Bradley Stewart, a.k.a. Gidget Gein, was the 39-year-old second bassist for industrial metal band Marilyn Manson from 1989 to 1993, during which time his stage name was created through the fusion of the names of Gidget (the television character played by Sally Field) and Ed Gein (the notorious American serial killer.) He died from a suspected heroin overdose on October 9, 2008 at his home in Burbank, California. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office has stated it will not release further details until the Gein’s family has been informed of the situation. He was only the bassist for Manson’s first album, 1994’s Portrait of an American Family (and their cassette-only demo albums before that, when the band was named Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids.) He was fired though shortly after the completion of the album because he overdosed on heroin for the fourth time, and he wasn’t getting a handle on his addiction. He received a letter via Federal Express from the band on Christmas Eve of 1993, when finding himself in a hospital bed, declaring his services “no longer needed” (he was replaced by the group’s former groupie, Jeordie “Gordy” White, otherwise known as Twiggy Ramirez.) He went on to form Gidget Gein and the Dali Gaggers before performing art and fashion shows under the name Gollywood.

Alton Ellis OD (born Alton Nehemiah Ellis) was a musician best known as one of the innovators of rocksteady music, and was often referred to as the “Godfather of Rocksteady” (”rocksteady” was a successor to Jamaican ska, and a precursor to reggae; the tempo is slower than ska, and the bass is heavier and more prominent in the mix.) In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae and World Music Awards Hall of Fame. In December 2007, he was admitted to hospital in London for treatment of cancer of the lymph glands, but he returned to live performance after receiving chemotherapy. Ellis died on 10 October 2008 at Hammersmith Hospital, West London, of cancer. He was the older brother of the late Hortense Ellis, and the father of more than twenty children including Noel Ellis and Christopher Ellis, who are both reggae singers. At the beginning of his career, he had several hits while fronting the vocal group the Flames, including “Dance Crasher,” “I’m Just a Guy,” “Sunday Coming,” and “Get Ready - Rock Steady” (which was the first song to refer to the name of the newer genre.) His Mr. Soul of Jamaica album is regarded as one of the definitive rocksteady albums. Ellis moved to Canada and then to England in the 1970s as his career declined, but he returned to popularity in the past 15 years because of a rocksteady trend in Jamaica and Europe.

Here is Alton Ellis singing “Get Ready - Rock Steady” at the Bornasco Reggae Festival in Italy on 2/9/2007:

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