The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (323 page)

Golden Oldies #57

John Petersen

(Rudyard, Michigan, 8 January 1942)

The Beau Brummels

Harpers Bizarre

Drummer John Petersen enjoyed the rare distinction of scoring hit records with two different acts during the US pop explosion of the mid-sixties. San Francisco’s The Beau Brummels - Petersen, Sal Valentino (vox), Ron Elliot (lead guitar), Ron Meagher (bass) and Declan Mulligan (rhythm guitar) - quickly established themselves as media favourites, bagging a Billboard Top Twenty hit with ‘Laugh, Laugh’ (1965), which also peaked at number two in Canada. The Brummels - whose records were produced by the young Sly Stone - were credited with pioneering the ‘San Francisco Sound’, their cheerful performances placing the band firmly in the media spotlight. (Such was their impact that the group even appeared in cartoon form during an episode of
The Flintstones.)
A second single, ‘Just a Little’ then made the Top Ten in the US, Canada and Australia later that year, with ‘You Tell Me Why’ completing a successful year by itself making a further fleeting Top Forty appearance.

With The Beau Brummels’ popularity waning by the end of 1966, Petersen teamed with vocalist/guitarist (and later Doobie Brothers producer) Ted Templeman in Harpers Bizarre, a group best-known for their Top Twenty cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘59
^th
Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’ (1967). This record also gave Petersen a UK chart hit, as would its follow-up, ‘Come to the Sunshine’ (1967).

After reuniting with both bands during the seventies, John Petersen married Templeman’s sister Roberta, a vice president at Warner Brothers. The former drummer died from a heart attack on 11 November 2007.

Sunday 11

Tremayne Walker

(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1 February 1977)

The Browne Boyz

The righteous world of Christian rock might be the last place one would expect to find gangsta warfare, but the case of Tremayne Walker was such a grim example.

The Browne Boyz had been a going concern for four years, having played festivals featuring Stevie Wonder and Janet Jackson, and were set to sign a record deal when tragedy struck in 2007. As Walker and a friend stood chatting a block from the drummer’s home, he collapsed in pain, having been shot six times. Before Walker passed away, he was able to identify his attacker, a man known to him as Drew Poole. Then, as the case went to trial, the court heard that this bizarre killing was believed to have been retaliatory, Walker supposedly having informed on Poole’s shooting and injuring of a man and child earlier that year in Philadelphia. Police stressed that no such information had been forthcoming, and thus the murder was a case of mistaken identity.

While Poole received a life sentence in 2008, Tremayne Walker’s brothers vowed to see their late sibling’s music released.

Monday 19*

Kevin DuBrow

(Los Angeles, California, 29 October 1955)

Quiet Riot

(Various acts)

Formed as early as 1975, Quiet Riot was a project initiated by celebrated hard-rock guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni. The pair recruited drummer Drew Forsyth and singer Kevin DuBrow, this completing the line-up for the band’s first, Japan-only debut album in 1977.

Much had changed by Quiet Riot’s third, breakthrough record, however. First, Garni had been replaced by Cuban-American bassist Rudy Sarzo, with Frankie Banali coming in on the drums. The death of Rhoads
(
March 1982
)
–
who had by then defected to Ozzy Osbourne’s band – was the biggest blow by far, DuBrow and Riot taking stock before the release of
Metal Health
in 1983. The singer was a lover of British hard rock, and (unlike one or two others in the camp) was keen to include a cover of Slade’s 1973 UK chart-topper ‘Cum On Feel the Noize’ – which proved a masterstroke. The single entered the Billboard Top Five, in turn propelling its parent album to US number one in the autumn of 1983. (Quiet Riot thus became the first metal band to achieve these feats simultaneously.)

With further comparable success eluding the band, DuBrow quit Riot in 1987, turning his attention to new acts such as Pretty Women and Heat, in which he reunited with another former Quiet-Rioter, guitarist Carlos Cavazo. (Heat were effectively to become a ‘new, improved’ Quiet Riot during the nineties.)

Kevin DuBrow barely had time to set sail with the solo career he’d promised himself. After just one effort – 2004’s covers collection
In for the Kill -
the singer was found dead at his Las Vegas home from an accidental cocaine overdose. Authorities suggested that DuBrow had been deceased for almost a week before his discovery on 25 November. The singer was interred at Corona del Mar’s Pacific View Cemetery in California. A final Quiet Riot album,
Rehab
– featuring many of DuBrow’s compositions – emerged in 2008.

*Because of the circumstances surrounding Kevin DuBrow’s death, this date can only be estimated.

Golden Oldies #58

Bob Relf

(Los Angeles, California, 10 January 1937)

Bob & Earl

(The Laurels)

(Various acts)

Using an array of stage names and aliases, Bob Relf made a small mark in soul and R & B during the sixties. As a student at Fremont High, he - with friends Sam Jackson plus brothers Ted and Ronald Brown - formed popular doo-wop group The Laurels, who recorded for both the Cash and Combo labels during 1955. Relf shortly thereafter embarked upon a solo career with differing results, but continued to find work within a variety of vocal combos before settling into the role of the ‘second Bob’ in Bob & Earl.

Relf had sung several times with Bobby Day (aka Bobby Byrd, the original ‘Bob’) so became the obvious choice to step in alongside Earl Nelson when Day left Bob & Earl in 1962. The duo didn’t score masses of hits but they did record the original ‘Harlem Shuffle’, which also featured a young Barry White and became a UK Top Ten entry on reissue in 1969. (At this time, Relf was also recording solo material as Bobby Valentino and Bobby Garrett.) Relf later wrote and produced music, again working closely with White, with whom he composed tunes for Love Unlimited.

Bob Relf had been ill for some time when he passed away at home on 20 November 2007. His old partner Nelson died just eight months later (e
Golden Oldies #70),
Day having already passed on in 1990.

See also
Barry White (
July 2003)

Saturday 24

Casey Calvert

(Middletown, Ohio, 20 October 1981)

Hawthorne Heights

Having arrived at their preferred musical style, Ohio’s Hawthorne Heights found fame remarkably quickly. The Dayton-based post-hardcore outfit – J T Woodruff (vox/guitar), guitarists Casey Calvert and Micah Carli, Matt Ridenour (bass) and drummer Eron Bucciarelli – booked their own tours and were soon opening for the likes of The Descendents. Then, having signed with Chicago’s Victory label in 2003, Hawthorne Heights released their first long-player
The Silence in Black and White
(2004) to rave reviews. The group were now fitting snugly into an emerging emo scene.