The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (379 page)

Nick Cave remembers Rowland S Howard on WENN, December 2009

James Owen Sullivan’s funeral was attended by his former band mates, plus members of Pantera, Buckcherry, My Chemical Romance and Bullet for My Valentine. A few months later, the drummer’s family accepted a Revolver Golden Gods Award on his behalf, while Avenged Sevenfold – who dedicated the album
Nightmare
(2010) to the memory of their former colleague – continued with Mike Portnoy (formerly of the Sullivan-approved Dream Theater) in the drummer’s seat.

Wednesday 30

Rowland S Howard

(Melbourne, Australia, 24 October 1959)

The Birthday Party

Crime & The City Solution

These Immortal Souls

(Various acts)

It should be stressed that distinctive guitarist and songwriter Rowland S Howard was not just influential to Australia’s rich postpunk scene, but also to those of Great Britain, Europe and to some extent the USA. Although the musician denounced it in later life, by 1976 he’d already written a newwave ‘mini-classic’ in ‘Shivers’, with teenage band The Young Charlatans. Two years later, Howard joined The Boys Next Door, the song becoming one of the first recorded by the group before they morphed into The Birthday Party. Their influence resonating in rockabilly and goth music, this was the band that made Howard’s and singer Nick Cave’s names in the early eighties.

Howard’s discordant guitar-wash became a trademark of The Birthday Party’s sound and many diehards still believe that Cave’s music suffered without it: nevertheless, the pair eventually had to go their separate ways at the end of 1983, the differences in their artistic judgment threatening an otherwise good relationship. Both now based in Europe, Cave went on to continued acclaim with his Bad Seeds, while Howard in 1985 joined established Aussie altrockers Crime & The City Solution with bassist Harry Howard (his younger brother) and fellow ex-Party guitarist Mick Harvey. This altrock ‘supergroup’ also included founder/vocalist Simon Bonney and former Swell Maps drummer Epic Soundtracks (Kevin Godfrey). The Howards and Soundtracks later formed the excellent These Immortal Souls with keyboardist Genevieve McGuckin – with whom Rowland briefly entered into a relationship. The guitarist also worked with Godfrey’s brother, Nikki Sudden (Adrian Godfrey) in The Jacobites.

In an artistically rich, if not always financially rewarding career, Rowland S Howard also recorded and performed alongside Einstürzende Neubauten, Lydia Lunch, Jim ‘Foetus’ Thirlwell, The Gun Club’s Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore. The artist released two solo albums entitled
Teenage Snuff Film
(1999) and
Pop Crimes
(2009) – the latter was issued just two months before his death from liver cancer.

See also
Tracey Pew (
July 1986); Jeffrey Lee Pierce (
April 1996); Epic Soundtracks (
November 1997); Nikki Sudden (
March 2006). Sometime Crime & The City Solution collaborator and Once Upon A Time vocalist Bruno Adams also died during 2009.

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 2009:

Pamela Birch
(UK singer/guitarist with sixties Liverpool trio The Liverbirds, who scored a German Top 5 hit covering ‘Diddley Daddy’ and are regarded as the world’s first all-female rock group; born Pamela Anne Burch, Kirkdale, Liverpool, 9/8/1944; illness, in Hamburg, 27/10)

Dave Blackman
(UK mod-revival drummer with The Teenbeats, who scored a Canadian hit with ‘I Can’t Control Myself’–also a member of The Blackman Brothers; born Sussex, 1961; he suffered a heart attack between sets at a gig in Hastings, 13/6)

Stephen Bruton
(noted US country singer/guitarist/ songwriter/producer who worked with Elvis Costello, Kris Kristofferson, Carly Simon, Bonnie Raitt and Delbert McClinton; born Turner Stephen Bruton, Delaware, 7/11/1949; throat cancer, in Los Angeles, California, 9/5)

Sam Carr
(influential US Delta blues drummer/bassist who fronted The Jelly Roll Kings and played with Buddy Guy, Lonnie Shields and Sonny Boy Williamson Il–he was the son of Robert Nighthawk; born Marvell, Arkansas, 17/4/1926; illness, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, 21/9)

Johnny Carter
(popular US first-tenor/falsetto with doo-wop acts The Flamingos and The Dells, with whom he remained for fifty years, bagging Top Ten hits with ‘Stay In My Corner’ and ‘Oh What a Night’; born Illinois, 2/6/1934; lung cancer, Harvey, 21/8)

Mick Cocks
(Australian hard-rock guitarist who played with Heaven, The Ted Mulry Gang, Pete Wells’ Heart Attack and, most notably, Rose Tattoo–of whom he was the fifth former member to pass on; born 1955; liver cancer, 22/12)

Kenny Dino
(US pop singer who hit with 1961’s ‘Your Ma Said You Cried in Your Sleep Last Night’; born Kenneth Diono, Astoria, Queens, New York, 12/2/1942; heart attack at the wheel of his car, in Florida, 10/12)

Jonny Dollar
(admired UK producer who produced Massive Attack’s pioneering
Blue Lines
album–he also worked with Depeche Mode, Galliano, Pulp, EMF, Kylie Minogue, Gabrielle and the young Neneh Cherry; born Jonathan Sharp, Cornwall, 1964; cancer, in London, 29/5)

Arthur Ferrante
(US pop/easy-listening pianist–one half of duo Ferrante & Teacher who scored four US Top Ten hits, including the themes from
Exodus
and
Midnight Cowboy;
born New York City, 7/9/1921; natural causes, Florida, 19/9)

Tom Jameson
(US singer with popular doo-wop act The Jamies, who scored a Top 40 hit twice with the Epic single ‘Summertime Summertime’; born Boston, Massachusetts, 24/4/1937; cancer, 19/7)

Bob Keane
(noted US music executive whose Del-Fi, Bronco and Mustang labels launched the careers of Ritchie Valens, Sam Cooke, Bobby Fuller and Barry White–all of whom he now rejoins; born Robert Kuhn, Manhattan Beach, California, 5/1/1922; renal failure, Hollywood, 28/11)

Allen Klein
(notoriously ruthless US manager who oversaw the affairs of Bobby Darin, Sam Cooke and Connie Francis before ‘taking care’ of The Rolling Stones and then The Beatles; born Newark, New Jersey, 18/12/1931; Alzheimer’s disease, 4/7)

Freddie Mack
(chocolate-voiced US former-Olympic pugilist who fronted funk/soul bands and scored 1981 UK chart hits with Tight Fit; born Bennettsville, South Carolina, 15/9/1934; natural causes, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 11/1)

Al Martino
(enduringly popular US crooner who scored the first-ever UK #1 single with 1952’s ‘Here in My Heart’, though is probably best-known for the standard ‘Spanish Eyes’–he also played Johnny Fontane in
The Godfather;
born Alfred Cini, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 7/10/1927; natural causes, Springfield, 13/10)

Renato Pagliari
(Italian tenor and pop ‘sensation’ who went on to top the UK charts as half of 1982’s cheesiest duo, Renée & Renato with ‘Save Your Love’; born Rome, 28/6/1940; malignant brain tumour, Staffordshire, England, 29/7)