Tag: obituary

Thom Bell, the legendary producer who revolutionized Philly Soul in the 1960s and ’70s, has died, Rolling Stone and The Philadelphia Inquirer report. Bell co-created “The Sound of Philadelphia” alongside songwriter Leon Huff and producer Kenny Gamble, who were known as the Mighty Three. Together, they founded Philadelphia International and crafted some of the most beloved records of the era. Some of Bell’s most renowned works include “La-La Means I Love You” by the Delfonics, “Backstabber” by the O’Jays, “Mama Can’t Buy You Love” by Elton John, and “Rubberband Man” by the Spinners. A cause of death has not yet been revealed. He was 79 years old.

Bell was born in Jamaica in 1943, but his family relocated to West Philadelphia where he was raised alongside nine brothers and sisters. Both of Bell’s parents were musicians, and Bell followed suit: As a child, he played drums studied classical piano. In his teenage years, he played alongside Gamble in the Romeos, and, by his early twenties, he’d taken a job a staff writer and touring conductor for Chubby Checker. In the late ’60s, Bell began working as a producer for the Delfonics—a collaboration that would result in hits like “La-La Means I Love You” and “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind.”

Bell’s classical background informed his work as an arranger and producer, and he employed instruments and techniques that were considered unconventional at the time. His lush signature sound could include everything from sitars to orchestral strings to bassoons, but his notation was not always traditional. “The very first time I wrote music out for my strings, I wrote a figure and put above it: ‘pluck,’” Bell told Pitchfork’s Jayson Greene in 2013.

He continued: “The musicians said to me, ‘Hey Bell; what’s this ‘pluck’ business? What are you talking about, man?’ I was like, ‘You know, [mimes plucking strings with fingers].’ They just looked at me and said, ‘You mean pizzicato!’ They still send me Christmas cards teasing me about that.”

In 1975, Bell won the Grammy Award for Best Producer of the Year, and, in 2006, he was inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame. Earlier this year, a new documentary focusing on the work of Bell, Huff, and Gamble was announced.

As the news of Bell’s death circulated, Gamble wrote in a statement (obtained by Rolling Stone): “Tommy and I have been best friends for over 60 years. When we first met, we decided to start writing songs together and form a singing duo ‘Kenny and Tommy’ and then our band the Romeos…. He was a great talent and my dear friend. Rest in peace, buddy.”

Martin Duffy, the Felt keyboardist who went on to play with Primal Scream, the Charlatans, and many more UK groups, has died, the BBC reports, citing tweets by the Charlatans’ Tim Burgess and Duffy’s brother, the BBC journalist Steve Duffy. He had injured his brain in a fall and died peacefully surrounded by family, his brother said. Duffy was 55. 

Raised in Birmingham, Duffy joined the cult indie-pop band Felt in 1985, and his playful organs became integral to their jangly sound, particularly on the 1986 classic Forever Breathes the Lonely Word, which featured a plaintive Duffy staring out from the cover. Throughout the late ’80s, he had been moonlighting as an ancillary keyboardist with Primal Scream, and in 1991, two years after Felt split, Duffy joined the Scottish band full-time. He played on their pivot to rave-rock, the landmark 1991 album Screamadelica, and all of the group’s records until their latest, 2016’s Chaosmosis.

In that period, Duffy became a reliable and ever-adaptable fixture of the British music scene. In 1996, when the Charlatans’ Rob Collins died in a car crash, Duffy filled in at the band’s much-mythologized Knebworth concert supporting Oasis on three weeks’ notice. He went on to record with the band on 1997’s Tellin’ Stories, and was later called upon for Oasis’ own “Love Like a Bomb,” as well as two tracks on the Chemical Brothers’ 2007 album, We Are the Night. Duffy released a solo album, Assorted Promenades, in 2014. 

On social media, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie wrote: 

Music meant everything to him. He loved literature and was well read and erudite. An autodidact. A deep thinker, curious about the world and other cultures. Always visiting museums in every city we played or looking for Neolithic stones in remote places. Opinionated and stubborn in his views. He could play piano to the level where he was feted not just by his peers in British music, but old school master American musicians such as James Luther Dickinson, Roger Hawkins & David Hood & producer Tom Dowd….

He was all about ‘the moment’, better have that ‘record’ button on when Duffy was on fire. His timing was unique, funky and ALWAYS behind the beat. George Clinton also dug Martin….

He lived to laugh and play music. He was loved by all of us in the Scream. A beautiful soul. We will miss him.

