The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (277 page)

Saturday 29

Eric Griffiths

(Denbigh, North Wales, 31 October 1940)

The Quarry Men

Despite a potentially great start in music, Eric Griffiths is destined to be remembered as ‘John Lennon’s school-friend’, an original member of The Quarry Men who never graduated to the world’s best-loved pop group. A keen though distracted guitarist, Griffiths dropped conventional lessons to learn a few chords via Lennon’s mother. Griffiths didn’t have the natural ability of his friend, but was invited to join The Quarry Men because he had a new guitar and essential amplification. Following the arrival of first Paul McCartney, then George Harrison – whose lead-guitar skills effectively put paid to Griffiths’s interest in a music career – the guitarist was sacked over the phone during the band’s very next rehearsal. Thereafter, Griffiths worked for the merchant navy and prison service while The Beatles became … well, you know the rest.

Just eight years before his death in Scotland from pancreatic cancer, Griffiths joined ‘John Lennon’s Original Quarry Men’ – Rod Davis (banjo/guitar), Len Garry (tea-chest bass/guitar), Colin Hanton (drums) and Pete Shotton (washboard) at an emotional reunion for The Cavern Club’s fortieth anniversary, the group also going on to record the album
Get Back Together
(1997).

See also
John Lennon (
December 1980)

FEBRUARY

Tuesday 8

Keith Knudsen

(LeMars, Iowa, 18 February 1948)

The Doobie Brothers

Southern Pacific

Primarily a drummer, Keith Knudsen joined The Doobies at the band’s commercial peak, arriving just in time to see songwriter Tom Johnston’s ‘Black Water’ reach number one in the US at the start of 1975. The otherwise quiet Knudsen had learned how to pummel out a rhythm in eighth grade, going on to play with beat groups as he sought to emulate his heroes The Beatles as a teenager. Just as it appeared Knudsen’s career might never evolve beyond that of journeyman session player, the musician met The Doobies’ manager Bruce Cohn, who hinted that the band would need a replacement for the departing Michael Hossack. The result was a tenure that lasted until the band split in 1982, Knudsen maintaining a position within the line-up of Johnston (vocals/guitar), Pat Simmons (vocals/guitar), Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter (the erstwhile Steely Dan guitarist) and Tiran Porter (bass). The most significant change in the seventies was the temporary retirement of Johnston from fatigue, another former Steely Dan member, Michael McDonald, then joining as full-time singer/keyboardist from 1975. Although Doobie Brothers purists weren’t overly enthused by the smoother sound afforded by McDonald’s voice, the band nevertheless secured another multiplatinum album,
Minute By Minute,
in 1979.

Following The Doobies’ split, Keith Knudsen formed the successful country-rock unit Southern Pacific with singer/musician John McFee (another former Doobie Brother), while also arranging charity events to benefit Vietnam veterans, for which he received widespread acclaim. This culminated in a fully fledged Doobies reunion in 1987 (including Johnston) and a notable performance in Moscow, where the band were still huge. An album,
Sibling Rivalry
(2000), was widely thought to contain the strongest Doobies material in two decades. Although it was far from their biggest seller, Knudsen realized a personal ambition by singing lead on selected tracks, despite having been diagnosed with cancer back in 1995. Knudsen eventually died from pneumonia ten years later.

See also
Bobby LaKind (
December 1992); Cornelius Bumpus (
February 2004). Early Doobie Brother Dave Shogren died in 1999.

Monday 28

Chris Curtis

(Christopher Crummey - Oldham, 26 August 1941)

The Searchers

(The Flowerpot Men)

(Roundabout)

Well, the name was going to have to go first – and it did, when Chris Crummey was just nineteen, Searchers leader Tony Jackson suggesting ‘Curtis’ during an interview. The drummer/singer had lived in Liverpool since the age of four, developing a love of American rock ‘n’ roll (particularly Fats Domino), skiffle and his city’s indigenous Merseybeat. Within this nascent scene, The Searchers – Curtis, Jackson, Mike Pender (Mike Prendergast) and John McNally (both vocals/guitar) – became second only to The Beatles in popularity, although unlike their more illustrious peers they were more content to cover US standards than write their own material. For a couple of years, however, The Searchers couldn’t fail: ‘Sweets for My Sweet’ (1963), ‘Needles and Pins’ and ‘Don’t Throw Your Love Away’ (both 1964) all made number one in Britain, with an assortment of other hits not far behind. For his part, Curtis wrote much of the band’s original material, such as it was, though this was generally confined to album tracks. It became apparent, however, that the drummer – a devout churchgoer who shunned the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle – was unhappy in the spotlight and he quit The Searchers in 1966. Stories vary, but it seems that Curtis – who was known as ‘Mad Henry’ by various Beatles – may have hastened his departure by some wilful drug abuse and general unreliability while on a world tour that year. The official reason was given as ‘nervous exhaustion’, Curtis being replaced by percussionist John Blunt.

Thereafter, Chris Curtis toured briefly with the manufactured Flowerpot Men (who’d scored a surprise 1967 smash with ‘Let’s Go to San Francisco’), having become a producer of some note, working with Alma Cogan and Paul & Barry Ryan. Later attempts as an artist were less successful, though the rock band formed with his brother Dave – Roundabout – was a direct precursor of Deep Purple, featuring as it did Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore in the line-up. By the seventies, Curtis had kicked music into touch and joined the Civil Service as a tax inspector, though he was occasionally to perform as a folk musician in later years. Curtis died at his home following a lengthy illness: the date above represents when his body was discovered; he died perhaps as much as two days before that.

See also
Tony Jackson (
August 2003). Original bassist Tony West passed away in 2010.

MARCH

Wednesday 9

Kurt Struebing

(Seattle, Washington, 26 November 1965)

NME