Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie pays tribute to 'soul brother' Martin Duffy who died after falling at home

20.12.2022 - 16:43 / dailyrecord.co.uk

Primal Scream have paid tribute to their keyboardist Martin Duffy who has died at the age of 55 after suffering a brain injury.

The band's frontman Bobby Gilliespie penned an emotional tribute to his 'soul brother' who he said was injured after a fall at his home in Brighton.

On the band's official Instagram page, the Scots rocker wrote: "Hard to write this. We never know how to speak around death other than polite platitudes. All I want to say is that our soul brother Martin Duffy passed away on Sunday. He suffered a brain injury due to a fall at his home in Brighton. We in Primal Scream are all so sad. I've known Martin since he was a teenager in Felt.

"He played keyboards on every album of ours from the first to the last. Finally joining the band in 1991. Martin was a very special character. He had a love and understanding of music on a deep spiritual level. Music meant everything to him. He loved literature and was well read and erudite. An autodidact. A deep thinker, curious about the world and other cultures.

"Always visiting museums in every city we played or looking for Neolithic stones in remote places. Opinionated and stubborn in his views. He could play piano to the level where he was feted not just by his peers in British music, but old school master American musicians such as James Luther Dickinson, Roger Hawkins & David Hood & producer Tom Dowd.

"I witnessed a session at Abbey Rd in 1997 for a Dr John album where his record company had assembled a bunch of young Indie Brit musicians where Mac Rebenac ( Dr John ) seemed bored and uninterested in the session until Martin started playing, then suddenly the good Dr started knocking some funky piano chops and I instantly knew it was because his ears had pricked up