dodgy mescaline, he was stabbed twice by the buyer, 27/7)
Meredith Hunter (US Rolling Stones fan murdered at the Altamont concert; born 1951; stabbed to death by Hell’s Angels employed as security guards, 6/12)
Skip James (US blues musician; born Nehemiah James, Bentonia, Mississippi; cancer, 3/10)
Frederick Earl ‘Shorty’ Long (US R & B singer who hit with ‘Here Comes the Judge’ in 1968; born Alabama, 20/5/1940; drowned after his boat capsized, 29/6)
Johnny Moore (US lead with pioneering vocal act The Blazers; born Texas, 20/10/1906; unknown, 6/1)
Jimmy McHugh (revered US composer/songwriter; born Massachusetts, 10/7/1894; unknown, 23/5)
Lemon ‘Banjo Boy’ Nash (US blues guitarist/banjoplayer; born Louisiana, 22/4/1898; unknown)
Margaret Warnes (Australian pop singer with Sweethearts On Parade; born Arncliffe, Sydney, 7/12/1949; she was accidentally shot on stage by a US Marine attempting to hit his commanding officer, Vietnam, 20/7)
Josh White (US folk/blues guitarist who worked with Blind Joe Taggart; born North Carolina, 11/2;/1914; died during heart surgery, 5/9)
1970
JANUARY
Saturday 17
Billy Stewart
(William Larry Stewart - Washington, DC, 24 March 1937)
William Cathey
(1937)
Rico Hightower
(1947)
Norman P Rich
(26 February 1930)
The Soul Kings
Known in the industry as ‘Fat Boy’, the formidable Billy Stewart enjoyed a measure of US success during the sixties with his R & B-flavoured Soul Kings, the band he formed after spending some time under the wing of admirer Bo Diddley. The jovial musician’s background and upbringing in gospel – his family had performed as The Stewart Gospel Singers – had given him an enviable voice as well as considerable talent at the piano. Stewart’s move to secular music was marked by his fondness for updating show tunes: his barnstorming take on George Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ produced a big-selling US Top Ten single for Chess Records in August 1966. In the late fifties, as a member of The Rainbows, Stewart shared the limelight with future star Don Covay and the legendary Marvin Gaye ( April 1984).
The writing appeared to be on the wall for Stewart and his associates well before their fateful crash in January 1970: in 1968, a horrific coach accident and explosion had all but wiped out his road crew, while Stewart himself had narrowly escaped death in a motorbike smash one year later. But popular music suffered its second major band wipe-out when Stewart’s brand-new Ford Thunderbird developed a wheel-lock fault as he and his band travelled towards Smithfield, North Carolina, on Interstate 95. Hitting a bridge, the vehicle careered down a bank, coming to rest in the Neuse River; all four band members – Stewart, William Cathey, Rico Hightower and Norman P Rich – were killed. Stewart’s bereaved family went on to take legal action against Ford, reaching an out-of-court settlement.
