Marlene (Joan) Palmer, who worked with some of the biggest names of Canadian music, died of ovarian cancer on Saturday, December 30th, at the Victoria Hospice in Victoria, British Columbia, according to husband Phillip Hurst.

She was 62.

Unfailingly cheerful, a valued colleague, friend and confidant to all, Palmer was a much sought-after publicist and a tenacious advocate for her clients. She had an incisive wit, great creative instincts, and came from a PR tradition that the media was to be treated with respect.

At one time or another during her nearly four-decade publicity career, her client list included: Anne Murray, Bryan Adams, Loverboy, Rita MacNeil, The Rankin Family, Steve Smith (aka Red Green), Tommy Hunter, Frank Mills, and George Fox.

She also oversaw the national media surrounding the historic “Tears Are Not Enough,” the all-star charity single recorded in 1985 by leading Canadian artists, under the name Northern Lights, raising funds for the relief of the famine in Ethiopia.

France is bidding farewell to its biggest rock star, honoring Johnny Hallyday with an exceptional funeral procession down the Champs-Elysees, a presidential speech and a parade of motorcyclists -- all under intense security.

Few figures in French history have earned a send-off as elaborate as the one Saturday for the man sometimes dubbed the French Elvis. It was ordered by President Emmanuel Macron -- a Hallyday fan himself, like generations of others across the French-speaking world.

Hallyday's death Wednesday at age 74 after fighting lung cancer unleashed emotion across the country, where the man known to the public simply as Johnny had been an icon for more than half a century.

Johnny HalladayFans chanting "Johnny! Johnny!" massed in Paris as the funeral cortege headed past his home in a Paris suburb near Versailles to Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe monument. The procession will then head down the Champs-Elysees, through the Place de la Concorde plaza on the Seine River, and then to the columned Madeleine Church.

So much has been said in the last week of David Cassidy – tv anchorwomen and female radio announcers as well as fans all saying things like ‘he was my first crush’,’I had his poster on my wall all through High School’, ‘he was so cute and had such a great smile and amazing hair’.

And then the battle with addictions, as well as his ongoing development of dementia, a disease that took his beloved mother from him.

But the story that needs to be told is what an amazing performer he became as he aged, being a strong businessman, producer, writer and director. Here are some highlights of the pretty boy from The Partridge Family’s outstanding career.

David Cassidy had managed to stay at the top of his game for over four decades, with a unique ability to re-invent himself and adapt to numerous genres from concerts to theatre, television to Las Vegas, and even actor/singer to producer/writer/director with a demographic that crosses three generations. David rose to stardom in “The Partridge Family” and became the biggest TV and performing phenomenon in history by the time he was 20.

Mel Tillis, country music singer and songwriter, has died, the Country Music Hall of Fame confirmed in a statement. He was 85.

According to the Tennessean, Tillis died early Sunday morning at the Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Fla. after almost two years of ill health stemming from a bout of diverticulitis, for which he received surgery. The suspected cause of death is respiratory failure.

Tillis began recording in the late 1950s and continued to perform through 2015, but remained best known for a string of No. 1 country hits in the late ’70s, along with a succession of appearances in Hollywood movies alongside Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood that helped make him a household name even outside the country music sphere.

“Mel Tillis spent a lifetime giving us joy and laughter and music, which is why his death brings such sadness,” said Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young. “Had he never stepped on a stage, he would still have been one of the funniest and most genuine people on the planet.”

Funk Legend of the hit song ‘Boogie Nights’ passed away on October 29, 2017, at the age of 68. The unconfirmed cause of death was a massive heart attack.

Keith Edward Wilder was a vocalist for the legendary funk band Heatwave. Formed in 1975 by Wilder’s brother Johnnie Wilder, Jr., Heatwave hits included "Boogie Nights," "Always and Forever" and "The Groove Line."It was 40 years ago at this time that Heat Wave was climbing to #2 on the pop chart with this disco-dance smash.

