THEY ALSO SERVED

GUITARIST HENRY MCCULLOUGH (b.1943) played with the likes of Spooky Tooth, The Grease Band, Marianne Faithfull, Frankie Miller, Donovan, Roy Harper, Ronnie Lane and Sweeney’s Men; he also spent two years with Wings, lending his artistry to songs such as Hi Hi Hi and My Love. He began his playing life in Enniskillen in The Skyrockets showband, moving to London in 1967 as part of Eire Apparent, and shared stages with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Animals. He played on the original 1970 recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, briefly replaced Wilko Johnson in Dr. Feelgood and can be heard saying, “I was really drunk at the time,” on the Floyd track Money. McCullough recorded solo and continued to tour: in 2012 his death was mistakenly announced after he suffered a heart attack. “He was a pleasure to work with,” commented Paul McCartney, “a super-talented musician with a lovely sense of humour.”

SONGWRITER MACK RICE (b.1933) started out as a member of Detroit R&B vocalisers The Falcons with Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd. He later wrote and recorded Mustang Sally, which would be a hit for Pickett in 1966 and was also covered by The Young Rascals, Silver Apples and Buddy Guy with Jeff Beck. As a house writer for Stax, Rice also co-wrote The Staple Singers’ 1971 smash Respect Yourself with Luther Ingram. Nicknamed ‘Gentleman’, in later life he ran an asphalt company.

QAWWALI singer and harmonium player AMJAD SABRI (b.1970) learned how to sing the Sufi devotional form from his father Ghulam Farid Sabri, a member of the Pakistani group The Sabri Brothers, who famously performed at Carnegie Hall in 1975. Starting his career in the late ’80s, Amjad travelled widely in the subcontinent and beyond, sang for Bollywood and was called the “rock star” of qawwali for his innovative sensibility. He was murdered by the Taliban.

BARITONE SAXOPHONE and bass clarinet player

JOE TEMPERLEY (b.1929) was born in Fife, and moved to London in 1948 to work with bandleaders including Joe Loss, Jack Parnell and, most importantly, Humphrey Lyttelton. He emigrated to the US in 1965, and played with the Woody Herman, Buddy Rich and the Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis big band, before replacing Harry Carney in the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He later worked on Broadway and on film soundtracks including The Cotton Club and Biloxi Blues, taught at the Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music, and from 1990 played with Wynton Marsalis in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Marsalis wrote Joe’s Concerto in honour of Temperley in 2015.

RAPPER PRINCE BE (b.Attrell Cordes, 1970) found success with non-conformist New Jersey pop-hip hoppers P.M. Dawn in the early ’90s, their first UK and US hit being the Spandau Ballet-sampling Set Adrift On Memory Bliss in November 1991. Debut album Of The Heart, Of The Soul And Of The Cross: The Utopian Experience and 1993’s The Bliss Album…? were both certified gold, but their commercial success peaked by the mid ’90s, and their last LP was Fucked Music in 2000. Cordes suffered a stroke in 2005, and finally succumbed to complications from diabetes.

ACTIVIST, writer and musician KARL DALLAS (b.1931) was initially energised by the skiffle boom. After working as a publicist for Billy Smart’s Circus, his first journalism appeared in Melody Maker in 1957; he would continue to write about folk, jazz, rock and shades in between. Informed by his strong socialist convictions – he was a regular contributor to the Morning Star – his composition The Family Of Man was recorded by The Spinners, while Ewan MacColl covered his song Derek Bentley. A one-time atheist who converted to Christianity, he regularly appeared at the Cropredy festival, and in 2003 he travelled to Iraq as a human shield. Arlo Guthrie paid tribute to him as, “a scholar, an educator and my dear friend”.

DUNDEE-born folk musician and singer ROBIN MCKIDD (b.c.1947) allied artistry on guitar, fiddle and banjo with a deep feel for bluegrass, Cajun and country. Emerging from the Scottish folk scene of the ’60s, he would go on to play with High Speed Grass – with whom he opened for Billy Connolly on his breakthrough tour in 1975 – and acts including The Strawbs, Lindisfarne, Chris Jagger’s Atcha, The Companions Of The Rosy Hours, The Balham Alligators and Hans Theessink. He was also a racing tipster and crossword compiler for London listings mag City Limits in the ’80s.

CONDUCTOR AND COMPOSER HARRY RABINOWITZ, MBE (b.1916) led orchestras at BBC TV and radio and London Weekend Television in the ’60s and ’70s, working with The Goons, Stanley Holloway and TerryThomas among others. His film credits included conducting the scores for Chariots Of Fire, The Remains Of The Day and The English Patient; for television, he composed music for The Frost Report, I, Claudius and (his personal favourite) Reilly, Ace Of Spies. He also conducted the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest entries in 1964 and 1966 and recorded library music (under the nom de plume The Milton Hunter Orchestra, he recorded Nick Harrison’s The Loner, aka the theme to TV show Budgie). He had been due to conduct the LSO at the Barbican at his 100th birthday celebrations in November.

TEXAN manager BILL HAM (b.1937) made his first foray into the music business with his 1960 single Wanderer. He later managed guitarist Billy Gibbons’ group The Moving Sidewalks and, from 1969, ZZ Top. He would co-write songs, produce and finesse the group’s image until 1996’s Rhythmeen LP. His Lone Wolf Management firm also handled the affairs of Clint Black and guitarist Eric Johnson, among others.

DOUBLE BASSIST JANE LITTLE (b.1929) won a place in the Guinness Book Of Records for the longest professional tenure in one orchestra, having made her debut with the Atlanta Youth Symphony in February 1945. Seventy-one years later, she collapsed on-stage playing There’s No Business Like Show Business with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and died shortly after. Of her longevity, she told The Washington Post, “A lot of people do crazy things like sitting on a flagpole for three days. I just kept on.” Clive Prior