Rhinestone Cowboy bows out
UNITED STATES: Glen Campbell, the affable superstar singer of Rhinestone Cowboy and Wichita Lineman who forged a lasting bridge between country and pop music, has died. He was 81.
Campbell died yesterday in Nashville, Tennessee at an Alzheimer’s facility, surrounded by his family, his publicist said.
Campbell announced in 2011 that he was suffering from dementia, before embarking on a farewell tour of the US.
He began his career as a wellregarded recording session guitarist in Los Angeles before becoming a fixture on the US music charts, radio and television in the 1960s and ‘70s. He won six Grammy Awards and had nine No 1 songs in a career lasting more than 50 years.
Campbell was one of 12 children of Arkansas sharecroppers, and began playing guitar at age 4. After a teenage marriage and divorce, he married again and headed to Los Angeles in the late 1950s.
He became part of The Wrecking Crew, a group of soughtafter session players who recorded with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, the Monkees and Nat King Cole. He also became a touring member of the Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson, who did not like to go on the road.
Campbell had a breakthrough solo hit with Gentle On My Mind in 1967, quickly followed by By The Time I Get To Phoenix and Wichita Lineman. His later hits included Galveston and, in 1975, the charttopping pop-crossover song Rhinestone Cowboy. - Reuters
Two Indian police officers who faked a successful ascent of Mt Everest last year have been sacked for bringing their department into disrepute. Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod, a married couple from the western city of Pune, claimed to have conquered the 8848-metre summit in May last year, during a police expedition to the world’s highest peak. Claims of a hoax surfaced within hours of the team’s descent from the mountain, and an investigation found that photographs issued to support their summit claims had been doctored. After an investigation by officers in Pune, the force confirmed yesterday that the Rathods had been dismissed. The couple have also been banned from climbing in Nepal for 10 years.