Musician Tributes

Joy McKean Playlist

Mildred Geraldine Joy Kirkpatrick OAM (née McKean; 14 January 1930 – 25 May 2023), known by her stage name of Joy McKean, was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and wife and manager of Slim Dusty. Her daughter is country singer and musician Anne Kirkpatrick.

McKean was known as the Queen of Australian country music and considered a pioneer in the industry, recognized as one of Australia's leading songwriters and bush balladeers and wrote several of Dusty's most popular songs.[3] In 1973, she was awarded the first ever Golden Guitar, for writing "Lights on the Hill". Several documentary films tell of the couple's success and adventures as performers, including The Slim Dusty Movie and Slim and I.

The McKean-Dusty partnership produced over 100 albums and sold eight million records in Australia alone.

McKean was awarded the OAM in 1991, with the citation "services to the entertainment industry".

McKean won several APRA Awards and was inducted into the Australian Roll of Renown in 1983.She was the first winner of the Golden Guitars, an award she would win 45 times in her career.

Tina Turner Playlist

Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023) was an American-born Swiss singer. Known as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before launching a successful career as a solo performer.

Turner began her career with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm in 1957. Under the name Little Ann, she appeared on her first record, "Boxtop", in 1958. In 1960, she debuted as Tina Turner with the hit duet single "A Fool in Love". The duo Ike & Tina Turner became "one of the most formidable live acts in history".[7] They released hits such as "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", "River Deep – Mountain High", "Proud Mary", and "Nutbush City Limits", before disbanding in 1976.

In the 1980s, Turner launched "one of the greatest comebacks in music history".[8] Her 1984 multi-platinum album Private Dancer contained the hit song "What's Love Got to Do with It", which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became her first and only number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100. Aged 44, she was the oldest female solo artist to top the Hot 100.[9] Her chart success continued with "Better Be Good to Me", "Private Dancer", "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)", "Typical Male", "The Best", "I Don't Wanna Fight", and "GoldenEye". During her Break Every Rule World Tour in 1988, she set a then-Guinness World Record for the largest paying audience (180,000) for a solo performer.

Turner also acted in the films Tommy (1975) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). In 1993, What's Love Got to Do with It, a biographical film adapted from her autobiography I, Tina: My Life Story, was released. In 2009, Turner retired after completing her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour, which is the 15th-highest-grossing tour of the 2000s. In 2018, she became the subject of a jukebox musical, Tina.

Having sold over 100 million records worldwide, Turner is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. She received 12 Grammy Awards, which include eight competitive awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She was the first black artist and first woman to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone ranked her among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.[11] Turner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Ike Turner in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021.[12] She was also a 2005 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and Women of the Year award.

Sheldon Reynolds Playlist

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Reynolds began playing the guitar when he was eight years old, and by the age of 12 was considered a prodigy. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati. Reynolds toured with singer Millie Jackson. Reynolds later joined R&B band Sun, with whom he recorded three albums. During 1983 he became a member of The Commodores. With the Commodores he sang on their 1985 LP Nightshift and then played on their 1986 album United. Altogether he featured with the band for four years.

Reynolds then joined Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) in the roles of lead guitarist and co-vocalist. He went on to play on EWF's LPs Touch The World (1987), The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. (1988), Heritage (1990), Millennium (1993) and In The Name of Love (1997). With EWF he earned a Grammy nomination in 1994 in the category of Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for the song "Sunday Morning". As a member of the band, Reynolds was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.

Ed Ames Playlist

Ed Ames (born Edmund Dantes Urick; July 9, 1927 – May 21, 2023), who also recorded as Eddie Ames, was an American pop singer and actor.[1] He is known for playing Mingo in the television series Daniel Boone, and for his pop number #1 hits of the mid-to-late 1960s including "My Cup Runneth Over", "Time,Time", and "When the Snow Is on the Roses". He was also part of the popular 1950s singing group with his siblings, the Ames Brothers.

