Obituaries, April 13, 2023

By Kerry Doole

Ian Bairnson, a Scottish guitarist for Alan Parsons and Kate Bush, died on April 7, at age 69. He had suffered from dementia.

Born in the Shetland Isles, Bairnson became a session guitarist in Edinburgh in his teens before relocating to London, where he was invited to join Cockney Rebel. He instead joined ex-Bay City Rollers members David Paton and Billy Lyall in Pilot, who reached No. 1 with their debut single January in 1975. Pilot was produced by Parsons, who brought Bairnson into his Alan Parsons Project. He appeared on all 12 of the Project's studio albums, from 1976's Tales of Mystery and Imagination to 2014's The Sicilian Defence.

On social media, Parsons posted that "I have always considered Ian a musical genius. It was a great pleasure to have him participate on every album by The Alan Parsons Project and several other albums under my name since. He has played with many other talented artists as well throughout his incredible career."

Bairnson also contributed to Kate Bush’s first four albums, including the solo on Wuthering Heights. He played on more than 100 albums throughout his career, working with the likes of Mick Fleetwood, Sting, Jon Anderson and many others.  Read more at WBSM

Paul Cattermole, a member of early-2000s British pop group S Club 7, has died just weeks after the band announced a reunion tour. He was 46. A cause of death has not been reported.

The band and Cattermole’s family said Friday that “it is with great sadness that we announce the unexpected passing of our beloved son and brother Paul Cattermole.”

In a statement on social media, members of S Club 7 said they were “truly devastated by the passing of our brother Paul. There are no words to describe the deep sadness and loss we all feel. We were so lucky to have had him in our lives and are thankful for the amazing memories we have.,"

Formed in 1998 by Simon Fuller, the music mogul behind the Spice Girls, S Club 7 was launched – like The Monkees – through a TV show about a pop band, in which the members played fictionalized versions of themselves.

S Club 7 had a string of upbeat U.K. hits including Don’t Stop Movin’, bubblegum pop classic Reach and the ballad Never Had a Dream Come True, which was also a top 10 hit in the United States. In 2002, the group performed at a Buckingham Palace concert to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 50 years on the throne. Cattermole left the band the same year. In February, all the original members of S Club 7 announced a 25th-anniversary tour, due to begin in October.

Sources: AP 

Norah Forster, the wife of Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, has died at age 80. She had Alzheimer’s, and Lydon had been her full-time caregiver. He was married to Forster for almost 50 years.

Throughout her life, Forster was employed in the acting, modelling and music promotion industries, and at one time worked alongside Jimi Hendrix. She was the mother of Ari Up, the singer in the English punk/reggae band The Slits.

Lydon and Forster met at a party hosted by Vivienne Westwood in 1975 and married four years later. He recently wrote the song Hawaii as a “love letter” to his wife and was hoping it would become Ireland’s Eurovision 2023 entry. After losing, Lydon said he did not regret competing and was glad that he had raised awareness of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s.

Read more in The New York Times and The Independent

John Regan, the bassist for Peter Frampton, Frehley's Comet, died on, has died, at age 71. No cause of death was given.

The veteran bassist also recorded with the Rolling Stones and played on David Bowie and Mick Jagger's hit 1985 cover of Dancing in the Street.

Regan's session career also included work with Billy Idol and with David Lee Roth on the Van Halen frontman's 1994 solo album, Your Filthy Little Mouth. More recently, Regan formed the band Four by Fate, who released their debut LP, Relentless, in 2016. 

Read more in Guitar World here 

Vivian Trimble, a member of the popular '90s US band Luscious Jackson, died on April 4 at age 59 following a battle with cancer. The multi-instrumentalist and singer had been treated for the disease for several years, per a post on Luscious Jackson’s Instagram page.

Trimble performed as keyboardist and backup vocalist of Luscious Jackson in the ’90s, joining the group following their 1993 debut EP. Luscious Jackson was the first band the Beastie Boys signed to their Grand Royal label. Trimble left the group in 1998 after three albums and numerous tours, as well as appearances at Lollapalooza and Lilith Fair. The band 1996’s LP Fever in Fever Out was certified gold and featured their biggest single, Naked Eye.

The musician collaborated with Luscious Jackson singer-bassist Jill Cunniff as the Kostars while in Luscious Jackson. The duo released one album, Klassics with a “K,” in 1996.

In 2000, Trimble released an album with Breeders bassist Josephine Wiggs as Dusty Trails, which featured guest vocals from Emmylou Harris on the track Order Coffee. Three songs from the album appeared on the soundtrack to the 2000 film Happy Accidents. She did not join a later Luscious Jackson reunion.

Trimble was a dancer and choreographer, as well as a musician. 

Read more in Rolling Stone and Pitchfork

Lasse Wellander, a Swedish guitarist, recording artist and producer who performed and recorded with the legendary Swedish band Abba for almost 5 decades, died on April 7, at age 70, after a battle with cancer.

Wellander met Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson while on tour with Ted Gärdestad and was recruited as a session musician for Abba in 1974. His proficiency with the guitar soon made Wellander a fixture in Abba’s band, both in the studio and on tour through the end of the 1970s.

After Abba went on hiatus in 1982, he continued to collaborate with Ulvaeus and Andersson and his guitar work is featured on the Chess concept album, the two Gemini albums, the 1993 Josefin Nilsson album Shapes and on the soundtracks to Mamma Mia! , The Movie, and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Wellander also recorded with Agnetha Fältskog, appearing on two of her albums and on the Abba album Voyage released in 2021. 

In addition to his work as a session musician, he recorded multiple albums as a solo artist and had numerous top 40 hits in the 1980s. In 2005, he received the Albin Hagström Memorial Award from The Royal Swedish Academy of Music and, in 2018, the Swedish Musicians Union’s Studioräven Award for his work as a session musician.

Read more in Celebrity Access here.