Monday, January 17, 2011

Broadcast's Trish Keenan R.I.P

I was shocked by the news yesterday: my friend and bandmate Dimitris called me and said that Trish Keenan, the singer of the British band Broadcast, passed away from complications with pneumonia. Apparently poor Keenan contracted swine flu virus during the band's latest tour in Australia and she had been in intensive care for the last two weeks. She was only 42, so young.
Dimitris and I had with our previous band Cloudscape the chance, the luck and the privilege to be the opening act for the one and only gig that Broadcast ever played in Greece. It was in October 3rd, 2003 at Athens' An Club; the experience remains one of the highlights of what I could call my music career, since that was the first time a group I was member of played on the same bill with a foreign band.
I can still recall their show: it was nothing like I had ever seen or heard. Describing their music is now meaningless: the videos below speak volumes for themselves.
But probably everyone that night fell under Trish Keenan's spell: her voice was warm and soothing yet somehow unsentimental at the same time; her presence was mysterious and distant, but so mesmerising and beautiful.
I have been collecting gig setlists for fifteen years, but given the tragic turn of events it's obvious I will always treasure my own band's setlist from that gig, signed from Trish somewhere in the middle of the page: "To Thanos. Love, Patricia".






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