The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (338 page)

The photogenic musician had previously found time to act in several movies and television dramas, most notably the film
2010
(1984), in which she took the part of Russian cosmonaut Irina Yakunina. Natasha Shneider died following a brief battle with cancer on 2 June – eerily, at 11:11 am. The following month, a number of her former musical associates – including P J Harvey, Jack Black and Brody Dalle (of The Distillers and Spinnerette) – appeared on stage with QOTSA at a benefit gig to cover her lingering medical costs.

Paul Varley

(Preston, Lancashire, 24 May 1949)

The Arrows

(Darling)

(Various acts)

On the same day, the drummer with briefly successful poprockers The Arrows also passed away. This multinational group was formed in 1973 when Englishman Paul Varley was teamed with New York singer/songwriter Alan Merrill (Allan Sachs) and Israeli-born guitarist Jake Hooker (Jerry Mamberg).

The Arrows were part of the Mickie Most stable, but, contrary to popular belief, only enjoyed chart success with ‘Touch Too Much’ (1974, UK Top Ten) and ‘My Last Night with You’ (1975, UK Top Forty). The band – who were generally able to stand out from other manufactured UK pop acts of the era – issued a number of other singles (like ‘Hardhearted’ in 1975) but are usually best remembered for what was, for them, just a b-side: ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’. The song is, of course, now recognised as a rock classic thanks to the 1982 version by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts that topped the charts the world over (apart from in Britain, where it disgraced itself by stalling at number four). The Arrows were also, somewhat inexplicably, given their own show on ITV a good two years after their chart peak. (The channel had pulled a similar move with Marc Bolan, whose ex-wife June Child was, coincidentally, the mother of Varley’s daughter.)

Paul Varley played with a number of other bands, including new wave/pop act Darling (with future Dire Straits guitarist Hal Lindes). He died from pneumonia at his Victoria, London home.

See also
Mickie Most (
May 2003)

Golden Oldies #70

Colin Cooper

(Staffordshire, England, 7 October 1939)

The Climax Blues Band

(Various acts)

Despite christening themselves The Climax Chicago Blues Band - the name truncated in 1972 on the wishes of established act Chicago Transit Authority - Colin Cooper’s R & B outfit were all inhabitants of Stafford in England. They emerged on the back of the UK’s sixties blues boom, and vocalist, guitarist and harmonicaplayer Cooper was already pushing thirty by the time CBB issued their self-titled debut record on Parlophone in 1969. Although this was largely a collection of standards, it also featured the original ‘A Stranger in Your Town’, which had been co-written with Lee Hazlewood (whom Cooper survived by less than a year
(
August 2007)).

The Climax Blues Band reached their commercial zenith with the platinum album
Gold-Plated
(1976) and its smoking transatlantic hit ‘Couldn’t Get It Right’ (1976, UK/US Top Ten), a radio staple that shifted almost a million units in America. The group was indeed far bigger in the US than at home: CBB regularly commanded audiences of 20,000+, and ten of their albums ended up on the Billboard charts while British audiences braced themselves for the onset of punk. Their last major hit single, ‘I Love You’, reached the US Top Twenty in 1981.

Cooper - who had first recorded with bands such as Hipster Image in the mid-sixties - made several attempts to keep The Climax Blues Band relevant throughout the eighties and nineties. They even found a niche in Japan after their rerecorded ‘Make Her Mine’ (a relic from the band’s jazzier early days) became a hit there thanks to its use in a 1999 Levi’s commercial. Colin Cooper died of cancer at his Staffordshire home on 3 July 2008. Rare for a touring musician, he had been married for over forty years and was survived by his wife and two children.

Golden Oldies #71

Earl Nelson

(Lake Charles, Louisiana, 8 September 1928)

Bob & Earl

(Various acts)

Earl Nelson and original partner Bob Byrd (aka Bobby Day) had been members of fifties doo-wop groups Voices and The Hollywood Flames for some time before they made waves as the popular R & B duo Bob & Earl. Both singers were supplementing their meager incomes with menial jobs at the Revell Toy Factory in California when they began recording as Bobby Day & The Satellites. They scored a Cash Box hit with ‘Little Bitty Pretty One’ in 1957, which was followed by the smash ‘Rockin Robin’ in 1958. This million-seller was held from the top spot only by Tommy Edwards’s ‘It’s All in the Game’ and, curiously, was credited to Day only, with Nelson cited as backing vocalist.

As Bob & Earl, the duo didn’t experience this level of success, which forced Day to move on in 1962. With a second ‘Bob’ in former Laurels singer Bobby Relf, the act was revitalised and scored a minor if memorable hit with ‘Harlem Shuffle’ (1963 - arranged by Barry White, who also supplied drums). The tune made the UK Top Ten on reissue in 1969. In between these two bursts of life for ‘Shuffle’, Nelson issued several singles of his own, some under the pseudonym Jackie Lee (a combination of his wife’s name and his own middle name). ‘The Duck’ was a Top Twenty hit in 1965, and became a favourite on the UK’s Northern Soul scene. For Bob & Earl, however, there were to be no more hits and the duo split early in the 1970s.

Earl Nelson died in Los Angeles from natural causes on 12 July 2008 -just short of his eightieth birthday. He survived Relf by a mere eight months
(
November 2007),
though Day succumbed to cancer back in 1990.

See also
Barry White (
July 2003)

Thursday 17

Roy Shirley

(Ainsworth Roy Rushton Shirley - Trench Town, Jamaica, 18 July 1944)

(The Uniques)

(The Leaders)