The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (358 page)

Sadly – perhaps as a result of his own turbulent upbringing – the erstwhile drummer had been estranged from his own family, and was only sought by his long-lost brother Paul shortly before his death. John Mayhew had returned to the UK, living and working in Glasgow since 2004, and had begun to suffer from the effects of alcoholism: he passed away from a heart condition one day after his 62nd birthday.

APRIL

Sunday 5

Tony D

(Anthony Depula - Trenton, New Jersey, 1966)

A white rapper at a time when there was only Vanilla Ice for company, Tony D (sometimes known as Harvee Wallbangar) signed with British label Gone Clear (now Grand Central) – the first name to issue a record there. It was his 4
^th
& Broadway release,
Droppin’ Funky Verses
(1991), however, that scored healthily for the rapper, the record finding a decent berth in Billboard’s Rap Charts. At this time, everything looked good for a lengthy career behind the mic for Tony D.

Conversely, it was Depula’s abilities as a producer that were to make his name. The former DJ and MC was the unseen face behind the success of NJ rap outfit Poor Righteous Teachers (PRT), also producing the work of YZ, DJ Muggz and Outsidaz. Though the artist had disappeared from the game for a while, he made a successful, even if low-key, return by record ing the album
Master of the Moaning Beats
(2001) for Ruff Life.

Anthony Depula sadly lost his life when his 2002 Jeep hit a cemetery wall and overturned near the producer’s home in Hamilton, New Jersey: the erstwhile Tony D – who had not been wearing a seatbelt – suffered a fatal injury to his neck and was declared dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital.

Thursday 9

Randy Cain

(William Randall Cain - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2 May 1945)

The Delfonics

(Blue Magic)

The Delfonics – who began as a school-based harmony troupe called The Four Gents – became a smooth Philadelphia trio who scored a series of swoonsome R & B hits on Stan Watson and Sam Bell’s Philly Groove label.

Tenor Randy Cain joined brothers William (lead) and Wilbert Hart (fourth member Ritchie Daniels was drafted before the group hit nationally) to form the first group to purvey the smooth, filtered ‘Philly’ sound that was to dominate soul music a decade or so later. For their part, The Delfonics racked up sixteen R & B hits in the US, the best-known being the very first, ‘La La Means I Love You’ (1968): this big pop tune reached the US Top Five – also becoming a UK hit three years later. Other good moments included the Grammy-winning ‘Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind)?’ (1970, US Top Ten; 1971, UK Top Forty). At the height of their success, The Delfonics were supported by the up-and-coming Jackson 5, of whom Michael happily brought them tea, professing that they were his favourite group.

However, with the hits slowing, Cain was replaced by heart-throb Major Harris in 1971, the original singer going on to work with the Norman Harris-produced Blue Magic. Although he didn’t perform with this already-strong vocal group, they scored Top Forty entries with ‘Side Show’ and ‘Three Ring Circus’ (both later UK hits for reggae artist Barry Biggs). With Bell and Watson having moved on to greater success with groups such as The Spinners and Stylistics, the original Delfonics reunited for several tours during the eighties – the group’s music was also successfully revived for the Quentin Tarantino movie
Jackie Brown
(1997).

Randy Cain – who had later worked for Philadelphia’s city parking authority – had been unwell for some time before his body was discovered at his Maple Shade Township, New Jersey apartment.

Golden Oldies #91

Duke D’Mond

(Richard Edward Palmer - Dunstable, England, 25 February 1943)

The Barron Knights

Richard Palmer - the self-styled Duke D’Mond - was easily the most recognisable face of enduring comedy-pop act, The Barron Knights. Beginning around 1959 as very much a straight musical turn, the group toured with both The Beatles (at the behest of ‘fan’ Brian Epstein) and The Rolling Stones. Soon, however, The Barron Knights realised they possessed an uncanny knack for impersonation and parody, and, in time, led a variable pack of similar acts such as The Rockin’ Berries and The Grumbleweeds who mimicked the hits of others.

The Barron Knights’ biggest-selling hit was their first, ‘Call Up the Groups’ (1963, UK number three) - a song that imagined the conscription of the day’s top pop stars. The enduring act matched its chart position some fifteen years later with ‘A Taste of Aggro’ (1978), which, among other delights, presented the world with the Smurfs as a prison chain gang. D’mond was a singer on both of these hits and many others, including the Supertramp-baiting ‘The Topical Song’, which gave The Barron Knights an unlikely Hot 100 outing in 1979.

Duke D’Mond was an early member of a group that to this day plays the circuits, although he had left some time before his death in Oxford from pneumonia on 9 April 2009.

Monday 13

Ron Stallings

(Oakland, California, 2 December 1946)

Huey Lewis & The News

(Que Color)

(Mother Earth)

(Various acts)

‘Reverend’ Ron Stallings, a respected singer and gifted tenor/baritone saxophonist for several decades, returned to high school in California after spending much of his childhood in Texas. It was here that the musician’s virtuosity developed, enabling him to storm the Bay Area music scene during the late sixties.

Stallings joined the Tracy Nelsonfronted San Francisco collective Mother Earth, and his vocal and sax contributions to their vibrant third album
Make a Joyful Noise
(Wounded Bird, 1968) lifted this record well into the album listings. Although the melodic saxophonist also worked in the jazz and light-orchestral fields, his sound became instantly recognisable within the recordings of rock and R & B artists like Jerry Garcia, Elvin Bishop, Gladys Knight, The Temptations, The Four Tops and Boz Scaggs during a long and varied career. In the mid-nineties, Stallings gained his longest rock ‘n’ roll tenure with ‘bar-band-made-good’ Huey Lewis & The News, touring the band’s
Four Chords and Several Years Ago
(1994) and earning his first recording credit with the group on its subsequent greatest hits collection. (His first studio album with Huey Lewis was 2001’s
Plan B.)
Although the San Francisco unit were well past their commercial peak by now, Stallings proved a popular figure in live performance.

‘He was as sweet as his own sweet tone.’

Huey Lewis on Ron Stallings

In his final years, Ron Stallings – who had stayed put in his beloved San Francisco – also fronted his own longstanding Latin-jazz group Que Calor and was a respected member of the La Peña International Orchestra. The musician passed away following a battle with multiple myeloma.

Thursday 30

Steingrim Torson

(Trondheim, Norway, 1983)

Celestial Bloodshed

(Various acts)

Another stirring in the world of Norwegian black metal … Peddling familiar lyrical themes of Satanism and doom, Celestial Bloodshed emerged at the start of the century fronted by the imposing figure of Steingrim Torson, a character who tended to reappear under a variety of aliases with other dark acts. By the time Celestial Bloodshed had issued their highly rated first full-length album
Cursed, Scarred and Forever Possessed
(Debemur Morti, 2008), Torson had already appeared at the fore with Selvhat, Miseria X, Kaosritual and Unbeing, among a bewildering array of other bands. The singer’s last recorded outing was with Slagmaur, whose
Von Rov Shelter
(Osmose, 2009) was to emerge after his unexpected death.

Steingrim Torson’s life came to an abrupt end in the district of Byasen, Trondheim, following an alleged ‘dispute’ with his best friend. The shooting occurred at the apartment of the suspect, who was at some pains to explain that the firing of the gun was purely an ‘accident’. Police experts tended to view the situation somewhat differently, however, suggesting that all evidence pointed to a murder. The singer’s demise was met by an outpouring of grief from many black-metal followers doubtless briefly compromised in their pro-death leanings.