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Dead Pop Stars

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Ray Fenwick, guitarist with The Spencer Davis Group during their least successful singles chart period, dead at 75: https://dmme.net/ray-fenwick-passed-away/

 

He did however have a US Charting hit with his band Fancy, reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974:

 

 

Us Brits however will be forever grateful for his co-writing and performing credit on the Magpie Theme Tune:

 

 

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Ricky Gardiner, Scottish lead guitarist on and co-composer of The Passenger by Iggy Pop and lead guitarist on Sound And Vision and others by David Bowie, reportedly dead: 

 

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Well, maybe pop "star" is going too far here, but interesting one nonetheless.

 

Roger James (b. 1944, Evesham as Roger James Scarrott), guitarist and vocalist with the Roger James Four who released singles in the 1960s to little public acclaim, is reportedly dead as of 16 May: 

What is interesting is that he apparently played on the soundtrack with the British Lion Orchestra to The Girl On A Motorcycle movie (Delon/Marianne Faithfull) and also worked with McCartney on Give My Regards To Broad Street (having been in McCartney's company decades earlier in Hamburg in the early 1960s). Also claims to have worked with Jerry Lee Lewis, so no shortage of connection to DL luminaries.

 

Of further interest though, his only charting position was as one of an uncredited backing duo who sang on Danny Storm's 1962 #42 Honest I Do. And here he be centre vocalling away:

 

 

 

 

He does have a website as of the moment, so a biography is here: http://rj4.co.uk/index.html

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He found his way home. RIP.

 

DDP hit, too.

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7 minutes ago, Spade_Cooley said:

Vangelis dead according to the Greek-language press, who you'd assume would probably know.

Oh wow, huuuuuuge.

 

The Blade Runner soundtrack is probably my favourite movie soundtrack.

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13 minutes ago, Spade_Cooley said:

Vangelis dead according to the Greek-language press, who you'd assume would probably know.

 

 

Greek Foreign Minister tweeting his condolences so guessing it's legit

 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, msc said:

He found his way home. RIP.

 

 

This is currently my chosen funeral exit music.

Some people will think it's religious, but it's more ambiguous than that.

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Picked Vangelis a few years ago for my TOTP Theme Team, however by 1986 he wasn't doing anything of note in the UK charts.

 

Plenty of them obits out there.

 

RIP.

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Should also add he hit the UK charts back in December 1968 reaching #29 with Rain And Tears (which he co-wrote) with Aphrodite's Child:

 

Give our love to Demis. 

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2 hours ago, Toast said:

 

This is currently my chosen funeral exit music.

Some people will think it's religious, but it's more ambiguous than that.

 

Beautiful song. The parents were fans and are sad at his passing, I only really know him through them. Chariots of Fire, I'll Find My Way Home and The Friends of Mr Cairo are probably the ones I'm most familiar with: Mr Cairo was quite creepy as a child.

 

A wonderfully gifted man. Incidentally, Jon Anderson (born local to me, in Accrington) is still going at 77, he'll be 78 in October.

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3 hours ago, YoungWillz said:

Should also add he hit the UK charts back in December 1968 reaching #29 with Rain And Tears (which he co-wrote) with Aphrodite's Child:

 

Give our love to Demis. 

 

 

With all due respects to the rest of Vangelis' estimable oeuvre, the 666 album by Aphrodite's Child which is insane and brilliant in equal measure is the high point. Prog rock trio embarrasingly ahead of their time or anyone else's for that matter who did their own Abbey Road in that they couldn't stand the sight of each other in the car park then they walked to the studio and nailed magic.  

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6 minutes ago, Toast said:

 

That's not intended as a "shocked" reaction, it's a "wow".

 

 

Speaking of microsurgery the guy that loaded the master tapes onto a shelf got a hernia, right?

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2 hours ago, RoverAndOut said:

Beautiful song. The parents were fans and are sad at his passing, I only really know him through them. Chariots of Fire, I'll Find My Way Home and The Friends of Mr Cairo are probably the ones I'm most familiar with: Mr Cairo was quite creepy as a child.

 

A wonderfully gifted man. Incidentally, Jon Anderson (born local to me, in Accrington) is still going at 77, he'll be 78 in October.

 

Surely you know "State Of Independence".  Best known version is probably the Donna Summer one, but there's also an excellent version on the Moodswings album with vocals by Chrissie Hynde.

 

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, gcreptile said:

Oh wow, huuuuuuge.

 

The Blade Runner soundtrack is probably my favourite movie soundtrack.

Closely followed by Antactica.

 

I saw him perform with the skyline of Rotterdam as a backdrop. This consert was organized to celebrate the opening of a new train tunnel and the closing of the bridge spanning the river Maas. I remember the last train passing, a massive steam locomotive screaming the whistle. The concert seemed like one big playback show though. Train passing at 40' 20".

 

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I'd forgotten this gem.

 

 

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8 hours ago, Spade_Cooley said:

Vangelis dead according to the Greek-language press, who you'd assume would probably know.

Do you search the web using Greek language search terms?  

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Reports that US 80s funk and R&B proponent Bernard Wright has died aged a mere 58: 

#6 in the US R&B Charts in 1985 with this little number, though appears to have done little UKside:

 

 

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