The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (361 page)

Just ahead of his unexpected death in May 2009, Bennett – requiring hip replacement surgery for which he was uninsured – issued a writ against Tweedy and Wilco for breach of contract. Although the legal details of his action were strenuously denied by his former band mate, Jay Bennett passed away before the matter could come to court: the musician was found to have died in his sleep from an accidental overdose of the highly potent painkiller Fentanyl via a Duogesic patch he wore on his back. Despite their feud, Jeff Tweedy was quick to pay tribute to the man he stated ‘made welcome and significant contributions to the band’s songs and evolution’.

DEAD INTERESTING!

I WON’T SURVIVE

It was the tragedy that was always likely to happen–and it was witnessed by millions of Noncho Vodenicharov’s followers. The Bulgarian pop/folk singer (born 1955) had been a serious heart-throb in his younger days, scoring hit records with those singalong classics ‘Viara’ and ‘Da Mozheh’–and later working as a film stuntman. None of which seemed to be of much help to the ex-star when he pitched up as a contestant on the fourth season of BTV’s
Survivor
reality show.

The contest–which pitted ‘tribes’ of b-list celebrities against one another–required a series of endurance tests to be completed in order to avoid elimination by telephone and online vote. (Contenders at least had the compensation of this particular season having been set in the Caramoan peninsula of the eastern Philippines.) On Day 14 of the rigorous contest (30 May 2009), Vodenicharov found himself required to undertake a stunt to earn rewards such as food for his tribe. Tragically, the challenge proved too great for the 53-year-old–who collapsed on completion, suffering a fatal heart attack right there on the set.

Vodenicharov’s death was met with an outpouring of grief in Bulgaria–particularly in Radnevo, where he had been the town’s mayor for some years. However, while his townsfolk went into five days of mourning for the former pin-up, it was business as usual for the makers of
Survivor
–who kept the cameras rolling as the contest started afresh.

JUNE

Wednesday 3

Boško Radišić

(Belgrade, 18 December 1980)

Space Eater

(After Life)

Known as RNA, Viking-haired Bosko Radisic was regarded as one of the principal figures in south-eastern European metal, his thrash band Space Eater formed from the ashes of the group After Life in 2003. Radisic was a great advocate of Serbia’s contributions to harder-edged music, writing a regular column on the subject for
Rock Express
while also editing his own metal publication,
The Vault.
After four years of relentless gigging and searching for an interested label, he appeared to have made a breakthrough as an artist, with Space Eater’s first long-player
Merciful Angel
arriving on the I Hate label in 2007: sadly, it was to be his only outing with the band.

Early on the morning of 3 June, Bosko Radisicc and his younger sister were killed by a fire that swept through his Beograd apartment, authorities believing that the siblings both died from smoke inhalation as they slept. Despite their clear distress at the loss of their founder, Space Eater continued with a new vocalist, Luka Matković (aka Tower), who appeared on the band’s appropriately titled second album,
Aftershock
(2010).

Sunday 7

Hugh Hopper

(Kent, England, 29 April 1945)

Soft Machine

The Wilde Flowers

(The Daevid Allen Trio)

(Various acts)

Bearded, bespectacled Hugh Hopper was the antithesis of the ‘rock star’ – a seemingly quiet, serious musician who focused solely on his bass guitar. Hopper’s open style with an instrument previously considered as ‘bedding’ saw him play gigs with free-jazz combo The Daevid Allen Trio as an eighteen-year-old. Within a year, the bassist had co-founded The Wilde Flowers, the rock band that was primarily responsible for the fabled ‘Canterbury Scene’ (Soft Machine, Caravan, Gong) of the 1970s. This group – formed with his older brother Brian (guitar/saxophone) and former school friends Kevin Ayers (vocals), Richard Sinclair (rhythm guitar) and fellow-DAT drummer Robert Wyatt – released no material during their brief existence, however recordings have seen the light of day three decades later. (For his part, Hopper composed the band’s bluesy ballad ‘Memories’, which was recorded in 1982 by New York artist Bill Laswell’s group Material – and thereafter became the first song recorded by the then-teenage Whitney Houston … )

It was for his time with rock/fusion band Soft Machine that Hopper is remembered most. The first incarnation of the band came about in 1966, with Hopper – almost unbelievably – operating as the group’s road manager. During 1968, though, he became a full-time member of the band that now comprised Daevid Allen (guitar), Mike Ratledge (organ), Ayers and Wyatt. With Allen and Ayers’s departure before the second album, Soft Machine effectively then became a four-piece (Elton Dean coming in on sax, and Wyatt taking up lead vocals), the group employing guests for the generically titled albums
Volume Two
(1969),
Third
(1970),
Fourth
(1971),
Five
(1972) and
Six
(1973). Although Soft Machine continued under Ratledge’s direction, Hopper left the increasingly jazz-oriented outfit after the latter recording.

‘King of the fuzz bass. A true original and a gentleman.’

Dave Stewart, on Hugh Hopper’s website

The musician had showed much of his experimental side throughout his time with Soft Machine, his tape-loop and fuzz-bass techniques groundbreak-ing in their way: this persisted to some extent within Hopper’s solo works, the first of which –
1984
(Cuneiform, 1973) – predated David Bowie’s Orwell-inspired opus
Diamond Dogs
by a year. (Its follow-up, 1976’s
Cruel But Fair,
saw Hopper work once again with Dean.) The musician proceeded to complete over twenty further solo pieces during his career, while also finding time to record with a variety of artists including Syd Barrett, Stomu Yamash’ta and keyboardist Dave Stewart.

Shortly before releasing his final, excellent album
Dune
(2008), Hugh Hopper was diagnosed with leukaemia: the bass-player succumbed to the disease just two days after having married his longtime partner, Christine.

Golden Oldies#93

Barry ‘The Bear’ Beckett

(Birmingham, Alabama, 4 February 1943)

The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section

(Traffic)

Also known as ‘The Swampers’, The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section - built around Barry Beckett (keyboards), Jimmy Johnson (guitar), David Hood (bass) and Roger Hawkins (drums) - were set to become an important part of the Stax sound and beyond with their recorded contributions. Beckett and the group’s many notable hit contributions included ‘Mustang Sally’ (Wilson Pickett, 1966), ‘I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)’ (Aretha Franklin, 1967), ‘Take a Letter Maria’ (RB Greaves, 1969) and the charttopping hits ‘I’ll Take You There’ (Staple Singers, 1971) and ‘Kodachrome’ (Paul Simon, 1973).

Beckett sought a change of scene from the studio in 1973, when he toured with British psychedelic band Traffic in Germany. Although the Top Forty album of this experience might be described by some as ‘indulgent’, the keyboardist’s parts shone through. ‘The Bear’ (as he was known), however, was to move on to pastures new. Beckett became a noted studio producer, with offerings by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dire Straits, Elton John and Joe Cocker - among dozens of others - to his name.

Switching again to country music, the seemingly unimpeachable Barry Beckett became an A&R head at Warner Brothers in Nashville during the eighties, later producing independently before his death from cancer on 10 June 2009.

See also
Wilson Pickett (
January 2006)

Golden Oldies #94

Huey Long

(Sealy, Texas, 25 April 1904)

The Ink Spots