Saturday 24
James ‘Shep’ Sheppard
(Queens, New York, 24 September 1935)
The Heartbeats
Shep & The Limelites
Hardworking and distinctive leader ‘Shep’ Sheppard fronted highly polished New York doo-wop group The Heartbeats before he hit his twenties. Writing songs in his bathtub, Sheppard composed the sumptuous ‘Crazy For You’, the 1955 airplay hit that brought his band overdue wider attention. Carrying an ego the size of a small continent, Sheppard was keen to grab as much limelight as he could (hence his second band’s name), which caused some resentment in the group, who eventually abandoned him: The Heartbeats’ patience finally ran out after a Philadelphia gig during which the singer somehow managed to fall asleep in the middle of the group’s ‘A Thousand Miles Away’! With The Limelites, Sheppard went on to compose such standards as the US 1961 number two ‘Daddy’s Home’ (better remembered in the UK as a schmaltzy Christmas runner-up for Cliff Richard twenty years later). Disbanding the group in 1966, Sheppard reunited The Limelites to
Meredith Hunter (US Rolling Stones fan murdered at the Altamont concert; born 1951; stabbed to death by Hell’s Angels employed as security guards, 6/12)
Skip James (US blues musician; born Nehemiah James, Bentonia, Mississippi; cancer, 3/10)
Frederick Earl ‘Shorty’ Long (US R & B singer who hit with ‘Here Comes the Judge’ in 1968; born Alabama, 20/5/1940; drowned after his boat capsized, 29/6)
Johnny Moore (US lead with pioneering vocal act The Blazers; born Texas, 20/10/1906; unknown, 6/1)
Jimmy McHugh (revered US composer/songwriter; born Massachusetts, 10/7/1894; unknown, 23/5)
Lemon ‘Banjo Boy’ Nash (US blues guitarist/banjoplayer; born Louisiana, 22/4/1898; unknown)
Margaret Warnes (Australian pop singer with Sweethearts On Parade; born Arncliffe, Sydney, 7/12/1949; she was accidentally shot on stage by a US Marine attempting to hit his commanding officer, Vietnam, 20/7)
Josh White (US folk/blues guitarist who worked with Blind Joe Taggart; born North Carolina, 11/2;/1914; died during heart surgery, 5/9)
1970
JANUARY
Saturday 17
Billy Stewart
(William Larry Stewart - Washington, DC, 24 March 1937)
William Cathey
(1937)
Rico Hightower
(1947)
Norman P Rich
(26 February 1930)
The Soul Kings
Known in the industry as ‘Fat Boy’, the formidable Billy Stewart enjoyed a measure of US success during the sixties with his R & B-flavoured Soul Kings, the band he formed after spending some time under the wing of admirer Bo Diddley. The jovial musician’s background and upbringing in gospel – his family had performed as The Stewart Gospel Singers – had given him an enviable voice as well as considerable talent at the piano. Stewart’s move to secular music was marked by his fondness for updating show tunes: his barnstorming take on George Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ produced a big-selling US Top Ten single for Chess Records in August 1966. In the late fifties, as a member of The Rainbows, Stewart shared the limelight with future star Don Covay and the legendary Marvin Gaye ( April 1984).
The writing appeared to be on the wall for Stewart and his associates well before their fateful crash in January 1970: in 1968, a horrific coach accident and explosion had all but wiped out his road crew, while Stewart himself had narrowly escaped death in a motorbike smash one year later. But popular music suffered its second major band wipe-out when Stewart’s brand-new Ford Thunderbird developed a wheel-lock fault as he and his band travelled towards Smithfield, North Carolina, on Interstate 95. Hitting a bridge, the vehicle careered down a bank, coming to rest in the Neuse River; all four band members – Stewart, William Cathey, Rico Hightower and Norman P Rich – were killed. Stewart’s bereaved family went on to take legal action against Ford, reaching an out-of-court settlement.
Saturday 24
James ‘Shep’ Sheppard
(Queens, New York, 24 September 1935)
The Heartbeats
Shep & The Limelites
Hardworking and distinctive leader ‘Shep’ Sheppard fronted highly polished New York doo-wop group The Heartbeats before he hit his twenties. Writing songs in his bathtub, Sheppard composed the sumptuous ‘Crazy For You’, the 1955 airplay hit that brought his band overdue wider attention. Carrying an ego the size of a small continent, Sheppard was keen to grab as much limelight as he could (hence his second band’s name), which caused some resentment in the group, who eventually abandoned him: The Heartbeats’ patience finally ran out after a Philadelphia gig during which the singer somehow managed to fall asleep in the middle of the group’s ‘A Thousand Miles Away’! With The Limelites, Sheppard went on to compose such standards as the US 1961 number two ‘Daddy’s Home’ (better remembered in the UK as a schmaltzy Christmas runner-up for Cliff Richard twenty years later). Disbanding the group in 1966, Sheppard reunited The Limelites to
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