recent obituaries

LET THOSE WHO COME AFTER SEE TO IT THAT THEIR NAMES BE NOT FORGOTTEN!
	For the past five years or so, Alan has been writing occasional obituaries in The Guardian. Here are a few extracts:
SPEEDY KEEN: died 21st March 2002. The chief selling points of 1969s anthemic Something In The Air were his nasal tenor and Newman's interlude on piano and saxophone.
SHARON SHEELEY: died 17th May 2002. To pops man-in-the-street, Sharon is most renowned for being dragged from the same car crash that killed Eddie Cochran, her boyfriend in 1960, but she also amassed a formidable reputation as a hit songwriter, notably with Poor Little Fool (Ricky Nelson) and Something Else (Eddie Cochran, The Move, The Stray Cats and The Sex Pistols). NB: Alan wrote Sharon's obituary with the late Penny Valentine.
TIM ROSE: died 24th September 2002. Tim's most famous songs are Come Away Melinda (alluding to impending nuclear holocaust), Hey Joe (blueprint for the Jimi Hendrix Experience version) and Morning Dew (A standard of sorts via retreads by such as The Jeff Beck Group, Episode Six, Johnnie Law, The Grateful Dead and Robert Plant). Alan met Tim at BBC Radio Wales in autumn 2001 (see Argosy 2).
JAKE THACKRAY: died Boxing Day, 2002. This gentleman was a pioneer of an English form of chanson - so much so that he warranted a tribute night (scheduled before his death) in the Drill Hall season in March (which also included a Clayson concert). About fifteen years ago, Alan was on the same mismatched bill as Jake somewhere in Cornwall. Jake's singing voice was like you'd imagine a human camel would be. He also got drunk afterwards, and attempted to pull a fat barmaid.
NANCY WHISKEY: died 1st February 2003. If Lonnie Donegan was the King of Skiffle during its 1957 prime, the Queen was surely Nancy Whiskey. As vocalist with The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group, she came within an ace of topping the British chart with Freight Train. It's not necessary to go into distressing details why, but this obituary was published under a pseudonym.
MALCOLM ROBERTS: died 9th February 2003. He was a sub-Engelbert singer who reached Number Eight with 1968s singalong May I Have The Next Dream With You. Malcolm also composed Thinkin Ain't For Me, a minor hit for Paul Jones, and had a bit part in Coronation Street.
IAN SAMWELL: died 13th March 2003. Completed on the bus en route to the studio, Move It, Cliff Richard's chart breakthrough, was the work of Samwell, who also penned Whatcha Gonna Do About It for The Small Faces.
HAL CARTER: died 13 July 2004 (his birthday). Agent, manager and record producer. In 1964, he'd been hired by Larry Page to instill into The Kinks the "professionalism" he'd perceived in Marty Wilde and Billy Fury, but succeeded mainly in amusing the ramshackle group with his endless anecdotes about rock 'n' roll times past. Hal turned up with Ray Dorset at the London launch of Beat Merchants in 1996.
PAUL ATKINSON: died 2 April 2004. He was an ex-Zombie. You figure that out.
ELVIN JONES: died 19 May 2004 - He drummed like a rhythmically-integrated octopus: the Terry Thomas to Buddy Rich's David Niven
SKEETER DAVIS: died 19 September 2004 - Her only UK smash was 1963's "The End Of The World", which was to be revived by such disparate acts as Anne Shelton, Roxy Music's Andy Mackay, Sonia - and Twinkle. Skeeter also recorded "Tell Tommy I Miss Him", an "answer to the death disc, "Tell Laura I Love Her", and toured with The Rolling Stones.
SOLOMON KING: died 20 January 2005 - corpulent and schmaltzy two hit wonder ("She Wears My Ring", "When We Were Young") - rumoured to be the naked fat man at Altamont.
GOLDIE HILL: died 24 February 2005 - "The Golden Hillbilly". No, I'd never heard of her either.
KATHIE KAY: died 8 March 2005 - resident balladeer who was as munch a mainstay of the Billy Cotton Bandshow as Alan Breeze, Russ Conway, and Mister Wakey Wakey himself. Sunday lunchtime has never been the same since the last series finished.
