RIPs today

It's been a big day for musicians passing today.

In the news today there were no less than four musicians who have shuffled off the mortal coil.  Let's a take a look at the recent acts at The Great Gig In The Sky:

Tony Sheridan

Tony was a musician in the red-light district of Hanburg in the 1960s.  He took a young group from Liverpool under his wing by the name of The (Silver) Beatles) and they played many shows together.  They even recorded an LP under the auspices of Bert Kaempfert, of all people.  Their first single together, "My Bonnie" was the record that piqued the interest of one Brian Epstein, and the rest, as they say, is history...

Tony didn't live to have anywhere near the success as his proteges did.  Nonetheless, he will be missed...

Shadow Morton

Shadow Morton was a record producer who originally discovered the Shangri-Las and produced their hit records "Leader of the Pack" and "Remember (Walking In The Sand)".  He also produced the first Vanilla Fudge LP and allegedly produced Iron Butterfly's epic "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".

Mindy McCready

Mindy McCready was a Nashville-country startlet who has had a reasonably successful career until now.  Her husband had only died a few weeks before now and she had found this extremely traumatic.  She has had two previous suicide attempts and today, unfortunately it looks like she was successful - authorities believe her gunshot would was self inflicted.  A very tragic story.  She was 37.

Kevin Peek

Kevin Peek was an Australian session guitarist and a member of Classical/Rock fusion band Sky.  He played on sessions for Manfred Mann and T.Rex before becoming a member of Cliff Richard's touring band.  His greatest success was with Sky, however he always seemed to play second fiddle to the main star of the band, guitarist John Williams.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of information around about the cause of his death but according to the Noise11 website it was cancer.

Sky's rocked up version of Bach's "Toccata an Fugue In D Minor" is, in my view, the definitive version of the song. Have a listen below.



May all the above rest in peace.