The past fortnight has been a sad one for international music, with news of the death of six musicians. The most shocking was that Keith Flint, vocalist of British electronic music group The Prodigy, had reportedly committed suicide.
On February 24, the news broke about Mark Hollis, vocalist and main songwriter of the 1980s band Talk Talk, and on February 26, about Andy Anderson, former drummer of The Cure. Next to leave us on February 27 was Doug Sandom. Not many would recognise the name, but he was the first drummer of the great band The Who, and a vital part of rock music history. The band earlier called itself the Detours, and Sandom was eventually replaced by the legendary Keith Moon because group members Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle wanted someone younger.
Forgotten footnotes
There are no recordings of Sandom with The Who, and his career fizzled out. In some ways, his story is reminiscent of Pete Best, who was later replaced by Ringo Starr in The Beatles, and Mick Abrahams, the original Jethro Tull guitarist before Martin Barre took over. Some might put Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett in a similar bracket, but he had single-handedly given the band its early identity. In all instances, the bands went to become huge, and the musicians never progressed beyond a point.
If Sandom is largely unknown, the death of the multi-talented Andre Previn came as a huge shock to many. Though the 89-year-old American-German musician was primarily known as a western classical conductor often compared to Leonard Bernstein and Herbert Von Karajan, the fact was that he was proficient in other genres like film music and jazz. He also conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in its collaboration with Pandit Ravi Shankar on his Sitar Concerto No 1 in 1971.
Unique sound
On February 28, the day Previn passed away, the music world also lost Stephan Ellis, bassist with 1980s hard rock band Survivor. The group earned sudden glory when its song ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ was used in the 1982 boxing drama Rocky III , starring Sylvester Stallone. Though it achieved cult status with that one song, also produced gems like ‘Burning Heart’, ‘Is This Love?’, ‘The Search Is Over’ and ‘High On You’. As a bassist, Ellis had numerous admirers with his unique sound.
That brings us back to Flint. Formed by singer-keyboardist Liam Howlett in 1990, the UK-based The Prodigy took a while to make it big. Flint and vocalist Maxim were part of the group, and its second album Music For The Jilted Generation was critically acclaimed. However, the 1997 album The Fat Of The Land put the group in the mainstream with the ‘Firestarter’, ‘Breathe’ and the controversial ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, which had Indian guest singer Shahin Badar.
Will be missed
Although The Prodigy released only four more albums after that, including last year’s No Tourists , it has been huge on the live circuit. In its genre, described as big beat, it has often been likened with The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim.
It was Howlitt who announced on Instagram that Flint had committed suicide. Comparisons were naturally made with the deaths of Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington. Was it depression, drugs or sheer pressure? Nobody knows, but all will agree that the music world has lost yet another gem.
