All Things Must Pass
This site celebrates the giants of a generation of musicians that is now, slowly but surely, leaving us. The focus might appear morbid, even mawkish - it is not meant to be.
Rather, it celebrates the longevity and continuing creativity of a generation of musicians who never dreamed they could make life-long careers in the then-new rock 'n roll. (The Beatles famously had plans for life after fame, including Ringo opening a chain of hair salons.) But, it turns out, they could and many did. We hope to show that the 27 Club has a much smaller membership than you would think, and certainly much smaller than the 80-And-Still-Going-Club (current documented membership 200+ and still growing).
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An even more elite club is the 90-And-Still-Going-Club, who had three new members in January:
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The total membership of the 80ASG Club passed 300 in our database in February, 2026. New members of the 80ASG club in December, January and February include:
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John Gorman (4 January) He was a founder of The Scaffold comedy musical group, who had two hits in the late 60s, including the UK's 1968 Christmas #1, Lily The Pink . In 1974 Scaffold morphed into GRIMMS, with the addition of many new members. In the late 70s he was involved with the TV programme Tiswas, and then its adult derivative O.T.T. He then became a TV presenter, before moving to France. On his return he followed a portfolio life of activities in the theatre, visual arts and literature. Scaffold have occasionally reformed for one-off shows, most recently in 2018. In 2020 they re-recorded vocals for Thank U Very Much, in support of the NHS
Robbie Krieger (8 January). The Doors
Andy Brown (7 January) The Fortunes
John Paul Jones (3 January). Born into a musical family, he started piano aged six. Aged 14 he acquired, against the advice of his father, a bass guitar. He was soon in a band, and at 16 he was the bassist for the ex-Shadows Tony Harris and Jet Meehan for two years. He then spent four years as a session musician, both a bassist and an arranger. Here he often worked with Jimmy Page. When the latter started Zeppelin, Jones, tired of the slog of session work, asked if he needed a bassist. He did, and Jones became the musical brain of Zeppelin for the next 12 years. After Zeppelin was done, he became a producer, arranger, composer and performer in a multiplicity of genres, and is still making new music today.
Chick Churchill (2 January). Classically trained on piano, he became interested in rock and blues in his late teens. A chance meeting with Alvin Lee of The Jaybirds led to Churchill becoming that group's road manager, and soon thereafter its keyboard player. Re-christened as Ten Years After, the group became popular on the blues/rock circuit and an appearance at Woodstock moved them into a different class. After TYA broke up in 1974, Churchill became a publisher, promoter and manager. He rejoined TYA for a brief reunion in 1983, and then permanently in 1988, since when, in various configurations - all of which up to 2024 featured Churchill - the band has continued.
Peter Criss (20 December). A drummer with roots in swing, Criss was in a number of New York bands in the late 1960s. After the last of these expired he put an ad in Rolling Stone which was seen by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, who were looking to complete the original line-up of KISS. Picked as much for his vocals as his drumming, he joined in 1973, under the persona of Catman. KISS became a headline act in the late 70s, but by the end of the Dynasty tour in 1979, Criss was done, his drumming deteriorating, and he was eased out. His subsequent solo career was not commercially successful; he rejoined KISS twice (1996-2001, 2003-2004). He released solo albums in 2007 and 2025; he last performed in public in 2017.
John McEuen (19 December). Influenced by country pioneers The Dillards, he learnt banjo when he was 18. Later he would also play fiddle and mandolin. He joined The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1966, replacing Jackson Browne, and stayed with them till 1986. He rejoined for a second spell, 2001 - 2017. In between, and after, he did solo and guest work, and collaborated with Steve Martin, a childhood friend whom McEuen had helped learn the banjo.
Robert Martinez (13 December). He was the drummer in the trio that formed the original Mysterians in 1962, a Michigan garage band (and proto-punk band). His brother Rudy - known as Question Mark - joined on vocals, and "? and the Mysterians" was born. When a keyboard player was added, they found their style and had a #1 US hit in 1966 with the much-covered 96 Tears. Not exactly one-hit wonders as they had other singles that charted, but they disbanded in 1969. Since then, various reunions have taken place, most recently in late 2023.
Alan Ward (12 December). Classically trained, skilled on piano, he was the original guitarist with The Honeycombs, famous for having a female drummer. He joined in 1963, when they were The Sheratons and he was only 18. They were spotted by the songwriting team of Howard and Blaikley, whose Have I The Right? they recorded as The Honeycombs (drummer Honey Lantree was a hairdresser's assistant). It was a world-wide hit, and the group toured on the back of it, becoming famously big in Japan. But they could not replicate the success of their first single, and Alan left the group in 1966, after which he opened a music shop and recording studio in London. The original line-up briefly reunited in 1999.
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Bette Midler (1 December). Already an actress, she started singing in a gay bathhouse in NYC, accompanied by Barry Manilow. He arranged and co-produced her debut album The Divine Miss M, which went platinum. And then she continued....She's sold 30 million records, released 14 studio albums (four gold, three platinum, three multi-platinum), and won three Grammys. Her biggest singles, all #1s, are The Rose, Wind Beneath My Wings and From A Distance. She also memorably covered The Andrews Sisters.
Roger Glover (30 November). Welsh-born, London-raised, he was in a band called Episode Six that later recruited Ian Gillan. In 1969 Gillan and Glover joined Deep Purple, where they both stayed till 1973, which was Purple's most prolific and successful period. Glover then produced a number of rock groups before joining Rainbow in 1979. When Purple reformed in 1984, Glover rejoined and he's been there ever since. He's had a large number of side projects in those 40+ years, some with ex-Purple members (Ian Gillan, Jon Lord), and some with his own band.
