THEY ALSO SERVED
EXECUTIVE MICKEY
KAPP (b.1930) was working at the Kapp Records family firm when he was called upon to compile some notable mixtapes. Beginning with the Apollo 7 mission in 1968, he collated music to be listened to by astronauts on their Sony TC-50 cassette recorders, asking each one for their listening tastes. On transmissions from the Apollo 11 moon landing of July 1969, Buzz Aldrin can be heard suggesting “let’s get some music” (Glen Campbell, Blood Sweat & Tears and Barbra Streisand were among his choices). Kapp also produced the six-disc/ book documentary To The Moon, and held positions at Elektra, Capitol and Warners.
RAPPER BUSHWICK
BILL (above, b.1966) made his name as short-statured MC with Texas hardcore hip-hop crew The Geto Boys. Initially a dancer, by 1988 he was joined by Scarface and Willie D: 1991’s platinum-selling We Can’t Be Stopped provoked outrage when its sleeve featured Bill being pushed on a gurney by his bandmates, talking on a mobile phone, after shooting himself in his right eye during a PCP-inflamed argument with his girlfriend. As well as three more Geto Boys albums, he released six solo long-players (including 1992’s US Top 20 Little Big Man). After revealing in May that he was seriously ill, a Geto Boys reunion was announced but cancelled.
MAN OF MYSTERY SLEEZY D
(b.unknown), AKA Derrick Harris, was a friend of house legend Marshall Jefferson. His only recordings were 1984’s screaming, Jefferson co-produced acid house brainbomb I’ve Lost Control, released on Trax in 1986, and Jefferson’s 2016 tune Do You Believe. A GoFundMe page to raise money for his dependents said, “Derrick was the life of every single party he went to, dancing from the first song to the last every time. Anyone anywhere that calls themselves a raver has this man to thank for it.”
ARRANGER DENNIS
FARNON (b.1923) entertained the troops as a trumpeter with the Canadian Army Band in the latter days of the Second World War. After demobilisation he played jazz and studied composition in Chicago, and later moved to
Los Angeles as chief A&R for RCA, where he was a founder member of the US Recording Academy. In the early ’60s, he moved to London, where he recorded library music for film, radio and television; his sometimes comedically-flavoured cues would, in time, be featured on Doctor Who, SpongeBob SquarePants, Prisoner: Cell Block H, Fever Pitch and The Ren & Stimpy Show. He continued to work at the piano until his death.
JOURNALIST ANDY GILL
(b.1953) wrote widely about music for titles including MOJO, Q, and Uncut. In 1990 he became chief rock critic for The Independent, where he also wrote about classical music. A sociology graduate from Sheffield, he joined the NME in 1977. MOJO’s former editor Mat Snow remembers him as “a brilliantly penetrating, lucid and entertaining advocate of artists from Dylan to Zappa via Howlin’ Wolf, Morton Feldman and the highways and byways of Krautrock. Johnsonian in his prose, he was an exceptionally warm-hearted and generous friend and colleague.”
VOICE JIM PIKE (below, b.1936) attended the Mormon Brigham Young University in Utah before co-founding the vocal group The Lettermen in Los Angeles in 1959 with Bob Engemann and Tony Butala. The trio’s fresh-faced image and close harmonies scored a hit with The Way You Look Tonight in 1961, which earned two Grammy nominations. They enjoyed a decade of American success, with nine Top 40 albums and 31 charting singles. In 1974 Pike was forced to quit singing after damaging his voice. Later he formed the group Reunion, whose line-up included his brother Gary.
SINGER and songwriter CHUCK GLASER
(b.1936) was the middle sibling, between Tompall and Jim, of Spalding, Nebraska country trio The Glaser Brothers. Having signed to Marty Robbins’ label as teenagers in 1957, Chuck’s first writing credit came in 1958 with the trio’s debut single, Five Penny Nickel. The brothers sang on Ring Of Fire with Johnny Cash, while Chuck wrote You Won’t Have Far To Go for Cash and several songs for Hank Snow. The band’s career stalled when Chuck suffered a stroke in 1974. He went on to run the family’s publishing company, talent and booking agency, representing Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter and Jerry Lee Lewis. BRAZILIAN DRUMMER
PAULO PAGNI (b.1958) played with São Paulo rockers RPM from 1985, appearing on the group’s biggest hits Olhar 43 (Look 43), Rádio Pirata (Pirate Radio), Louras Geldas (Ice Cream) and London London. His tenure in the group – a popular culture sensation often described as Brazil’s Rolling Stones – also included three million-selling 1986 live album Rádio Pirata ao Vivo, which broke domestic sales records. MOTHER of Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, PHILOMENA LYNOTT (below, b.1930) described the prejudice faced by a young mother with a mixed-race child in the 1950s in her moving memoir My Boy. Born in Dublin, she migrated to work as a nurse in Manchester in the ‘40s. In 1947 she gave birth to Philip – his father, Cecil Parris, was from Guyana – who was raised by her parents in Dublin. In the 1960s, she opened a hotel in Manchester with partner Dennis Keeley, which became popular with touring bands, Thin Lizzy included. After Phil’s death in 1986, she campaigned for drug awareness, LGBT rights and for the statue of Phil erected in Dublin in 2005.