Terry Hall, the lead singer of the legendary ska band the Specials and former member of Fun Boy Three and the Colourfield, has died, his bandmates in the Specials have confirmed. They broke the news on social media, writing, “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing, following a brief illness, of Terry, our beautiful friend, brother, and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced.” Hall was 63 years old.

“Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love,” the Specials’ statement continues. “He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity. Terry often left the stage at the end of The Specials’ life-affirming shows with three words…‘Love Love Love.’ We would ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy at this very sad time.”

Born Terence Edward Hall on March 19, 1959 in Coventry, England, he had a troubling childhood growing up. When he was 12, Hall was abducted by a teacher and brought to France for a pedophile ring. “[I was] sexually abused for four days, and then punched in the face and left on the roadside,” he told the Spectator in 2019. The experience was so traumatic that he kept it hidden from his parents (although he later addressed the experience in Fun Boy Three’s 1983 song “Well Fancy That!”). Hall suffered from manic depression and medicated heavily to deal with the effects, going so far as to take Valium as a 13-year-old. Before his 15th birthday, he left school to land whatever short-term jobs he could get: a bricklayer, an apprentice hairdresser, a quantity surveyor. Years later, he started to pursue music, playing in the local punk band Squad.

The Specials formed in 1977 in Coventry, England with songwriter and keyboardist Jerry Dammers, original vocalist Tim Strickland, singer-guitarist Lynval Golding, drummer Silverton Hutchinson, and bassist Horace Panter. Hall joined the pioneering 2 Tone band—who, at the time, were called the Automatics—later that same year to replace Strickland. After changing their name to the Coventry Automatics, the band welcomed singer Neville Staple and guitarist Roddy Byers into the fold, thus prompting another name change to the Special AKA. That year, Joe Strummer invited the band to open for the Clash on one of their U.K. tours, introducing the band to a wider punk audience.

Bertha Barbee McNeal, a singer in the early Motown group the Velvelettes, died Thursday (December 15), The Detroit News reports. She had been receiving hospice care for colon cancer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the weeks before her death, according to The Detroit News. The Velvelettes’ lead singer, Cal Gill Street, said in a statement, “She was an angel. I’ve lost my dearest friend. She was the group historian, and the glue that kept us together.”

Raised in Flint, McNeal co-founded the Velvelettes at Western Michigan University in the 1960s. They successfully auditioned at Motown, and made a splash with the Billboard Top 100 singles “Needle in a Haystack” and “He Was Really Saying Something,” both early landmarks for the producer Norman Whitfield. Bananarama had a hit covering the latter in 1982, and Amy Winehouse cited the group as an influence while recording Back to Black.

After a string of ’60s Motown singles that continued with “Lonely, Lonely Girl Am I,” the Velvelettes parted ways and completed their college degrees, and McNeal began a long career teaching in Michigan public schools. The group reunited first in 1984 and several more times in the ensuing decades, including, in 2019, for Motown’s 60th anniversary Hitsville Honors celebration in Detroit.

In a statement reported by The Detroit News, the Motown Historical Museum called McNeal “a community leader and educator,” adding, “Bertha’s passion was to inspire young girls, particularly the next generation of female talent.”

Hamish Kilgour, the drummer, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Clean with his brother, the guitarist David Kilgour, has died, representatives for the band confirmed. The musician had been missing since November 27. A cause of death has not been revealed. Hamish Kilgour was 65 years old.

Formed in Dunedin in 1978, the Clean were key figures in the early days of indie rock and indie pop. Their first incarnation lasted only 18 months, establishing an on-again, off-again routine that would persist throughout the band’s unorthodox career. In 1981, the Clean’s debut single, “Tally Ho!,” helped establish Flying Nun, a then-fledgling New Zealand label formed by a fan, and climbed the national charts. At this point, the trio consisted of the Kilgour brothers and bassist Robert Scott, later of the Bats; all shared songwriting duties. The group followed with a pair of EPs—Boodle Boodle Boodle and Great Sounds Great—and a single, “Getting Older,” before a longer-lasting split in 1982.

In 1988, the Clean reunited to perform in London, resulting in the In-A-Live EP, which presents five of their classic songs in 16-track sound; the same year, the Clean’s music officially hit the United States as a collection titled Compilation, released via future Matador label founder Gerard Cosloy’s Homestead Records. Bookended by two world tours, the second phase of the Clean also spawned their first proper album, 1990’s Vehicle (issued via Flying Nun in partnership with UK indie stalwart Rough Trade), before things fizzled out once again. Later in the decade, the Clean got back together for a fresh pair of albums—1995’s Modern Rock and 1996’s Unknown Country—before yet another hiatus.

