The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (421 page)

‘The last of the Delta bluesmen’, David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards was a renowned guitarist and singer from the Deep South – a veteran blues artist who could count Robert Johnson as an early friend and accomplice. Indeed, Edwards was in the house on the night of Johnson’s untimely death
(
Intro),
and probably represented the last living link with the great man in the twenty-first century.

Edwards many times described his younger life as an itinerant musician, playing for nickels and dimes on the streets of Mississippi, or, if good fortune came his way, hitchhiking for richer pickings in Chicago. The guitarist was recorded often by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress, but it wasn’t until the fifties that he put out a ‘proper’ album for Arc Records,
Who May Be Your Regular Be
(1951): this became the first of more than a dozen albums for a variety of labels.

Hasselt-18/8/11

Five people were killed in an accident ahead of 2011’s Pukkelpop Festival in Hasselt, Belgium. While the much-hyped rock band Smith Westerns performed, the rigging of their stage gave way, the structure having been weakened by severe, freak storms earlier in the day: although the group escaped unhurt, five of their fans perished in the ensuing disaster, with many more injured.

This tragedy follows collapses of stages and equipment at the Indiana State Fair and The Ottawa Bluesfest (in which classic-rock act Cheap Trick were lucky to escape injury), which occurred earlier that week. This was the latest in a chain of tragedies for Pukkelpop itself, following the deaths of two musicians in separate incidents at the previous year’s festival (
August 2010).

David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards recounted his many tales on the road in the award-winning autobiography
The World Don’t Owe Me Nothin’
(1997, Chicago Review Press). He worked into the new century, collaborating with fellow bluesmen such as Joseph ‘Pinetop’ Perkins – who he survived by just five months. Despite being well into his nineties, two-time Grammy-winner Edwards had only recently retired from performing before his passing on 29 August 2011 from congestive heart failure.

SEPTEMBER

Tuesday 13

DJ Mehdi

(Mehdi Favéris-Essadi - Hauts-de-Seine, France, 20 January 1977)

(Various acts)

Born to Tunisian parents, DJ Mehdi Favéris-Essadi had become renowned as one of the leading hip-hop and electro producers in Europe. As a house disc-jockey, he’d already worked among a succession of acts – Different Teep and Idéal Junior among them – before the mid-1990s.

Mehdi then found himself at the vanguard of a serious revolution in French dance music during the latter part of the decade, working alongside well-known contemporary names such as Daft Punk, MC Solaar and Cassius. At just nineteen, he was signed up by innovative and eclectic label Ed Banger, collaborating on a number of projects before going on to issue four albums of his own material between 2002 and 2007. In 2010, he had begun Carte Blanche, a promising new project in which he collaborated with British DJ Riton (Henry Smithson). Mehdi was also considerably in demand for remixes throughout his all-too-short career.

DJ Mehdi was hosting a birthday party for Riton, which had spread to the rooftop of his Paris apartment. It seems that a plexiglass skylight had shattered from the increased weight, all bar Riton falling through the roof. However, while others escaped with minor injuries, DJ Mehdi -having plunged seven metres – was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Golden Oldies #147

John Du Cann

(John Cann - Leicester, England, 5 June 1946)

Atomic Rooster

(Various acts)

An adaptable guitarist, John Cann amended his name to experience success with a number of bands - most notably UK psychedelic-rockers Atomic Rooster. Moving to Wiltshire, he began his career with local act The Sonics, before joining The Attack - a London-based freakbeat combo - in 1966. This band lasted only two years, and Cann then played briefly with Andromeda, who issued one album before his departure to become singer/guitarist with Atomic Rooster - a group built around former members of chart-toppers The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Rooster (originally featuring prog legend Carl Palmer on drums) nailed two memorable hits in Britain - ‘Tomorrow Night’ (1971, Top Twenty) and ‘The Devil’s Answer’ (1971, Top Five) - and also scored two UK Top 20 albums at this time. (Cann’s name was now amended to
Du
Cann, per his manager’s suggestion.)

With Atomic Rooster’s direction taking a tangent, Du Cann left with drummer Paul Hammond to join protometal band Hard Stuff; a car-crash injury to Hammond put paid to this, however. Du Cann’s ‘journeyman’ career continued with two significant British-based rock acts - a stint playing live with Thin Lizzy was followed by an album recorded with members of Status Quo.

Du Cann released several of his own recordings to little response, although he achieved Top Forty status with ‘Don’t Be a Dummy’ (1979). The song was one of many commercial jingles written by the guitarist, in this case, to promote Lee Cooper jeans. It would have undoubtedly charted higher than UK number thirty-three had Du Cann not insisted on re-recording the original version by the then-hot Gary Numan …

John Du Cann reunited with members of Atomic Rooster during the 1980s, but he had been living in relative obscurity until his death on 21 September 2011 following a heart attack in Hampstead, London.

See also
Vincent Crane (
February 1989). Paul Hammond died from a drug overdose in 1992 at the age of forty.

Thursday 22

Vesta Williams

(Mary Vesta Williams - Coshocton, Ohio, 1 December 1957)

(Wild Honey)

Primarily a club singer, Vesta Williams never really enjoyed the international status that her charming four-octave vocal range perhaps deserved. As a teenager, the singer was spotted by former 5
^th
Dimension singer Ron Townson, who placed her in his shortlived Wild Honey project.

Williams’s remarkable range had been noted by others, too, the singer finding berths singing with Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan and Gordon Lightfoot before signing with A&M as a soloist in the mid-eighties. Her first album
Vesta
received good notices, and spawned the smoky British Top Twenty hit ‘Once Bitten, Twice Shy’ (1986, US R & B Top Ten). But despite a succession of R & B hits -including ‘Sweet, Sweet Love’ (1988, US R & B Top Five), ‘Congratulations’ (1989, US R & B Top Five) and ‘Special’ (1991, US R & B number two) – Williams struggled to make the Billboard Hot 100. While releasing several low-profile albums during the nineties, the versatile vocalist made the bulk of her living touring, as well as by securing a number of lucrative commercial jingle slots and acting in a minor role in ABC television sitcom
Sister, Sister.
(In recent years, Williams had lost almost 100 lbs after becoming an advocate for obesity management.)

Vesta Williams was found deceased in a hotel room in El Segundo, a suburb of Los Angeles. It was initially believed that the singer had died from an overdose of drugs, but an autopsy determined that she suffered from hypertensive heart disease – a condition that can remain undetected for years.

Golden Oldies #148