RIP – Chris Bailey, the bassist from seminal Australian pub rock band ‘The Angels’ has died. His death was sadly announced overnight on social media site ‘Twitter’ by his band mates, who said that throat cancer had claimed his life at the young and still vibrant age of 63. The news has hit Australia, and also the world music industry, extremely tough.

The former dental student from Adelaide, who once said he was inspired to take up music by Paul McCartney’s bass lines and Bob Dylan’s lyrics, played on six of the Angels’ albums, including the career-defining ‘Face To Face’. He later went on to play with and manage another hit-making local Australian group, ‘GangGajang’.

Journalist Anthony O’Grady, who edited music magazine ‘RAM’ during the 1970’s described Chris Bailey as, “such a lovely, dignified and intelligent man”.

“He played gritty, ferocious bass and partied for pleasure, never for oblivion. His smile will be missed,” O’Grady said.

Putting his role in context, O’Grady described The Angels as, “a good rock band”, until Bailey joined in 1977 at which point, “they became a great band”. “It was the rhythm section of Chris and drummer Buzz Bidstrup that powered the band’s breakthrough album ‘Face To Face’ in 1978.

In recent times, Chris had been working with ‘Peter Head’ and ‘Lindsay Osborne’ on one of Australia’s great lost rock musical archives.

Friend and huge ‘The Angels’ fan, Damien Reilly of ‘Blue Pie Records Australia’ says, “We are all sad at Blue Pie from the loss of Chris. He will be missed, but we are extremely fortunate that he has been able to touch and reach so many people with his music. He was very close to Peter Head and was of course one of the founding members of ‘HeadBand’. Our thoughts and prayers are with you now and your family.”

RIP Chris Bailey, The world will sorely miss you.