John Cave, better known under his stage name of William Shakespeare, passed away this week (5th Oct 2010) aged 61.

He shot to prominence in the early 70’s under the guidance and songwriting skills of Vanda & Young. His high pitched voice was quite distinctive and he soon gained a measure of fame but unfortunatly was brought undone with a conviction for carnal knowledge.

John never regained his career and soon slipped into a cycle of depression and substance abuse that saw him treated in the notorious Chelmsford Private Hospital, the same place where Stevie Wright & many others were abused and experimented on. Whilst he sold many records he wasn’t the writer of his hits & once the gigs dried up he received no ongoing money for his efforts.

Australian charity Support Act Limited had been instrumental in helping John through the last part of his life and are also helping with funeral arrangements as John had no immediate family. Support Act Limited was setup to help Aussie musicians who fall on hard times and can be supported themselves with a donation. Check their website here.

I’ve received quite a bunch of really unique and top quality photo’s recently. Obviously people are digging through their old collections and coming up with some real gems. Here’s another set that you won’t find anywhere else.

They were submitted by John Rickleman who has a great eye for a band shot. His collection (unfortunately for me) includes a great many overseas artists such as Stevie Nicks, Joe Cocker, Rory Gallagher and Graham Parker which for obvious reasons I can’t show here on a site about Australian music. The good news is that it also includes some absolute classic shots like these, of Richard Clapton and the Little River Band taken back in the 1970′s.

Like always, I’d love it if you could leave a nice “thank you” to John in the comments section below for sharing his work here. If you’ve got some unique and original stuff in your photo album then please don’t hesitate to do what John’s done and send them over.