THEY ALSO SERVED
COUNTRY SINGER and pianist
MICKEY GILLEY (below, b.1936) was synonymous with ’80s Urban Cowboy culture. Born in Natchez, Mississippi, a cousin of Jerry
Lee Lewis and TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, Gilley sang on 17 country number ones in the ’70s and ’80s, while his business interests included
Texas nightclub Gilley’s, which held 6,000 people and a rodeo arena. When John Travolta’s mechanical bull-riding Urban Cowboy was set there, it propelled the country star into acting roles in Murder, She Wrote, CHiPS and The Fall Guy. RAP/R&B SINGER JEWELL
CAPLES (b.1968) grew up in LA where she was scouted by Dr. Dre. Having sung with NWA, she signed to Death Row records in 1992 and performed on landmark hip-hop recordings including Dre’s The Chronic, Snoop Dogg’s Doggy Style and 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me. Her own cover of Shirley Brown’s Woman To Woman was released in 1994, though she didn’t record a solo album until 2011’s soulful Black Diamond. Post-Death
Row, Caples returned to her gospel roots under her married name, Peyton. In 2015 she self-published a memoir that catalogued abusive relationships, violence and shady record deals. ROMFORD-BORN GUITARIST RAY FENWICK (bottom, b.1946) played in ska
band Rupert And The Red
Devils before joining The Syndicats
and co-writing their 1965 freakbeat choice Crawdaddy Simone. That same year he joined Dutch hitmakers The Tee Set. From ’67 he played with the post-Steve Winwood Spencer Davis Group, with whom he also co-wrote the 1971 theme to kids’ TV show Magpie (credited to The Murgatroyd Band). He also played with the Ian Gillan Band, Fancy, The Guitar Orchestra, Steve Howe’s Remedy, Forcefield (with Cozy Powell) and, more recently, the Amorphous Androgynous.
OSCEOLA, ARKANSAS-BORN soul singer JIMMY ‘POPEYE’
THOMAS (b. 1939) was given his nickname by blues guitarist Albert King, who recommended him to Ike Turner. Joining Ike’s Kings Of Rhythm, later The Ike & Tina Revue, in 1958, Thomas met Tony Visconti and Denny Cordell while touring the UK in 1966, who funded his relocation to Britain to learn production three years later. Rated on the Northern soul scene for songs including 1966’s Where There’s A Will (There’s A Way), his vocal sessionography included dates for Madness, Kevin Rowland and David Essex, while in 1979 he founded his soul label Osceola Records. NIGHTLIFE PIONEER and ‘Queen Of The Night’ RÉGINE ZYLBERBERG
(right, b.1929) escaped Nazi persecution in World War II France and became a club singer in Paris. After managing the French capital’s Whisky À GoGo, in 1957 she founded the nightspot which bore her name, catering to a high-end clientele with two turntables and a DJ boldly replacing the jukebox as the purveyor of music for dancing. Opening similar Chez Régine nightspots in the US, Europe and South
America, she also continued to record, acted in movies, and was awarded France’s Legion d’Honneur in 2008. HARMONICA PLAYER (and guitarist/bassist) MITT
GAMON (b.1955) played with, among others, Ian Hunter, Godley & Crème, Soul II Soul, Ian Dury, The Blockheads, Brian Nash, Boy George, Coldcut, Jennifer Maidman, Annie Whitehead, Paul Brady, Gang Of Four, Dave Kusworth and Murray Head. Some of Gamon’s final recordings were for an upcoming project by Ruts DC, who he worked with for many years: “Thank you for sharing some of your last breath with us,” they wrote in tribute.