Pete Brown Playlist

Peter Ronald Brown (25 December 1940 – 19 May 2023) was an English performance poet, lyricist, and singer best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce. Brown formed the bands Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments and Pete Brown & Piblokto! and worked with Graham Bond and Phil Ryan. Brown also wrote film scripts and formed a film production company.

Brown was born in Ashtead, Surrey, England. Before his involvement with music, he was a poet, having his first poem published in the U.S. magazine Evergreen Review when he was 14 years old.

Brown became part of the poetry scene in Liverpool during the 1960s, and in 1964 was the first poet to perform at Morden Tower in Newcastle.[3][4] He became a significant advocate of British Beat Poetry, and in partnership with Michael Horovitz wrote poetry which they recited together as part of the 1965 event at the Royal Albert Hall.

Combining his poetry with music, Brown began performing at live events with musicians including the "New Departures" group with Horovitz, and toured with folk guitarist Davey Graham. The First Real Poetry Band was formed by Brown with John McLaughlin (guitar), Binky McKenzie (bass), Laurie Allan (drums) and Pete Bailey (percussion).

Andy Rourke Playlist

Andrew Michael Rourke (17 January 1964 – 19 May 2023) was an English musician, best known as the bassist of the rock band the Smiths. He was known for his melodic approach to bass playing.

Rourke joined the Smiths after their first gig, having known guitarist Johnny Marr since secondary school, and played on all four of their studio albums. After the group broke up in 1987, he performed on lead vocalist Morrissey's solo releases. Rourke recorded with Sinéad O'Connor and the Pretenders in the early 1990s, and was a member of the supergroup Freebass and the band D.A.R.K. He organiezed the Versus Cancer concerts from 2006 to 2009.

Algy Ward Playlist

Alasdair Mackie "Algy" Ward (11 July 1959 – 17 May 2023) was an English punk rock and heavy metal bass guitarist and singer. He began his career in 1977, as a bassist for the Australian band the Saints. Afterwards, he joined the the Damned, before founding Tank in 1980. Tank were part of the new wave of British heavy metal movement.

John Giblin Playlist

John Giblin (26 February 1952 – 14 May 2023) was a British musician who worked as an acoustic and electric bass player spanning jazz, classical, rock, folk, and avant-garde music.

Best known as a studio musician, recording film scores and contemporary music, Giblin also performed live and recorded with Peter Gabriel, John Martyn, Elkie Brooks, Annie Lennox, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Phil Collins, Empire with Peter Banks, Fish, rock/pop band Simple Minds, and has been closely associated with artists ranging from Kate Bush, Jon Anderson (Yes), to jazz fusion group Brand X, and with the avant-garde recordings by Scott Walker (including the album Tilt).

Later in life, Giblin moved further into the direction of acoustic bass, with projects involving drummer Peter Erskine (of Weather Report), and pianist Alan Pasqua (of Tony Williams Lifetime).

Francis Monkman Playlist

Anthony Francis Keigwin Monkman (9 June 1949 – 11 May 2023) was an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founding member of both the progressive rock band Curved Air and the classical/rock fusion band Sky. He was the son of Kenneth Monkman, an authority on the writer Laurence Sterne and Vita née Duncombe Mann.

Monkman was a pupil at Westminster School where he studied organ and harpsichord, later studying at the Royal Academy of Music, winning the Raymond Russell prize for virtuosity on the harpsichord and becoming a member of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Wanting to experiment with more spontaneous music forms, Monkman learned how to play guitar and began to associate himself with rock music. In the late 1960s he founded the rock band Sisyphus, which evolved into the pioneering band Curved Air. Monkman played on their first three albums, doubling on keyboards and guitar, and exploring his interest in jamming, overtones, natural harmonies, and freer aspects of musicality. With group violinist Darryl Way, Monkman also contributed the bulk of the band's composing, although he and Way rarely collaborated. Differences of opinion with Way ultimately led to Monkman's departure from the band following the release of Phantasmagoria (1972). Curved Air singer Sonja Kristina has commented "(Francis likes) jamming... real 'out there' cosmic rock jamming. And that is not Darryl at all... He's a very disciplined perfectionist, he likes things to be as precise and exquisite as possible. Whereas Francis is completely the opposite way; he just wants to play and things just come out of the cosmos".[1] Monkman returned briefly to Curved Air for a 1974 tour intended to pay off the group's outstanding tax bill, which resulted in the release of the 1975 concert album Live, but departed again at the end of the tour.

