The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (237 page)

Aaliyah’s wall: Speaks for itself

Saturday 25

Aaliyah

(Aaliyah Dana Haughton - Brooklyn, New York, 16 January 1979)

She was the teen star whose death – not unlike her early history – will continue to be at the centre of wild rumour and speculation. Aaliyah was the latest big name in music to be killed in a light-aircraft crash, at just twenty-two, her sudden passing a real loss to the glamorous end of R & B in the US.

Aaliyah is Arabic for ‘highest, most exalted one’, and indeed the young singer appeared to be something beyond the ordinary. Brought up in Detroit, Michigan, the spirit of Motor City appeared to have brushed off on the singer at a young age, although a small amount of nepotism hadn’t gone amiss, either: Aaliyah opened a Las Vegas show for her aunt, Motown star Gladys Knight, aged just eleven and within three years had a record deal with her uncle’s Blackground label. But, before there could be success, there was significant scandal: a debut album, the aptly titled
Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number
(1994), was produced by notorious R & B lothario R Kelly, who was to face accusations regarding his relationship with the singer, then only fifteen. The rumours had begun to spread when
VIBE
magazine printed what it alleged was a marriage certificate binding Aaliyah (who it was claimed had falsified her age) to the 27-year-old Kelly. Significantly, neither party denied the accusations and an annulment was reportedly sought soon after. The damage had been done, however, Aaliyah changing labels and never again working with Kelly (who faced further charges of conducting underage liaisons a few years later). Finally, Aaliyah’s music became of greater interest to the public than her personal life, a sophomore album, the Missy Elliott- and Timbaland-produced
One in a Million
(1996), proving her maturing talent. This much-improved Atlantic release sold an impressive 8 million copies worldwide (although admittedly a significant percentage of these sales were posthumous), Aaliyah now able to take her place at R & B’s top table unassisted. Within the next three years, the photogenic star could add modelling (for Tommy Hilfiger) and movie acting (in the martial arts flick
Romeo Must Die)
to her increasingly impressive CV. That year, Aaliyah also scored her first US number-one single with ‘Try Again’ (2000) from the film’s soundtrack – which also made the UK’s Top Five – but a hungry public were now awaiting Aaliyah’s third album.

The self-titled record released at the end of July 2001 was certified gold after just two weeks on the shelves. A flagship single, ‘We Need a Resolution’, had surprisingly stuck at fifty-nine in the US, however, which prompted the singer’s advisers and her label to arrange some glamorous promos for further singles culled from the album; with ‘Rock the Boat’ the next song selected, the belief was that any ‘boat’ was going to need some seriously blue water beneath it. The following month, Aaliyah and her entourage travelled with director Harold ‘Hype’ Williams for a location shoot on Abaco Island in the Bahamas. With some suitable footage in the can, the nine-strong entourage had a small party to celebrate before heading back to Miami. Just before 6.50 pm on the evening of 25 August, the small Cessna 402B took to the air – but something went wrong immediately. Within minutes, the plane began to plummet, crashing into a forest near Marsh Harbour and bursting into flames upon impact. The singer was one of six on board who were killed instantly, the remaining three dying shortly thereafter in hospital.

Back at home, the news of Aaliyah’s death began to break. Fellow artists stopped performances to pay respect, while a giant billboard poster in Los Angeles promoting her album was transformed into a ‘speaking wall’ for tributes from desolate fans. Following the singer’s funeral in New York six days later (during which twenty-two white doves were released into the sky), investigation into the crash began in earnest. In the aftermath of the disaster, two major facts came to the fore: the Cessna was overloaded by as much as 1,120 kg, with both luggage and passengers, the aircraft being designed to a carry a maximum of eight people. Most significantly, the pilot (who had a previous conviction for drugs offences) was found to have traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system. (Luis Antonio Morales Blanes had allegedly also obtained his licence from Blackhawk Airways by deceptive means, having claimed hundreds of hours never actually flown. Aaliyah’s parents finally came to an out-of-court settlement with the plane’s operators in September 2003.)

