The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (322 page)

Emerging Florida rapper Ed’Allante ‘Keno’ Timmons was shot in similar circumstances just one month later. The artist - also attacked in his studio - had been in a turf war with his assailant for some months before the slaying. In January 2008, further shootings occurred when teenage hip-hop musician K-Nell (Kyle Parnell) was murdered in his studio; also, 32-year-old Houston rapper Arcani Crosswords (MichaelFrancis) fatally wounded himself after his gun accidentally discharged.

Saturday 20

Paul Raven

(Wolverhampton, England, 16 January 1961)

Killing Joke

Ministry

Prong

(Neon Hearts)

(Various acts)

To call Paul Raven a ‘journeyman’ guitarist would be to do him a disservice – his trademark riffs were the distinctive motif on most of the recordings he made. During his brief time with Wolverhampton punks Neon Hearts, Raven was given the opportunity to play a 1980 session for John Peel’s influential radio show, offering a first glimpse of his considerable ability.

With Neon Hearts collapsing – mainly owing to poor publicity – Raven joined combative postpunks Killing Joke in 1982, replacing bassist Youth (Martin Glover), who had left to form dub-funk band Brilliant. Raven was thus present for Jaz Coleman’s group’s most successful period, the Joke earning a silver disc for the album
Night Time
(1985) and an unlikely hit in the brooding ‘Love Like Blood’ – which ended a run of twelve non-charting singles and also made the Top Ten in the Netherlands and New Zealand.

His time with Killing Joke was to push Raven further toward industrial metal, the bass player subsequently joining supergroup Murder Inc (which also involved guitarist Kevin ‘Geordie’ Walker and drummer Martin Atkins from his previous band). This was followed by a stint with Pigface, before spending time in the ranks of influential US metal group Prong, with whom he played on the charting albums
Cleansing
(1994) and
Rude Awakening
(1996). There were also spells with such acts as Zilch (1998–2001) and Godflesh, among others, though Raven is undoubtedly best-known in the US for his association with industrial figureheads Ministry, delivering bass and programmed drums on the records
Rio Grande Blood
(2006) and the posthumously-released
The Last Sucker
(2007).

The apparently tireless Paul Raven was recording with experimental French metallers Treponem Pal at the time of his death. The group had completed one day’s studio work in Switzerland when Raven’s body was discovered in his bed at a private home near Geneva: he had suffered a fatal heart attack while asleep.

See also
Jeff Ward (
March 1993); E William Tucker (
May 1999)

Sunday 21

Paul Fox

(Bermondsey, London, 11 April 1951)

The Ruts

(Various acts)

Aside from their names, there were other similarities between Raven and Paul Fox, another innovative punk guitarist, whose work shaped the dub-reggae-influenced sound of London’s The Ruts. Fox, an already experienced musician, co-founded the band in August 1977 with vocalist Malcolm Owen, John Jennings (bass) and Dave Ruffy (drums). The Ruts opened for US band Wayne County & The Electric Chairs early the next year. A single, ‘In a Rut’ (1978) narrowly missed the charts, this closely followed by the first of three John Peel sessions. The Ruts thereafter signed with Virgin and enjoyed a year or so of success: urgent single ‘Babylon’s Burning’ stormed the UK Top Ten and is now rightly considered a classic of the era. Further hits were forthcoming with ‘Something That I Said’ (1979) and ‘Staring at the Rude Boys’ (1980).

Owen’s long struggle with heroin – much-referenced in the group’s lyrics – ended with his sudden death from an overdose
(
July 1980
), Fox thereafter fronting The Ruts (who, after one more single, became ‘Ruts DC’) adding vocals as well as his distinctive guitar, before the band went their separate ways in 1982. Fox’s later projects, including such names as Dirty Strangers, Choir Militia, Screaming Lobsters and Fluffy Kittens, retained core fanbase interest but yielded no market breakthrough.

Paul Fox – who, with his drummer son, briefly revived his best-known band as Foxy’s Ruts during 2006 – died after a battle with lung cancer.

Tuesday 30

Linda Stein

(New York, 24 April 1945)

Although never a musician herself, Linda Stein became a formidable businesswoman having left teaching for a career in rock management. Despite the interest created by The Ramones, Stein – married to Sire Records boss, Seymour Stein – was singularly unsuccessful in break-ing the protopunks in their own land. Instead, she recommended to her company that the group go to London: there, The Ramones’ impact was colossal, the band securing hit records, and groups sprouting up almost within an instant of having witnessed the four misfits from New York. (Stein, whose marriage was stormy at the best of times, briefly had a relationship with bassist Dee Dee Ramone.) The manager also went on to supervise the affairs of Americana singer/songwriter Steve Forbert.

Stein later became known as ‘realtor to the stars,’ brokering multimillion-dollar property deals for Madonna, Sting, Billy Joel and Elton John, as well as for a host of television and movie stars.

Her death came as a big shock to all those who knew Linda Stein. Shortly before 10 pm on the night of 30 October 2007, Stein’s daughter Mandy discovered her mother’s body lying in a pool of blood in the living room of her 5
^th
Avenue apartment. She was discovered to have been bludgeoned to death – apparently with her own yoga-stick. Following a protracted and often volatile court hearing, Stein’s PA Natavia Lowery confessed to her killing, alleging that Stein had been ‘yelling at her’ and uttering racial slurs. In May 2010, Lowery – who was pregnant at the time – received the minimum twenty-five-year sentence for the second-degree murder of her former boss.

With Stein having battled breast cancer at the time of her death, longtime friend John performed at a fundraiser in her honour.

See also
Dee Dee Ramone (
June 2002). Later Ramones manager Gary Kurfirst died in the Bahamas in January 2009.

NOVEMBER