On 12th March 2013, the world of hard rock lost one of the UK’s best-loved drummers, when Clive Burr lost a long fight against multiple sclerosis. Although he recorded with Samson, Trust and Alcatrazz, it will be for his four year stint with Iron Maiden between 1979-82 Burr will be most fondly remembered – not least of all at Real Gone.
Category Archives: Obituaries
KEVIN AYERS: 16th August 1944 – 18th February 2013
Born in in the 1940s in Herne Bay, Kent, Kevin Ayers had become a cult figure on the UK music scene by his twenties when, via a Canterbury based band called The Wylde Flowers, he founded (The) Soft Machine. While never as commercially successful as Pink Floyd’s ‘Piper At The Gates of Dawn’, their self-titled debut album is now considered a cornerstone of psychedelic music.
DAVE BRUBECK: December 6th 1920 – December 5th 2012
Jazz legend Dave Brubeck died one day short of his 92nd birthday. Nobody could argue that ninety-something isn’t a decent age to see, especially when – by the time of Brubeck’s own passing – so many of his musical peers from the 50s and 60s (a fine era for jazz music) had long since left us, and at ages so much younger. Even Brubeck nearly didn’t make it: a near fatal swimming accident occurred in 1951, some years before he would record his best known material.
One of the finest pianists in jazz, possibly second only to Herbie Hancock, Brubeck’s most famous recording, 1959’s ‘Take Five’ (written by The Brubeck Quartet’s saxophonist Paul Desmond), remains one of the genre’s most instantly recognisable pieces, loved by many – and not just jazz aficionados. Beyond ‘Take Five’, his mammoth output, spanning six decades, yielding several dozen albums, included other great tunes, right up to his critically acclaimed swansong – 2001’s ‘The Crossing’. Right to the end, he could be heard always pushing his already distinctive style as he experimented with complex time signatures.
His music says more than a few paragraphs ever could. In tribute, here’s the complete Dave Brubeck Quartet performance from the BBC’s ‘Jazz 625’, recorded in 1964.
Jon Lord: 9th June 1941 – 16th June 2012
There are many words to describe organist Jon Lord, but one fits the bill far better than most:
Legend.
As founder member of Deep Purple, Jon Lord was – and will continue to be – a hero to rock fans of a certain age, while commanding respect from younger generations as one of the key figures in the birth of hard rock. His organ style and the absolute flair he bought to Purple’s work throughout the late sixties, the seventies and beyond has been influential to millions and emulated by many.
Throughout a musical life, Lord played on many songs now considered classics within the hard rock genre. While so many people will be familiar with Deep Purple, perhaps one of the finest records on which Jon Lord appeared was ‘Malice In Wonderland’ by Paice, Ashton, Lord, a short-lived supergroup which teamed him up with another heavyweight British keyboard player, Tony Ashton and his Purple band mate Ian Paice. On their sole studio outing, Lord lays down some great funky keyboard lines, constantly pushed forward by Ashton. It’s a record which any self-respecting fan of seventies rock should hear, if they’ve not already done so.
Following the dissolution of PAL, Lord played a pivotal role in the early Whitesnake where, as with Purple, his organ playing was essential to the ingredients that helped create the band’s classic blend of blues and hard rock. In later years, he could be heard playing with The Hoochie Coochie Men, a band which focused more on his love of blues.
Factor in Lord’s many classical compositions (including the much celebrated 1969 ‘Concerto For Group & Orchestra’) and it’s hard not to agree that this was a man with a great talent.
Most musicians would love to have a CV with any of the above credits. We should never under-estimate the mark Jonathan Douglas Lord left on the music world. We certainly won’t forget.
Bob Welch: August 31, 1945 – June 5, 2012
Although overlooked by millions, Robert Lawrence Welch Jr had relatively a lengthy musical career. He came to relative prominence as a member of Fleetwood Mac in during the first half of the 1970s. In 2012, his life came to an end after he committed suicide. He was discovered with a gunshot wound to the chest.
Welch’s talent and invaluable contribution to a string of Fleetwood Mac discs released between the “wilderness years” of 1971-74 should not be ignored. While those albums are rarely seen as classics, in tunes like ‘Sentimental Lady’ and ‘Hypnotized’ he proved a great songwriter of adult pop, while other material like ‘Bermuda Triangle’ showcased a darker side to his work. Across five albums (none of which received at UK release in the 70s), Welch’s stamp on the Fleetwood Mac sound is pivotal, moving the band away from the blues and further towards the AM radio adult pop with which they would conquer the world. On his last work with the band, ‘Heroes Are Hard To Find’, Welch was the sole guitarist and chief songwriter, penning eight of the album’s eleven cuts.
After moving on from Fleetwood Mac in 1975, Welch headed a short-lived power trio named Paris, which saw him working alongside ex-Jethro Tull bassist Glen Cornick and ex-Nazz drummer Thom Mooney. Closer to hard rock than anything Welch committed to plastic previously, their quasi-angry arrangements were perhaps a knee-jerk to Welch’s time with the Mac; a pair of albums released in 1976 sold poorly.
Kicking off a solo career in 1977, Welch returned to familiar musical territory with ‘French Kiss’, a well-received collection of radio friendly tunes which owed a great deal to Welch’s time in Fleetwood Mac. The album yielded a couple of relatively successful singles in the title cut and a re-recorded ‘Sentimental Lady’ (the latter featuring Mick Fleetwood, Christine and John McVie). The album was a big hit in the US, reaching #12 on the Billboard Chart. While Welch never achieved such success again, his solo career continued, and between 1978 and 1983 he released another five studio albums. At this time Welch’s career was hampered by drug problems, but after getting clean he chose to work as a songwriter, only returning to recording in 1999. His first work after the hiatus was an experimental jazz release. Other releases included two volumes of re-recorded solo and Fleetwood Mac material.
Bob Welch was survived by his wife of twenty-seven years and leaves behind a legacy of work still awaiting discovery by many.