In London during the mid-1970’s Johnnie Wilder, Jr. and Rod Temperton (both who have passed away 2006 and 2016 respectively) with several other musicians including Keith came together and created music history. The group has changed musician members over the years. Napoleon Eugene Phillips, Elliot Levine, Keith Busey, Geno Myers, Nathan Watson, Ignatius Mason, Byron Byrd, Donavan Blackwood and my longtime friend ElWarren Weatherspoon (World-Class Drummer) affectionately known in the industry as “Spoon”.

Antione “Fats” Domino, one of the most influential rock and roll performers of the 1950s and 60s, has died at the age of 89.

He was best known for his songs ‘Ain't That A Shame’, ‘I’m Walkin’ and ‘Blueberry Hill’ and sold more than 65 million records, outselling every 1950’s rock and roll acts with the exception of  Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley once referred to Fats Domino as "the real king of rock n roll" and Paul McCartney reportedly wrote the Beatles song ‘Lady Madonna’ in Fats’ style of piano playing. He was one of the first rhythm and blues artists to gain popularity with a white audience and his music was most prolific in the 1950s.

Domino had 11 US Top 10 hits and his music was a big influence on artists during the 1960s and 70s.

He was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, but by then he would no longer leave New Orleans, not even to accept the award.

Fellow New Orleans-born musician and actor Harry Connick Jr. paid tribute to Domino on Twitter, saying he had "helped pave the way for New Orleans piano players".

Skip Prokop, co-founder of Canadian band Lighthouse, has died. He was 74. Prokop had been living with a heart condition and was reportedly ill for some time.

Born Ronald Harry Prokop, the Hamilton native had his first taste of success with Canadian psychedelic rock band the Paupers in the early 1960s. After the group broke up, Prokop was a session musician for industry heavyweights including Carlos Santana, Janis Joplin and folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary.

Prokop co-founded Lighthouse in 1968 with jazz pianist and film composer Paul Hoffert. They teamed with guitarist Ralph Cole and some 10 other musicians from the jazz, rock and classical world.

Submitted by Cashbox Canada
Photo: Sonny Burgess, performing at the Country Music Hall Of Fame in Nashville in 2015

Rockabilly singer, songwriter and guitarist Sonny Burgess passed away on August 18, 2017 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Burgess made his career when he became one of Sam Phillips/Sun Records' stars, with signatory whoops and howls all along accompanied by his furious guitar.

Born May 28, 1929, Burgess was raised on a farm near Newport, Arkansas. He grew up listening to shows from the Grand Ole Opry, and started out playing with friends in local bars and dance halls in a band they called The Rocky Road Ramblers. His original dream was to be a professional baseball player, but after a couple of years spent in the minor leagues, Burgess entered the U.S. Army, and served in West Germany during the Korean War. After advice from Sun record producer Sam Phillips, the group expanded to form the Pacers, at first called the Newport Pacers. Burgess was sharing dates with the likes of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.

\When I got the word that Glen Campbell had passed away my reaction wasn’t the same as when I heard of other passings. When Glenn Frey passed I was shocked, when George Jones and Merle Haggard passed I was sad, when Canadian teen idol and friend Bobby Curtola passed I was devastated. But when I heard about Glen Campbell passing the first word that came to mind was finally, finally free from the grip of that horrible disease Alzheimer’s. I was also terribly sad and nostalgic to hear but felt a great relief for him and his family. The last days of his life he couldn’t speak, communicate or interact in any way. Who knows for sure what was going on in his head. His family released a statement on his website “It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and legendary singer and guitarist, Glen Travis Campbell, at the age of 81, following his long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease … In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Glen Campbell Memorial Fund at Bright Focus Foundation through the CareLiving.org donation page.”

Credit Wikipedia

Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers were a soul band from Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. The group recorded for the Gordy Records (division of Motown Records) in 1968, where they had a top 30 hit single, "Does Your Mama Know About Me". As a producer and solo artist, Bobby Taylor contributed to several other soul recordings, both inside and outside of Motown. Taylor is most notable for discovering and mentoring The Jackson 5. Tommy Chong was a member of Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers before he became famous as a comedian.

Bobby Taylor, born February 18, 1934 in Washington, DC, was raised in Washington. As a young man, he moved to New York City and sang in doo-wop groups with singers who later joined successful acts such as Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers and Little Anthony and the Imperials.[1] In 1958 he began his music career as a member of The Four Pharaohs, who released a few locally-selling recordings in the Columbus, Ohio area.

