women in music

Even a casual observer of the music press would have noticed a lot of column inches given over to Florence and the Machine, who are due to release their debut album this week. Female vocalists and kooky front women have been all the rave this year with Lady Gaga, La Roux and Little Boots all being ranked highly but Florence offers something different, notably the fact that there is no L at the start of her name. However, she also sings in a very ethereal manner and is quite happy to show her pants at every occasion, making her a big hit with the boys. This may sound slightly similar to an act who has gone before and it has to be said that Florence just seems like a modern version of Kate Bush.
Who can forget Kate Bush bursting onto the scene with ‘Wuthering Heights’ with the tremendous lyrics of “You had a temper like my jealousy” and it has to be said that young Florence cannot hold a candle to Kate Bush. There may be a level of hype around Florence but it has to be remembered that Kate Bush had a helping hand at the start of her career with Dave Gilmour being a key influence on her early days. Yes, that is Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame, friend of Syd Barrett and adversary of Roger Waters who helped Ms Bush break into the music scene.
Of course, with strange dance moves, unpredictable vocal range and flowery dresses, many fans may think there is a similarity between Florence and Stevie Nicks. The music of Fleetwood Mac may be far more commercial than the material released by Florence and the Machine but it does indicate that modern bands and artists wear their influences very openly.
This means that fans who weren’t even born when some of the greatest musicians were tearing up the stage can be a fan of their material and love it as much as fans at the time did. Sure, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan are all still touring and wowing live audiences but not every artist was this lucky but this hasn’t done their level of fame or fan base any difficulties.
Brian Jones’ death may still be a cause of debate and conjecture but there are many fans who insist that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger just haven’t been as potent without him. Similarly, who knows what other riffs and leads Jimi Hendrix may have conjured up if he wasn’t taken from us and even mods were robbed of a full Small Faces reunion when Steve Marriott passed away. The thing is, all of these classic rock artists are as loved today as they ever were which means that death is no barrier to commercial success or developing a strong following. In fact, in some cases, it probably helps!
In ten years time, it is hard to say if anyone will even raise an eyebrow at the mention of Florence and the Machine or recall their music but there is no doubt that the passing of some artists leaves many fans with a heavy heart.

40 Years since the Death of Brian Jones

Guest post from The History of Rock Music

40 years ago saw the first of many rock and roll deaths in the shape of The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones. Sure there had been other musicians that had died, but he was the first to really die a rock and roll death and was the founder member of the 27 club. Within a few years he would be joined by several more.

The Night of Brian Jones Death

Brian Jones died sometime just before midnight on July, 2nd 1969 after drowning in his pool at Cotchford Farm (the former home of A A Milne, creator of Winnie The Pooh) The coroners report was accidental drowning and many assumed he simply drowned having been either drunk or stoned.

Subsequently many people have come forward and made many claims about the death of Brian Jones, but the most believable are those that he was killed, accidentally or otherwise, by his builder, Frank Thorogood. They had fallen out over payment and workmanship.

Both Anna Wohlin (Brian's girlfriend at the time) and Janet Lawson (the mistress of Rolling Stones tour manager, Tom Keylock) were known to have been at the house when Brian died and have both made claims that he and Brian were alone in the pool and the acted very strangely when the body was discovered. Tom Keylock, in an interview in 2004, said that Frank Thorogood even confessed as much on his deathbed in 1993.

The Police Investigation

More disturbing are the issues surrounding the police investigation following the death. There is lots of evidence of leads that were not followed up, issues with the interviews of the people at the house, the information provided to the coroner and even a case of attempted murder that was known to have been connected to the death of Brian Jones, but was not investigated as such (at least not publicly)

The police found Frank Thorogood with unprescribed Durophet ("black bombers") but only warned him, something that was rare in the 1960s. They also did not pass this information onto the Coroner. The Coroner stated that Brian had the equivalent of a 3-4 pints of beer in his system and low levels of some kind of stimulant.

The police also suspected and had some evidence that there were more people at Cotchford Farm than the four that were officially acknowledged, however they did not follow these up properly.

There were also reports that a taxi was seen leaving the farm before the police or ambulance arrived. The time taken for the ambulance to arrive would not have been enough for a taxi to be called, get to the farm and leave again. But what if a taxi was already there?

