Grant McLennan dies

nlgbbbblth

On Saturday 6th May 2006, legendary Australian singer-songwriter and member of The Go-Betweens Grant McLennan died in his sleep at his home in Brisbane.

http://www.go-betweens.net/

2Tagz

Shocked & saddened to hear about Grant McLennan's untimely death, he was still in his forties I believe??

The Go-Betweens were the first band I ever saw live though I hadn't heard of them at the time. They were supporting REM in the RDS on the European leg of their world tour back in 1989. Personally I thought they were more memorable on the night than REM (who were close to their peak at the time), such a unique looking band as well; their mostly acoustic based sound filled that aircraft hanger of a place far better than REM's muddy performance.. I bought my first Go-Betweens record a week later (16 Lover's Lane) and have been following the Go-Betweens & McLennan's careers ever since. A superb song writer; so particularly sad as well that the Go-Betweens were really starting to come into their own again after they had reformed a couple of years back. I was fortunate enough to see them again in Dublin a couple of years ago & so glad that I did. Can't say any more, RIP Grant.

nlgbbbblth

I believe he was 48.

I too was at the RDS in June 1989. A fine performance from the Go-Betweens. I had first heard them four years previously on Dave Fanning while I was supposed to studying/doing homework.

Bachelor Kisses was the first song on our wedding album which we made up and gave away to our guests as a souvenir of the occasion.

Tomohawk

I'm shocked and saddened to hear the news of the death of such a fine musician and an allround nice guy. I only managed to see The Go-Betweens once the last time the band played in Vicar Street a couple of years ago. I got into them around 1986 (I think) when "Headfull of Steam" was a minor hit for them over this side of the world, in their adopted home of the UK. They made such beautiful music, and they never made a bad record!
(Grant McLennan RIP)

http://www.go-betweens.net/

Grant McLennan

On Saturday 6th May, legendary Australian singer songwriter Grant W McLennan died in his sleep at his home in Brisbane.

McLennan was one of Australia’s greatest songwriters who created an outstanding musical legacy as a founder member of The Go-Betweens and as a solo artist. He was enjoying enormous acclaim for the band’s most recent album Oceans Apart, which has received five star reviews around the world and won a prestigious ARIA award.

McLennan was born in Rockhampton, Queensland on 12th February 1958. While attending university in Brisbane he met fellow student Robert Forster and together they formed The Go-Betweens. After releasing a string of singles the band recorded their debut album, Send Me A Lullaby, in 1981. The Go-Betweens recorded a series of exceptional albums that achieved widespread critical acclaim and were fundamental in bringing Australian music to a global audience. He was an unparalleled lyricist and a prolific and meticulous composer. His auto-biographical masterpiece ‘Cattle and Cane’ was recently voted by the Australian Performing Rights Association as one of the ten greatest Australian songs of all time.

In 1989 The Go-Betweens took a ten year sabbatical and McLennan recorded four powerful solo albums including the vivacious debut Watershed and the epic Horsebreaker Star as well as forming satellite groups like Jack Frost with Steve Kilbey of The Church and The Far Out Corporation with Ian Haug of Powderfinger.

When Robert Forster and Grant McLennan reformed The Go-Betweens in 2000, the band was greeted with adulation by a new generation of musicians like Belle and Sebastian, for whom their songs had been an inspirational teenage soundtrack. The three albums the band subsequently released were universally acknowledged as containing some of McLennan’s greatest compositions.

McLennan was a passionate supporter of the arts, extremely well-read and maintained a keen interest in all contemporary music, cinema and visual art. He was an exceptionally charming and polite man who endeared himself to everyone who met him and was one of the rare individuals worthy of the epithet ‘larger than life’.

His singular contribution to music and his commitment to his craft simply cannot be overstated. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his mother, sister, brother, girlfriend Emma, bandmates Adele Pickvance and Glenn Thompson and lifetime musical colleague and friend Robert Forster.

Bernard MacMahon, Lo-Max Records, 6th May 2006