RIP

Alia Dann Swift

Alia Dann Swift. My friend. So loved. So warm and generous. So caring. A true independent spirit who added to this World, and the lives of everyone she met and touched.  Alia was the International Live Music Conference's longtime producer and had recently hung up her boots and moved to Australia where we all thought she and her partner Steve Swift would have many many more years of happiness and adventures ahead of them. She was taken ill just a couple of weeks ago whilst travelling, and was diagnosed with aggressive cancer. Steve, thankfully, managed to get Alia home. 

Alia's grace, humour, energy and finely-tuned no-nonsense approach made her such a beautiful friend and mentor who will be, as our friend and ILMC MD Greg Parmley said, deeply and entirely missed. Alia was just 57 years young.

Grandaddy bassist Kevin Garcia has died, a day after having a stroke. He was 41. In a statement on Facebook, the band said: "There are no accurate words to express what we need to. We are absolutely shattered to say that we lost our friend and bandmate Kevin Garcia early this afternoon. He succumbed to the effects of a massive stroke. We were all able to say goodbye to him and he was surrounded by his closest friends and family here in Modesto".

Trance DJ and producer Robert Miles, best known for his massive 1996 hit 'Children', has died, aged 47. According to 24 Horas, Miles - real name Roberto Concina - passed away in Ibiza yesterday evening. DJ Mag Italia added that the cause of death was an undisclosed illness. Miles' last studio album, 'Thirteen', was released in 2011.

Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell, the former Audioslave and Soundgarden lead singer, who composed and sang "You Know My Name" (the Casino Royale title song)  has died aged 52 in Detroit. A statement said  the death "sudden and unexpected" and said his wife and family were shocked by it. The statement said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause and asked for privacy but the medical examinr later confirmed that Chris Cornell had taken his own life following a performance with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre. Somewhat ominously "In My Time Of Dying" was the last song of what was to be his last show. Cornell was a founder member of Soundgarden, best known for their Grammy Award-winning singles 'Black Hole Sun' and 'Spoonman'. He had a four octave vocal range and continued to make music after Soundgarden broke up in 1997 (they later reformed in 2010).  Cornell went on to form supergroup Audioslave, which he fronted alongside former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk, in 2001.  The image is by Christopher Simon.