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 300+ and still growing).
An even more elite club is the 90-And-Still-Going-Club, who have had five new members so far in 2026:
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
New members of the 80ASG club include:
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Bob Lang (10 January) He joined Wayne Fontana and the Jets as the bassist in 1962. At a showcase gig in early 1963 only Lang and Fontana turned up, so Eric Stewart and Ric Rothwell were recruited at short notice. The four decided to continue under the new name of Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders. They had a #1 hit in the US in 1965 with The Game of Love, but Fontana quit shortly afterwards. The Mindbenders, as they now were, then had a massive hit in the US and UK with Groovy Kind Of Love. They had a couple of good years touring, but couldn't sustain chart success and Lang left in March 1968, to open a record shop, being replaced by Graham Gouldman. Lang did play briefly (but not record) with Welsh group Racing Cars.
Robbie Krieger (8 January). Really, all you need to know is that he wrote Light My Fire. Self-taught, he was a competent flamenco (Spanish Caravan), bottleneck, and finger-picking guitarist before joining The Doors in 1965. After Jim Morrison died in 1971, the other three Doors continued for a couple of years before disbanding. Since then Robbie has had a solo career, his own band and has guested for many. He's also participated in a number of quasi-Doors reunions and recreations. He's also a good golfer. His 2021 memoir Set The Night On Fire (a great read) revealed his long-term drug addiction after The Doors, now beaten, as was a bout of cancer.
Andy Brown (7 January) Previously the drummer with West Midlands outfit The Lawmen, Andy (top right in the photo) joined The Fortunes, as they had just become, in 1963. It took them five singles to have a hit, the Cook/Greenaway-penned You've Got Your Troubles, in 1965, which was really their peak year with three hit singles, although they had a late flourish of two hit singles in 1971. They were part of the "British Invasion" of the US in 1965. The band has continued to this day, and continues to tour, albeit with no original members left. Andy left in 1978, and is rumoured to have become a postman, although he didn't give drumming up entirely.
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.
Some sad news recently of too many departures including Neil Sedaka, 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.
To celebrate rock's 80 year olds, and other feats of longevity, please visit our Analyses of these living legends.
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.
An "On this day..." feature is on our Celebrations page.
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.
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
Robert Lee Smith, unknown photographer, retrieved from Facebook
Jess Conrad, Jack1956, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
John Leyton, public domain press photo from 1967
Doug Kershaw, David Simpson (cajunzydecophotos), CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Clarence Carter, John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
John Gorman, Jo Bell, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Helen Shapiro, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands license
Andy Bown, Inthevidual, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Harry Vanda, Eric Koch for Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ruth Pointer, Rick from Near Boston, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Pierre van der Linden, Hjvannes, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Aynsley Dunbar, Karoli, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Bob Lang, from Bob Lang (Differently), CC-BY-SA
Robbie Krieger, Franccesco Velasquez, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Fortunes, Chuck Boyd of KRLA Beat magazine. This is a retouched picture. Modifications made by Dcameron814., Public domain, 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
Page last updated 29 September 2026