THEY ALSO SERVED

GUITARIST MARTIN

WRIGHT (below, b.1964) was born in Poynton, Cheshire. His early groups included The Claymen and Uneven Valley Floors: in 1985 he joined Manchester band Laugh on guitar and vocals, who hit the indie charts with John Peel selection Paul McCartney in

1987. In 1990 the band evolved into dance rockers Intastella, who scored eight singles chart entries and recorded three LPs before their split in 1997. He went on to play with Earl Brutus and collaborate with ex-World Of Twist enigma Tony Ogden. Nicknamed ‘The Lad’, the likeable, self-effacing Wright later managed a RSPB reserve.

ROOTS BASSIST

LEONARD ‘HUB’ HUBBARD

(b.1959). played with the Philadelphia neo-soul/ hip-hop crew from 1992 to 2007, appearing on albums including Top 5s Things Fall Apart in 1999 and The Tipping Point (2004). He rejoined his bandmates on-stage twice more, though a legal dispute followed in 2016. His wife confirmed he had been working on new music at the time of his death.

DETROIT R&B singer PAUL

MITCHELL (b.unknown) co-founded The Floaters with his ex-Detroit Emeralds brother James. They scored a massive worldwide hit with astrological smoocher Float On in 1977, recorded four albums, and had two more Top 40 US R&B hits before disbanding

in 1981.

DRUMMER BILLY CONWAY

(b.1956) joined Mark Sandman in Boston roots rockers Treat Her Right in 1985, playing a spare ‘cocktail drum’ set. After three LPs they split, with Sandman forming alt-blues outfit Morphine. Conway started playing with the band in 1993, and remained until Sandman’s sudden death on-stage in Italy in 1999. He later played with Orchestra Morphine, the Twinemen and Sleepy LaBeef, among others.

JOURNALIST GREG TATE (b.1957) came to notice as a critic for The Village Voice in New York from 1987 to 2003. Open to rap among other currents of black cultural expression, he also wrote trenchant commentary for DownBeat, VIBE, Rolling Stone and the New York Times while his books included 1992’s Flyboy In The Buttermilk:

Essays On Contemporary America.

A self-taught guitarist, his musical endeavours included co-founding the Black Rock Coalition and improvising ensemble Burnt Sugar.

SESSION BASS ACE PHIL

CHEN (below, b.1946) grew up in Kingston, Jamaica and played guitar in ’60s club bands. With Jimmy James & The Vagabonds, he relocated to London in the mid-’60s: in the next decade he became an established session bassist, playing with Jeff Beck, Donovan and others. In ’77 he joined Rod Stewart’s band, bagging co-writes and playing the bassline on Da Ya Think

I’m Sexy. In 1981, Chen returned to session work with Brian May, Beck and Manzarek-Krieger.

MOTOWN WRITER MARILYN McLEOD

(b.1939) was best known for co-composing Diana Ross’s 1976 smash Love Hangover. She began writing for Berry Gordy’s Jobete publishing company in the late ’60s, where she met future writing partner Pam Sawyer. Notably, the pair wrote Pops, We Love You (A Tribute To Father) for Gordy’s father’s birthday in 1978. Motown historian Adam White notes that it has the distinction of being the only song recorded by Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. The sister of Alice

Coltrane and grandmother of Flying Lotus, McLeod’s own album, I Believe In Me, was released in 2010.

SUMATRAN musician and ethnomusicologist IRWANSYAH

HARAHAP (b.1962) fused his country’s traditional music with other devotional strands as leader of the band Suarasama. Their delicate, trance-like sounds struck a chord with acid-folk fans as well as global music aficionados, after Will Oldham heard them in the 1990s on a Folkways comp of Indonesian music and encouraged his label, Drag City, to release Suarasama’s debut album, Fajar Di Atas Awan. A second album, Timeline, surfaced locally in 2013; Drag City are planning a wider release in 2022.

GUITARIST TAM HARVEY

(b.1943) co-founded

Glasgow folk rockers The Humblebums with Billy Connolly in 1965. After 1969’s debut LP, First Collection Of Merry Melodies, and Gerry Rafferty’s accession to the group, Harvey departed. He later worked as a luthier and played the pubs of Brighton. His daughter Georgiana Mannion wrote in tribute, “He was a complicated man… he was also talented and charming.”

RAPPER KANGOL KID

(below, b.1966) danced for Whodini before forming Brooklyn rap crew UTFO, whose 1984 hit Roxanne, Roxanne spawned multiple answer records, beginning with Roxanne Shanté’s Roxanne’s Revenge. After a successful ’80s, the group split in 1992. Kangol Kid also produced Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam and co-produced his management charges Whistle’s 1986 Number 7 UK hit (Nothing Serious) Just Buggin’. One of his signature hip-hop headwear items is displayed in the Smithsonian.

ATTORNEY DENIS

O’BRIEN (b.1941) was introduced to George Harrison in 1974 by Peter Sellers. George’s business manager, St Louis-born O’Brien suggested forming production company HandMade Films when Monty Python’s Life Of Brian needed a last-minute backer in 1978. HandMade went on to finance films including The Long Good Friday, Time Bandits and Withnail And I. HandMade folded in 1991, and Harrison took O’Brien to court for financial mismanagement: he reportedly wrote a song called Lyin’ O’Brien, which remains unreleased.

Jenny Bulley, Ian Harrison and John Mulvey