THEY ALSOSERVED
DRUMMER BUTCH TRUCKS (above, b.1947) was a founder member of The Allman Brothers Band, in 1969, combining his powerful percussive drive with the jazzier beats of rhythm partner Jaimoe. Through triumphs like 1971’s Live At Fillmore East, the tragedy of Duane Allman’s death, lulls and line-up changes, Trucks endured, the only member to play with the group continuously until their final dissolution in 2014. He then played with Les Brers and his Freight Train Band. An avid reader with an interest in philosophy and history, he died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
ENIGMATIC CULT musician WILLIAM ONYEABOR (b.1946) recorded from 1977 to 1985 in Nigeria, but found wider recognition for his pumping afro-electronic and psychedelic sounds when the Luaka Bop label released the Who Is William Onyeabor? compilation in 2013. The release was followed by tribute group the Atomic Bomb! Band, who have featured David Byrne, Damon Albarn, Green Gartside and Hot Chip. A born-again Christian, Onyeabor maintained his enigma and declined to capitalise on his belated fame, though in 2014 he did phone in to Lauren Laverne’s BBC6 show to promise new music.
HARD SWINGING jazz voice and pianist BUDDY GRECO (b.1926) had his first success with The Three Sharps, and joined Benny Goodman’s band in the late ’40s. He would go on to record more than 30 albums and become a Vegas lounge entertainer par excellence. A peer of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, he played the resort from the ’50s onwards, his signature tune being an effervescent finger-snaptake ping on The Lady Is A
Tramp. An Anglophile who played regularly in Britain – he had a particular liking for Essex – he continued working hard into his late eighties, one of his last appearances taking place at the Hippodrome in London in 2014. Last November, too frail to sing, he was inducted into the Las Vegas Entertainment Hall of Fame, where he told the assembled audience, “never quit”.
DOO-WOP vocalist RONALD ‘BINGO’
MUNDY (b.c.1940) was a member of bi-racial Pittsburgh group The Marcels, who had a Number 1 hit in Britain and the USA in 1961 with their rock’n’roll version of Rodgers & Hart’s Blue Moon. Mundy left that same year, later becoming a bus driver, but would rejoin his old bandmates to celebrate their biggest hit on several occasions. In 2002 The Marcels were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
BACKS records founder JOHNNY APPEL
(b.c.1952) founded the Norwich record shop of the same name in 1979. He moved into the label business in 1982, releasing music by The Farmers Boys, The Higsons and The Bible, among others, and became part of the independent distribution network The Cartel. Though the shop closed in 1991, Backs distribution continued and after merging with fellow traders Shellshock, was renamed Shellback.
MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST GEOFF NICHOLLS
(b.1948) played, in turn, guitar, bass and finally keyboards with the interregnum Black Sabbath, from 1979 to 2004. He had previously been a member of Birmingham heavy rockers Quartz. Before his death he had been playing with another former Sabbath member, Tony Martin, in
the vocalist’s
Headless Cross.
GUITARIST and keyboardist DEKE LEONARD
(b.1944) played with South Wales rockers Man from their formation, a few departures notwithstanding, until 2004. In the interim, Leonard also formed Iceberg and played with Help Yourself, Sean Tyla, Larry Wallis and Walter Egan. Later he appeared on BBC Radio Wales, devised a one-man show of songs and stories, and wrote five books including 1996’s yucksome memoir Rhinos, Winos & Lunatics: The Legend Of Man. Most recently he played in the Llanelli area with Sons Of Man, a band featuring Man alumni and their children. SINGER PETER SARSTEDT (b.1941) reached Number 1 in the UK in 1969 with unsatisfied rags to riches waltz Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?, which won an Ivor Novello award the following year. Though he had only one more hit single – Frozen Orange Juice, also 1969 – he continued to record and perform, latterly in oldies packages. In 1997 he recorded a sequel to his
most famous song, The Last Of The Breed (Lovely 2). Sarstedt retired from playing live in 2010, and released his final album, Restless Heart, in 2013.
VOCALIST RICHIE INGUI (b.1946) originally played in New York group The Dedications with co-singers his brother Charlie and Kenny Jeremiah. After they changed their name to The Soul Survivors and joined forces with the then-rising Philadelphia production team Gamble & Huff, they scored a Number 4 US hit in 1967 with Expressway To Your Heart. In the later ’70s, Ingui left music to become a painter and decorator, but returned to playing shows with his brother in the late ’80s. Hearing of his death, Gamble & Huff released a statement saying, “Richie was a true soul singer who sang from the heart.”
ROCKABILLY guitarist and producer TOMMY ALLSUP (b.1931) worked with the likes of Bob Wills, Roy Orbison and Willie Nelson. He played on Buddy Holly songs including Heartbeat and Love’s Made A Fool Out Of You, and was part of The
Crickets touring band. Famously, the Oklahomaborn Allsup lost his seat on the plane that crashed killing Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens on February 3, 1959 in Iowa, when he and Valens tossed a coin for the privilege of taking the flight, and Allsup lost.
Clive Prior