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Randy Brecker (27 November). A trumpeter, he grew up in a jazz household. After some early big band work, he joined Blood, Sweat and Tears, then a series of jazz-rock and fusion outfits, most memorably The Eleventh House, before setting up the Brecker Brothers Band with his younger brother Michael. When they disbanded in 1982 he set up a group with his then-wife Eliane Elias. Since then he has been a prolific studio musician, a solo musician (with his own band) and a touring musician, including revivals of the Brecker Brothers Band. He has also been a significant collaborator around the world, and across genres.
John McVie (26 November). He, like his rhythm section partner Mick Fleetwood, has been on every Fleetwood Mac release since its formation (the band actually got its name before McVie joined - it was designed to get him to join). Before FM he was a member, on and off, of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, which he joined in 1963. Later, Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood both had spells in the Bluesbreakers, before leaving to form Fleetwood Mac in 1967. McVie, initially reluctant, eventually followed. The breakdown of his 1968 marriage to Christine Perfect was part of the fuel that drove the recording of Rumours in 1976. A heavy drinker at the time, he has been sober since 1987, and recovered from cancer in the 2010s. After Christine McVie's death in 2022 Fleetwood Mac called it a day.
Alan Tarney (19 November). "The greatest British pop producer you've never heard of." That's Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley's opinion. Brought up in Workington, his teenage years were spent in Australia. In 1969, now in a group, he came back. When the group fizzled out, he became a session musician and songwriter - he was the bassist in the Shadows in the mid 70s. He wrote "We Don't Talk Any More" for Cliff Richard, and produced two of his albums. He then produced A-ha's first three albums, and arranged/produced the hit version of "Take On Me" for them. He later worked with many other acts, including Bow Wow Wow, Dream Academy and Squeeze.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad (15 November). Brought up by a grandmother who encouraged her singing, it was clear from an early age she had a remarkable voice. A long apprenticeship as a dance band and jazz singer led to success in Sweden's "New Faces" TV competition, and early stardom. She met Benny Andersson, who produced her first solo LP. She initially resisted the idea of ABBA, but eventually joined, where her mezzo-soprano voice combined perfectly with Agnetha Fältskog's soprano. Super-stardom ensued. After ABBA she had a solo career, with her last major LP release in 1996, although she has never totally retired, and participated in ABBA's 2021 Voyage LP.
Neil Young (12 November). A true giant of music. TBH if all he'd done was Buffalo Springfield that would be spectacular. But he's never stopped - always changing his music, always testing new genres, always allowing his activism to open up new areas for his song writing. Been a long slog from his folk roots in Winnipeg and the Canadian circuit, but he's still going strong.
He's also, and I only just discovered this, another rock giant with an interest in model railways...and an alias to match (Clyde Coil, now you ask).
Vince Martell (11 November). Lead guitarist of Vanilla Fudge from 1967 until now (they're still touring, with all the surviving original members). Initially learnt to play guitar (jazz and classical) in the Navy, before forming what would become Vanilla Fudge in New York in the early 60s. In between the Fudge reunions he plays with his own band (which included his wife) and with a Fudge spin-off, and releases solo records.
Nick Simper (3 November). The bassist with Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, he survived the 1966 car crash that killed Johnny Kidd. Meeting Jon Lord in, of all places, the backing band for The Flowerpot Men, he joined the first line-up of Deep Purple. He played on their first three albums, before being fired in 1969. He then started his own band, Warhorse. After that finished, he played in a number of bands. In 2016, when Deep Purple were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was the only member from the band's heyday NOT to be personally inducted, a snub he treats affably with the contempt it deserves.
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Some sad news recently of too many departures including Andrew Ranken, Sly Dunbar, Chris Rea, Joe Ely, Jimmy Cliff, and Mani. Brief tributes to some of these, and to other recent losses from across the world of music, are on our Farewell page.
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To celebrate rock's 80 year olds, and other feats of longevity, please visit our Analyses of these living legends.
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Best place to start is probably with the Bands pages. We've grouped the bands into five categories, dependent on the survival rate of the membership. We're only focusing, initially, on major line-ups, although our database aims to track all recording line-ups. We're much less interested at this stage (although not uninterested) in touring line-ups.
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An "On this day..." feature is on our Celebrations page.
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Please note - the site is still (yes, still) undergoing a major refresh, during which old, outdated material will still be available for a while - please bear with us while we clean everything up, including proper attribution of all the photos we have used.
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Photo credits
The Who, Jim Summaria, (Wikipedia:Contact us/Photo submission), licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
The Small Faces, Billboard , now in public domain
The Beatles, unknown photographer, public domain
John Gorman, Jo Bell, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
John Paul Jones, https://www.flickr.com/photos/laraclifford/ Lara Clifford], CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Chick Churchill, (cropped from) Deram / London Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Peter Criss, Casablanca Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
John McEuen, JohnMHoover, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Tony Hicks, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
? and the Mysterians, unknown author - retouched picture, digitally altered from its original version. Modifications made by Dcameron814., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Alan Ward, extracted from Honeycombs photo, Eric Koch for Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bette Midler, Alan Light, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Roger Glover, Original uploader and author was Nsoveiko at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Randy Brecker, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license, author Tore Sætre
Michael Omartian - we believe the copyright is held by Michael Omartian (this image has been cropped)
John McVie, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, author Weatherman90 at English Wikipedia
Alan Tarney , cropped from a (public domain) publicity still for Tarney/Spencer Band's third LP, Run For Your Life
Anni-Frid Lyngstad, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, author Frankie Fouganthin
Neil Young, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, author Kymi - cropped vertically, losing the bottom third approx
Vince Martell, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic, author Michael Borkson
Nick Simper, public domain, Deep Purple publicity photograph
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Page last updated 12 February 2026