THEY ALSO SERVED
VOCALIST and guitarist DALE BARCLAY (right, b.1975) fronted Glasgow rockers The Amazing Snakeheads, whose 2014 debut Amphetamine Ballads was followed by their abrupt disbandment the year after. Barclay later formed And Yet it Moves with wife Laura St Jude, releasing their album Free Pass To The Future last year. He also joined the live line-up of Fat White Family, who were among the groups playing benefit concerts for him after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. In a statement, Fat White Family called Barclay, “the very definition of integrity”.
MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST MAARTIN ALLCOCK
(b.1957) played folk nights and northern clubs before joining Mike Harding’s Brown Ale Cowboys in 1977. After qualifying as a chef in Brittany, he joined Fairport Convention as lead guitarist from 1985 to 1996 and, at the same time, was keyboardist with Jethro Tull from 1988 to 1991, the year he also guested with The Mission. He also recorded solo, produced albums for Welsh-language label Sain and guested on LPs by Robert Plant, Cat Stevens, Dave Swarbrick, Ralph McTell and Beth Nielsen Chapman. Diagnosed with liver cancer, his last performance was at Fairport’s Cropredy festival in August, where his final bow came after Fairport’s Meet On The Ledge. In a farewell address on his website, he wrote, “do not be sad. I achieved everything I ever wanted to do.” PHOTOGRAPHER extraordinary
ROBERT MATHEU (b.1955) started work as a juvenile delinquent at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit in the late ’60s, capturing local heroes The Stooges and MC5 at their most elemental. His eye for the definitive shot would develop over the decades, as he brought his charm, artistry and boldness to images of Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson, The Rolling Stones, The Clash, Pretenders, Cheap Trick, Patti Smith, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Faces, The Who, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many more. One of his last assignments was photographing Wayne Kramer’s MC50 project. A friend to MOJO, Robert died unexpectedly on September 21, and will be greatly missed. WATTS-BORN saxman BIG JAY McNEELY (right, b.1927) was working with Johnny Otis when he was signed by Savoy for The Deacon’s Hop, a Billboard R&B Number 1 in 1949. An exponent of the “honking” style of playing extended riffs on single notes, McNeely attracted non-segregated audiences with his wild stage-craft, involving bold-coloured suits, strobe lights and playing lying on his back. As tastes in music changed, he quit to become a postman in the early ’70s. Tempted out of retirement for international touring in the ’80s (he played a joint show with Detroit Gary Wiggins in Berlin the night the Wall fell), he gigged into his nineties, making his last appearance in April.
PUNK VOICE, guitarist and songwriter JOHNNY STRIKE (b.1948) led antagonistic, police uniform-wearing San Francisco rock’n’rollers Crime, whose 1976 debut Hotwire My Heart was a menacing rumble later covered by Sonic Youth. They would release only two more singles before splitting in the early ’80s, though reformations and new recordings followed in the noughties. Strike was also an author – debut novel Ports Of Hell received an endorsement from William Burroughs – and his last book, The Exploding Memoir, was published in July. RAPPER MAC MILLER (b.1992) went straight to US Number 1 with his debut, independently-distributed album Blue Slide Park in 2011. Four more Top 10 albums followed as his orientation changed from party rapper to confessional lyricist. The Pittsburgh-born MC also produced under various aliases, had his own MTV reality show and collaborated with talents including Kendrick Lamar, OFWGKTA, Action Bronson and his former partner, Ariana Grande. ACTRESS FENELLA FIELDING (below, b.1927) graced films and TV shows including Carry On Screaming, The Prisoner and Anthony Newley’s The Strange World Of Gurney Slade in the ’60s. In 2012 she released her album The Savoy Sessions, containing her husky interpretations of songs including New Order’s Blue Monday, The White Stripes’ Passive Manipulation, Public Image Limited’s Rise and Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.
R&B singer DON GARDNER (b.1931) led Philly group The Sonotones, whose keyboardist Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes was replaced by Dee Dee Ford in 1960. When the group played in Harlem, they were recommended to Fire records owner Bobby Robinson by Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup. Robinson produced and co-wrote the wailing I Need Your Lovin’, which Gardner and Ford took to Number 20 on the Billboard Chart on July 1962. The song was later covered by Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson and Tom Jones. After the two split, Gardner continued to record and later worked in management at the Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
JOURNALIST JOHN WILCOCK (b.1927) was born in Sheffield and worked on UK dailies before moving to North America. In 1955 he co-founded alternative paper The Village Voice (whose last online edition was published on August 31, 2018), and 10 years later did the same for anarchic underground bulletin the East Village Other, whose contributors included Abbie Hoffman, The Fugs and Timothy Leary. In 1971 he published The Autobiography And Sex Life Of Andy Warhol, with whom Wilcock co-founded Interview magazine in 1969. Until his death he self-published The Ojai Orange, bemused at his apparent writing-out of history. Clive Prior