Norris “Norro” Wilson, Nashville Songwiter Hall of Fame member  has passed away.. Wilson,the  co-writer of classic songs  like “The Grand Tour,” “The Most Beautiful Girl” and “A Picture of Me (Without You),” died after several months of bad health at 79 years old.

During his long career Wilson his career was active in many different aspects of the music business as a performer, a songwriter, a song plugger, a publisher, an A&R rep and a producer,  working  with artists that included George Jones, Kenny Chesney, Charley Pride, Tammy Wynette and Reba McEntire.

Born on April 4, 1938, in Scottsville, Kentucky.  Wilson began performing in a barbershop quartet in high school. Going to  Western Kentucky State College after highschool he  joined the Southlanders Quartet,  that brought him to Nashville in 1957.

In 1970, as an artist, he was picked for Country Radio Seminar’s inaugural “New Faces of Country Music.” That year, his recording of "Do It to Someone You Love" which reached as high as # 20 , the highest-charting single of his singing career. He gave up recording entirely when he started thriving as a songwriter and music executive.

Germain Robert Joseph (Gerry) Lacoursiere, the man responsible for the launch of A&M Records in Canada, has passed away on May 9th at his family home in Windsor, Ontario.
The legendary Canadian record label executive was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in 1997, just after he retired from the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Polygram Group. He was also presented the Billboard International Business Achievement Award by the trade publication.

A & M Records Canada was established in 1970 under Lacoursiere’s direction. It was headquartered in Toronto, and, by 1990, had branch offices in six other cities.

A & M Records of Canada Ltd. Canadian subsidiary of A & M Records, a US company founded in 1962 by the trumpeter Herb Alpert (then leader of the Tijuana Brass) and the producer Jerry Moss. A & M and its subsidiaries became part of PolyGram in 1990. A & M (Canada) was established in 1970 under the direction of Gerry Lacoursiere, with head offices in Toronto and, by 1990, branch offices in six other cities. (Joe Summers succeeded Lacoursiere as president in 1990.)

Co-founder and guitarist of one of Canada’s original garage bands The Haunted from the 1960’s has passed away in British Columbia. Details are not available at the time of publishing.

The Haunted were a Canadian garage rock band from Montreal , Quebec. The band was formed by Jurgen Peter (guitar) in 1965, and went on to release several records before finally disbanding in 1971. They were among the first Canadian bands to achieve a level of success in their musical genre.

In 1965, Jurgen Peter joined up with Bob Burgess (vocals), Al Birmingham (lead guitar), Glenn Holmes (bass), and Peter Symes (drums) to form The Haunted. Besides Peter, the other constant band member through most of its six-year history was Birmingham. The band membership that recorded the band's best known song, "1-2-5" was composed of Birmingham (lead guitar), Peter (rhythm guitar), Burgess (vocals), Mason Shea (bass) and Dave Wynne (drums).

Sonny Geraci, the Cleveland-born pop singer who scored national hits as lead singer of The Outsiders in the 1960s and Climax in the 1970s passed away on  February 5, 2017. He was 69, and had been in ill health since suffering a brain aneurysm in 2012.

Geraci, a graduate of John Adams High School, became lead singer of The Starfires in 1964. The band, founded by guitarist and songwriter Tom King soon changed its name to The Outsiders and put four singles on the U.S. pop charts during the late 1960s, including "Time Won't Let Me," "Girl in Love," "Help Me Girl" and "Respectable (What Kind of Girl Is This)," a remake of the Isley Brothers tune.

Geraci left the band in 1970, striking out on his own and eventually forming the band Climax with Walter Nims, who had been a member of both the Starfires and The Outsiders. That group later scored a Top 3 single with "Precious and Few," written by Nims. Climax disbanded in 1975.

Geraci left the music business in the early 1980s, but tried a comeback, under the pseudonym Peter Emmett, in 1983, releasing an unsuccessful album on MCA.

LONDON - Musician Greg Lake co-founded both King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer — bands that helped define the sprawling, influential but often-maligned genre known as progressive rock.

