It's Time For Death To Take A Holiday

Seriously; April was like a weird horror movie;
Prince ~ 57 ~ Iconic American singer/guitarist/composer/producer. Combining influences from 1970's funk & disco, jazz-fusion and 1960's psyche-rock and pop he had a series of massively successful hits starting in the 1980's ("Purple Rain", "Little Red Corvette", "1999", "Raspberry Beret" "Kiss"). He also composed for movies such as "Purple Rain" and "Under The Cherry Moon" (both of which he starred in as well) and "Batman". Most of these can not be found on Youtube as he would not allow them to be licensed.

PRINCE ~ "LET'S GO CRAZY";


PRINCE ~ "PURPLE RAIN";


Prince also wrote and/or produced for a diverse number of artists including Morris Day & The Time ("Jungle Love"), The Bangles ("Manic Monday"), Sinaed O'Connor ("Nothing Compares To You"), Shelia E ("Glamorous Life"), Tom Jones ("Kiss")

SINEAD O'CONNOR ~ "NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU";


MORRIS DAY & THE TIME ~ "JUNGLE LOVE";


THE BANGLES ~ "MANIC MONDAY";


JIMMY SCOTT ~ "NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU";


Lonnie Mack ~ 74 ~ Memphis based Blues, Rock and R&B guitarist and singer, known for his flying-V guitar, fat sound and use of the wammy bar.

LONNIE MACK ~ "WHY";


LONNIE MACK ~ "STOP";


Richard Lyons ~ 57 ~ Sound collage artist with influential American avant garde group Negativeland. Known for their use of complex sound colleges made up of densely edited found sounds from various media sources along with intentionally cheesy music and vocals. They were also known for their frequent legal problems including bans for the song "Christianity Is Stupid", lawsuits from U2's record label and DJ Casey Kasem over "U2" and a crippling lawsuit from their own record label SST.

NEGATIVELAND ~ "CHRISTIANITY IS STUPID";


NEGATIVELAND ~ "U2";


Billy Paul ~ 81 ~ 1970's R&B singer ("Me and Mrs. Jones"), part of The Philadelphia Sound

BILLY PAUL ~ "ME & MRS JONES";


Lord Tanamo ~ Pioneering Jamaican/Canadian Ska singer w/The Skatalites and solo from the 1960's on

LORD TANAMO ~ "I'M IN THE MOOD FOR SKA";


Papa Wemba ~ 66 ~ Congolese Rumba singer

PAPA WEMBA ~ "YOLELE";


Pete Zorn ~ 65 ~ American multi-insturmentalist musician (Steeleye Span, Richard Thompson, Driver, The Albion Band)

RICHARD THOMPSON ~ "I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE";


Doug Raney ~ 59 ~ American jazz guitarist from the 1970's on

DOUG RANEY;


Maxine Willan ~ Australia born Toronto Jazz pianist w/The Toronto Speakeasies and solo

A Few Figures From The New Wave

Steve Strange was the singer for early 1980's New Wave band Visage, and the founder of the brief New Romantic movement, a glammed up response to the dark and angry world of Punk, Posy Punk and Goth. Strange (real name Steve Harrington) was originally one of the group of early fans of the Sex Pistols who followed the band around wearing flashy punk gear including and who later formed bands of their own including Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin (of the Banshees), Billy Idol and Tony James (Generation X), Shane McGowan (Pogues), and Sid Vicious who later joined the Pistols. Strange began forming abortive bands of his own using musicians like Chrissy Hynde (later of the Pretenders) Vince Ely (Psychedelic Furs), Mark Ryan (Adam & The Ants) and Topper Headon (The Clash).

VISAGE ~ "THE DAMNED DON'T CRY";


By 1979 Strange was able to put together a group working with Midge Ure scooping a member of Ures old band The Rich Kids Rusty Eagan (later in Ultravox along with Ure) and members of Magazine (then on hiatus); Barry Adamson, John McGeoch and Dave Formula. They recorded the first album "Visage" produced by Martin Rushent in 1979 and scored hits with the classic "Fade To Grey", "Mind Of A Toy" and "Tar". A followup album "The Anvil came in 1981 with hits in "The Damned Don't Cry" and "Night Train".