By the time the trio next reconvened, in 2000, the Clean’s influence on a new, largely American generation of bands—including Pavement, Galaxie 500, and Guided by Voices—was clear. Their album the following year, Getaway, came out on Merge, the U.S. independent label founded by Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance; Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan guested on the songs “Alpine Madness” and “Circle Canyon,” too. Flying Nun and Merge jointly released the career-spanning Anthology in 2003, and the Clean followed with the new studio album Mister Pop in 2009. New Zealand’s devastating 2011 earthquake scuppered plans for another potential full-length, but the Clean kept on gigging in subsequent years, as sporadic as ever.

Irene Cara, star of the Academy Award-winning film Fame and vocalist on the 1983 hit “Flashdance…What a Feeling” has died. Cara’s publicist, Judith A. Moore, announce her death on Twitter, noting that Cara died at her home in Florida, but declined to provide a cause of death. She was 63 years old.

“She was a beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through her music and films,” the statement said. “Funeral services are pending and a memorial for her fans will be planned at a future date.”

Irene Cara Escalera was born on March 18, 1959 in the Bronx, New York. She was the youngest of five children born to Gaspar and Louise Escalera. She was encouraged to pursue a career in the entertainment industry from a young age, performing in beauty pageants, learning the piano by ear, and taking dance lessons before making her way onto shows including the PBS series, The Electric Company, and eventually to Broadway, where she starred in musicals like Via Galactica, Maggie Flynn, and Sparkle. The latter production was adapted into a movie.

Cara followed this early success with Fame, the 1980 film that would make her a household name. Though initially cast as a dancer, the part of Coco Hernandez was rewritten to showcase Cara’s singing voice. Her presence on two songs in particular—“Fame” and “Out Here on My Own”—catapulted the film’s soundtrack onto the Billboard charts, with “Fame” peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the full soundtrack peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Both “Fame” and “Out Here on My Own” were later nominated for Best Original Song at the 1980 Academy Awards, with the former single ultimately taking home the award.

Fame helped cement Cara’s place in the music industry, earning Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1980 and winning the latter award. In 1982, she released her debut album, Anyone Can See, which was quickly followed by the single “Flashdance…What a Feeling.” Co-written by Cara alongside Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey, the song was originally recorded for the film Flashdance and peaked No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it sat for six weeks. The song led Cara to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance that year.

“How bright our spirits go shooting out into space, depends on how much we contributed to the earthly brilliance of this world,” she once said in Fame, per the Associated Press. “And I mean to be a major contributor!”

Wilko Johnson, the influential guitarist who spearheaded the United Kingdom’s pub rock scene with Dr. Feelgood, died Monday (November 21) at the age of 75, BBC News reports. Although no cause of death was given, Johnson received a diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer in 2013 before making an unlikely recovery, as documented in the 2015 film The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson.

Formed in Essex’s Canvey Island in the early 1970s, Dr. Feelgood played no-frills R&B characterized by Johnson’s playful riffs and juddering guitar stabs. He wrote several songs for their first two albums, 1974’s Down by the Jetty and 1975’s Malpractice, which heavily influenced the Sex Pistols, the Jam, Gang of Four, and generations of British punk and post-punk musicians. In the United States, Johnson’s influence is audible in Blondie, the Ramones, and Richard Hell’s Voidoids, all of whom cited Dr. Feelgood as an inspiration.

By the end of the decade, Johnson had parted ways with the group, and he eventually formed the Wilko Johnson Band, the project that he helmed until his death. The group’s output was sporadic, but Johnson’s legacy came in for a more sustained celebration after he appeared in Julian Temple’s 2009 documentary on Dr. Feelgood, Oil City Confidential. Johnson subsequently appeared as the executioner Ser Ilyn Payne in the first two seasons of Game of Thrones.

After his cancer diagnosis in 2013, Johnson refused chemotherapy in order to embark on a farewell tour. The cancer was less aggressive than first thought, however, and he declared himself cancer-free in 2014. The Wilko Johnson Band released a final album, Blow Your Mind, in 2018, and continued to perform until the months leading up to his death. Members of Led Zeppelin, Franz Ferdinand, and Sleaford Mods were among those to pay tribute to Johnson.