Obituaries, June 8, 2023
Andy (David Andrew) Lindsay, an Ontario musician and music business executive, died on May 26 at the age of 58.
By Kerry Doole
Andy (David Andrew) Lindsay, an Ontario musician and music business executive, died on May 26 at the age of 58.
Lindsay was a guitarist, singer and songwriter and founding member of Toronto-based bands The Saddletramps during the 1980s and 1990s and Loomer from 1999 to 2008 in analog form.
The Saddletramps were formed by several Fanshawe College students from the Greater Toronto Area in the early/mid-1980s, and the group is now best remembered as the first band of Sarah Harmer. Lindsay met seventeen-year-old Sarah Harmer while working at Sunrise Records in Burlington, and she joined the band, later commuting to Toronto to perform on weekends while attending Queen's University.
In 1989 the Saddletramps released their self-titled first album on cassette tape. In 1990 the band released a second cassette album, Yardsale. Harmer left to concentrate on her studies; she later fronted her own band, Weeping Tile. A third release, Well Gone Bad, came out in 1993.
The Saddletramps disbanded in 1995, with Lindsay and two bandmates then helping form Loomer. That group released an album, Love Is A Dull Instrument, in 2004, followed by a second album, Songs of the Wild West Island, in 2006.
A lifelong music lover, Lindsay worked in the music industry starting at Sunrise Records in the '80s and working his way up through PolyGram, BMG and Sony Music before moving to Google and then YouTube in 2015, working with Canadian artists and record labels.
A celebration honouring his life will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Lindsay’s memory to the World Wildlife Fund or your local animal shelter.
Sources: Smith's Funeral Services, Facebook, Wiki
International
Astrud Gilberto (born Astrud Evangelina Weinert), the Brazilian bossa nova singer known for her instantly recognisable recording of the hit “The Girl From Ipanema”, has died on June 5, at the age of 83. The cause of her death was not disclosed.
Gilberto recorded 16 studio albums and two live records over the course of her career, which began in the Sixties.
Gilberto’s version of Garota de Ipanema – originally composed in 1962 by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes – happened by complete coincidence. The track went on to be a global hit, selling more than five million copies worldwide and boosting the profile of bossa nova music internationally. Some reports claim it is the second-most recorded song ever.
Gilberto performed on two songs on the 1964 album Getz/Gilberto, with her vocals for The Girl from Ipanema earning her a Grammy nomination for Best Vocal Performance by a Female. The song itself won a Grammy for Song of the Year.
After a concert in 1965, Gilberto never performed in her native country again.
Sources: The Independent, The Guardian
Dickie ("Bebop") Harrell, best known as the drummer of Gene Vincent's The Blue Caps, died on May 31 at the age of 82. During the mid-1950s, the Blue Caps gained popularity with hit singles like Be-Bop-A-Lula, Race with the Devil, and Bluejean Bop, with Harrell's drumming adding a distinctive sound to their music. He performed with the band on notable platforms such as the Ed Sullivan Show and during their Australian tour in 1957. He also collaborated with other artists and contributed to Capitol Records' early catalogue.
He was known for his distinctive and energetic style, often standing up while drumming. In their famous hit song Be-Bop-A-Lula from 1956, which reached No. 7 on the U.S. Billboard pop music chart. His admirers included Bob Dylan, Jeff Beck, and Robert Plant, all of whom were influenced by the Blue Caps’ rockabilly sound.
Sources: Fresherslive
Tony McPhee, singer and guitarist for the rock band The Groundhogs, died on June 6 at the age of 79. He had suffered a fall last year and a series of strokes.
He led the acclaimed British band on and off between 1962 and 2015. The Groundhogs' career took off in 1964 when they backed John Lee Hooker on a UK tour date. Hooker then rehired them for another tour the year after and recorded an acclaimed album with them entitled Hooker and the Hogs.
McPhee recorded solo tracks with producer Jimmy Page and took session work before reviving the Groundhogs name with a new lineup and a debut album arriving in 1968. They notched three back-to-back UK top 10 albums in the early 1970s – Thank Christ for the Bomb, Split (later certified gold) and Who Will Save the World.
Read more about his subsequent career here. Sources: The Guardian, LouderSound
Kaija Saariaho, a noted Finnish composer, died on June 2 at the age of 70 of glioblastoma.
Prestomusic reports that "Saariaho saw little need to pursue performance herself – despite learning numerous instruments, the idea of a performing career never exerted any pull on her. Her passion was always the imagining of music – communicating to others the creation that was going on in her mind. 1982 saw her move to Paris’s influential IRCAM research institute and embracing the world of electronics, both as an aid to composition and as a component within it. Her Jardin secret triptych from the mid-1980s typifies this period in her work.
The year 2000 saw the premiere of L’amour de loin, her first opera, followed by Adriana Mater (2005), La Passion de Simone (2006), Émilie (2008), and a final opera in 2018, Innocence.
Sources: Prestomusic, The NY Times, AP
Cynthia Weil, the prolific songwriter behind You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling and dozens of other hits died on June 1 at age 82. A cause of death has not been reported.
The Grammy winner was known for a number of hit songs, including On Broadway, Make Your Own Kind of Music, Walking in the Rain, Uptown, We Gotta Get Out of This Place, Kicks, and "Here You Come Again. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" has been termed the most played song of the 20th Century!
She rose to prominence in the 1960s, when she co-wrote many hits with her husband Barry Mann, whom she was married to for 62 years. The pair met while working at the Brill Building song factory in Manhattan and formed a writing partnership. It was around this time that they collaborated on several records with producer Phil Spector. Weil and Mann eventually became two of the most popular songwriters of their era. They were invited into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. Weil received 112 pop, country and R&B awards from BMI. She and Mann received the first-ever National Academy of Songwriters Life Achievement Award.
Read more in the New York Times, Variety, TMZ, and BBC News
