The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (293 page)

Sunday 26

Nikki Sudden

(Adrian Nicholas Godfrey - Croydon, Surrey, 19 July 1956)

Swell Maps

The Jacobites

(Various acts)

Singer and guitarist Nick Godfrey was as prolific as he was underrated, a unique talent destined to remain in rock’s ‘misfits’ catalogue. A teenage fan of T Rex and The Rolling Stones, Godfrey was always likely to follow the blues/boogie path – though his bands Swell Maps and The Jacobites offered a thoughtful and different approach to music. One of his earliest mentors was younger brother Kevin, later known as Epic Soundtracks (drums/piano), who began Swell Maps in 1974 while the pair occupied their parents’ home in Solihull. Finding a useful niche in the new wave scene, the Maps issued the great ‘Read About Seymour’ (1977) 45, as well as further singles and two albums, the indie charttopping
A Trip to Marineville
(1979) and
The Swell Maps in ‘Jane from Occupied Europe’
(1980) alongside Jowe Head (bass/vocals) and guitarist David Barrington (plus later members Richard Earl and John ‘Golden’ Cockrill) – before splitting up. Various compilations surfaced throughout the eighties, but Sudden (as he was now known) was on to new projects. He put out two solo albums before embarking upon The Jacobites in 1983 with Birmingham guitarist Dave Kusworth – a band some felt even exceeded Sudden’s first. This group issued two albums, the second of which,
Robespierre’s Velvet Basement
(1985), was a chart-topper on the German indie listings. A parting of company the following year saw Sudden sign to increasingly hip label Creation, for whom he issued five more albums in as many years – though after a brief hiatus in Athens, Georgia (and a collaboration with local heroes REM), The Jacobites were resurrected with Kusworth and a new backing band. Three more studio albums were released, but to little publicity. Indeed, throughout the nineties, Sudden maintained the inexhaustible touring/recording schedule for which he was noted. Perhaps his best solo work emerged in 1999, the string-laden
Red Brocade,
with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy on guest vocals. During three decades of low-profile recording, Sudden could nonetheless call upon many luminaries, including members of The Stones, The Small Faces and The Waterboys. Remarkably, he also found time to contribute as a music critic to a number of publications including
Mojo.
In fact, the only time that the musician temporarily took time out seems to have been after the sad suicide of his younger brother and early collaborator
(
November 1997).

‘Nikki believed in rock ‘n’ roll - and how hard was that in this cold new millennium?’

Longtime band mate and friend Dave Kusworth

Sudden was recording his latest solo collection – the posthumously released
The Truth Doesn’t Matter
– in March 2006, when tragedy struck the Godfrey family a second time. After playing his final show at New York’s Knitting Factory, it is believed that Sudden died during his sleep – his condition possibly exacerbated as a result of drug abuse.

See also
Rowland S Howard (
December 2009)

Monday 27

Pete Wells

(Brisbane, 31 December 1946)

Rose Tattoo

Buffalo

Head

(Various acts)

A blues slide guitarist of some repute, Pete Wells had been playing bass with the band Head and touring the Australian circuit for many years before switching to slide and finding national success with Buffalo – a band that could argue a case for being the first Aussie metal act to go gold.

With his power blues combo Rose Tattoo (formed 1976), Wells found even greater acceptance. That band name was no fluke – the guitarist ran his own body art parlour (amusingly named House of Pain) and soon set about instilling a ‘look’ on band mates Angry Anderson (vocals), Mick Cocks (guitar), Geordie Leech (bass) and Dallas ‘Digger’ Royal (who died of cancer in 1991 – drums): under Wells’s original instruction, all members of Rose Tattoo should wear orange hair, tattoos, black T-shirts and jeans. Needless to say, this gimmick did not last, but Tattoo developed a loyal fanbase and began to score a following in the UK and US, where the debut album
Rose Tattoo
(1978) was hailed as an instant classic. (Motley Crue and Guns n’ Roses were among many to cite Tattoo as an influence, the latter even covering their ‘Nice Boys (Don’t Play Rock ‘n’ Roll’).) Wells left the band in 1983, feeling that they were heading down too commercial a path (perhaps borne out by Anderson’s unlikely affiliation with television soap
Neighbours,
to which he contributed the 1988 ballad ‘Suddenly’), though he was to rejoin them for a series of concerts in the millennium.

Though not in the Nikki Sudden league of solo output, Pete Wells was no slouch. He recorded five albums of rough-hewn bluesy rock as well as featuring in the work of bands with such monikers as Illustrated Man and Scattered Aces. Wells was diagnosed with prostate cancer four years before the disease finally claimed his life.

See also Lobby Loyde (
Golden Oldies #46). Ian Rilen (d October 2006) and Mick Cocks (d December 2009) have also since succumbed to cancer.

APRIL

Monday 3

Martin Gilks

(West Midlands, 2 March 1965)

The Wonder Stuff

The Mighty Lemon Drops

(Weknowwhereyoulive)

Though allegedly ditched by mid-eighties indie favourites The Mighty Lemon Drops for refusing to cut his hair, drummer Martin Gilks stuck to his guns, looking very much the part as a member of more successful Stourbridge scoundrels The Wonder Stuff.

As a boy, Gilks intended following in the footsteps of his Midlands heroes Black Sabbath and Slade, and to some extent, he did live out his rock ‘n’ roll dream. Disgruntled with the ‘C-86’ indie scene prevalent at the time, Gilks dropped The Drops and answered a small ad placed by Miles Hunt (vocals/guitar), Malcolm Treece (guitar) and Rob ‘Bass Thing’ Jones (bass, obviously). The ‘Stuffies’ rapidly set about becoming one of the biggest alternative acts in the UK, with Hunt’s thoughtful lyrics complementing their combination of garage and folk. The band’s commercial zenith surely came in 1991, when they (and their seemingly unimpeachable fanbase) enjoyed the Top Five live favourite ‘Size of a Cow’, a gold album with
Never Loved Elvis
and a charttopping collaboration with comic Vic Reeves in ‘Dizzy’. In interview, Gilks was known to be one of the most vociferous (and occasionally abrasive) band members. However, the disappearance of Bass Thing – followed by his untimely passing
(
July 1993)
– probably compounded The Wonder Stuff’s split in 1994.