THEY ALSO SERVED
POP voice KITTY KALLEN (b.1921) found swing era fame with the big bands of Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Dorsey, Artie Shaw and Harry James, with whom she recorded the World War II hits It’s Been A Long, Long Time and I’m Beginning To See The Light. She achieved transatlantic success with Little Things Mean A Lot in 1954, and her last US Top 20 hit, My Coloring Book, came in 1962.
BASSIST and guitarist JIMMY BAIN (b.1947) joined Rainbow for their 1976 album Rising. After his departure, he toured with John Cale, formed Wild Horses with ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson, wrote and recorded with Phil Lynott, and joined Dio from 1983 to 1987. In 1985 he was instrumental in the Hear’n Aid charity single. Scottish-born Bain rejoined Dio from 2000 until 2010, and had recently played with Dio alumni group Last In Line, who were taking part in Def Leppard’s Hysteria On The High Seas cruise ship tour when he died.
WHISPERS voice NICHOLAS CALDWELL (b.1944) co-founded the San Francisco soul group in 1963. They enjoyed R&B chart success throughout the ’70s, and hit big with And The Beat Goes On in 1979, which reached Number 2 in Britain. An attendant self-titled LP went platinum. They repeated this success with 1987’s LP Just Gets Better With Time, from which US Number 7 single Rock Steady was taken.
BROADCASTER SIR TERRY WOGAN (b.1938) began working for BBC radio in 1966. He worked in TV from 1984 but returned to Radio 2 in 1993, where he remained until November 2015. His other achievements included presenting the Children In Need charity telethon, delivering amused commentaries on the Eurovision Song Contest and having a Number 21 hit with his brass band single The Floral Dance, in 1978. In memorial, Morrissey called him, “So very witty, yet never hurtful.”
SINGER COLIN VEARNCOMBE (b.1962) first recorded as Black in 1981. After an unsuccessful stint on a major label, he released the single Wonderful Life on Manchester indie Ugly Man. Signed by A&M, he would enjoy two hits in 1987 with Sweetest Smile and a re-released Wonderful Life. He went on to record solo and as Black, his last album being Blind Faith last year. The Liverpool-born singer lived in Cork, where he died after a car crash.
CULT glam rocker BRETT SMILEY (b.1955) was managed by Andrew Loog Oldham when he made his LP Breathlessly Brett in 1974. Promotional efforts included the two appearing on Russell Harty’s TV show, but the album would go unreleased until 2003. In the meantime, Smiley would act, including a bit part in American Gigolo in 1980. In 2004 Nina Antonia published the biography The Prettiest Star: Whatever Happened To Brett Smiley? He died in Brooklyn.
DJ ED ‘STEWPOT’ STEWART (b.1941) served his broadcasting apprenticeship in Hong Kong and with pirate station Radio London before joining the inaugural Radio 1 intake in 1967. He started presenting Junior Choice in 1968, did his first Top Of The Pops in 1971, hosted kids’ TV show Crackerjack from 1973 to 1979 and fronted ‘Junior TV Times’ mag Look-In from 1971-1980. In later years he worked for the BBC and commercial radio, and published his memoir Out Of The Stewpot in 2005.
R&B singer BLOWFLY, AKA Clarence Henry Reid (b.1939), had a respectable career as a writer and producer for Sam & Dave, Betty Wright, Bobby Byrd and others in the ’60s and ’70s. But in 1971 he adopted his masked alter ego to make super-rude R&B parodies including Shitting On The Dock of The Bay and Spermy Night In Georgia. More than 20 similarly X-rated albums followed – including Blowfly’s Punk Rock Party, released on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label – some of which would be sampled by hip hoppers including the Wu-Tang Clan, Big Daddy Kane and DJ Shadow. The film The Weird World Of Blowfly was unveiled in 2010.
SINGER SIGNE ANDERSON (b.1941) was the original vocalist with the Jefferson Airplane, appearing on 1966’s Jefferson Airplane Takes Off LP. Her last show with the group, at the Fillmore in October 1966, was released in 2010 as Signe’s Farewell.
She later sang with Carl Smith And The Natural Gas Company, and made guest performances with her old band. She died on January 28, the same day as Airplane co-founder Paul Kantner.
DRUMMER ‘FAST’ EDDIE HOH (b.1944) was a member of the Modern Folk Quartet before becoming a session musician in the second half of the ’60s: among his many credits were Donovan’s Sunshine Superman, touring in the road band of The Mamas And The Papas (including their appearance at Monterey Pop), Tim Buckley’s Goodbye And Hello, The Monkees’ Daydream Believer and Pleasant Valley Sunday and the Mike Bloomfield/Al Kooper/Steven Stills album Super Session. He also played with Charlie Musselwhite, Graham Bond and Gram Parsons.
FILM-MAKER STEVE GEBHARDT (b.1937) directed John Lennon films including Imagine and Live In New York City, and was cinematographer on Yoko Ono’s films Fly and Freedom. He also directed Twenty To Life: The Life And Times Of John Sinclair, produced the documentary Bill Monroe – The Father Of Bluegrass Music and was cinematographer on the concert movie Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones.