Martin Duffy: Primal Scream and Felt keyboardist dies in slide at residence aged 55 | Primal Scream

Martin Duffy, who played keyboards for Primal Scream and Felt, has died aged 55. The lead to of demise was a brain injury due to a slide at his home in Brighton, his bandmate Bobby Gillespie claimed.

“I’ve recognised Martin due to the fact he was a teenager in Felt,” Gillespie wrote on Instagram. “He played keyboards on just about every album of ours from the 1st to the past. Ultimately joining the band in 1991. Martin was a pretty particular character. He had a adore and knowledge of new music on a deep non secular level. New music intended almost everything to him.”

Duffy was born in Birmingham on 18 May well 1967 and grew up in Rednal.

He joined the indie band Felt in 1985 right after frontman Lawrence set up a detect in the Birmingham department of Virgin data advertising and marketing for a guitarist that browse: “Do you want to be a rock’n’roll star?” and a person advisable Duffy.

Duffy’s audio became central to the band in the mid-80s as they signed to Generation Records, for 1986’s The Seventeenth Century, and embarked on what fans take into consideration their imperial stage. The second side of their 1988 album The Pictorial Jackson Overview options two Duffy instrumentals.

The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess cited the album as evidence that Duffy was “actually the only musical genius I have ever met … me and [My Bloody Valentine’s] Kevin Shields sat up all night time as soon as with open up mouths praising his purely natural potential,” he told the Quietus.

Duffy remained a member of the band right up until their split in 1989 – when Lawrence mentioned he had fulfilled his intention of releasing 10 singles and 10 albums in 10 decades.

In the interim, Duffy experienced played on Primal Scream’s initial two albums, 1987’s Sonic Flower Groove and 1989’s Primal Scream he joined the band full-time at the close of that 12 months.

“He beloved literature and was nicely browse and erudite,” explained Gillespie. “An autodidact. A deep thinker, curious about the environment and other cultures. Normally browsing museums in each individual city we performed or looking for neolithic stones in distant locations. Opinionated and stubborn in his views.”

Mojo’s Tim Tooher described Duffy as “probably the purest musician in the band, bringing in echoes of Thelonious Monk, Johnnie Johnson, Jerry Lee and Cecil Taylor. His voice seems like his throat was pickled in whisky before he was even born. Martin provides the blues to Primal Scream.”

Gillespie identified as him “the most musically talented of all of us … He could perform piano to the amount the place he was feted not just by his peers in British tunes, but previous faculty master American musicians this kind of as James Luther Dickinson, Roger Hawkins and David Hood and producer Tom Dowd.

“I witnessed a session at Abbey Rd in 1997 for a Dr John album wherever his file firm experienced assembled a bunch of youthful indie Brit musicians where by Mac Rebenac (Dr John) seemed bored and uninterested in the session until Martin started taking part in, then all of a sudden the fantastic Dr started out knocking some funky piano chops and I immediately understood it was simply because his ears had pricked up when he read Martin play and the session at previous came alive.”

In 1993, Duffy was the victim of a in the vicinity of-lethal stabbing in New York Town when there with the band.

Duffy would also participate in with the Charlatans subsequent the demise of founding member Rob Collins, stepping into his footwear when the band supported Oasis at Knebworth in August 1996. He also contributed to their 1997 album Tellin’ Stories.

Burgess celebrated Duffy on Twitter: “Another tragic loss of a gorgeous soul. Martin Duffy stepped in to conserve the Charlatans when we lost Rob – he performed with us at Knebworth and was a genuine pal. He toured with me in my solo band way too – he was a enjoyment to devote time with. Harmless travels Duffy.”

Primal Scream bassist Simone Marie Butler also compensated tribute: “You would struggle to find a additional real, gifted, amusing, form hearted, caring, in a natural way proficient particular person who performed like no one else … Your light-weight will normally burn Duffy. Everyone who realized him beloved, all people who met him liked him. He was a pure legitimate soul.”

Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre was among the the musicians to remember Duffy, along with Asian Dub Basis, Gruff Rhys and Dodgy.

Duffy would also collaborate with artists together with Beth Orton, Steve Mason, the Pop Group’s Mark Stewart, Chemical Brothers, Paul Weller, Vic Godard and Subway Sect and Jessie Buckley, on the soundtrack to the 2018 movie Wild Rose.

Duffy produced a solo album, Assorted Promenades, on Burgess’s O Genesis label in 2014, which integrated songs courting again to 1997. The album’s release was inspired by Duffy and Burgess witnessing a car catching fire by the aspect of the highway, Duffy informed the Quietus. The pair had just been listening to the John Foxx track Burning Auto: “Tim observed it as a indicator.”

Primal Scream’s most current studio album, Chaosmosis, was produced in 2016. Duffy also performed on frontman Bobby Gillespie’s 2021 collaborative album Utopian Ashes.