THEY ALSO SERVED
TURTLES RHYTHM GUITARIST JIM TUCKER (below, b.1946) met his bandmates at high school in Westchester, CA. Originally a surf group named The Crossfires, the renamed Turtles had a hit with Dylan’s It Ain’t Me Babe in 1965. Their 1967 pop single Happy Together knocked Penny Lane off the US Number 1 spot. The same year’s She’d Rather Be With Me was also a hit in the UK. In London, they mixed with Jimi Hendrix, Graham Nash and The Beatles, though according to singer Howard Kaylan, John Lennon was so dismissive of The Turtles that Tucker hung up his guitar. Tucker insisted he had no regrets, later becoming a successful electrical contractor.
GUITARIST TONY HOOPER (b.1943) first met Strawbs founder Dave Cousins in primary school in Twickenham. A shared love of folk and American blues led to them playing in The Strawberry Hill Boys; becoming the Strawbs in 1967, they hit big with 1973’s Part Of The Union. From there, the band’s sound expanded from folk rock into prog extravagance, taking many detours along the way. Hooper had departed the group after 1972’s Grave New World, though in 1983 he rejoined for another decade.
RHYTHM GUITARIST LOU PALLO (b.c.1934) first met Les Paul in 1963 in New Jersey, striking up a lasting musical bond. In 1984 they formed The Les Paul Trio with bassist Gary Mazzaroppi, and played weekly in New York, with such famous admirers as Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, Billy Gibbons and Brian May in the audience and sometimes sitting in on-stage. After Paul passed away in 2009, Pallo continued their Monday night residency at the Iridium Jazz Club, and in 2012 released the tribute set Thank You Les with help from Keith Richards, Slash, Nokie Edwards and others. Also a firm supporter of musical education, he was affectionately known as “the man of a million chords”.
PROMOTER ERIC ‘MONSTER MONSTER’ HALL (below, b.1947) later gained attention as a football ‘super agent’ and for offering his opinions on TV and radio. But in the early
’70s he was a publicist for Wizzard and ELO, and, after joining EMI as head of promotions, Queen (Hall insisted Killer Queen was written about him, saying “Freddie fancied me like mad”) and the Sex Pistols, whose appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today programme he organised. He also dressed as a frog to dance when his childhood friend Marc Bolan performed New York City on Top Of The Pops in 1975, and also wore a Womble suit on the show.
LIGHT ENTERTAINER DES O’CONNOR (b.1932) was a fixture on UK TV for 50 years. He also recorded five Top 40 albums and had seven Top 20 singles, including the 1968 Number 1 I Pretend. In March 1958 he was on the bill when Buddy Holly And The Crickets toured the UK, and remembered an afternoon he and Holly spent trying out guitars in the music shops of Denmark Street.
PRODUCER/BASSIST CHET ‘JR’ WHITE (b.1980) was half of much-admired San Francisco duo Girls from 2007. The group released their 2009 debut, Album and 2011’s Father, Son, Holy Ghost, an EP and a handful of singles before disbanding in 2012. After Girls broke up, White’s credits included mixing Cass McCombs’ 2013 album Big Wheel And
Others, and producing Tobias Jesso Jr’s debut Goon in 2015.
ACTRESS AND SINGER LYNN KELLOGG (b.1943) was best known as Sheila, the debutante-turned-hippy student protester in the original 1968 Broadway production of Hair. The following year, Kellogg played Marcie in the Elvis Presley western Charro! Born in Appleton, Wisconsin, Kellogg was a devout Christian who remained active on the Christian contemporary music scene until her death.
DRUMMER DAVE ROTCHELLE (b.1952) apprenticed in mid-’70s pub rock with the Count Bishops and The Rockets, before driving Thamesbeat powerpopsters The Pleasers to the very edge of cracking it with a cover of The Who’s The Kids Are Alright and TV guest spots on Cheggers Plays Pop and Tony Wilson’s What’s On. Thirty years as a photographer and trade union activist followed, and from the mid-’90s his indefatigable good cheer meant he was regularly elected to chair everything in sight at the NUJ. He had suffered from diabetes for several years. His old Pleasers bandmate Bo Benham remembered him as “one of the most straight-talking, intelligent, kindest individuals you could ever wish to meet.“Jenny Bulley, Phil Sutcliffe
and Ian Harrison