SOMEWHERE up above, past the clouds of cigarette smoke, Jim Morrison sits quietly writing poetry in the corner, next to Janis Joplin, who is flicking through pages of F Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby.

Hendrix is on stage, tuning his 1968 white Fender Stratocaster as Cobain and Winehouse share a whiskey at the bar.

Robert Johnson, with his acoustic, gathers the ears of a crowd that calls him "The Grandfather of the Blues" and one of them being the Rolling Stone himself, Brian Jones.

There’s a sign that hangs several feet above the bar, lit up like the New York skyline: Welcome to the 27 Club.

The term the 27 Club took off in the 90s following the death of Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain at the tender age of 27. Shortly afterwards, a relative reportedly said: “I told him not to join that stupid club” – though there is some debate as to whether she meant the 27 Club or a family cohort of men who had killed themselves. Nevertheless, folklore and infamy conspired and the name took hold. Now the "club" has at least 50 musicians assigned to it.

Superstitions surrounding the death of musicians at this age were not unusual but neither were they propelled until Cobain's demise – notably, Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison all died in a time where the internet was non-existent.

To put the commonality of their age of death down to a coincidence was not an idea that music fans wanted to subscribe to and instead, a sort of mysticism has been assigned to the number 27.

For instance, Ancient Greek philosophy proposes that 27 is the number that represents the process of the soul being reabsorbed into its creator and other mystic theologies propose that the number 27 is the "death number" – 27 per cent of the world is land; The Roman Empire was formed in 27 BC; and the planet Uranus has 27 moons.

It seems that emphasising the age that all these musicians died at is as much as we can do with the number 27 and just about as far as theorists can go. What the superstitious theories do lack, however, is a rational explanation, a clear insight into the lives of the members. They don’t ask why...

There is merit in examining, for instance, the six main members: Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix, Jones, Cobain and Winehouse. Their commonalities seem to speak a multitude that theorists have overlooked. All of these musicians were either genius, or had above-average intellect and not to forget the genius that they displayed through musical innovations and songwriting. Each of them were groundbreaking in their field.

Alloa and Hillfoots Advertiser: Jim Morrison, singer for The Doors, was said to have a genius-level IQJim Morrison, singer for The Doors, was said to have a genius-level IQ

An IQ of above 140 is considered genius, Morrison had 149. He was also a holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts and had an incredible passion for literature, philosophy and religion which was expressed in his work. He also claimed to be inspired by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Franz Kafka, who were complex novelists that no doubt reflected the complexity within Morrison himself.

Jones, like Hendrix, was renowned for being a musical innovator. Both brought new, fresh, never-been-done-before techniques and a whole new exploration of rock 'n' roll. Hendrix particularly broke the barriers of conventional music with the use of distortion and sustain, much to the displeasure of his conservative bosses.

Cobain and Joplin not only explored their love of art through their music but also through painting – the latter often being described as a "prolific painter". Cobain was also described by Oasis’ record exec, Tim Abbot as a “lovely and warm genius”. Joplin was a lover of novels, particularly F Scott Fitzgerald’s work and her artwork was even donated to the Museum of Gulf Coast.

Winehouse was also known for being a bookworm and fellow musician Mark Ronson referred to Amy after her death as “extraordinarily smart and honest”. She was known to have excelled in maths and spelling in her childhood too, but was quite the rebel.

Traumatic childhood and adolescent experiences seemed to be a commonality amongst the six too which resulted in each of them having complex relationships with others in later years.

Joplin was a teenager whose bold rebelliousness and uniqueness made her a point of ridicule, as well as issues regarding her physical appearance.

Morrison’s father had transferred from base to base as an admiral in the navy and Morrison recalls witnessing a car crash at four years old which scarred him. He refers to the car accident in The Doors' song Peace Frog.

Jones fathered many children in his youth, even at the age of 17, and was often deemed as "irresponsible" by the people who knew him.

As for Winehouse and Cobain, they came from broken homes with both of their parents divorcing relatively young. Winehouse’s parents divorced when she was nine years old and she spent her childhood between her two parent’s homes and at the same age; Cobain went to live with his father who eventually remarried and this is said to have put an even heavier strain on his relationship with him.

Hendrix had a significantly difficult childhood, where he was often living in the care of family friends or relatives as his mother had Jimi at such a young age. He also had to face the misfortune of growing up in a racially-segregated America as a young black boy.

Alloa and Hillfoots Advertiser: The mural of 27 Club 'members' in Tel Aviv: Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Morrison, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and another man who is often said to be the artist, Kis-LevThe mural of 27 Club 'members' in Tel Aviv: Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Morrison, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and another man who is often said to be the artist, Kis-Lev

Ultimately, it can be argued that these traumatic childhood experiences resulted in the musician’s excessive drug and alcohol use, leading to addictions and, sometimes, their deaths.

If we look at certain parallels, Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin were both addicted to heroin and both Hendrix and Morrison experimented with cocaine, LSD and amphetamines.

All of the six drank to excess and all used marijuana almost daily.

It’s important to look at four of the main six that died over the course of two years between 1969 and 1971 so to not attribute all of the catalysts for drug use to their childhood experiences.

The time period in which Hendrix, Joplin, Jones and Morrison passed, was a time of experiment that happened within the counterculture that these four were essentially the faces of. The cultural experimentation needs to be credited to some degree for the drug habits.

One last commonality, which is arguably the most poignant, is that each of the six felt trapped for a significant portion of their lives and as a musician, their entire world would be centred around expression and the ability to be set free from the mind, through their medium.

If they could not escape through their medium, at least they could escape through alcohol and drugs or, ultimately, death…right? Perhaps, this may have been the thought process for some of the members.

Howard Sounes, author of the book 27: A History of the 27 Club catalogued 3,463 musicians that achieved notoriety between 1908 and 2012. Sounes’ study found that 29 of these individuals died at 25 years old, 30 died at 26, 50 died at 27 and 32 died at 28 and so obviously, 27 seems to be the peak age for musician’s deaths to occur compared with other ages in the 20s.

However, different studies on this topic have different outcomes with another carried out by Dr Dianna Kenny, named The 27 Club: Running the Numbers, arguing that there should instead be a "56 Club" as this was actually a more popular age to die at within the industry.

In comparison, 1.3 per cent of artists died at the age of 27 and 2.3 per cent died at the age of 56. Some of these artists include Eddie Rabbit, Tammy Wynette and Johnny Ramone. It seems that the more focused and specific the study, the results concur that 27 isn’t really all that different.

It appears that our general concept of the mid-twenties is largely misunderstood. Where most of us would assume that by 27, you are a fully grown adult, the brain is not yet fully-formed and the impact of drugs through the earlier portion of the 20s can result in psychosis. The likelihood of these musicians spiralling, biologically speaking, was high and the odds forever against them.

Dr Kenny, professor of psychology and music at the University of Sydney, found in her research that accidental death rates in the music industry were 5-10 times greater than that of the average population and suicide rates were 2-7 times greater.

So with this knowledge, why refer to these musicians, artists and innovators that passed at 27 as being part of a club?

Alloa and Hillfoots Advertiser: Robert Johnson (left) and Rudy Lewis (right) also both died at the age of 27Robert Johnson (left) and Rudy Lewis (right) also both died at the age of 27

Generally speaking, a club is something people want to be a part of; something that is celebrated with togetherness, and the positive connotations of the word are endless. But are we just romanticising something that is more to do with tortured, deep, complex souls whose lives were taken too soon? The suffering should indeed be highlighted, but not celebrated.

It is also interesting to realise that these "members" juxtapose everything that a club stands for. They are individual, free-spirited thinkers that rebelled against the notions of "fitting in". It is likely that the last thing that they would want was to ever be part of a "club". Even considering the club as an ode does not really justify it – instead, it only glamorises it.

It is clear to see that all is not well in the world of music and the industry fails to provide measures that ensure the protection of their artists, who are the people that give them a job. The industry model and expect a certain, pristine, clean-cut behaviour yet ultimately encourages the opposite.

In Hendrix’s case, manager Michael Jeffreys is noted as being well aware of Jimi’s drug use and at times even supplied him with them. This is ultimately an abuse of power and position. Managers need to be held accountable and the industry needs to put support systems in place so that musicians are refused access to these "clubs".

Maybe it isn’t so much about the superstitions surrounding a number, but more the tragedy surrounding the music industry. It seems that the larger problem is with the industry as a whole and the "27 Club" is just a smaller representation of a much more sinister, vast issue that lurks within an industry that is in constant pursuit of the glamorisation of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

It’s not really about a number at all.

Somewhere up above the clouds of cigarette smoke, Jim Morrison puts down his pencil, Joplin closes her book. Hendrix unplugs his guitar. Cobain and Winehouse drink the last of their whiskey. Elsewhere, Johnson plays the final note of the blues and Jones, well he reaches for the sign above the bar and with that, the lights go out.

No more New York Skyline. No more 27 Club.