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It's been a sad year for Punk rock with the loss of a few of the fold. Here's a few of those folk that we heard about and felt needed to be mentioned.
Carl Perkins the original rockabilly legend guitarist singer and songwriter of Blue Suede Shoes (amongst others) died on 19th January 1998 from a stroke. One of his benefit concerts raised enough money to open the Carl Perkin's Prevention of Child Abuse Centre to help people who suffer from child abuse.
Lucky Dawg (Richard Gargano) ex-bassist of the cool US pop punkster Fifteen committed suicide in February 1998.
Alex Hughes (aka Judge Dread) died of a heart attack on 15th March 1998. One of the leaders of the ska/reggae revival popular in England in the 70s Judge Dread was often billed as "The World's No. 1 Rude Boy,". He died on stage after a performance at a Canterbury theatre.
Richard (Rozz) Williams of Christian Death also committed suicide by hanging himself this year on 1st April 1998. He had recently signed to Triple X records and was enjoying a solo career when he took his own life.
Tim Yohannan founder and publisher of the long running punk rock magazine Maximum Rock and Roll died at home with friends after suffering with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer for some time on 3rd April 1998.
In his will Tim requested that there be no obituaries about him in keeping with his last requests this is a celebration of his life and the work and contribution he gave to punk rock - thank you Tim.
Wendy O. Williams famous porn star and the crazy singer out of the amazing Plasmatics died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on 8th April 1998. She was 48.
Linda McCartney despite your thoughts about her she made vegetarianism more acceptable to the average joe in the street and died on 17th April 1998 after fighting for a number of years against breast cancer.
Phil Suchmoel the guitarist and co-founder for top hardcore exponents Naked Aggression died of an asthma attack on 25th April 1998.
Joe "Stoots" Ciauri the bassist from F.Y.P. committed suicide by jumping off a cliff on 14th January 1998.
Frank Sinatra not desperately punk but a fine singer and actor who was in fact a rebel rouser in his own time and was the first artist to own his own record label Reprise which he sold to Warner Bros in 1963 coincidentally now home to punk popstars Green Day. He died on 15th May 1998 of a heart attack.
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