John Wicks, the lead singer and songwriter for The Records, the late-’70s/early-’80s U.K. power-pop combo best known for their cult-favorite single “Starry Eyes,” has died following a years-long struggle with cancer, according to friends and a former bandmate. The band released three albums on Virgin Records.
Conway Savage, the Australian musician who played piano and organ, and provided backing vocals, for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds for more than a quarter-century, died Sunday night, about 10 months after the band revealed he was being treated for a brain tumor. He was 58.
Nick Knox, who joined the legendary punk/psychobilly outfit The Cramps in 1977 and played on the group’s first four albums before leaving following 1990’s Stay Sick! and its minor commercial breakthrough “Bikini Girls with Machine Guns,” died this week at the age of 65.
Just a week into his The The comeback tour, bandleader Matt Johnson was hit with devastating news today as he learned that his 86-year-old father, Edward Charles Johnson, had died, according to a statement posted to the band’s official Facebook page. Read the full statement here.
It was no secret that Mark E. Smith, the late frontman of post-punk icons The Fall, was in ill health leading up to his death last month at the age of 60. But his family today released a statement revealing what ultimately killed him: terminal lung and kidney cancer. Read the full statement here.
Mark E. Smith, the irascible and utterly one-of-a-kind frontman — and only constant member — of Manchester post-punk icons The Fall, died at home today following months of illness and concert cancellations, his manager announced this afternoon. The singer was 60.
News of the sudden and unexpected death of Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan this week at the age of 46 continues to ricochet across the music world, with artists from R.E.M., U2 and Duran Duran to Tonya Donelly, The The’s Matt Johnson and Peter Murphy paying tribute to the beloved singer via social media.
John Dent, the mastering engineer who worked on albums by U2, Love and Rockets, The Stranglers, Bob Marley and others, and is credited by Andy Partridge with figuring out XTC’s Skylarking suffered for years from “reversed polarity,” died of cancer last week at 63.
Holly Anderson, the poet and artist whose “White Story” — which she once described as “an anthem to being disconnected” — was turned into the Mission of Burma song “Mica” on the band’s 1982 debut album Vs., died last week, according to the St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press.
Pat DiNizio, the lead singer and chief songwriter for The Smithereens, the New Jersey-bred college-rock mainstays who recorded “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” “Only a Memory” and “Blood and Roses,” has died, the band announced tonight on its official website. He was 62. The cause of DiNizio’s death was not revealed.
Tommy Keene, the influential singer-songwriter with a sharp ear for power-pop who emerged in the New Wave era and went on to work with admirers including R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Paul Westerberg of The Replacements, and Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard, died in his sleep Wednesday night, He was 59.
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