JOE COCKER R.I.P. 1944-2014

Singer Joe Cocker, best known for his cover of The Beatles’ With A Little Help From My Friends, passed away on December 22, 2014 in Crawford, Colorado after a hard fought battle with small cell lung cancer. He was 70. The Sheffield-born singer had a career lasting more than 40 years, with hits including You Are So Beautiful and Up Where We Belong. His agent, Barrie Marshall, said Cocker was “simply unique”. Sir Paul McCartney said he was a lovely guy who “brought so much to the world”. Cocker’s friend, Rick Wakeman, keyboard player for the rock band Yes, called his rendition of With a Little Help From My Friends “sensational” and said: “He had a voice that was just unique.” Wakeman told BBC Radio 2: “The great thing is with someone like Joe is what they leave behind, and that will be with us for years and years.” Other musicians to have paid tribute to Cocker include Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, who tweeted: “Goodbye and God bless to Joe Cocker.”

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Known for his gritty voice, Cocker – a former gas fitter – began his singing career in the pubs and clubs of Sheffield in the 1960s before hitting the big time. He was propelled to pop stardom when his version of With A Little Help From My Friends reached number one in 1968. He performed the song at Woodstock in New York state a year later. – BBC

JACK BRUCE R.I.P. 1943-2014

Jack Bruce, best known as one-third of Cream, died on October 25, 2014 of liver disease at his home in Suffolk. He was 71. In a statement issued by his family on Saturday, his family said: “It is with great sadness that we, Jack’s family, announce the passing of our beloved Jack: husband, father, granddad, and all round legend. The world of music will be a poorer place without him but he lives on in his music and forever in our hearts.”

Bruce played bass, sang and was the principal songwriter in Cream. The group sold 35 million albums in just over two years and were given the first ever platinum disc for Wheels of Fire Bruce wrote and sang most of the songs, including “I Feel Free” and “Sunshine Of Your Love”. But even leaving aside that group, in which he played with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, his CV reads like a comprehensive guide to the British blues boom, with spells in Alexis Korner’s Blues Inc, the Graham Bond Organisation, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Manfred Mann. Bruce’s life had been marked by health and financial troubles. In the late 1970s he struggled with drug addiction, and worked as a session musician to make money. In 2003 he was diagnosed with liver cancer, and that September he underwent a transplant. His body initially rejected the new liver, and Bruce almost died, but he recovered well enough to return to performance in 2004. – The Guardian and BBC