The Train Has Left the Station Quiz

Answer: Ralph Tavares

Blessed with a smooth tenor voice, Ralph was one of nine brothers. With three of them, they formed the R&B group Chubby and the Turnpikes in 1959. They earned a contract with Capitol Records in 1967 and had a couple of local hits such as "I Know the Inside Story"(1967) and "Nothing but Promises"(1968).

In 1973 they added another brother to the outfit and the quintet of Ralph, Chubby, Tiny, Butch and Pooch changed their name to the Tavares. They had a hit on the US R&B charts with a cover of the Hall & Oates song "She's Gone" in 1974, which led to mainstream success in 1975 with "It Only Takes a Minute" and their biggest hit, in 1976, with "Heaven Must be Missing an Angel".

The latter song bought them to the attention of the Bee Gees and, at their invite, they appeared on the soundtrack to "Saturday Night Fever", recording a cover of "More Than a Woman". Their last real success was "Penny for Your Thoughts" (1982), which earned the group a Grammy nomination. Ralph would leave the band in 1984. He returned in 2014 as one of their key members until his passing on the 8th of December, 2021.

Answer: John Miles

Miles (born John Errington) grew up in Jarrow in County Durham with a passion for music. His epic ballad "Music", which consisted of eight small lines and was written in half an hour between sets at a concert, was, essentially, a sentimental love letter to his passion... "Music was my first love/and it will be my last". Though a very simple song the elaborate orchestration he imbued it with turned it into a pop landmark that would rival Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park" (1968).

Miles reached number three with that single on the UK Singles Chart and it proved to be the high point of his career. His first musical venture was with the little known band the Influences which, despite its lack of success, spawned the likes of Paul Thompson (drummer for Roxy Music) and Vic Malcolm (guitarist for the band Geordie). He split with the band and scored a solo record deal with Decca, having his first Top Twenty hit with "Highfly" in 1975. "Music" followed in the next year and its success in the US opened a door as the support act for Elton John in that country.

Miles also played and recorded with the likes of Tina Turner, Jimmy Page and Joe Cocker. He would release ten albums between 1976 and 1999 and he represented England at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1990 with the ballad "Where I Belong". He died after a short illness on 5 December, 2021.

Answer: Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier made a name for himself as a composer of experimental music and his explorations into sound, its acoustic properties and how it is perceived. In many respects his work sat in the gap between physics and art. He attended universities at both Yale and Brandeis but it wasn't until he went to Rome in 1960, after winning a Fulbright Fellowship, that he found the inspiration for his work to come.

It was in Rome where he was dazzled by the aleatory experimentation of John Cage and began to apply his own knowledge of acoustics to the subject. Alongside Gordon Mumma, David Behrman and Robert Ashley, he would form the highly influential Sonic Arts Union. Behrman described their work as "the established techniques were thrown away and the nature of sound was dealt with from scratch". The group toured the United States and Europe between 1966 and 1976.

Lucier's most famous piece was the 1969 recording "I Am Sitting in a Room", in which he sits in a room and recites a piece of text. That recital is recorded and played back in the same room and re-recorded. This process is repeated several times until the text becomes unintelligible. Particular attention is paid to the size and geometry of the room and certain frequencies are either emphasised or attenuated. The end shows the resonant frequencies of the room itself.

Lucier suffered complications after a fall, which led to his passing on the 1st of December 2021. He was 90 years old.

Answer: Janice Long

Janice Long, in many respects, was the female version of famous BBC radio presenter John Peel. She started her career in a band with her siblings, the Chegwins of Bootle, before being a member of the cabin crew on Laker Airways.

In 1979 she scored a job with Radio Merseyside and, soon, was the star of a local music show called "Street Life". The show focussed on emerging talent in the Liverpool area and became the first stepping stone for a number of bands such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood, China Crisis and Echo and the Bunnymen. BBC Radio DJ Greg James eulogised "She picked the greats and got them in session before other DJs had even heard of them".

In 1982 she was poached by Radio 1, becoming their second female DJ (after Annie Nightingale) and the first to have her own regular programme. Nightingale would remember her as "a human dynamo... a true trailblazer". Long would appear regularly on "Top of the Pops", was one of the main presenters at the London end of the "Live Aid" concert, compered the Moseley Folk Festival and was one of the pioneers of the wonderful, though short-lived, Liverpool radio station Crash FM. Long passed away after a bout of pneumonia on Christmas Day in 2021.

Answer: Wanda Young

Georgia Dobbins decided to step away from the band the Marvels in 1960 and invited Wanda Young, who was still in high school, to take her place. The timing was fortuitous as the band soon signed to Motown Records, changed their name to the Marvelettes and released the 1961 hit "Please Mr. Postman". The song would become the label's first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. By 1964 Wanda was providing lead vocals and led the band on singles such as "Don't Mess with Bill" (1966), "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" (1967) and 1968's "My Baby Must be a Magician", all of which made Billboards' Hot 100 Top Twenty.

In 1970 the band members went their separate ways. Young would record her first solo album, ironically (or confusingly), named "The Return of the Marvelettes" (1970), which, despite being produced by Smokey Robinson, was not a commercial success.

Young would go into a spiral of alcohol abuse which affected her voice and, though she briefly reformed with Gladys Horton, to record the 1990 album "Now" (as the Marvelettes) further success eluded her. Heart disease would take her life at age 78 on 15 December, 2021.

