STRANGLERS' Dave Greenfield dead at 71 after contracting coronavirus

05 May 2020

STRANGLERS keyboard player and punk legend Dave Greenfield has died at the age of 71. The news was confirmed by the band, who said that Greenfield had tested positive for COVID-19 a week ago while in hospital for heart treatment.

"We are deeply and profoundly saddened to announce the untimely passing of keyboard legend Dave Greenfield on the evening of 3rd May 2020," a statement on Facebook reads. "Following a stay in hospital for heart problems, Dave tested positive for the COVID-19 virus last Sunday but he sadly lost his battle last night."

"Dave had been an ever present in the band since joining in late 1975 and his keyboard wizardry was world-renowned over his 45 year career in The STRANGLERS. Dave was a lovable, friendly and eccentric character who always had time to chat."

The statement went on to include tributes from fellow STRANGLERS Jean-Jacques Burnel, Jet Black and Baz Warne.

Dave Greenfield was born in Brighton in 1949, and played in local prog rock band RUSTY BUTLER before joining THE STRANGLERS in late 1975, a year after they formed in Guildford, and went on the play on all the band's classic albums and hit singles.

Greenfield's swirling keyboard sound was a huge part of the band's sound and success, a factor not lost on bassist Burnel, who told Rick Wakeman about the way Golden Brown, the band's international hit from 1982, was written.

"’l'll tell you something about Golden Brown that I’ve never told anyone before," he said. "It actually developed out of a prog rock suite. We were recording the La Folie album, and Hugh [Cornwell, original Stranglers singer] and I were pissed off because we seemed to be writing all the songs.

"So we said to Jet and Dave: 'Right, you two are going to write a song. We’re off to the pub. Have it written when we get back'. We fucked off to the pub all afternoon. Now, with Dave being a prog rocker and Jet being a jazzer, when we got back they presented us with this six-part piece of music.

"And we were like: 'Fucking hell, we can’t record this'. We went: 'Don’t like that bit… don’t like that… oh, wait a minute, we could something with that'. And the part we did like formed the basis for Golden Brown."