Stars We Have Lost In April
Some significant names have gone on to the “great gig in the sky” over the past month. In no particular order, here we go.
A chap who created his own distinctive sound with his guitar. Duanne Eddy passed away this week.
Duane came to prominence in early 60’s American rock n roll with his distinctive twangy guitar sound. Nobody else was doing at the time and very few have done it since.
That sound generated several hits for the man from Corning, New York.
Arguably his best known hit was Rebel Rouser. The song took on a new lease of life when it was used in the hit movie Forrest Gump.
Duane Eddy played with many other guitar greats over the years and influenced many more including big names like Bruce Springsteen, George Harrison, John Fogerty, Mark Knopfler, John Entwistle and Hank Marvin to name a few.
Duane Eddy died of cancer at his home in Tennessee just days after marking his 86th birthday.
Mike Pinder, an founding member and last surviving member of the original line up of The Moody Blues.
Mike Pinder stayed with the Moody’s who went through a number of line-up changes during the 60’s. He was in the band when they released what’s regarded as one the finest concept albums of the time, 1967’s Days of Future Passed, which featured Pinder singing and playing the mellotron, which featured Pinder singing and playing the mellotron.
He would go on to pen and perform songs on the band’s next seven albums before eventually parting ways with the group.
He died just recently aged 82.
Eva Evans, TikTok star and creator of Prime Video’s Club Rat webseries, died at age 29. Evans was best known to fans on TikTok, where she amassed 300,000 followers, who flocked to her primarily for stories about her life in New York City. No cause of death has been published at this time.
Guitar fans, particularly southern boogie, blues, country rock would’ve known that Dickie Betts passed away mid April.
Betts was a key member of The Allman Brothers Band who had a string of hit singles, big selling albums and big concert tours during the 70’s and 80’s.
Dickie Betts composed music and penned songs for the group, including their biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man”. Another of Betts compositions and Allman Bros Band’s hit’s ” Jessica” was re-vamped and used as the theme for the British TV show Top Gear.
Betts died of cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Meg Bennett. Meg had a long career acting in and writing soap operas in the USA.
You may’ve seen her in soaps like The Young and The Restless.
Remember the movie An Officer and a Gentleman and the character Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley? Sadly the actor played Foley , Louis Gosset jnr, passed away in recent weeks. Louis Gosset jnr was a prolific character actor best known for his performances in An Officer and a Gentleman and the original Roots miniseries. Gosset died aged 87.
Ron Harper, the actor best known for his roles on the sci-fi series Planet of the Apes and Land of the Lost, aged 91. Harper had an extensive career appearing in several TV shows and movies.
Here’s an interesting one. David Seidler, the Oscar-winning screenwriter died while on a fly-fishing expedition here in New Zealand.
Seidler had an extensive writing career wrote the movie The King’s Speech. The 2010 film about King George VI’s struggle to overcome his severe stutter. The King’s Speech took actor Colin Firth to a new level in stardom for his portrayal of King George VI.
The King’s Speech received 12 Oscar nominations at the 83rd Academy Awards and won four.
David Seidler’s manager described his passing “David was in the place he loved most in the world — New Zealand — doing what gave him the greatest peace which was fly-fishing,” “If given the chance, it is exactly as he would have scripted it.”
The cause of death and where Mr Seidler was on his fly-fishing holiday have not been given.
We missed one from March. Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice, better known as Steve Harley.
Steve Harley was frontman and songwriter for London based band Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel.
C R recorded several singles and albums and toured relentlessly in the 70’s and 80’s. Their biggest hit being Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), a huge 70’s hit in the UK but just scraped in on the US Billboard charts at the time.
The song had a second life when it was used in the movie The Full Monty.
Harley was co-writer of Gi’ Me Wings and Somebody Special, two songs that Rod Stewart used on his Foolish Behavior album from the early 80’s.
Make Me Smile is listed as one of the most played records in British broadcasting and over 120 cover versions of the song have been recorded by other artists.[24]
Steve Harley died of cancer.