Lake, who died of cancer at 69, was instrumental in bringing classical influences, epic length, mythic scope and 1970s excess into rock 'n' roll, winning millions of fans before punk swept in and spoiled the party.

Manager Stewart Young said in a statement that Lake died Wednesday after "a long and stubborn battle with cancer."

Born in the southern English seaside town of Poole in 1947, Lake founded King Crimson with guitarist Robert Fripp in the late 1960s. The band pioneered the ambitious genre that came to be known as progressive rock.

He went on to form ELP with keyboardist Keith Emerson and drummer Carl Palmer. With Lake as vocalist and guitarist, ELP impressed crowds at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, in a lineup that also featured Jimi Hendrix and The Who.

The band released six platinum-selling albums characterized by songs of epic length, classical influence and ornate imagery, and toured with elaborate light shows and theatrical staging.

(Editor's Note: Brad 'Rusty' Bakewell, lead singer and master provocateur of hard rock crew Jack Damage has passed . Rusty never made the big time but every time he was onstage, he made it a big time. He was a very relatable dude and his big-hearted ways made a mark in many people's lives. The memoir below is from one of them.)

This is my friend Brad Bakewell. Most of you knew him as Rusty or Crusty Rusty if you were part of our scene at Rock'N'Roll Heaven. Rusty left us last week. Indications are it was from complications surrounding a near fatal car accident a couple of years back, in BC. Rusty was a complete rock and roll animal in the end. And for that we who loved him and thanked him.

There’s a lot of talk going around that there aren’t many good singers around these days, that there are not a lot of classic voices that will be remembered years from now. But after seeing some award shows and other performances of current artists doing hits from the past, I’m starting to think the problem isn’t really the singers as much as the songs. In my opinion there were a lot better songs being written back in the day but you need somebody to find those songs and get them to the artists and producers and get them recorded. There was none better at this then Bob Montgomery, the best friend a song and songwriter ever had. Working out of Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee, Bob discovered and championed countless songs and their writers as well as writing classics of his own, “Back in Baby’s Arms” for Patsy Cline and the huge crossover hit “Misty Blue”.

Allen Toussaint, the legendary songwriter, producer, arranger and performer hailed by the Grammys, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and musicians and fans worldwide as one of the most influential figures in New Orleans music, died Monday while on tour in Europe, his family confirmed. He was 77.

Toussaint was on tour in Spain and died after performing Monday. Having performed frequently in his hometown over the past several weeks, Toussaint left last Thursday on a tour that was to include stops in Madrid, Belgium and London, according to his Facebook page.

Just last week, it was announced that Toussaint and longtime friend Paul Simon would perform at a Dec. 8 benefit for New Orleans Artists Against Hunger and Homelessness, a charity he helped create.

It was around a year ago when the phone rang and Marty Williams said “Belson, what’s up?”, the usual response was answered with the reply,” I have bad news for you it’s Quinn, he’s dead.”

Well, unfortunately it was true after the 3 of us and other old friends had just recently reacquainted at yet another compadre’s funeral, (Platinum Blonde) Kenny McLean. The story goes that when he couldn’t be reached his best friend from school days (and ‘roomy’ at one time) Chris Bernard discovered that “Quinn,” as he was called by his friends, had passed away.

Leaving behind his 3 beloved Siamese cats and his Gibson Guitar on his lap as he sat waiting to move on over to the other side. It is unfortunate when close friends pass on like Kenny McLean and Gary Quinn, less than 6 months apart and ironically enough, both very talented musicians.

Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of punk group the Sex Pistols, has died in Switzerland aged 64. McLaren, the ex-partner of designer Vivienne Westwood, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer last October.

He set up a clothes shop and label with Westwood on London's King's Road in the 1970s and was later a businessman and performer in his own right.

The couple had a son, Joseph Corre, the co-founder of lingerie shop Agent Provocateur. His agent told the BBC that McLaren passed away on Thursday morning. Spokesman Les Malloy said the artist's family was "devastated" and "in shock" after his condition suddenly deteriorated, adding: "He had been doing very well, it's a sad day."

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