Thus, with a sick irony, Aaliyah’s sales
did
receive the boost they needed – though not for a reason anyone would have chosen or anticipated. Her eponymous album rallied to number one in America, while the single ‘More than a Woman’ gave her a posthumous chart-topper in Britain early in 2002.

Wednesday 29

Graeme Strachan

(Malvern, Melbourne, 2 January 1952)

Skyhooks

Just a few days on from the Aaliyah tragedy, a similar tale was dominating headlines Down Under. Graeme Strachan had formed rock band Skyhooks as a teenager with pals from Mount Waverly, guitarist and songwriter Greg Macainsh and drummer Freddy Strauks, in a group then called Frame. Although Strachan then dropped out to complete a carpenter’s apprenticeship, the others tracked him down when Melbourne’s Mushroom Records showed an interest in signing the band. In 1975, the glammed-up Skyhooks were Australia’s biggest indigenous rock band, their first pair of albums both topping the charts (the first for a mind-boggling sixteen weeks), while their racy singles were often denied airplay by conservative Australian radio.

Then, after two years of solid touring, Strachan – nicknamed ‘Shirley’ for some reason – left in 1978 for a solo career and television work. An acknowledged ‘rock god’, his many fans were astonished to see the singer reappear with first his own children’s series about an animal pop group, then a popular lifestyle show on home improvements. The Australian media nonetheless went into meltdown after his tragic death in 2001. Strachan died when the Bell 47 helicopter he was learning to pilot was caught in a strong wind and crashed into Mount Archer near Kilroy West, Queensland. Original Skyhooks singer Steve Hill died from cancer four years later.

SEPTEMBER

Thursday 6

MC Carl Crack

(Karl Bohm - Swaziland, 5 May 1971)

Atari Teenage Riot

‘Carl Crack’ was the
nom de plume
of Karl Bohm, one of the founding members of critically acclaimed German techno activists Atari Teenage Riot. Born in Africa, Crack had been brought up in Berlin, where the music scene appealed greatly. But, with neo-Nazis seeming to have taken over the genre, ATR founder and former punk guitarist Alec Empire (Alexander Wilke) came up with a new strain in 1992 – which he called ‘digital hardcore’ – to combat the extreme right. With distinctive singer Hanin Elias, experimental-noise artist Nic Endo and MC Carl Crack by his side, ATR began to make waves beyond their homeland during the nineties. A large advance proffered by recording giants Phonogram was apparently duplicitously used by the band to set up Empire’s DHR label, enabling Crack to issue his solo album
Black Ark
(1998). With all appearing to be running according to Empire’s plan, disaster struck. A persistent drug-user, Carl Crack was beginning to suffer extreme health problems, both physically and mentally, his body finally giving out after a fatal overdose taken at his Berlin apartment. Atari Teenage Riot – who had taken a break while Crack received medical help – were now on hold indefinitely, Elias joining US industrial band Pigface.

New York - 9/11

Among the 2,948 dead as a result of the worst terrorist atrocities ever seen in the USA were many musicians and industry professionals.

Forty-eight-year-old film-maker Carolyn Beug (who’d won an MTV award in 1993 for a Van Halen promo) was a passenger on the first American Airlines jet (Flight 11) that was hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center. Among the firefighters who perished at the scene were multi-instrumentalist Stephen Harrel (of New York rockers Woof Woof), Johnny ‘Heff’ Heffernan (guitarist of Ramones-approved punk scenesters The Bullys Band) and Christopher Pickford (guitarist with lofi rock act Ten Degree Lean). Forty-six-year-old Greenwich Village folk bassist Jeff Hardy was on duty as an executive chef when the WTC towers collapsed.

Former doo-wop vocalist James Debeuneure (of The Appreciations) died aboard the United Airlines Flight 77 that was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon on the same morning, while R & B musician Scott Powell was killed while working as a contractor within the building itself.

OCTOBER

Saturday 13

Peter Doyle

(Abbotsford, Melbourne, 28 July 1949)

The New Seekers

(The Virgil Brothers)