DENIS D'ELL: died 6 July 2005 - He was lead singer with The Honeycombs - though I first met him when he was in the most un-"Have I The Right"- like Southside Blues Band at a fete in Saffron Waldron in 1996. Denis became a very supportive friend, and I will not hear a word against him.
CARLO LITTLE: died 6 August 2005 - I was introduced to Carlo in 1989 when he was one of an eleven-piece Savages backing Screaming Lord Sutch during a Halloe'een event in the London Dungeons. He seemed a nice bloke. In 1962, Carlo was a Rolling Stone, but he felt that prospects as a Savage were rosier. During a Stones spectacular at Wembley Stadium decades later, he was manning a hot-dog trailer outside.
HAL KALIN: died 23 August 2005 and HERBIE KALIN: died 22 July 2006 - were the Kalin Twins, who, in open-necked shirts, striped blazers and gravity-defying quiffs, were visualised by their investors as two Elvis Presleys for the price of one. However, after 1958's million-selling "When" and its follow-up, that, as far as the record-buying public was concerned, was that for The Kalin Twins.
LES BRAID: died 15 September 2005 - He was a Swinging Blue Jean for nearly fifty years.
*SHIRLEY GOODMAN: died 21 September 2005 - You* know - of Shirley and Lee, Shirley and Jesse, and Shirley and Company. She had a hit with "Let The Good Times Roll". You know.**
SYD BARRETT: died last Friday - I will not indulge in cheap laughs at this man's expense - mainly because I would risk getting lynched if I did. To read the original draft (before the Guardian sub-editor did his worst) please click here.
FREDDIE GARRITY: died 21 May 2006 - (Alan dictated some stuff to go here, but I forgot to save it. Fortunately, there's a link to the full obituary. WEBSITE ADMINISTRATOR)
JOHNNY out of JOHNNY AND THE HURRICANES: died 1 May 2006 - I met him at some function at Stringfellow's in the mid-1990s. He had very suspect hair. His wife sent a letter of complaint to The Guardian after my obituary was published.
JOHNNY WILDER JNR.: died 13 May 2006 - He was in Heatwave - with whom he continued to perform after being paralysed from the neck down.
MARGARET MacARTHUR: died 23 May 2006 - She was a famous zither player (zitherist?).
TOMMY BRUCE: died 10 July 2006 - I saw him at a big Sounds Of The Sixties-type show in 1985. He looked every inch the classic pub entertainer: shirt open at the neck, tie loosened, microphone gripped just above his paunch, giving 'em his only major hit, a 1960 revival of the ragtime standard, "Ain't Misbehavin'".
BARBARA GEORGE: died 10 August 2006 - Her big US hit was the self-composed "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)". Its lyrics were inspired by a row with her husband.
JENNIFER MOSS: died 5 October 2006 - She played "Lucille Hewitt" in Coronation Street.
FREDDIE MARSDEN: died 9th December 2006. Drummer in the Pacemakers and Gerry's big brother.
PAUL MAURIAT: died 4th March 2007. He's remembered mostly for "Love Is Blue", his only hit in English-speaking territories (though I preferred the Jeff Beck version).
TONY DANGERFIELD: *died 20 July 2007. He was the Savages' bass player when Alan was on keyboards. Please press link for unexpurgated version of what appeared in The Guardian.*
BOBBY BYRD: died 12th September 2007. He was James Brown's musical lieutenant for two decades, most conspicuous to a wider world for the repetitive "get on up" responses to the lead voice in "Sex Machine".
PHILIPPE CLAY: died 13th December 2007. He was a close second to Maurice Chevalier as a caricature 'ow-you-say Frenchman.
JOE DOLAN: died 26th December 2008. An Irish showband singer who had a big hit over here with 'Make Me An Island'. Three years ago, he helped raise funds for an autism charity by autographing and auctioning the gruesome excision of a hip replacement.
MIKE SMITH: died 12th December 2008. The front man of The Dave Clark Five, he was one of the absolute heroes of my adolescence. (A Times article on the DC5)
MIKEY DREAD: died 15th March 2008. A reggae disc-jockey who hosted a brainstorm of a show on national radio in Jamaica, and recorded with The Clash and UB40.