After leaving Curved Air, Monkman contributed to the Renaissance album Prologue (1972), worked with Al Stewart including contributing to the album Past, Present and Future (1973) as well as Lynsey de Paul on her Surprise album and toured with The Shadows on their 20 Golden Greats Tour (1977). Also in 1977, he collaborated with Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno on the project 801. In 1978, he played all keyboards on Brian Bennett's solo album Voyage.

In 1978, Monkman became a member of classical/rock music fusion band Sky alongside guitarists John Williams and Kevin Peek, bass player Herbie Flowers and drummer/percussionist Tristan Fry. His keyboard work with Sky included extensive classical or classically-inspired harpsichord playing (highlighted on the band's electric version of Bach's "Toccata", which reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart,[4] and secured Sky a Top of the Pops appearance), piano, and a variety of synthesizer approaches including progressive rock complexity and psychedelic drones. During his time with the band, Monkman was arguably also their most prolific composer and arranger. For their debut album, he wrote the non-hit single "Cannonball" and the 20-long second-side composition "Where Opposites Meet" (which was intended to combine and display the band's diverse influences). On their second album, he performed a version of Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Gavotte & Variations" as an absolutely straight classical solo harpsichord rendition (further cementing the place of classical music in the band's repertoire) and composed a second side-long twenty-minute long-form composition ("FIFO", for which the title and musical structure was inspired by computer data processing, and on which Monkman also played distorted psychedelic guitar alongside the more formal parts performed by Peek and Williams).

During his time with Sky, Monkman continued to release solo recordings which mingled original composition with film and television soundtracks and library music. His 1978 album Energism included the electronic "Achievements of Man", from which extracts were used as the theme to the BBC program Think Again.[5] He also composed the piece "Current Affairs", used by Channel 4 as the introduction to Engineering Announcements, provided by the IBA.[6] He would also become known as a synthesizer demonstrator on programs such as the BBC's Tomorrow's World.

In 1980, Monkman's soundtrack to the British film The Long Good Friday was so successful that he opted to amicably leave Sky in order to concentrate on television and soundtrack work. At around the same time, he resumed performances of classical harpsichord music.

In 1981, Monkman released an art/progressive rock album called Dweller on the Threshold. This was the first album on which he had sung lead vocals; it also featured Camel's Andy Latimer (guitar) and former Whitesnake drummer Dave Dowle, as well as singers Graham Laydon and Julia Rathbone.

After a 20-year break, Monkman started to release further albums again at the start of the 21st century, beginning with 2001's 21st Century Blues.

Monkman died from cancer on 11 May 2023, at the age of 73.

Rolf Harris Playlist

Rolf Harris (30 March 1930 – 10 May 2023) was an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, painter and television personality.[1] He often used unusual instruments like the didgeridoo and the stylophone in his performances, and is credited with the invention of the wobble board.[2] He was convicted in England in 2014 of the sexual assault of four underage girls, which effectively ended his career.

Harris began his entertainment career in 1953, releasing several songs, including "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" (a Top 10 hit in Australia, the UK and the United States), "Sun Arise", "Jake the Peg" and "Two Little Boys", which reached number 1 in the UK. From the 1960s, Harris was a successful television personality in the UK, later presenting shows such as Rolf's Cartoon Club and Animal Hospital. In 1985, he hosted the short educational film Kids Can Say No!, which warned children between ages five and eight how to avoid situations where they might be sexually abused, how to escape such situations and how to get help if they are abused. In 2005, Harris painted an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

After the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, Harris was arrested as part of the Operation Yewtree police investigation and was questioned in May 2013 regarding historical allegations of sexual offences. Harris denied any wrongdoing and was bailed without charge. In August 2013, Harris was again arrested, and charged with nine counts of indecent assault dating to the 1980s, involving two girls between 14 and 16 years old, as well as four counts alleging production of indecent child images in 2012.

