OBITUARIES

Tough times out there at the moment, with the Coronovirus decimating the live music scene and causing bloggers such as myself to focus on more important matters like keeping safe and symptom-free and worrying about those closest to me. However, there has sadly been a huge spate of recent rock and roll related deaths that - as far as I'm concerned - are just too important to ignore. So, if you'll permit me, I'd like to take a little time to pay tribute to these fallen heroes and wax lyrical about their mighty achievements. Pour yourself a glass of something suitable then and read on...

ANDREW WEATHERALL: 6/4/63 - 17/2/20

The biggest loss to me, musically, this year has undoubtedly been the tragic and far too early death of the legendary DJ, producer and all-round musical genius Andrew Weatherall who has left us at the age of 56 after suffering a pulmonary embolism. Most well-known for his production work on Primal Scream's seminal 'Screamadelica' album in 1991, Weatherall was also a peerless remixer for acts such a New Order, Bjork, My Bloody Valentine, Leftfield, Saint Etienne and Happy Mondays. On top of all this he also had time to put together his own collectives - most successfully Sabres Of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen - as well as performing hugely influential DJ sets that saw him selling out venues far and wide. He was a master of his craft and as down to earth a man as you could possibly find, eschewing the 'Superstar DJ' lifestyle of the 90's for an earthier, scuzz-encrusted East London dive kind of career that suited him down to the ground. Indeed, he would, over the last two decades, usually be found in a dark and dingy old school boozer spinning hours and hours of, in his own words, "absolutely full-knacker, proper panel-beaters from Prague, 'ere-we-go techno". He was, and this is no hyperbole, the greatest DJ of my generation and arguably more important than most of the rock bands that he remixed.

Born and raised in leafy Windsor, Weatherall's first foray into what would become a lifelong love of music in all its forms were his regular jaunts to Funk & Soul Weekenders up and down the UK during his late teens. After leaving home and moving to London in the mid-80's, Weatherall found himself DJ-ing at local house parties before he - and his ever-expanding record collection - caught the eye of legendary DJ's Terry Farley and Danny Rampling, who offered him his own nights at clubs such as The Trip and Shoom. Alongside his DJ work, Weatherall - as well as Farley - started up the Boys Own fanzine which focused on dance music, rave culture, fashion and various flotsam that dance heads across the country snapped up in bundles. Weatherall soon hooked up with uber-producer Paul Oakenfold which led to his first production credit on the mighty Happy Mondays tune 'Hallelujah'. This led him into the orbit of Glasgow's perennially under-achieving rock and roll desperadoes Primal Scream, who offered Weatherall their 'I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have' track - a slow, bluesy jam - which Weatherall reconfigured magnificently into the still extraordinary dance-rock hybrid 'Loaded'. The remixed version of 'Loaded' in 1990 propelled Primal Scream into the forefront of British alternative music - where they still reside today - and his subsequent work on the following year's 'Screamadelica' won the band plaudits and awards across the board. As good as the songs written by the band on that album were though, it was the sound and the feel of the record that made the world sit up and take notice - and that was all down to Andrew Weatherall.

After 'Screamadelica', Weatherall was offered every production job under the sun and could quite easily have pursued a massively successful career in that field. Instead, sticking to his punk rock principles, he took a back seat from the drug-fuelled manic intensity of the 90's and focused on doing his own thing in his own way. Splicing together his love of reggae, punk, acid house and rockabilly, his cache of Sabres Of Paradise, Two Lone Swordsmen, The Asphodells and various other solo recordings were chock full of barnstorming beats and tremendous tunes. He continued to record, remix and perform right up until the end of last year - even curating an annual dance festival in France that, obviously, sold out within minutes of it's announcement every year. Hugely influential and revered by his peers - The Chemical Brothers (who Weatherall first hosted back in the early 90's at his gloriously grimy Sabersonic club nights) have constantly championed him as the greatest DJ of all time - and producing modern-day acts that arguably wouldn't exist without him (Fuck Buttons, Meatraffle), Andrew Weatherall was a true maverick, oozing with integrity, curiosity and an innate desire to push the envelope in whichever field he felt drawn to. Not just musically, but in literature, art and his own individual style - all Edwardian tweed and handlebar moustache. He was a one-off and a true inspiration and my own personal adventures in the dance music stratosphere over these last three decades would not have been the same without him.
 Rest in power, dear boy.

THE BEST OF ANDREW WEATHERALL

PRIMAL SCREAM: LOADED
PRIMAL SCREAM: HIGHER THAN THE SUN (American Spring Mix)
SAINT ETIENNE: ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART (2 Halves Mix)
MY BLOODY VALENTINE: SOON (Weatherall Mix)
ONE DOVE: WHITE LOVE (Guitar Paradise Mix)
BJORK: ONE DAY (Springs Eternal Mix)
BOCCA JUNIORS: RAISE
THE SABRES OF PARADISE: SMOKEBELCH 2 (Entry)
THE SABRES OF PARADISE: INTER-LERGEN-TEN-KO 2
TWO LONE SWORDSMEN: BROOTIE
TWO LONE SWORDSMEN: SEX BEAT
ANDREW WEATHERALL: FEATHERS
ANDREW WEATHERALL: DARKTOWN FIGURES
THE ASPHODELLS: A LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE (Version 2)
FUCK BUTTONS: OLYMPIANS (AW Production)

"A career in business looks quite tiresome and vexing and like it might involve me having meetings with people I don't want to have meetings with. Call me unambitious, but I was fine where I was."

