Boston's Brad Delp's Death By Barbecue 2007 Aged 55

Brad Delp was a founder member of the hugely successful American band Boston who released their eponymous first album, "Boston," in 1976.
Even people who have never heard that album, and I guess there will be a few of those despite the fact that over 19 million copies of it were sold, will probably have heard the song that made Boston a household name not just in the USA but all over the world, "More Than A Feeling".
Along with his bandmates, multi-instrumentalist, engineer and producer Tom Scholz who founded the band, guitarist Barry Goudreau and the band's original drummer Jim Masdea, Brad recorded several songs that were initially rejected by the record companies to which they were submitted.
Eventually a deal was struck with Epic Records and Masdeau left, apparently at the insistence of Epic, to be replaced by Sib Hashian.
With the lineup now stabilised, at least for a while, the band finished work on what became the fastest selling debut album in USA history, "Boston", which finally hit the shelves in August 1976. Three further platinum, (1 million plus sales) albums followed, the first being "Don't Look Back" in 1978 and then after a long gap, "Third Stage" in 1986. Their fans had to wait another 8 years before "Walk On" which came out in 1994 and also, albeit only just, turned platinum.
Brad Delp's characteristic vocal style and wide vocal range complemented Tom Scholz's instrumental and writing styles perfectly and the results were, by any standard, truly impressive. The band continued to enjoy critical and commercial success for many years although not quite at the heady levels that they experienced with their phenomenal debut work. A version of Boston, with Tom Scholz now the only original member,  persists to this day and is still touring.
Brad had signalled his desire to do other things during the gestation period for "Walk On and had indicated to Tom in 1990 that he might not be fully available anymore. He did contribute to "Walk On" however, (in fact he co-wrote that particular song after which the album was named) but was eventually replaced as vocalist by Fran Cosmo.
Since then, Brad did in fact work with Scholtz on a number of occasions and toured with Boston several times.
He also had a number of different project on the go including RTZ with Barry Goudreau and Beatlejuice, a tribute to the Beatles who Brad had always cited as one of his most significant influences.
On March 9th 2007 Brad Delp was found dead on the floor of his bathroom at his home in New Hampshire.  He had died as a result of Carbon monoxide poisoning which had been caused by fumes from two lit barbecues that had been placed in the room and after which the room had been sealed to prevent the fumes from escaping.
Brad had left four suicide notes privately addressed to family members and had pinned a further note to his shirt for public consumption. The note read simply "Mr. Brad Delp. "J'ai une ame solitaire". I am a lonely soul."
You will find it extremely difficult to find anyone who spoke ill of Brad Delp. He was widely described as a nice thoughtful and generous person. The true reason for his suicide has never been established or, if it has, it has never been made public. It seems that he didn't want those details to become public knowledge and we have to respect that and the wishes of his family and close friends.
He has left us a great deal of significance to remember him by, I never knew him personally of course but, like the millions of other Boston fans all over the world, my enduring memory of him will be those wonderful songs on which he performed and sang. The world would have been less wonderful without Boston and without Brad, Boston would never have been the same.

Bradley Edward Delp was born on June 12, 1951 and died on March 9, 2007.

Too Good For The Pistols - Guitarist Steve New Dies 2010 Aged 50.