Answer: Thomas "Mensi" Mensforth

Mensforth was a coal miner until he witnessed the Clash in concert during their "White Riot" tour in 1977. That's when he saw the light and decided that his future lay in the foundations of punk rock. His band, the Upstarts, were one of the pioneers of the Oi movement but, even in this raucous environment, Mensi shone like a beacon. Unswervingly political, he was forthright and outspoken and these qualities reflected in his lyrics. His song "The Murder of Liddle Towers" (1978) was the band's debut single, and it proved to be a bold slap at the faces of authority, screaming injustice at the death in custody of a local boxing coach.

This led to a contract with Warners and a pair of ripping UK Top 40 singles in "I'm an Upstart" and "Teenage Warning" (both 1979). Mensforth's skill as a songwriter became more sophisticated over time but his lyrics and message remained blunt. His left-wing activism continued, supporting the efforts of Arthur Scarsgill during the 1980s, as well as the Anti Fascists Action Group. He put his views forward on the decline of the Tyneside shipbuilding industry in a 1983 documentary for the Channel 4 Play at Home network.

He continued to front his band in his twilight years until his death from Covid-19 on December 11, 2021. His most enduring quote was "I can't sing to save my life but I have pride and passion".

Answer: Joe Simon

Simon started his singing career as a gospel singer in his father's church but was more interested in the sounds of Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers. In 1960 he left the Golden West Gospel Singers and moved to Los Angeles to start a solo career. It took until the middle of the decade to break through with a string of minor hits such as "Teenager's Prayer" (1966) and "(You Keep Me) Hanging On" (1968). It was his country-style soul song "The Chokin' Kind" (1969) that provided him with his biggest breakthrough, reaching number one on the US R&B charts and number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song earned him a Grammy in 1970.

Joe continued to hit the charts until the mid-1980s with numbers such as "Drowning in the Sea of Love" (1971), "The Power of Love" (1972) and "Get Down, Get Down (Get on the Floor)" (1975). A pall bearer at the funeral of Otis Redding, he passed away peacefully on December 13, 2021 at the age of 85.

Answer: Richard Cole

The 1970s in rock and roll reeked of excess and, if you were looking for a poster-boy for the decade, then Richard Cole was the embodiment of it all. Cole's first foray into the music scene was as a driver in 1965 and 1966 for bands such as Unit 4+2 (had a hit with "Concrete and Clay" (1965)) and the Who.

In 1968 Cole scored the role of Led Zeppelin's tour manager, which he held until 1980, when he was fired by the band's manager, Peter Grant, after a long spell of substance abuse. His time with the band was, at times, controversial and his uncompromising attitude earned him the nickname of "Dirty Dick". One of his early implementations was to have the band take their own equipment on their American tour, along with their own crew, rather than hiring the gear on arrival in the States. This soon became the common practice for all bands.

Cole's 1992 biography/expose, "Stairway to Heaven" was a best seller, but it was also brutally honest, to the point that the remaining Led Zeppelin members were not happy with their portrayal in it and refused to speak with Cole... ever again. Some leniency must have crept in as they offered Cole tickets in their VIP area during their 2007 reunion tour.

Cole was sober for the last 35 years of his life. He continued to manage tours for acts, the most notable being Black Sabbath and former Runaway Lita Ford. He succumbed to cancer on December 2, 2021.

Answer: Steve Bronski

Born with the surname Forrest, Steve was a keyboardist and one of the co-founders of the first British "out" all-gay pop band, the Bronski Beat. With Jimmy Somerville (vocals) and Larry Steinbachek (also keyboards) they released their landmark debut album "The Age of Consent" (1984) which featured their single "Smalltown Boy", their only entry on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts. A string of politicized but soulful anthems would follow on its heels.

Somerville would leave the band in 1985 to form the Communards but the Bronski Beat didn't miss a beat (sorry) with hits such as "Hit That Perfect Beat" (1985) and the infectious "C'mon! C'mon!" (1986). By 1995 their bubble had burst and Forrest/Bronski moved into production. He would revive the band name in 2016 but a stroke soon after left him partially immobilised, curtailing those plans. He would die in a house fire on the 7th of December, 2021. His former band mate and friend, Jimmy Somerville, eulogised that he was "a talented and melodic man".

Answer: Robbie Shakespeare

Robbie Shakespeare was a giant in stature and a giant within the music industry. He was reggae's definitive bass player and his effortless grasp of a wide range of musical styles earned him the nickname of "Basspeare".

Born in 1953 in East Kingston, he taught himself to play acoustic guitar and joined his brother's band the Emotions. The band rehearsed at the home of Aston Barrett, a future member of the Wailers, where he was presented with a bass guitar and never looked back. He would go on to play bass on "Concrete Jungle" (1972) with the Wailers and Burning Spear's 1975 album "Marcus Garvey".

He met drummer Sly Dunbar while playing the Kingston clubs on Red Hills Road and the pair formed an immediate bond. They would become the rhythm section that anchored Peter Tosh's touring band in 1976. The pair turned their hand to production and worked with the likes of Tosh, Gwen Guthrie, Ini Kamoze and Dennis Brown. Their willingness to experiment saw them blending reggae with the sounds of disco and funk. This then led to a collaboration with Grace Jones and the result was her breakout album "Nightclubbing" (1981). He and Dunbar would score their own UK Top 20 hit with "Boops (Here to Go)" in 1987.

Shakespeare remained active and an innovator until poor health caught up with on December the 8th, 2021.