The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (288 page)

Simon ‘Pico’ Payne
(28/7/1925-26/7/2002)

Al Rivers
(1927-17/2/1993)

Alexander Sharp
(1919-1/1970)

Judge ‘Fletcher’ Smith
(22/9/1913-15/8/1993)

Ray Tunia
(10/5/1916-16/8/1983)

Lloyd Washington
(1920-22/6/2004)

Ivory ‘Deek’ Watson
(18/7/1909-4/11/1969)

Completists may like to add the following ‘spin-off’ Ink Spots: William ‘Lefty’ Bates, Billy Byrd, Lorenzo Conyers, Artie Dicks, Earl Gibson, Charles Gray, Grant Kitchings, Buddy Miles (
February 2008),
Gene Miller, Charles Owens and Ray Pollard. Dates here are, however, harder to ascertain - and the likelihood is that there are others who have passed on. (Incidentally, pianist Johnny ‘Ace’ Harris - who died in 2000 - often presented himself as an official Ink Spot, but was actually an imposter.)

Friday 9

Mike Botts

(Oakland, California, 8 December 1944)

Bread

(Various acts)

Although not an original member of Bread, Mike Botts was in the drummer’s seat for the band’s most prolific period between 1970 and 1972. Botts had already made something of a name for himself as touring percussionist with Hoyt Axton and Righteous Brother-on-leave Bill Medley, but made the decision to join Bread when ‘Make It with You’ (1970) began to make significant progress in the US charts. Under the seemingly unerring guidance of songwriters David Gates and Jimmy Griffin, the band produced a series of massive international hits with some genuinely touching soft-rock ballads, the melodies of which still come readily to mind. With the two main characters often at loggerheads, Botts remained the smiling face of the band, even when Bread twice split. After the final separation, the drummer found much session work with other soft-rockers like Eric Carmen, Dan Fogelberg and Linda Ronstadt, and later as a key member in Tina Turner’s band. In 2002, Botts issued his only solo album,
Adults Only.

Mike Botts had celebrated his sixty-first birthday just hours before succumbing to cancer of the colon -his longtime bandmate Griffin having also died from the disease at the start of the year (
January 2005).

See also
Larry Knechtel (
Golden Oldies #96)

Tuesday 13

Jason Bachiller

(Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1984)

Edwin ‘EJ’ Duncan

(Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1984)

Chris ‘Fat Boy’ Vieira

(Reading, Massachusetts, 1986)
Graveside

An up-and-coming Boston rap unit, Graveside perhaps had an idea of the irony within their name, such was the stereotypically violent world within which they lived and worked. That three members were slain in the very basement where much of their material was mixed is just one more grim coincidence.

But, despite their absorption of the more dismal prerequisites of gangsta rap, Graveside were popular boys who, according to local followers, ‘just used harsh words as an outlet’ and were known to be friendly and helpful. Something must have gone badly awry, however. On the evening of 13 December, Jason Bachiller, Edwin Duncan and Chris Vieira, plus another friend, Jihad Chankhour, were waiting for the fourth member of the band, Jelani Haynes, downstairs at Duncan’s Dorchester apartment – home to the makeshift recording studio built by his mother. It seems that, at some point after midnight, a lone gunman entered the building, shooting all four in an execution-style killing, before making a speedy escape in Vieira’s car. It was Boston’s worst multiple homicide in ten years. Needless to say, because of Graveside’s apparent fascination with firearms, the press was shortly brimming with ‘I told you so’ editorials.

The young Brazilian woman from whom Duncan rented his rooms was alleged to have disappeared within hours of the murders – though, at the time of writing, the killer remains unidentified and at large.

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 2005:

James Austen Jr
(US baritone with The Platters; born Tennessee, 1937; lung cancer, 24/12)!

Les Braid
(UK pop bassist with Merseybeat stars The Swinging Blue Jeans, of ‘Hippy Hippy Shake’ and ‘You’re No Good’ fame; born Liverpool, 15/9/1937; lung cancer, 31/7)

Tyrone Davis
(popular US soul singer who scored Top Five pop hits with 1969’s ‘Can I Change My Mind?’ and 1970’s ‘Turn Back the Hands of Time’; born Mississippi, 4/5/1938; stroke, 9/2)

Hal Kalin
(muchloved US pop singer with duo The Kalin Twins, who topped the UK chart with ‘When’ in 1958; born New York, 16/2/1934; car accident - his brother Herb died less than a year later, 23/8)

Dru Lombar
(US Southern rock guitarist and songwriter with Grinderswitch and The Soul Searchers; born Robert Andrew Lombar, Florida, 20/12/1950; brief illness, 2/9)

Pierre Moerlen
(noted French prog multi-instrumentalist with Gong - drummers Pip Pyle and Brian Davison
(
Golden Oldies #62)
have also since died; born Alsace-Lorraine, 23/10/1952; natural causes, 3/5)

Johnny Reed
(US bass with vocal legends The Orioles; born Maryland, 16/8/1923; natural causes, 18/6 - he was the fifth original Oriole to pass on following Tommy Gaither’s death over fifty years before)

Wayne Southworth
(UK death-metal singer with Doom; born 1977; epileptic seizure, 18/3)

Jakson ‘Thunderfoot’ Spires
(US drummer/songwriter with Southern rockers Blackfoot; born North Carolina, 12/4/1951; aneurysm, 16/3)

Ryan Summer
(US drummer with feted altrockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Cocaine Unicorn; born Oregon, 9/9/1978; genetic blood disorder, 14/8)

Johnny Tanner
(US singer with vocal act The ‘5’ Royales, who scored early R & B #1s with ‘Baby Don’t Do It’ and ‘Help Me Somebody’; born North Carolina, 28/11/1926; bone cancer, 8/11)

Tommy Vance
(ever-popular UK rock DJ/presenter; born Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston - no word of a lie - Oxfordshire, 11/7/1941; stroke at the wheel of his car, 6/3)

… and the latest hoaxes?

Metal guitarist Rob Arnold of Chimaira was reported via internet and US radio to have died on 8 February 2005 after a man’s body was found in an abandoned car. If there was a corpse, it wasn’t his - the musician was amused by the stories. Arnold’s family, meanwhile, were happy to continue accepting tributes and donations in his name.

Taking matters to a natural plateau, Californian death-metal band Blood Freak issued a spoof report that all three members - Jason Grinter (vocals/bass), John Sellier (guitar) and Pete Dobbins (drums) - had perished in a road accident in Anaheim on 12 August 2005. Yep - it was a publicity stunt. The band returned as flesh-eating zombies within weeks.