ADAM SCHLESINGER: 31/10/67 - 1/4/20

American singer-songwriter Adam Schlesinger - most well-known for his band Fountains Of Wayne - has sadly died from Coronovirus symptoms at the shockingly young age of 52. Like most people, I first became aware of Schlesinger's sparkling songwriting skills with that first peerless Fountains album in 1996. Melding a delicious blend of spiky power-pop, post grunge swagger and Beatles-esque harmonising, Schlesinger - along with writing partner and fellow lead vocalist Chris Collingwood - filled that first album with utterly wondrous tunes like 'Radiation Vibe', 'Sink To The Bottom' and the truly heart-stopping 'Sick Day' before solidifying their initial success with follow-up albums 'Utopia Parkway' and 'Welcome Interstate Managers', the latter of which featured the huge world-wide smash 'Stacy's Mom'. Concurrent to his work with Fountains, Schlesinger also wrote songs and music for a myriad of TV and film projects, garnering an Oscar nomination for the movie 'That Thing You Do!' as well as winning a bunch of Emmy and Grammy awards. He also penned and produced songs for a variety of other artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Robert Plant, The Monkees, Bowling For Soup and They Might Be Giants. Schlesinger was a truly magnificent songwriter and a wonderful talent and will be sorely missed.

DAVID ROBACK: 4/4/58 - 24/2/20

Long, languid and laid-back - and very rarely seen without his trademark beret and shades - David Roback, who has died of cancer at the age of 61, will be remembered mostly from his tenure in that most relaxed of 90's alt-rock bands, Mazzy Star. He had, however, been knocking on the door of success for some years prior to Mazzy Star's brief period of fame with his stint in the Los Angeles band The Rain Parade who were a mainstay of the nearly-but-not-quite-massive Paisley Underground scene of the early 80's. After leaving The Rain Parade, Roback formed Opal with former Dream Syndicate member Kendra Smith who subsequently morphed into Mazzy Star after Smith was replaced by the waif-like Hope Sandoval. All of Roback's songwriting lent itself to a woozy, dream-like state of chilled-out bliss and, with Sandoval on board, it coalesced superbly into three albums of gloriously hazy blues-infused Americana that reached its apex on 1993's spellbinding 'So Tonight That I Might See' that, if you haven't heard a note of Roback's music, is the best place to start. There was a 17 year gap between their third album and 2013's comeback 'Seasons Of Your Day' but it sounded like they'd never been away. They reconvened again in 2018 for a series of concerts before Roback fell ill. Sandoval posted online after his death of her "deep devastation" and thanked fans around the world for "all the love". This fan here says thanks for all the music.

THEY ALSO SERVED:

Other sad losses within the rock and roll firmament over the last few months include Gang Of Four guitarist Andy Gill who has died of pneumonia at the age of 64; legendary Cameroonian jazz-funk saxophonist Manu Dibango, claimed by Coronovirus symptoms at 86; Manchester industrial music titan and Throbbing Gristle frontperson Genesis Breyer P-Orridge who lost their battle with leukemia at the age of 70; classic folk superstar Julie Felix who, at one stage in the late 60's, was a bigger deal than either Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez and has left us after a short illness at 81; Czech-born guitarist and composer Ivan Kral who has collaborated with some of the greatest musicians of all-time like Patti Smith, Iggy Pop and John Cale and has succumbed to cancer at 71; iconic South African musical director Joseph Shabalala who came to prominence in the mid-80's with his traditional choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo after their appearance on the multi-million selling Paul Simon album 'Graceland' and who has died at 79; the mighty country music titan Kenny Rogers - known around the globe for his hits 'The Gambler', 'Ruby', and the globe-straddling duet with Dolly Parton 'Islands In The Stream', as well as his tremendous early work with the psychedelic jugband stylings of The First Edition - who has passed away at 81; prog-rock maestro and multi-skilled Rush drummer and songwriter Neil Peart who, for music fans of a certain vintage, was as important as musicians get and who has died of brain cancer at the age of 67; tremendously cool and always classy soul singer supreme Bill Withers - he of the classic hits 'Lovely Day', 'Lean On Me' and the utterly fantastic 'Ain't No Sunshine' - who has departed this realm after suffering heart complications at 81; and finally, the very, very great Bill Reiflin who, for me, was one of the finest drummers of the last 30 years or so, spreading his phenomenal talents far and wide across the alternative rock scene with stints in many a No Static At All favourite like Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Lard, Nine Inch Nails, Swans, Pigface and 1000 Homo DJ's as well as performing with R.E.M. in their later years after the departure of original drummer Bill Berry. I was lucky enough to see Reiflin live a few times with both Ministry and R.E.M. and he was always a joy to watch. He died on March 24th at the age of 59 after a short battle with cancer.
Rest in power to all the above.

JULIE FELIX:

   
KENNY ROGERS:

BILL WITHERS:

BILL REIFLIN: