A gentleman and a campaigner against poverty. Hugely respected on both sides of the political divide.
He was the last surviving of the group’s original five members.
I have a real soft spot for the Phantasm films and for Coscarelli’s work in general.
(Free link)
Ouch:
In recent years, Auster’s own life was struck by tragedy, with his 10-month-old granddaughter Ruby dying after ingesting heroin and his son Daniel, the child’s father, dying of an overdose 10 months later.
ETA:
He also played for Carlisle United, but he was never going to have many games with Allan Ross as first choice in goal for most of the 1960s and 70s.
With his raucous rhythms, and backing hollers and hand claps, Eddy sold more than 100 million records worldwide
Bad day for music but the band in heaven is getting bigger.
If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand
If there’s a rock n’ roll heaven
Well you know they’ve got a hell of a band
I love this version of Mr. Blue Sky with Tandy on the piano and the voice synthesizer thingy.
Thanks for the ear worm.
Sad news indeed. My first reaction was to go straight to this classic:
Bonus points for the late, great Rik Mayall in fine form 
artofnoiseofficial on Instagram had this to say - I’ll quote because it won’t Onebox:
In memory of Duane Eddy, whose passing was announced last night.
Duane first recorded Peter Gunn in 1959 at Ramsey’s Studio in Phoenix, Arizona. In early 1986 he joined forces with the Art of Noise to record a brand new version that reached No. 2 on the US dance chart, No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart and won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
It was the first in a trilogy of Art of Noise and Duane Eddy collaborations. Spies and Lost Innocence followed shortly after, which both featured on Duane’s self-titled 1987 solo album.
As Duane said at the time, “Peter Gunn is quite faithful to the original although they have extended it with a theme of their own… I really like the way they’ve treated it, it works very well.” The collaboration was premiered on The Tube, and Duane joined the Art of Noise for performances on Top Of The Pops and the Montreux Golden Rose Pop Festival.
John Peel famously fell in love with Art of Noise and Duane Eddy’s take on Peter Gunn. When he first played the track on BBC Radio 1, he instructed listeners to turn their radios up “punishingly loud,” and promptly replayed Duane’s studio dialogue of “Y’all think I should do one more (take)?” from the 12" version straight after.
On another show, he edited together the Art of Noise 7" with the 1959 original for a “Super Mix, exclusive to this programme” and would famously declare the collaboration and The Undertones’ Teenage Kicks as “my two favourite records of all time.”
The forthcoming Art of Noise / Revision / AV shows in London, Canada and Germany will all feature a special tribute to the inimitable and much-missed Mr Duane Eddy.
NPR had a remembrance of Auster on Weekend Edition Saturday:
There are some nice comments from people who knew him in the story.
