Died On This Date (June 9, 2008) Nick Sanderson / The Gun Club, Earl Brutus
themusicsover Nick Sanderson
1961 – June 9, 2008
Nick Sanderson, was the one-time drummer for seminal rock band, the Gun Club as well as the singer in the highly influential Earl Brutus, but his carer started in the Manchester industrial band, Clock DVA in 1983. About a year later, Sanderson was backing then-former Gun Club singer, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who would later invite him to join a re-formed Gun Club. Following Pierce’s death in 1997, Sanderson joined Earl Brutus as singer. In recent years, he was playing in a band called Freeheat alongside Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain. Nick Sanderson died of lung cancer in 2008.
Stiv Bators burst onto the punk scene as a member of the Dead Boys and later Lords Of The New Church. It was Bators’ sound and image that helped define the punk genre. After the demise of the Dead Boys, Bators found himself in the UK where he formed Lords Of The New Church with ex members of the Damned and Sham 69. The Lords achieved moderate success in Europe and the US due in part to their wild live shows. Bators was reported to have hung himself during a show in a stunt that went terribly wrong and was pronounced dead before being revived several minutes later. By the early ’80s, Bators was landing small parts in such cult classic films as Polyester and Tapeheads. And in 1988, the Lords broke up due to an injury Bators sustained to his back. In the early summer of 1990, an intoxicated Bators wandered into a Paris street and was struck by a taxi. He was taken to a hospital but apparently grew tired of waiting to see the doctor so he left. Bators died in his sleep later that night from what was ruled a concussion.
Patrick O’Brien was the guitarist for up-and-coming Maryland hardcore band, Cobra Clutch. The band had recently finished its debut album and were in the midst of an east coast tour, including some dates with Murphy’s Law. O’Brien died in his sleep at the age of 24.
Brad Nowell was the guitarist and lead singer for Southern California punk band, Sublime. In a sad twist of fate, Nowell’s death from a heroin overdose on the eve of the release of their major label debut helped it become one of the most successful albums of the year. By the time Nowell was eleven, his parents were divorced, perhaps leading him to the local sounds of punk and hip-hop for an escape. It was at this age that Nowell’s father took him to the Virgin Islands where he was introduced to a heavy dose of reggae music which would become the integral part of the music he would go on to make. After returning home, Nowell was given his first guitar, and never looked back. At twenty, he co-founded Sublime along with fellow Cal State Long Beach students, Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh. With a sound that was equal parts punk, ska, reggae and hip-hop, the band quickly became the local rage often playing at bars and parties in exchange for alcohol. The band soon recorded and released 40 Oz to Freedom on their own Skunk Records. That album contained a song called “Date Rape” which found its way to Los Angeles powerhouse alternative station, KROQ who added it into rotation, causing the request lines to explode. The song quickly became one of the most popular songs at KROQ that summer and grabbed the attention of executives at MCA Records who snapped the band up and put them into the studio to record their follow-up album. It was around this time that Nowell began to descend into the depths of substance abuse. Upon the completion of Sublime, the band embarked on a west coast run of dates in preparation of their first European tour. On May 25, 1996, as the band was checking out of their San Francisco hotel, Gaugh went to fetch Nowell only to find him face down in his room, dead of a heroin overdose. MCA Records and the surviving members debated whether to still release Sublime but ultimately decided to go ahead so that potential profits could go to help raise the one-year-old son Nowell left behind. The album went on to sell over 5 million copies.