 from the complications of both a stroke and cancer.

*Some sources give Banks’s year of birth as 1935. George Williams passed away in 2004.

Sunday 9

Mikey Welsh

(Syracuse, New York, 20 April 1971)

Weezer

(Juliana Hatfield)

(Various acts)

Mikey Welsh played bass with a number of modern rock acts before meeting nerd-rock maverick Rivers Cuomo. Welsh had recording commitments with Boston singer/songwriter Juliana Hatfield – notably the album
Bed
(1998) – and worked on Cuomo’s side projects before becoming a full-time member of the already-established Weezer, in which he replaced Matt Sharp later in 1997. Despite this, the only Weezer record to see a Welsh credit was
Weezer
(2000, Billboard 200 Top Five – generally identified by its green cover design, a la The Beatles’
The White Album).
This set, however, was viewed as something of a ‘rebirth’ for the band, containing what is arguably their finest moment with the airplay hit ‘Hash Pipe’ (2001, UK number twenty-one). A longtime drug-user, Welsh exited Weezer before the year was out, the bassist suffering a breakdown and receiving psychiatric help – although somehow fulfilling an obligation to perform with the band on Jay Leno’s
The Tonight Show.
Despite co-writing further songs for Hatfield and also playing with Nate Albert (ex-Mighty Mighty Bosstones), Welsh decided to retire from music to become a full-time visual artist. He was thereafter spotted sporadically at Weezer shows, making a guest appearance as recently as July 2011.

Just two weeks after posting an amended message to the effect on Twitter, Welsh was found deceased from a heart attack in a Chicago hotel room, following a suspected drug overdose. In light of the musician’s tweet, it remains uncertain as to whether the act was deliberate, or just somehow a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’.

Golden Oldies #153

Joel DiGregorio

(Worcester, Massachusetts, 8 January 1944)

The Charlie Daniels Band

(Various acts)

A noteworthy member of The Charlie Daniels Band, keyboardist Joel ‘Taz’ DiGregorio began his long career in music with Fay Adams & The Drifters, graduating to the bigger Paul Chaplain & The Emeralds. With the latter band, the teenage musician enjoyed a minor hit record with the Hot 100-scraping ‘Shortnin’ Bread’ (1960).

DiGregorio linked up with his old pal Charlie Daniels after returning from the draft at the end of the sixties. Following an eponymous debut record, the country-rock-flavoured Charlie Daniels Band went on to significant commercial success, scoring Top Ten pop hits with ‘Uneasy Rider’ (1973) and, some years later, the international smash ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’ (1979, UK Top Twenty) - a song that DiGregorio co-wrote. The keyboardist was given his distinctive nickname by Daniels, whose tour manager felt that the ‘unfettered’ DiGregorio resembled a human version of the Tasmanian Devil.

Remaining with The Charlie Daniels Band for over forty years, Joel DiGregorio still made time to record solo albums, to modest levels of success. On 12 October 2011, however, he was killed in a single-car crash on Interstate 40, Cheatham County, west of Nashville. DiGregorio outlived CDB guitarist/banjo player Tommy Crain -who died from natural causes - by just nine months.

Friday 14

Chuck Ruff

(Reno, Nevada, 25 May 1951)

The Edgar Winter Group

Sammy Hagar

(Various acts)

Nevada-born hard-rock drummer Chuck Ruff was, in 1972, an original member of The Edgar Winter Group, after having previously played as a teenager with fellow-founder Ronnie Montrose in Sawbuck. With the EWG, Ruff – plus band mates Montrose (guitar) and Dan Hartman (keyboards) – enjoyed his biggest success: the massive number-one single ‘Frankenstein’ (1973, UK Top Twenty) prominently features his trademark percussion. (The story goes that Ruff gave this classic track its name, reacting to how much editing and re-editing the finished piece had required.) The follow-up ‘Free Ride’ (1973, US Top Twenty) was also a big-seller, as had been the band’s double-platinum album
They Only Come Out At Night
(1972). Ruff contributed to two further Edgar Winter albums –
Shock Treatment
(1974) and
Jasmine Nightdreams
(1975) – although these struggled to compete in terms of sales.

Ruff went on to join Sammy Hagar in 1977, recording two charting albums in
Street Machine
(1979) and
Danger Zone
(1980). In his career, the drummer also played with Adam Bomb and The Michael Furlong Band during the eighties, and, more recently, The Max Volume Band, Geezerslaw and his own Chuck Ruff Group.

Chuck Ruff never emerged from a coma following liver surgery in San Francisco, the culmination of a lengthy spell of poor health. His passing leaves Winter himself as the only surviving original member of the Edgar Winter Group, after the deaths of Hartman
(
March 1994
) and Montrose, who passed away early in 2012.

See also
Bobby Ramirez (
July 1972); Randy Jo Hobbs (
August 1993). Sometime EWG guitarist Jerry Weems passed away in 1999. Winter’s first bassist Gene Kurtz died just a week after Ruff.