Died On This Date (July 17, 1996) Chas Chandler / The Animals; Managed Jimi Hendrix
themusicsover Chas Chandler
December 18, 1938 – July 17, 1996
Chas Chandler wore many hats throughout his music career. During the early ’60s, he co-founded the Animals with Alan Price and Eric Burdon, playing bass for the band. After the group broke up, he got into artist management, his famous client being Jimi Hendrix. Later, he produced records for Slade and Nick Drake while running his own recording studio and eventually starting his own label, Barn Records. In his later years, Chandler helped develop the Newcastle Arena, which opened in 1995. Chandler died of a heart condition on July 17 of the following year.
Kelly Johnson was, most famously, lead guitarist and sometime lead singer for Girlschool, arguably the first major all-female heavy metal band. Formed in 1977 out of the ashes of London’s Painted Lady, Girlschool released a series of classic metal albums and played in front of huge crowds alongside the likes of Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Saxon and the Scorpions. Having recorded on four albums, Johnson left Girlschool in 1983 to move to Los Angeles. She reunited with the band in 1993 and stayed through 2000, around the time she learned she had spinal cancer, of which she died in 2007.
Rick Garberson was the drummer for Akron, Ohio based post-punk band, the Bizarros, who formed in early 1976. Hailing from the city that gave us Devo, Pere Ubu and Chrissie Hynde, the Bizarros were an integral part of the scene and were in fact, the first local band to be signed by a national label, Mercury imprint, Blank Records. Garbeson died of carbon monoxide poisoning on July 15, 1979.