The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (48 page)

Despite professional prowess with a variety of gospel and doo-wop outfits (the most significant of which are named above), Gene Mumford’s personal life was beset with problems: in 1945, as he prepared to turn professional as a vocalist, he was falsely accused of the attempted rape of a white woman and eventually served two years on the chain gang in Carolina before being granted a pardon in 1949. On his release, Mumford rejoined his gospel pals in the group that became The Larks, also writing a number of their works. And Mumford was very much the lead attraction of The Dominoes (where he replaced Jackie Wilson), singing with the celebrated vocal group until 1959, after which he performed with various vocal revues, including a stint fronting The Ink Spots.

Gene Mumford’s troubles were not over, though. He battled with drink and general ill health before bacterial pneumonia – complicated by a combination of alcoholism and diabetes – claimed his life in Los Angeles at the age of fifty-one. Mumford survived former Larks colleague Allen Bunn by just three months, though other original members Hadie Rowe (1998), Thurmon Ruth (2002) and David McNeil (2005) survived into their seventies. (Orville Brooks, David Bowers, Isaiah Bing and Glen Burgess, members of a second line-up formed by Mumford, have also died.)

Thursday 26

William Powell Jr

(Canton, Ohio, 20 January 1942)

The O’Jays

The Triumphs was a five-piece band formed at Canton’s McKinley High School by baritone William Powell and friends Eddie Levert and Walter Williams, recording for the King label as The Mascots as early as 1961. The name under which the group achieved mass acceptance was given them by modest Cleveland disc jockey Eddie O’Jay. The O’Jays were often derided by critics as playing a ‘watered down’ version of what Motown and Stax were putting out, but they nonetheless developed a loyal R & B following in the Midwest over the next decade, before the three original members enjoyed a string of international hits with muchloved tunes such as ‘The Backstabbers’ (1972) and feelgood US 1973 chart-topper ‘Love Train’.

Two years later, it was all but over for William Powell: undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in a car accident in 1975, he was diagnosed with cancer. The disease spread rapidly, and Powell was forced to retire from the million-selling soul act soon after, the O’Jays’ management remarkably quick to find a replacement in former Little Anthony & The Imperials frontman Sammy Strain. Powell died at Aultman Hospital in the town of his birth.

See also
Gerald Levert (
November 2006)

JUNE

Wednesday 22

Peter Laughner

(Cleveland, Ohio, 22 August 1952)

Pere Ubu

(Rocket from the Tombs)

(Friction)

A founding member of celebrated Ohio avantgarde rockers Pere Ubu, Peter Laughner had already left the band to pursue his own project, Friction, at the time of his premature death – missing out on the great approval Pere Ubu were to receive in the late seventies. As the band seemed poised for critical acclaim, Laughner was making a living as a reviewer himself, with local music magazine
Scene
and the popular national journal
Creem.
His broad talent was recalled by longtime Ubu bassist Tony Maimone: ‘You could give him any topic and he’d write a song in ten minutes. He was a great, great writer – and a really good journalist.’

As a guitarist, Laughner had originally hooked up with Ubu vocalist David Thomas in 1973 to form the garagerock act Rocket from the Tombs, which was heavily influenced by the likes of The Stooges and MC5. Unfortunately, the young Laughner also adopted their pro-drug stance, developing something of a problem with heroin in his early twenties. His continued abuse resulted in his contracting acute pancreatitis – which eventually killed him.

See also
Jim Jones (
February 2008)

JULY

Monday 4

Richard Michaels

(Richard Michaels Haddad - Detroit, Michigan, 6 June 1951)

Alien Project

(SRC)

Richard Michaels appeared to have a career in rock sewn up when a demo by Alien Project – the Canadian outfit for whom he sang, wrote and played bass – was picked up by Columbia Records. Originally known by his given name of Richard Michaels Haddad, the young musician had also played with Detroit rock act SRC, where his strong writing was noted by Alien Project leader Steve Perry.

Michaels died when, driving on an East Coast freeway, his car hit a verge and flipped, killing him instantly. Having immediately disbanded Alien Project, Steve Perry thereafter went on to multiplatinum success throughout the eighties as singer with US stadium giants Journey. Perry nobly used his position to secure the release of an album of Richard Michaels’s SRC and Alien Project material, dedicating the disc to his memory.

AUGUST

Saturday 13

Ron Haydock

(Chicago, Illinois, 17 April 1940)

Ron Haydock & The Boppers

Ron Haydock was a little-known but hugely colourful character who made something of a name for himself as a singer, writer, actor and magazine editor – without ever really achieving mainstream success. In the late fifties, he formed proto-schlock band The Boppers, hitting the Chicago airwaves with the frenzied sub-classic ‘99 Chicks’. (One Haydock classic, ‘Rollin’ Danny’, was efficiently covered by fan Mark E Smith of The Fall during the eighties, while The Cramps have also cited him as an influence.) At the same time, he found a niche for himself in a series of B-movies, including 1962’s
The Man Who Finally Died
and 1966’s cult favourite
Rat Pfink a Boo Boo,
in which Haydock played the eponymous rocker/superhero. He went on to script for the likes of Lon Chaney (allegedly no fan of Haydock’s work), and also edited monster magazines and wrote risqué pulp fiction under the name Vin Saxon.

Disorientated by escalating depression, Haydock was struck and killed in a hit-and-run by an 18-wheeler truck in Victorville, California, as he negotiated an exit ramp while hitchhiking.

Tuesday 16

Elvis Presley

(Tupelo, Mississippi, 8 January 1935)