VISAGE ~ "FADE TO GREY";


With it's first album Visage moved away from it's Punk roots and into a more glam image influenced by the Holy Trinity of Bowie, Roxy Music and T-Rex and Strange as the frontman became the defacto spokesman of the New Romantic movement. The New Romantics response to the dark and angry Punk and Post-Punk was to retreat into dance music with often pretentious but meaningless lyrics and over-the-top flashy clothes and makeup. Later, far more successful New Romantics included Adam & The Ants, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Ultravox and Spandau Ballet.

VISAGE ~ "MIND OF A TOY";


As for Visage, such a flashy collection of veterans led by a prima-donna singer in Strange was bound to be unstable and Strange's increasing drug problems didn't help. By 1981 Ure had left to take over a reformed Ultravox (after John Foxx left), taking Billy Currie. Barry Adamson went off to record with Steve Shelly and Nick Cave and John McGeogh joined Siouxsie & The Banshees. Legal problems further tied up the band until 1984 by which time Visage (never popular with critics anyway) were decidedly old hat. A very slick and fashionable hat mind you but old. An attempt at a solo career fared no better and Strange retreated into drugs for more than a decade returning in 2004 for the 80's revival circuit. He died of a heart attack at age 55.

VISAGE ~ "NIGHT TRAIN";


John Bradbury ~ 62 ~ English drummer w/ 1980's Ska band the Specials and JB's All-Stars

Rico Rodriguez ~ 80 ~ Cuban-born British trombonist w/The Specials and Jools Holland

THE SPECIALS ~ "GHOST TOWN";


THE SPECIALS ~ "TOO MUCH TOO SOON";


THE SPECIALS ~ "A MESSAGE TO YOU RUDY";


Nick Marsh ~ 53 ~ Singer w/British New Wave/Goth band Flesh For Lulu ("I Go Crazy" used in soundtrack for "Some Kind Of Wonderful" and "Postcards From Paradise" later covered by The Replacements and The Goo Goo Dolls). Marsh later formed Gigantic and Urban Voodoo Machine.

FLESH FOR LULU ~ "I GO CRAZY";


FLESH FOR LULU ~ "POSTCARDS FROM PARADISE";


Adam Roth ~ 57 ~ Guitarist for 1980's American Cow Punk band the Del Fuegos

THE DEL FUEGOS ~ "DON'T RUN WILD";


THE DEL FUEGOS ~ "I STILL WANT YOU":


Carlos Gomez - 40's - Singer/guitarist with Los Angeles Rockabilly band Hi-Strung Ramblers

THE HI-STRUNG RAMBLERS ~ "MEAN OLD WOMAN";


THE HI-STRUNG RAMBLERS ~ "DON'T LEAVE ME";


THE HI-STRUNG RAMBLERS ~ "IF SHE EVER GOES AWAY";


Bryn Merrick ~ 56 ~ Welsh bassist w/The Damned (during their Goth phase), Victimized and The Shamones

THE DAMNED ~ "GRIMLY FIENDISH";


Francisco "Paco" Carreno - 49 - Drummer with UK Hardcore band Conflict

CONFLICT ~ "TOUGH SHIT MICKEY";


CONFLICT ~ "THE POSITIVE JUNK" & "LAW & ORDER";


Mick Lynch ~ Irish rock singer with 1980's and 90's Anglo-Irish indie rock band Stump

STUMP ~ "CHAOS";


STUMP ~ "BUFFALO";


Graham Brazier ~ 63 ~ New Zealand musician and songwriter w/ 1970's Power-Pop band Hello Sailor ("Blue Lady")

HELLO SAILOR ~ "BLUE LADY";
HELLO SAILOR ~ "GUTTER BLACK";


Don Joyce ~ 71 ~ Singer with American Avant Garde Noise/Collage band Negativeland. Originally Negativeland didn't have a singer at all and built songs by using sound collages. Joyce was a host radio show Over the Edge on the Berkeley, California, radio station KPFA who joined the band to contribute snidely mocking vocals that often parodied popular songs including U2 on their cover of "I'm Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Another former band member Ian Allen died in January.

NEGATIVELAND ~ "I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR";


NEGATIVELAND ~ "CHRISTIANITY IS STUPID";