Amy Winehouse - The Latest member of the "27 Club"

Sad death of Amy Winehouse mirrors other great rock stars in the '27 Club'

By Martin Newman 23/07/2011

 

Amy Winehouse

Blues and soul singer Amy Winehouse’s premature death at the age of 27 has placed her in a notorious club of rock stars who lived their life hard and died young.

The so-called ‘27 Club’ of musicians who burnt brightly but died too soon, was coined after the deaths in the ‘60s and ’70s of some of the giants of the music scene.
The first was Brian Jones, The Rolling Stones guitarist found dead in his pool in 1969.

That was followed by electric guitar hero Jimi Hendrix who choked on his own vomit after a drink and drugs binge in London in 1970.

A month later tragic singer Janis Joplin died of a probable heroin overdose, and less than a year later Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors, was found dead in a bathtub in Paris from heart failure.

Even after the hedonistic days of the late ‘60s, though, the 27 Club continued to grow, as a surprising number of top musicians died at that age.

In 1994 Kurt Cobain, the depressed lead singer of Nirvana, shot himself dead.
According to the book Heavier Than Heaven, when Cobain died, his sister claimed as a child he would talk about how he wanted to join the 27 Club.
But he wasn't alone.
Echo and the Bunnymen lost their drummer Pete de Freitas in a motorcycle accident in 1989, aged 27.

And in 1995 The Manic Street Preachers Richey James Edwards went missing and is now presumed dead.
In the same year her husband comiited suicide Courtney Love, Cobain's widow, lost her Hole bass guitarist Kristen Pfaff from a heroin overdose.
Other groups including Canned Heat, The Drifters, Uriah Heep, The Grateful Dead and Big Star have all lost members aged 27.
Music critic Robert Smith said: "The deaths of these rock stars at the age of 27 really changed the way we look at rock music

AMY WINEHOUSE - THE LATEST MEMBER OF THE '27 CLUB'

The singer's tragic death at the age of 27 puts her in a pantheon of famous musicians who have all died at the same age.
Amy follows now joins the notorious 27 Club, also known as Forever 27, which is a group of musicians who have all died at the age while struggling to cope with fame.

Club members: Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison are among those who died at the age of 27

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was the most recent victim and in 1994, pumped with heroin and valium, he turned a gun on himself.
Decades earlier Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones all died at 27.
Rolling Stone Jones drowned in a swimming pool in 1969; Hendrix choked to death in 1970 after mixing wine with sleeping pills and singer Janis Joplin suffered a suspected heroin overdose the same year.
Doors star Morrison died of heart failure in 1971.