Scott Walker, musician
The death at 76 of the singer Scott Walker brought forth tributes from across the entertainment spectrum, and recalled an era that spanned Top of the Pops to the Royal Albert Hall.
Walker was paired with his two bandmates, none of whom were actually brothers, in the US but it was upon moving to Britain that they enjoyed their greatest successes, with hits like The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore and Make It Easy On Yourself.
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Hide AdHe went on to shun the limelight, leaving the band at the height of its success and becoming one of music’s most influential and enigmatic singer-songwriters, pushing out experimental albums with titles like Scott 3 and Scott 4. In later years, his career went through a reappraisal, culminating with a 2017 Proms concert with the Sheffield singer Jarvis Cocker, for whose band, Pulp, he produced an album.
Another Yorkshire musician, Marc Almond, who formed the 1980s band Soft Cell in Leeds, was among those paying tribute, calling Walker an “absolute musical genius, existential and intellectual and a star right from the days of the Walker Brothers”.
He added: “So many of his songs will go round in my head forever.”
Thom Yorke, of the band Radiohead, said Walker had been “a huge influence, showing me how I could use my voice and words”.
Among Walker’s last projects had been writing and producing the score for the film Vox Lux, starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law.