A few weeks after Brian Jones death, on July 26, 1969, Joan Fitzsimons was the victim of a vicious assault near Chichester which left her in a coma with a fractured skull and blinded for life. Her boyfriend, Jordanian Michael Ziyadeh, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and spent four years in Broadmoor Prison before being deported. Despite his guilty plea, Ziyadeh always claimed he did not carry out the attack. The police case against him concluded, "The motive for this is a mystery"

However Fitzsimmons was the some-time mistress of Frank Thorogood and worked for her family's taxi firm in Chichester, only about 40 miles from Cotchford Farm. She was also a friend of Suki Poitier, a former girlfriend of Brian Jones. In fact in the days following Brian Jones death, both Poitier and Fitzsimmons stayed at Cotchford Farm.

Joan Fitzsimmons died in 2002 and since then certain information has become available under the freedom of information act. One of these pieces of information was a statement made to police by her brother claiming she was scared of Frank Thorogood. Irene Russell, Joan Fitzsimmons mother even made a statement to police stating she was at Cotchford Farm the night of Brian's death and that Frank Thorogood had been making her life awkward.

A newspaper at the time made a claim that the police were looking to find out whether she was at Cotchford Farm was strenuously denied by police, but the information we now have shows that they knew there was a connection between herself and Thorogood and that they had a claim from another witness that she was there.

So if the police were not interviewing people about this connection, then they should be asked for the reason why? There are so many obvious holes in the investigation that it would seem an investigation into these events is well overdue.

Where are they now?

After seeing Joan Fitzsimmon's injuries, Janet Lawson vanished from public view and changed her name. She only resurfaced a few years ago, many years after Thorogood's death, when traced by a reporter. She has since died from cancer.

Anna Wohlin, Brian's Swedish girlfriend found herself back in Sweden, claiming she had been spirited away by the Rolling Stones management. She was not able to attend his funeral and miscarried the child that neither she or Brian Jones knew she was carrying when he died. In the 1990s she wrote a book on her time with Brian Jones and was a consultant on the film Stoned, the film on the life and death of Brian Jones.

Tom Keylock died on July 2nd, 2009, exactly 40 years after Brain Jones died. He was 82.

This is the link to the full story on the events surrounding the death of Brian Jones on The History of Rock Music.

It’s okay to get the blues

June and July have so many gigs and festivals that it can be hard to keep up to date with everyone that is playing and sometimes there can be some cracking gigs that slip by un-noticed. One such tour at the moment which may not be getting the column inches compared to the others but is sure to be a great night out is the BB King and John Mayall tour. It’s hard to think of too many Blues guitarists with more experience and talent than Mayall and if there is, they’ve definitely worked with or been influenced by these two. When a guitar player has a name for his axe, you know its something special and there isn’t a more famously named guitar than BB Kings ‘Lucille’. It may be a woman’s name but the name just conjures up tremendous licks and driving rhythms and King still rocks out, regardless of his age.
Of course, John Mayall is no slouch either and when you think of Mayall, its hard not to think about Eric Clapton and all the other amazing names who featured in its line-up. With the exception of The Byrds or The Yardbirds, it’s hard to think of a band that had more famous names than the Bluesbreakers and even if you are unfamiliar with the music, you’ll instantly know some of the star turns who used the band as a stepping stone to even greater things. Eric Clapton cut his teeth there and then took bassist Jack Bruce to form Cream alongside Ginger Baker. Cream were probably the first ever supergroup and vied with The Jimi Hendrix Experience for the role of most scintillating rock trio of all time.
Cream owe a lot to the Bluesbreakers but so do Fleetwood Mac, especially their original main man Peter Green. Green may not have made it to the bands most commercial era but his early playing gave the band a huge cult following and very quickly made them a major name in the late 1960s gig scene. Fleetwood Mac also took John McVie from the Bluesbreakers, further emphaising the role of Mayall in the British rock scene and if that wasn’t enough, they also produced a key guitarist for the Rolling Stones.
Okay, it wasn’t Brian Jones or Keith Richards but Mick Taylor was a major part of the Stones early 70s sound, which remains many peoples favourite era as it was the time when the band really gelled and produced a run of great albums. Mick Jagger may believe its all due to his vocals and struts but there was so much more to the Stones than his big lips.
So the proof of the Blues pudding is in the eating but even if you don’t like the Bluesbreakers, the songs and styles of so many more acts will be channelled during the shows. Whether it’s the old devil at the crossroads authentic blues styles of people like Robert Johnson or Lead Belly or the later, electrified stomp of Howling Wolf or John Lee Hooker, there’s a style of blues music to appeal to everyone. All of which goes to show, there is no age barrier to great Blues music and there is something major to get your teeth into this week.