The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (238 page)

A product of the talentshow boom of the early sixties, Peter Doyle was already a chart regular in Australia by the time he’d turned seventeen, a teen pin-up with cover hits such as Conway Twitty’s ‘Speechless’ (1965). International success was not immediate, however, although his label Sunshine had high hopes for The Virgil Brothers, the band Doyle joined in 1968. This act was marketed as an Australian Walker Brothers, but it was clear that they did not possess the charisma of their US peers. Despite making it on to British television (on a show hosted by Joe Brown), the trio broke up, leaving Doyle high and dry. Staying in Britain, he then joined The New Seekers, perhaps the UK’s purest pop act, and success was to be spectacular, if brief, for Doyle. The two-girl (Eve Graham and Lyn Paul), three-guy (initially Doyle, Marty Kristian and Paul Layton) line-up scored 25 million worldwide sales, the biggest hits, ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing’ (1971) and ‘You Won’t Find Another Fool Like Me’ (1973), both topping the UK charts and selling a million apiece. (Their 1972 Eurovision offering, ‘Beg, Steal or Borrow’, tantalizingly finished runner-up, also stalling at UK number two.) But Doyle had left The New Seekers by the time ‘Fool’ reached the top, the restless singer already fed up with the fame game. Attempting a career back home as a singer/songwriter, Peter Doyle’s lyrics suggested complete disillusionment with the music industry, his career thereafter consisting mainly of television jingles and co-writing credits.

Doyle had married and settled into a life breeding dogs and cultivating a vineyard by the time of his diagnosis with throat cancer in 1999. He died two years later.

Thursday 24

Kim Gardner

(London, 27 January 1948)

Ashton, Gardner & Dyke

Pacific Gas & Electric

The Creation

The (Thunder)Birds

Journeyman rock bassist Kim Gardner was best remembered as an early cohort of future Faces/Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. The duo were art-school pals who formed blues-based band The Thunderbirds with Alistair Mackenzie (vocals), Tony Munroe (guitar) and Pete McDaniels (drums). The group were signed by Decca, who, feeling that ‘Thunderbirds’ was too common a name in rock ‘n’ roll, decided in their infinite wisdom to rename them The Birds. Poor chart showings were exacerbated by legal threats from The Byrds regarding the name, and The Birds – who then tried ‘Birds Birds’ – split. Similar misfortune was to ensue when Gardner joined the over-hyped Creation in 1966, a band that also imploded two years on. With Ashton, Gardner & Dyke – a jazzier combo Gardner formed with keyboardist Tony Ashton and drummer Roy Dyke – the bassist at least enjoyed a major hit with ‘Resurrection Shuffle’ (1971).

Kim Gardner later toured with a number of acts, including US band Pacific Gas & Electric, before starting his own business as a restaurateur. Gardner died in LA from cancer just months after former band member Tony Ashton (
May 2001).

NOVEMBER

Saturday17

Michael Karoli

(Straubing, Germany, 29 April 1948)

Can

(Sofortkontakt)

At nineteen, guitarist Michael Karoli was a decade younger than his colleagues when he joined influential German experimentalists Can in 1968. Karoli was then a music student in a class run by the band’s leader, bassist and electronics whiz Holger Czukay, who, alongside Can keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, had himself studied under noted avantgarde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (other members at this stage were woodwind player David Johnson and drummer Jaki Liebezeit). Karoli’s playing was much more ‘grounded’ than that of his bandmates, creating something of a heady mix of styles. To many, Can never bettered their 1969 debut album,
Monster Movie,
but this was just the first of a hugely uplifting legacy of work. Primarily an album band, Can issued twelve studio collections for seven labels in just ten years, and even managed a token UK hit single with ‘I Want More’ (1976). With group personnel chopping and changing throughout the decade, Karoli – known as ‘Miki’ – found himself contributing vocals for
Soon Over Babaluma
(1974).

By 1977 Czukay, Can’s Mentor, had left, but the band’s output continued to be interesting, if no longer as groundbreak-ing as it had been. Attempted reunions were thereafter largely unsuccessful, though in 1999 the four original members regrouped to play an evening of solo material. Karoli – who had already issued a well-received solo album,
Deluge
(1983) – used the occasion to showcase his latest project, Sofortkontakt. Now living in France, Karoli yielded two years later to the cancer against which he had been battling bravely for some time. His influence is continually cited by musicians as diverse as former Teardrop Explodes leader Julian Cope and Monster Magnet frontman Dave Wyndorf.

See also
Reebop Kwaku-Baah (
January 1983)

Sunday 18

Scott Murray

(Melbourne, 16 January 1979)

28 Days

As nu metal and rap metal became the prominent commercial styles in rock during 2001, Australia’s 28 Days had come through as something of a surprise package in a market dominated by the likes of US bands Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. Although not soni-cally groundbreak-ing, 28 Days were rare in that they injected humour into an increasingly angst-ridden genre – a point reasonably well illustrated in the band’s self-titled (and Australian charttopping) first album proper (2001). Before the group could complete a second record, however, they lost drummer and founder member Scott Murray, who died from injuries sustained after he was struck by a speeding car as he returned from a group rehearsal. The percussionist – who had been engaged to be married– was remembered by his colleagues, who stated: ‘Everything 28 Days do from now on and for ever is dedicated to Scott Murray.’

Saturday 24

Melanie Thornton

(Charleston, South Carolina, 13 May 1967)

(La Bouche)

Maria Serrano-Serrano

(Spain, 26 November 1973)

Nathaly van het Ende

(The Netherlands, 2 January 1975)

Passion Fruit

In a year littered with aircraft disasters, one of the worst (although receiving relatively little coverage by the disaster-fatigued press), occurred near Zurich at the end of November. Young German-American singer Melanie Thornton had shaken off the Europop mantle of her past and was currently embarking on an independent career that had already seen an album reach the Top Twenty, while one song, ‘Wonderful Dream’, had been selected by Coca-Cola for their 2001 Christmas television campaign. During the previous decade, Thornton – discovered by Frank Farian while working in Germany – had been part of manufactured pop act, La Bouche (with partner Lane McCray), scoring a number-one single in Italy with ‘Sweet Dreams’ (1994). This ‘dream’ had lasted for five years but had been something of a disappointment to Thornton, who now found herself in Switzerland to promote her ‘maturer’ solo album – entitled
Ready To Fly
…

After a successful performance in Leipzig, Thornton drove to Berlin where she boarded Crossair Flight LX3597 to head back towards Zurich, where a further round of publicity, including a slot on TV3 show
Die Bar,
awaited her. Also on board were Maria Serrano-Serrano, Debby St Marteen and Nathaly van het Ende – a Dutch/German dance trio known as Passion Fruit. With snow beginning to fall, visibility had become poor as the 97-seater Avro RJ100 aircraft circled to land in Zurich. Shortly after 10 pm, the plane lurched and hit the ground some five miles short of the runway, before crashing into woodlands. Of the thirty-three on board, twenty-four were killed in the accident – among them Thornton, Serrano-Serrano (whose birthday was to have been two days later) and van het Ende. A shocked St Marteen somehow walked away from the scene. Investigators into the crash described the aircraft as ‘flying too low’ and the pilot as being ‘overtired’. Crossair shortly thereafter became Swiss International Airlines.