The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (190 page)

Connolly left the band after a final Top Ten entry with the introspective ‘Love is Like Oxygen’ (1978). Drinking heavily, the singer attempted a solo career, having fallen out with his bandmates of many years. His health declined dramatically in the years that followed, not helped by serious problems in his personal life and near-bankruptcy. Connolly had little to fall back on financially – most of the hit royalties had landed at the feet of the writers. Thus, in the early nineties, the singer took his own line-up of The Sweet out on the road (in direct competition with Andy Scott’s version of the band, though the pair settled their differences prior to Connolly’s death) but his continued abuse of alcohol rendered many performances non-starters. Connolly even had plans to follow a country direction, feeling this would be better for his voice, but by now it was too late – he had already suffered a series of heart attacks due to his addiction. Partially disabled, Brian Connolly died of renal failure at his home in Slough. It was a grim, unflattering end for one so clearly associated with glamour – though the singer managed the rare feat of being surrounded by three of his former partners (plus his two daughters and young son) on his deathbed.

See also
Mick Tucker (
February 2002)

Thursday 13

Michael Menson

(Michael Tachie-Menson - London, 1967)

Double Trouble

With partner Leigh Guest, Michael Menson made up Double Trouble, the rap/dance duo operating mainly as back-up to The Rebel MC (Michael West). Although Ghanaian diplomat’s son Menson enjoyed several hits in the UK – most notably the Top Five ‘Street Tuff’ (1989) – it was the appalling racially driven circumstances of his murder which, sadly, most will recall first.

After his short time in the spotlight was over, 30-year-old Menson began to suffer severe delusional episodes that resulted in his being moved into supported accommodation in London by the start of 1997. Then, on the night of 28 January, in Edmonton, North London, a lost and disorientated Menson was set upon by three men, who attacked him twice, first stealing his personal stereo and then throwing white spirit over him and setting his clothes alight. Michael Menson died sixteen days later from horrific burns to his back. No statement or evidence had been taken by police – who assumed the former artist had attempted suicide. Menson’s family were distraught at what they felt was a botched inquiry, and it took two years to bring his killers to justice. Of the attackers (who were found to have racist motives for the killing), Mario Pereira was found guilty of murder, while Harry Constantinou and Ozguy Cevat – who had to be pursued to Cyprus for trial – were both convicted of manslaughter. One of Britain’s highestprofile atrocities in years, the case came hot on the heels of the Stephen Lawrence murder trial.

MARCH

Sunday 9

The Notorious BIG

(Christopher Wallace - Brooklyn, New York, 21 May 1972)

And so the squabble went on. And so another life was needlessly wasted. With titles like ‘Ready To Die’, ‘Machine Gun Funk’ and ‘You’re Nobody (‘Til Somebody Kills You)’, Christopher Wallace – aka The Notorious BIG (or sometimes Biggie Smalls) – was either remarkably prescient or, more likely, had the measure of his market’s glorification of gang culture. Either way, his envelopment in the East–West rap wars was only ever going to have one result.

The Notorious BIG (it stands for ‘Business Instead of Game’, apparently) earned his soubriquet well before he’d signed a deal with Bad Boy Entertainment. Biggie was a known narcotics dealer who gained ‘respect’ in the Bedford/Stuyvesant hood where he had been brought up mainly because of his formidable six-foot-three, 350-lb-plus presence. With a served conviction behind him, the man had the perfect credentials for gangsta rap and was snapped up by Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs for his label, releasing a million-selling debut album in 1994.
Ready To Die
might have had depressingly predictable subject matter, but whatever – Biggie was the newest folk hero, offering the East Coast its most convincing challenge yet to the West Coast elite. One of those who appeared a touch peeved by Wallace’s success was Tupac Shakur, who allegedly believed his former friend was adopting his style: perhaps Shakur was prompted to make these accusations because, though Biggie might have had an aura about him, he wasn’t in the same league in terms of talent. A series of inevitable spats via record and video developed, 2Pac claiming he’d slept with Wallace’s wife, singer Faith Evans. The accusation that Wallace was involved in Shakur’s near-fatal shooting in November 1994 merely iced the cake.

DEAD INTERESTING!

LURCH OF THE POISONED MIND

Gangsta rappers involved in actual gangsta crimes is hardly a new thing these days, but in 2002, ‘Suge’ Knight’s Tha Row stable found itself at the centre of the genre’s most horrific story yet. Supposedly up-and-coming Texas-born rapper Big Lurch (real name Antron Singleton) had just recorded his first album for the label when police found him covered in blood on a South Central LA street on the morning of 10 April. In a scenario more reminiscent of the Norwegian black-metal scene, Singleton had murdered and mutilated his flatmate Tynisha Ysais … and eaten a section of her lung.

The prosecution alleged that Singleton - who was believed to have a history of mental illness - had been ‘plied with drugs’ by the label and encouraged to go forth and ‘commit a crime that would make him more marketable as a gangsta artist’. On 7 November 2003, he was sentenced to life behind bars. Knight, meanwhile, testified that he had never even met Big Lurch, let alone heard him rap.

Biggie: Notorious, big and ready to die …

In 1995, Biggie swept the awards to the chagrin of all at Death Row Records: but things were about to become more intense. After Shakur’s highly publicized assassination (
September 1996),
although no arrests were ever made, Biggie knew he was living on borrowed time. On the evening of 9 March, seemingly unfazed by an assault charge hanging over him and appearing pumped and preened, The Notorious BIG attended the annual
Soul Train
awards in Los Angeles. Then, as he was driven to the aftershow party at LA’s Petersen Automotive Museum, the rapper was murdered in a drive-by shooting frighteningly similar to that of 2Pac six months before. As the GMC Suburban carrying Biggie waited at a stoplight, a ‘dark car’ (no better description was ever given) pulled up alongside and a passenger unloaded between six and ten bullets into the Suburban: The Notorious BIG was declared dead at 1.15 am at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Following a suitably outsized funeral in New York, his ashes were shared between his mother (who featured prominently in his lyrics, as Shakur’s mother did in his), Evans and his highprofile ex rapper Lil’ Kim. The inquest met with an inevitable silence. Indeed, so short of answers were the police that at one point they couldn’t even identify the driver of Biggie’s car. Nearly a decade on, the identity of the perpetrators remains a mystery – though certain names have been mentioned frequently, including that of a former LAPD officer. Although nobody has yet been brought to justice, in the spring of 2006, the City of Los Angeles was held responsible for withholding information during a botched civil case, and BIG’s family was awarded over $1 million in compensation.

The Notorious BIG’s final album was chillingly titled
Life After Death;
predictably, it sold bucketloads in the wake of his death, as did Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’s somewhat turgid tribute, ‘I’ll be Missing You’ (1997). Which – conversely – owed a small amount to The Police.

Monday 17

Jermaine Stewart

(William Jermaine Stewart - Columbus, Ohio, 7 September 1957)

(Shalamar)