There seems to have been a cluster of deaths since the New Year, the latest being Whitney Houston, one of the most successful female singers of all-time, who enjoyed phenomenal success during the second half of the 80’s and on through the 90’s. I was fortunate to hear her sing before she was famous. In 1984 I was at The Hippodrome in London for the DMC DJ Convention. One of the acts, brought over by her record company, Arista, was a young singer with a fascinating vocal pedigree - her mother was Cissy Houston, and Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick were her cousins, whilst her godmother was Aretha Franklin. She’d never released any records at this point, and this appearance, according to DMC founder Tony Prince, was a ‘world-first’.