Mat Arluck
1970 – November 26, 2009
Mat Arluck was the guitarist for Chicago metal band, Sweet Cobra. Diagnosed with cancer in 2006, the respected guitarist, who also played in Cooler By The Lake and Closing In, continued to play up until about one year prior to his death. Arluck also played bass for Stabbed By Words. Mat Arluck was 39 when he passed away at his parents’ home on November 26, 2009.
Rob Partridge
June 2, 1948 – November 26, 2008
Rob Partridge was a UK music industry veteran who founded and ran the Coalition Group, a powerful management and PR firm. Partridge began his career in the mid ’70s when he worked as a journalist Music Week. By the late ’70s, he was the head of the publicity department at Island Records where he worked directly with such greats as Bob Marley, Marianne Faithfull, U2, Steve Winwood and Robert Palmer. He left Island in 1990 to form a PR firm which would eventually be called the Coalition Group after he opened a management division of the company. Over the years, Partridge represented the likes of Johnny Marr, Tom Waits, Bloc Party, and Billy Bragg. In recent years, Rob Partridge had been suffering from cancer. He died as a result of it at the age of 60.
Nick Drake
June 19, 1948 – November 25, 1974
Nick Drake was an English singer-songwriter who in spite of selling in the neighborhood of just 5000 copies of each of his albums when released, went on to become one of the most influential and respected artists of his generation. Drake came to relative prominence during the British folk movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Oft compared to the likes of Syd Barrett, Donovan and Van Morrison, Drake released just three albums between 1969 and 1972. They barely registered a blip back then, and the fact that Drake resisted performing live or granting interviews did nothing to help them find their audience. Suffering from depression and insomnia for much of his life, Drake let those demons populate his dark songs. During Drake’s final month’s, he became very reclusive, avoiding friends and family. Mental illness had obviously taken hold of Drake’s spirit. On November 25, 1974, Nick Drake, 26, died of an overdose of antidepressants in his parents home. Local officials ruled it a suicide, though many close to him and with him during his final days strongly believe it was an accidental overdose. Interest in Drake’s music continued to grow throughout the ’80s and ’90s as popular artists like Lucinda Williams, Elliott Smith, REM’s Peter Buck, and Robert Smith and of the Cure began citing him as an influence. His songs also began finding new fans from numerous film and TV placements, including the usage of “Pink Moon” in a popular Volkswagen commercial in 2000.
DJ Peachez (Born Terika Grooms)
DOB Unknown – November 25, 2009
DJ Peachez was a popular DJ for Richmond, VA radio station, iPower WCDX 92.1. After graduating with honors from James Madison University where she began DJing at the school’s station as a freshman, DJ Peachez was hired by WCDX in 2006. Colleagues have said she was an inspiration to young women with dreams of being a DJ. She was also a popular draw at clubs throughout the area. DJ Peachez reportedly died after recently being hospitalized for meningitis.
Freddie Mercury (Born Farrokh Bulsara)
September 5, 1946 – November 24, 1991
Born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Freddie Mercury would become one of rock’s most beloved and dynamic performers as the lead singer of Queen. When Mercury was 17, he and his family fled Zanzibar to London due to the Zanzibar Revolution. Mercury had been performing in bands since his school days, and he wasn’t about to stop when he got to London. When he graduated from college in the late ’60s, he played in a handful of bands until he joined up with Brian May and Roger Taylor and later John Deacon, in what would soon be called Queen. The band became one of the biggest musical acts during the ’70s and ’80s thanks in part to Mercury’s operatic voice and jaw dropping showmanship. One show in particular, Queen’s comeback of sorts during the Live Aid concerts of 1985, has been called the greatest live performance in the history of rock music. Mercury wrote many of the band’s biggest hits, including “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “We Are The Champions,” “Killer Queen,” and arguably their greatest, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” In the spring of 1987, Mercury was reportedly diagnosed with AIDS, though it wouldn’t be officially announced publicly until November 23, 1991. Freddie Mercury died the next day of bronchial pneumonia as a result of AIDS.
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