Denise Johnson RIP (1964 - 2020)

[daz]

Sad to hear the news of the passing of the great Denise Johnson. Not a vocalist you may have heard of in her own right, but a very good chance you have heard her voice over the past 30 years as she has sang for near everyone worth knowing.

A superb voice taken far too soon.

RIP Denise

Here is Denise singing with the Scream on The Word back around 91.

[Portland Road]

daz - I certainly have heard of Denise in her own right, and I remember her on vocals for Primal Scream, certainly on the 'Screamadelica' and 'Give Out, But Don't Give Up' albums.

I also love her trippy vocals on the outro of Electronic 'Get The Message'.

She seems too young to die, those days don't seem like thirty years ago and we will soon be seeing them on TOTP re-runs I hope.

R.I.P. Denise Johnson

[daz]

Aug 2, 2020 6:43:11 GMT Portland Road said:

daz - I certainly have heard of Denise in her own right, and I remember her on vocals for Primal Scream, certainly on the 'Screamadelica' and 'Give Out, But Don't Give Up' albums.

I also love her trippy vocals on the outro of Electronic 'Get The Message'.

She seems too young to die, those days don't seem like thirty years ago and we will soon be seeing them on TOTP re-runs I hope.

R.I.P. Denise Johnson

Yes, it was very sad news. She was just about to release her debut album next month as well.

[barrythebook]

That's very sad news at such a young age.
A performer who was never in the limelight but so instrumental in making other peoples careers successful by giving such a good performance.

You say she was just about to launch her debut album daz, did she die suddenly?

RIP Denise Johnson.

[daz]

Aug 2, 2020 15:32:47 GMT barrythebook said:

That's very sad news at such a young age.
A performer who was never in the limelight but so instrumental in making other peoples careers successful by giving such a good performance.

You say she was just about to launch her debut album daz, did she die suddenly?

RIP Denise Johnson.

I'm not 100%, but did read something about bad asthma.

[Portland Road]

I don't think her death was in any way expected. I heard about it on BBC 6Music and they seemed taken aback by it.

daz - it was good to see Denise in person on 'The Word' performance - they tended to have full-on performances and that was one of them 

I was probably not the only one who could confuse her with e.g. Rowetta who sang with the Happy Mondays in the same period - they did similar work with similar acts.

I also wonder what she performed with 808 State - e.g. did she sing the backing on 'Tunes Splits the Atom' with MC Tunes?

[daz]

Aug 3, 2020 2:58:20 GMT Portland Road said:

I don't think her death was in any way expected. I heard about it on BBC 6Music and they seemed taken aback by it.

daz - it was good to see Denise in person on 'The Word' performance - they tended to have full-on performances and that was one of them 

I was probably not the only one who could confuse her with e.g. Rowetta who sang with the Happy Mondays in the same period - they did similar work with similar acts.

I also wonder what she performed with 808 State - e.g. did she sing the backing on 'Tunes Splits the Atom' with MC Tunes?

Denise and Rosetta were very similar and were big pals. I'll dig out some 808 state albums and look for any mentions of her on backing vocals with my guess being Excel as quite a few vocals on that one.

[Portland Road]

Cheers daz, I did like several of the 808 State singles at the time, but I never bought the albums (which now surprises me a bit).

[daz]

Read an article yesterday in Private Eye of all places that there was some problem between Denise and Primal Scream, which is found if you search online.

If true, my opinion of the Scream dropped considerably as it is not the sort of thing I would have expected if them.

[Portland Road]

Sorry to hear this daz.