Musical prowess was not a criteria for membership of the Sex Pistols. That's not a criticism of that band, in particular, but was actually, at least in part, the very essence of what Punk was about.
In the early to mid 70's when Punk began to emerge there was no shortage of musically adept, virtuoso performers around to satisfy what had until then been an insatiable public appetite for music that was becoming more complex, more sophisticated and, perhaps, a little tired.
During that time I was managing a venue where rock music was the order of the day but where I began to notice more and more of the bands we promoted were leaning towards what later became known as Punk.
We even had a future diary date for the Sex Pistols and a promoter was keen for them to do a gig in Sheffield, where I was based at the time, but, as the Pistol's reputation grew the local licensing authority became less eager to grant the necessary licenses and the concert was removed from the calendar.
Which brings me to Steve New and why I consider him to be a "RockBottom."
First of all, anyone who dies of cancer at the relatively early age of 50 could be considered to be, at the very least, unlucky. As I have written in my articles time and time again, cancer is completely indiscriminate as to how and when it wreaks its havoc. In Steve's case it did so towards the end of what proved to be a short but very eventful life.
The mantle of being too good for the Sex Pistols is deserved only on the grounds that, in 1975, (some accounts put it in 1976), Steve auditioned for the role of guitarist in the Pistols but was turned down because his style of playing was too technical, too accomplished and would not sit easily with the raw unpolished material that they went on to produce in, thankfully, relatively small quantities.
Other accounts cite the length of Steve's hair as being the barrier to entry as he wore it long and was therefore, in terms of his appearance and his musical ability, more akin to the more established musical stereotypes that still dominated the music scene at that time. There were few, if any, examples of short spiky hair amongst the likes of Pink Floyd, Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer and the plethora of other Progressive Rock bands of the day.
Whatever the truth of the matter, his time with the band was short and lasted only a few weeks.
Whatever the pro's and con's of that may be, Steve certainly missed out on the undoubted celebrity and financial rewards that normally followed when a band becomes as big as the Pistols.
Their fame was short lived but there were few people in the UK who had not at least heard of them - albeit usually for the wrong reasons. Their only studio album, "Never Mind The Bollocks" made the top spot in the UK album charts and went Platinum, (over one million copies sold) and this, along with their other antics, made certain of their place in music and social history.
Steve New went on to perform in other bands, including a spell with Iggy Pop, however his most notable project was The Rich Kids which was formed by Steve and another ex-Pistols bandmate  bassist Glen Matlock, and which also included vocalist and guitarist Midge Ure for a short period before he went on to play with thin Lizzy, The Skids and ultimately found fame in Ultravox.
The Rich Kids were short lived but attracted a lot of attention during that time - and for the right reasons too. Their only album, "Ghosts of Princes In Towers," was produced by the celebrated ex-Spider From Mars, Mick Ronson and made number 24 in the UK album charts. Steve also had a short spell with Public Image Ltd - John Lydon's post Sex Pistols project with virgin records.
Throughout his career and for a large part of his life, Steve was a transvestite and had described that aspect of his character as a "secret life" and something which he had been ashamed of. Nonetheless, during the latter part of his life, (I could not find a definitive date or time), he came out and changed his performing name to Stella Nova.
Despite having survived the rigours of a musicians lifestyle, including periods of addiction to Heroin, Steve finally succumbed to cancer and died in 2010 at the age of 50.
His final project, Beastellabeast, which he formed with Beatrice Brown, was still running at the time of his death and had seen the release of three albums.

Stephen Charles New, AKA Stella Nova, was born in London in 1960 and died there at the age of 50 on 24th May 2010.

Cartoon Capers - A Bad Move For The Move

The move were a highly successful band formed in the 1960's by singer/songwriter and guitarist Roy Wood, drummer Bev Bevan, singer Carl Wayne, guitarist Trevor Burton and bassist Chris Kefford.

Guitarist and songwriter Jeff Lyne joined in 1969 and it was he, along with Roy Wood, who engineered the band's transition into the Electric Light Orchestra in the early 1970's.

The band released a number of singles that entered the charts in the UK starting with "Night Of Fear" in 1966 followed closely by "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" in April 1967. These reached number 2 and 5 in the UK charts respectively.

After  "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" came the song which is the main focus of this article. Entitled "Flowers In The Rain" it was written by Roy Wood and made number 2 in the UK charts. This song has the distinction of being the first chart single to be played on the BBC's newly launched radio station, Radio 1, on 30th September 1967.

At this time, the band were being managed by Tony Secunda, who also managed the Moody Blues. Secunda had devised a promotional campaign to drive sales of the single and as part of that campaign he had commissioned a satirical cartoon depicting the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, having an affair with his political secretary Marcia Williams.

The cartoon was published as a postcard and prompted Wilson to file for libel in the court - a case which he subsequently won.

As a result of the court case, all royalties from the song were donated to a charity nominated by Harold Wilson. When Wilson died in 1995 Roy Wood had hoped that the royalties would revert back to him but this was not the case - the ruling continued in perpetuity.

Most copies of the card were destroyed but a few remain. The image depicted is of one such survivor which was sold at auction in 2004 for £66.

After this debacle, the band sacked Secunda as their manager and were taken under the wing of Don Arden,  who had also managed the Small Faces and subsequently went on to manage Black Sabbath.

More chart success followed for the Move, including a number 1 in the UK charts with "Blackberry Way." in   1969 and "Brontosaurus" in 1970, both written by Roy Wood.

Another Wood song, "Fire Brigade" had charted at number 3 in the UK charts in February 1968.

Subsequent releases did not fare so well however and one, "When alice Comes Back To The Farm", released soon after Brontosaurus, failed to chart. Things looked up briefly in 1972 with "California Man", (number 7 in the UK charts), but by this time the group's transition into the Electric Light Orchestra was underway and the Move faded away.

There was a resurrection of sorts in 2000 when Bev Bevan organised a revival but this did not carry the support of Wood. The band, now known as 'The Move featuring Trevor Burton and Bev Bevan, continue to perform.