In July 2014, Harris, aged 84, was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison on twelve counts of indecent assault on four female victims, during the 1970s and 1980s. He was released on license in 2017 after serving nearly three years at HM Prison Stafford. Following his conviction, Harris was stripped of many of his honors, and reruns of his television programs were pulled from syndication. One count was overturned as unsafe in 2017.[11] Harris applied for permission to appeal against his convictions concerning the other girls, but this was refused.

Stu James (The Mojos)

The band formed under the name the Nomads as a duo in 1962 and originally consisted of bassist Keith Karlson (born Keith Alcock) and Jon "Bob" Conrad. After that the band was joined in September 1962 by lead singer, pianist Stu James (born Stuart Slater), rhythm guitarist, vocalist Adrian Lord (born Adrian Wilkinson).[2] The band continued without a lead guitarist when Wood left. At the suggestion of Beatle George Harrison, pianist Terry O'Toole was added to the lineup in August 1963;[2] Harrison having heard him play at a jazz club. The band also changed their name in August 1963 to the Mojos and Lord changed from rhythm guitarist to lead guitarist. This lineup recorded "My Whole Life Through",[2] which was featured on the Oriole Records This is Merseybeat compilation album,[3] and the debut single "They Say".

"They Say" achieved some popularity; amongst other things, it was used for the party scene in the 1964 film The Comedy Man.

Despite having written the single's b-side, Lord (Wilkinson) left the group soon after its release in October 1963 and was replaced by Nicky Crouch[2] (formerly of Faron's Flamingos) (born Nicholas Crouch, Aintree). This was the line-up that was to continue until October 1964, recording the group's three charting singles - "Everything's Alright" (no. 9), "Why Not Tonight" (no. 25) and "Seven Daffodils" (no. 30)[1] - as well as an EP. They appeared in the movie Every Day's a Holiday and like many of their contemporaries the group played at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany

In October 1964, Karlson, Conrad and O'Toole left the group and James and Crouch were joined by drummer Aynsley Dunbar and bassist Lewis Collins (26 May 1946 – 27 November 2013).[2] This line-up recorded the singles "Comin' On to Cry" and "Wait A Minute" (the latter released as by "Stu James and the Mojos"), for Decca - before disbanding in September 1966.

James and Crouch formed a new version with Birmingham bass player Deke Vernon and Southampton drummer Martin Smith and released a further single "Good-Bye, Dolly Gray" in February 1967 which also failed to chart. They then spent several months playing at a luxury hotel in the Ivory Coast later that year.

James moved back to Southampton and reformed the Mojos in late 1967 with local musicians Eddie Harnett on lead guitar, Duncan Campbell on bass and Tony House on drums, and recorded "Until My Baby Comes Home", for Liberty.

Collins became an actor, starring in The Professionals, and Dunbar became a noted session musician, playing with Frank Zappa, David Bowie and John Mayall, among others.[2] Stu James stayed in the music business taking management roles at Bradley’s Records and later Chrysalis Records.[2] Crouch currently plays in a group called Nicky Crouch's Mojos, which features members of other 1960s Merseybeat acts, including the Swinging Blue Jeans, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and Faron's Flamingos.

The Mojos were reformed as a touring band in the 1970s by the Hal Carter Organization with various professional musicians including lead guitarist Tony Cowell (the Tornados, Billy Fury, Marty Wilde), bass guitarist Dave Cowell (Fusion Orchestra) and drummer Jon Werrell (the Tornados, Heinz, Dustin Gee, Carl Simmons). They supported Mud and Showaddywaddy on some UK tour dates.

Lead singer Stu James died on 10 May 2023, at the age of 77.

Biographical Information sourced from Wikipedia.

Videos Sourced from YouTube

- Julie O'Hara 2023

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