The Stool Pigeon music newspaper

MR J. HINCE & MS K. MOSS. The engagement is not really announced between Jamie and Kate.

CYZER. On Tuesday March 11, to Sara Cox and Ben Cyzer, a wonderful boy, Isaac Cyzer Cox.

GUNNARSSON. On Wednesday March 5, to Kalina Dobesz and Tony Gunnarsson, a gorgeous girl, Valentina Ida Maria Gunnarsson Dobesz.

HARVEY. On Saturday February 23, to Javine Hylton and Michael Harvey Jr, a lovely girl, Angel Harvey Hylton.

LLEWELLYN-ICHIMURA. On Sunday March 30, to Rhys Llewellyn and Satoko Ichimura, a badass of a boy, Wynston.

MUNIZ. On Friday February 22, to Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, delightful twins, Maximiano and Emelina Muniz Lopez.

VOCKS. On Saturday March 15, to Sara Menke and Olaf Vocks, a beautiful boy, Johan Paul Vocks der Erste.

The divorce is announced between Carey Hart and Alecia Moore, aka Pink.

The divorce between Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills is completed, finally

JOHN WRIGHT, folk singer, b. 22.06.1947, d. 07.02.2008

FERDINANDO DOMINICK BELLO, singer and bandleader, b. 29.09.1931, d. 10.02.2008

HENRI SALVADOR, rock’n’roll singer, b. 18.07.2008, d. 13.02.2008

DENNIS DEPIANTO, Meanies guitarist, b. 1962, d. 14.02.2008

TEO MACERO, jazz saxophonist, composer and producer, b. 30.10.1925, d. 19.02.2008

PHIL GERNHARD, VP for Curb Records, b. unknown, d. 22.02.2008

ALAN DARGIN, didgeridoo player, b. 13.07.1967, d. 24.02.2008

MICHAEL GEORGE SMITH, Dave Clark Five singer, b. 06.12.1943, d. 28.02.2008

NORMAN JEFFREY HEALEY, blues-rock guitarist, b. 25.03.1966, d. 02.03.2008

NORMAN SMITH, record producer, b. 22.02.1923, d. 03.03.2008

GIUSEPPE DI STEFANO, operatic tenor, b. 24.07.1921, d. 03.03.2008

LEONARD ROSENMAN, film composer, b. 07.09.1924, d. 04.03.2008

WARREN HARRY, songwriter, b. 1953, d. 09.03.2008

ALUN HODDINOTT CBE, composer, b. 11.08.1929, d. 11.03.2008

OLA BRUNKERT, drummer, b. 15.09.1946, d. 16.03.2008

JASON RAE, saxophonist, b. 01.06.1976, d. 22.03.2008

NEIL ASPINALL, former Apple Corps chief, b. 13.10.1941, d. 24.03.2008

SEAN LEVERT, R&B musician, b. 1969, d. 31.03.08

---

Dead at the Controls: Mikey Dread
Words Victor Wooley

Known to reggae fans as Mikey Dread, Michael George Campbell passed away on March 15, the victim of a brain tumour. His work as a producer, broadcaster and singer is credited with helping to bring his chosen genre to a global audience, while in rock and punk circles he is celebrated for his Clash collaborations.

Growing up in Port Antonio, Jamaica, Dread was an electronics boffin, and after running his high school’s radio station he studied electrical engineering at Kingston’s College of Arts, Science and Technology. In 1976 he was recruited by the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation, where his lobbying on behalf of local sounds led to him gaining his own four-hour show, titled Dread at the Controls and broadcast in the graveyard shift.

Against the expectations of station suits, the show was a hit, thanks partly to Dread’s own emergence as an artist, which was encouraged by King Tubby. In 1977 Dread was named Jamaica’s radio personality of the year. By now, he had branched into record production, working with ‘sing-jay’ pioneer Barber Saloon. Having quit JBC when it refused to give him a prime-time slot, Dread formed production company DATC as a vehicle for his own and others’ dub hits. The former included ‘Love The Dread’ and ‘African Anthem’. His debut album Dread at the Controls (also the title of a Lee Perry-produced single) was licensed to the UK’s legendary Trojan Records.

In 1979 Dread arrived on these shores himself to complete a course at London’s National Broadcasting School and support The Clash on a UK tour. This led to him working on ‘Sandinista’ and the ‘Bankrobber’ single, as well as b-sides ‘Rockers Galore’ and ‘Radio One’. Dread’s UK profile was further boosted by his narration of Channel 4’s Deep Roots Music series. He also scripted and presented the channel’s 10-part Rockers Roadshow.

A tour with UB40 led to Dread mixing transatlantic smash ‘Red Red Wine’, but he continued to slake a thirst for education, gaining an honours degree in music, media and business studies, while all the time working in radio. Somehow he found time to branch out into television too, joining the board of the Caribbean Satellite Network in Miami.

After he gained ownership of his back catalogue, his retrospective Mikey Dread’s Best Sellers CD was frequently reissued, and he continued to tour, pitching up at the Montreux jazz festival in 2002 and Glastonbury in 2004.

He is survived by his wife and their infant son, and by a number of children from previous relationships.

Michael George Campbell,
reggae DJ/producer, b. 04.06. 1954, d. 15.03.2008

---

Cachao Lopez

Cuban bass player, band leader and mambo pioneer, Cachao Lopez, died on Saturday March 22 at Coral Gables Hospital in Miami of kidney failure. He was 89. Accredited by many as the inventor of mambo, along with his late brother Orestes, Cachao is regarded as one of the most influential Cuban musicians of the 20th century.

Born in Havana, Cachao grew up in a highly musical family and was classically trained on the double bass. By his teens he was part of the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra while simultaneously following his passion for dance music by playing Havana’s nightclubs. It was there he developed the mambo and descaraga (Cuban jam session) out of Cuba’s more formal dances with Orestes in the late 1930s.

In 1962, he moved to America where he collaborated with a number of US Latin stars including Tito Puente, Celia Cruz and Gloria Estefan. His popularity had begun to wane by the eighties before a film made by the actor Andy Garcia about the musician’s life re-ignited his career, and his following album, Master Sessions, Volume One, won him a Grammy in 1995. He won another Grammy in 2005 for Ahora Si! and continued to play right up until his death. He is survived by a daughter, Maria Elena Lopez. Alistair White

Israel ‘Cachao’ Lopez, mambo musician and composer,
b. 14.09.1918, d. 22.03.2008

---

Buddy Miles
Words Alistair White

Buddy Miles, the rock and R&B drummer most revered for his work with Jimi Hendrix in the Band of Gypsys, has died of congestive heart failure aged 60. He started drumming aged just 12 in his father’s jazz group the Bebops, and subsequently played in several bands, worked with a number of artists, including The Ink Spots, The Delfonics and Wilson Pickett, and even achieved success with his own band with the song ‘Them Changes’.

In 1967, Miles co-founded the Electric Flag with Mike Bloomfield. It proved a short-lived venture, as was Miles’s following project, the Buddy Miles Express. It was after that he began his working relationship with Hendrix, first playing drums on two tracks from Electric Ladyland, then joining the Band of Gypsys in 1969 with bassist Billy Cox. Together they made only one live album before Hendrix ended the band under management pressure.

Miles went on to form his own band, The Buddy Miles Band, with whom he scored the hit ‘Them Changes’. He also appeared on many of Hendrix’s posthumous recordings with a variety of artists including Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana and David Bowie. He leaves his partner, Sherrilae Chambers.

George ‘Buddy’ Miles, rock drummer, b. 05.09.1947, d. 26.02.2008

---