The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (176 page)

Guitarist and synth-player Damon Edge formed cult San Francisco hard-rock act Chrome in 1977, having moved there from LA the year before. Somewhat averse to playing live, Edge would not take Chrome on the road, bar one 1981 date in Italy, where the band had a considerable following. This caused conflict with outspoken (and impressively named) frontman Helios Creed, who contested any decision to remain cooped up in the studio; the pair went their separate ways – never to reconcile – when Edge moved to Berlin with his musician girlfriend, Fabienne Shine. By the time of his death Edge was described as an obese shut-in who drank heavily, a distressing breakup with Shine the main cause of his self-neglect. Tragically, he lay dead in his LA apartment for nearly a month before discovery.

Friday 8

Jack Vigliatura VI

(Palm Harbor, Florida, 1974)

Bill White

(Clearwater, Florida, 1972)

For Squirrels

The young, up-for-fun members of Florida thrash-rockers For Squirrels had finally got their act together: singer Jack Vigliatura, bass-player Bill White and guitarist Travis Tooke grew up together in Clearwater, playing for themselves, all the while believing their music was ‘for squirrels’. In truth, a series of early, shambolic performances obscured the fact that this band had genuine promise. Sony thought so: they invested in For Squirrels, backing an impressive debut album,
Example,
and airplay hit, the Kurt Cobain tribute ‘Mighty KC’, in 1995, even paying to record their hedonistic charges in the enviable environment of Compass Point in the Bahamas. But the band had improved immeasurably in a short space of time – and an equally enviable showcase at the legendary CBGB’s in New York, set up by friend and tour manager 21-year-old Tim Bender, was the next test. For Squirrels passed this with flying colours and the stage seemed set for stardom.

As the triumphant band made the long journey back to Florida on Interstate 95, disaster struck. Some fifty miles south of Savannah, Georgia, a rear tyre blew, causing their tour van to lurch violently and overturn several times. According to Georgia State Patrol, Vigliatura, White and Bender all died from massive head injuries at the scene, while drummer Jack Griego was lucky to survive with smashed vertebrae and ribs. Tooke suffered a broken elbow and lacerations, but, like Griego, pulled through in Liberty Memorial Hospital, Georgia. The funerals of Vigliatura and White were held five days later in Palm Harbor, while Bender’s memorial took place in Cary. It was a tragic end for a band that had just wanted to play music for fun: indeed, one of Bill White’s early stage antics was to perform seated – and wearing a crash helmet.

Saturday 16

Dougie Palompo

(St Andrews, Scotland, 1969)

The Flying Medallions

Just a week after the For Squirrels disaster, a bus carrying chaotic South London punks The Flying Medallions from a Belgian festival skidded on a motorway and crashed, instantly killing bassist of two years, Dougie Palompo. Having been together for some years, the band were finally enjoying moderate success touring their latest album,
We Love Everybody and Everything’s Great
(1994). The Medallions (some of whom mutated into the band Flicknife Rickshaw after the tragedy) were known for their cryptic sleeve notes; this latest release had featured the enigmatic phrase: ‘The conquest of death should be the central concern of science. Death should be snuffed.’

OCTOBER

Saturday 21

Shannon Hoon

(Richard Shannon Hoon - Lafayette, Indiana, 26 September 1967)

Blind Melon

LA-based altrockers Blind Melon were at the height of their powers when they played David Letterman’s highprofile talk show. Earlier that day, the death of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain had been announced
(
April 1994):
for Melon’s performance, lead singer Shannon Hoon daubed a symbolic question mark on his forehead as a ‘tribute’. Whether anyone chose to reciprocate the gesture after Hoon’s sad heroin-related death eighteen months later has not been recorded.

Blind Melon - Shannon Hoon ever at the centre: No rain, but copious tears …

Hoon left his home town with the intention of emulating fellow Lafayette native W Axl Rose – coincidentally, one of Hoon’s first brushes with fame would be to appear on the Guns n’ Roses promo for their 1991 hit ‘Don’t Cry’. But Shannon Hoon was far from a cameo performer: Blind Melon – Hoon, Roger Stevens (guitar), Christopher Thorn (guitar), Brad Smith (bass) and Glen Graham (drums) – signed a $500K contract with Capitol, and Hoon’s reputation as both songwriter and rock ‘n’ roll bad boy began to grow. An eponymous debut album (1992) – which went on to sell 4 million copies – and a major hit single, the exquisite ‘No Rain’ (1993), brought the singer to the forefront of the industry. Hoon upset Vancouver authorities with a display of nudity at a show that year – though
Rolling Stone
saw the humour in this and had the entire band strip off for a cover shoot that November. But this early burst of publicity proved the zenith for Blind Melon. An appearance at the ill-fated Woodstock II Festival in 1994 (coupled with Hoon’s tangle with security at that year’s Grammy awards) preceded a follow-up album,
Soup
(1995), that divided the critics and failed to sell in similar quantities to its predecessor. By now Hoon’s zealous use of psychedelic drugs was causing consternation among his Melon colleagues; their decision to bring in a drug therapist for the group’s 1995 tour was met with derision by the lead singer, who, finding the counsellor intrusive, promptly fired him. Two weeks later, Hoon was dead, found slumped in the back of the band’s tour bus by Blind Melon’s sound engineer, just before a show in New Orleans. This event was voted ‘Third Most Depressing Moment of 1995’ by the readers of the UK metal paper
Kerrang!

Said Stevens, ‘It sometimes got to the point where I was expecting that call. But when he died, he was fresh out of rehab and was really healthy. I really don’t think there was anything anyone could have done. I believe people learn from example and experience. We had him go to rehab a few times, but eventually we knew it was up to him to quit.’ Stevens issued a posthumous collection of Blind Melon songs,
Nico
(1996, named after the singer’s daughter, Nico Blue) before disbanding the group in 1999.

NOVEMBER

Wednesday 8

‘Country’ Dick Montana

(Daniel Monty McClain - Carmel, California, 1955)

The Beat Farmers

Following the recent trend set by Big Sugar drummer Walter ‘Crash’ Morgan (who had died on stage in Iowa that October), ‘Country’ Dick Montana suffered an onstage aneurysm at the Longhorn Saloon in Whistler, British Columbia. A wild-styled leader of San Diego altrock band The Beat Farmers, the vocalist/percussionist collapsed into his drums, passing away there and then. Montana – who also had a recent history of thyroid cancer – had just completed his band’s eighth record,
Manifold,
and solo effort
The Devil in Me.
According to longtime friend and admiring musician Mojo Nixon, among the inimitable frontman’s legendary stunts were the drinking of beer with his feet and the selling of songs he didn’t even own to a record company.