rock stars who went back work.

From a Guardian article based on a new book by Nick Duerden about what happened to music stars after their fame had faded, here's a curious update on Dennis Seaton of Musical Youth.

Child reggae stars Musical Youth were a ray of early-80s sunshine when their single 'Pass the Dutchie' sold 5m copies around the world. Once their fame elapsed, and it did so with breathtaking speed, one member, Patrick Waite, developed drug problems, turned to crime, and died of heart failure at 24. Another, Kelvin Grant, became a recluse; singer Dennis Seaton a born-again Christian. “It saved me,” he tells me. Now in his mid-50s and a father of four, Seaton is the chairman of the Ladder Association training committee, alerting builders to the dangers of working at altitude without sufficient protection.

Hmm....

Hey just sent you DM about pretending to interview me! 👍

— Róisín Murphy (@roisinmurphy) April 17, 2022

After Mr. Siebel walked away from the music business, he became a bread baker for a restaurant and a county park worker in Maryland.

He leaves no immediate survivors.

Asked in 1996 how he thought he would be remembered, Mr. Siebel said: “He was a guy who wrote a couple of pretty good songs. What ever happened to him?”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/16/arts/music/paul-siebel-dead.html

Maybe he was called Max Decharme that time

.. or maybe I've got the wrong bloke (opps)

From that Guardian piece:

When 10,000 Maniacs’ Natalie Merchant grew tired of being a marketable commodity, she quit for the quieter life of a solo artist, and was then duly horrified when her debut album, 1995’s Tigerlily, sold 5m copies, because “then came the treadmill again”.

Kira (Black Flag) - computer programmer

Actually she went into the film/TV business - currently a dialogue editor with two Emmy Awards.

Also, it was mentioned in another thread, but when Jonathan Richman isn't doing music, he makes a steady living building and installing pizza ovens.

Best story I've heard is Philip Glass - from The Guardian:

...Glass supported himself as a New York cabbie and as a plumber, occupations that often led to unusual encounters. “I had gone to install a dishwasher in a loft in SoHo,” he says. “While working, I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. ‘But you’re Philip Glass! What are you doing here?’ It was obvious that I was installing his dishwasher and I told him I would soon be finished. ‘But you are an artist,’ he protested. I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well and that he should go away and let me finish.”

Forgot, I looked into the Gang of Four after catching their reunion. Turns out Hugo Burnham went into academia to teach art, Jon King became the chief executive of World Television, which produced news reports, webcasts and corporate video for clients from Greenpeace to Nestlé, and for awhile Dave Allen went into advertising and brand marketing, first with a division of Overland Agency and then co-founding the digital strategy firm Fight.

when I read that Guardian piece I did think that his was not an accurate take on Róisín Murphy's recent career:

After singer Róisín Murphy had navigated the end of her pop duo, Moloko, and then attempted to steer an idiosyncratic solo career with a determination Orson Welles might have admired, she moved to Ibiza to focus on two things: motherhood and the Mediterranean. “Sometimes it’s nice to just relax, you know,” she says.

I saw something about how after her solo album tanked, Jemina Pearl from Be Your Own Pet was overseeing open mics and karaoke nights in Nashville.

Forgot, I looked into the Gang of Four after catching their reunion. Turns out Hugo Burnham went into academia to teach art🕸, Jon King became the chief executive of World Television, which produced news reports, webcasts and corporate video for clients from Greenpeace to Nestlé, and for awhile Dave Allen went into advertising and brand marketing, first with a division of Overland Agency and then co-founding the digital strategy firm Fight.

Kira (Black Flag) - computer programmer

Actually she went into the film/TV business - currently a dialogue editor with two Emmy Awards.

Update yr info. Kira won an Oscar for sound editing on Mad Max Fury Road.

When I last checked on him, in the 90s, Arthur Brown was doing this:

In the 1980s, Brown moved to Austin, Texas, where his wife came from, and obtained a master's degree in counselling.[28]...Together with former Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black, he also became a painter and carpenter for some years,[10] and released an album with him, Brown, Black & Blue (1988). In 1992, Brown and fellow counsellor Jim Maxwell founded Healing Songs Therapy, a service that culminated in Brown creating a song for each client about their emotional issues.[30]

Update yr info. Kira won an Oscar for sound editing on Mad Max Fury Road.

Hah, even better! I just pulled everything from the opening paragraph on Wikipedia - I was surprised it's not in there. (It actually is, but buried towards the bottom.)

Bit of a niche interest this, but Michael McGuire, from 80s' conceptualists/ pranksters Sudden Sway, is now Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Surrey.

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/michael-mcguire

And if you doubt it's the same guy then about one seconds worth of hearing him talking about cybercrime on YouTube will convince you it's definitely him!

my brother-in-law is in advertising, used to live in portland, and would run into dave allen at things regularly. It took him a few times before he realized it was the guy from GoF and not just some random advertising guy

Xpost I have a home made box off all the "sing song" bits, so "Yes, yes, I did know that actually..."

Inspired by that latest Dandy Warhols thread, I fell into a clickhole and discovered Zia McCabe is/was a realtor.

Nice interview from 2017: https://www.wweek.com/music/2017/12/26/when-zia-mccabe-got-tired-of-touring-with-the-dandy-warhols-she-became-a-licensed-real-estate-agent/