The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (241 page)

Perry Como
(muchloved US pop crooner whose ‘magic moments’ spanned more than five decades; born Pierino Ronald Como, Pennsylvania, 18/5/1912; lengthy illness, 12/5)

William Cooper Glenn
(US founding musician of distinctive altrock acts The Rain Parade and Mazzy Star; born California, 1957; cancer, 16/3)

David Gilbert
(US rock vocalist with Detroit Wheels spin-off band The Rockets - he also toured with Ted Nugent and Ron Asheton’s New Order; born 4/12/1951; liver cancer, 1/8)

Ronnie Hilton
(UK pop singer probably best known for his ‘Windmill in Old Amsterdam’ and its infestation of rodents - though he had far bigger hits; born Adrian Hill, Yorkshire, 26/1/1926; stroke, 2½)

Ernie K-Doe
(popular US R & B vocalist who made #1 with 1961’s ‘Mother-in-Law’; born Ernest Kador Jr, Louisiana, 22/2/1936; liver failure, 5/7)

Jerry Lee Merritt
(US rock ‘n’ roll lead-guitar great who played with many of the big names, in particular Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps; born 1934; heart attack, 4/5)

Fred Neil
(highly regarded US folk/pop singer/ guitarist/songwriter; born Ohio, 16/3/1936; cancer, 7/6)

Chuck Schuldiner
(highly innovative US death metal guitarist with Death and Control Denied; born New York, 13/5/1967; brain cancer, 13/12)

O C Smith
(popular US R & B/pop singer who had 1968 #2 hits in the US with ‘Little Green Apples’ and in the UK with ‘Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp’; born Ocie Lee Smith, Louisiana, 21/6/1932; heart attack, 23/11)

Gareth Williams
(UK singer/bassist/keyboardist with John Peel-favoured rock mavericks This Heat; born Cardiff, 23/4/1953; cancer, 24/12)

… and yet another who didn’t

Rachela Williams, former US rock singer with Rock Solid, was widely reported to have died in a Los Angeles motorcycle crash in January 2001; she is, in fact, still working as an actress and fashion model.

2002

JANUARY

Wednesday 2

Zac Foley

(Zachary Sebastian Rex James Foley - Gloucester, 9 December 1970)

EMF

(Carrie)

Manchester may have had the lion’s share of baggy talent, but it was an unlikely bunch of scallywags from the Forest of Dean who were to take the spoils in America. Formed in Cinderford in 1989, the ‘Epsom Mad Funkers’ were to become a household name within a year thanks to the infectious ‘Unbelievable’ – a single that just maybe defines the then musical landscape in the UK more succinctly than any other. EMF – James Atkin (vocals), Ian Dench (guitar), Zac Foley (bass), Derry Brownson (keys) and Mark Decloedt (drums) – followed this with the even better (though not as successful) ‘I Believe’ and an album,
Schubert Dip
(1991). But the biggest prize came from the US : ‘Unbelievable’, issued six months later in America, stormed to number one, offloading nearly 2 million copies in the process. But, as with contemporaries Jesus Jones, who also conquered the States that summer, it was a never-to-be-repeated moment.

EMF, with Zac Foley
(third from right):
A band of substance

Foley was an integral part of the band in its eight-year history, a loud character who chugged out the chords – when he wasn’t performing interesting party tricks with his foreskin and various pieces of fruit. A textbook hedonist, the bassist claimed to have been ‘pumping himself full of anything’ by the time of the band’s all-but-ignored second album
Stigma
(1992); by then, he’d have been oblivious to the fact that it wasn’t happening any more for EMF. Despite one more theme-continuing hit with ‘I’m a Believer’ (successful mainly for the appearance of comics Reeves & Mortimer on the record) in 1995, the band ended as a going concern two years later. Foley’s usage of substances did not, however.

After some particularly exuberant New Year celebrations, Zac Foley failed to emerge from a paralytic state. A friend at whose house he’d been recovering had to kick the door in to reach him – but it was already too late. Foley – who had recently formed a new band, Carrie – was found deceased, the empty cans, vodka bottle and crack paraphernalia around him illustrating all too graphically the manner of his death.

‘He was dicing with death.’

Dr Stephen Chan, coroner at St Pancras Hospital

Monday 7

Jon Lee

(Newport, Wales, 28 March 1968)

Feeder

(Temper Temper)

It just didn’t make sense. After years on the periphery picking at scraps, Feeder had finally crashed British rock’s executive dining rooms – and the future looked to be fine cuisine as far as the eye could see. Both their third album,
Echo Park
(2001), and its lead single, the shoutalong ‘Buck Rogers’, had taken the band into the UK Top Five, the album having sold close to 150,000 copies by the end of the year. As for founder member Jon Lee, he’d recently moved to Miami (ie, a far cry from Newport) and he and his wife were looking forward to the imminent arrival of a second son. Life surely couldn’t have been better?

Former sprinter Lee had met fellow Feeder mainstay and pin-up Grant Nicholas (vocals/guitar) many years before, the pair bonding immediately and forming the band Temper Temper back in 1987 before playing together in London-based Reel – the group that would become Feeder. Via the small-ads magazine
Loot,
the pair found Japanese bassist Taka Hirose and slowly began to make inroads on the London rock scene. Recording on the small Echo label, the band rose to score their first bona fide hit with ‘High’ (1997): by the end of 1999, Feeder were chart regulars, their second album proper hitting the Top Ten. As fame beckoned, the band travelled the world and Lee met Brazilian model Tatiana Englehart while touring America in 1998. The romance blossomed; the couple wed and planned a family – but the pressure, like Feeder’s fame, was gradually building a head of steam. With Feeder about to make it big, Lee barely had time to spend with his wife and baby son: when he discovered that Englehart was pregnant with their second child late in 2001, the drummer began to find it impossible to balance the needs of his young family with his commitment to the band. Lee hid his anxieties from virtually everyone – until it was too late. Shortly after 6 am on 7 January 2002, Grant Nicholas took the call from Jon Lee’s brother: his friend and bandmate of seventeen years was dead, having hanged himself at his Florida home.

‘Jon had such a taste for life - which makes this whole thing such a mystery to us all. But I obviously didn’t know him as well as I thought.’

Feeder frontman, Grant Nicholas

Jon Lee (centre), with fellow Feeders Grant Nicholas and Taka Hirose: The comedown after the high

Three years later, Nicholas – whose band remains highly successful, now with Mark Richardson on drums – told the
Sunday Times,
‘There are things I know, gruesome details of how he did it. At first I couldn’t sleep, or do anything. I worked so intensely, the engineers thought I was having a breakdown … But Jon’s death has made me more focused, more confident. Maybe more grateful.’

Tuesday 8

David McWilliams

(Cregagh, Belfast, 4 July 1945)