Kevan Staples, who was a member of the band Rough Trade, has passed away at the age of 74, with his friend and co-creator of the band, Carole Pope, confirming the sad news
Kevan Staples, a former support act for David Bowie and star of Rough Trade, has sadly passed away at the age of 74. His death was confirmed by his friend and co-creator of Rough Trade, Carole Pope.
Carole took to Instagram to announce the heartbreaking news. Alongside a monochrome photo of Kevan, she wrote: “Yesterday my beautiful friend and #roughtrade co-creator @kevanstaples passed away. He was a bright light that will burn forever.”
She did not confirm the cause of Staples’ death.
The post was soon flooded with messages of condolence from grief-stricken fans expressing their sentiments. One fan wrote: “A brilliant musician and wonderful human being, I’m so sorry, Carole.”
Another commented: “Iconic you both are and always will be.”
One fan reminisced about their performances, saying: “The Elmo was a great venue for you both. So talented. A sad loss,” while another expressed: “Heartbreaking – so sorry for your loss. And condolences to his loved ones. Your partnership was a force of nature,” followed by a heart emoji.
Staples co-wrote Rough Trade’s iconic hits, including High School Confidential, Birds of a Feather and All Touch. Some of the band’s best known songs focussed on lesbians and bondage.
Speaking about the nature of their songs, Staples said: “We had a strong gay following, we had a strong arts community following. There was an audience for what we were doing, and that was apparent.”
Rough Trade gained a following with performances at small clubs in Toronto, opening slots for visiting bands like Roxy Music and the Tubes, as well as providing the music for the 1977 revue Restless Underwear, featuring the trailblazing drag performer, Divine.
David Bowie took a liking to the band’s lyrics and invited them on tour with him. Rough Trade played to some of their biggest audiences ever on the Candian dates of Bowie’s Serious Moonlight tour in 1983.
However, the band split in 1986 over exhuastion from being typecast as a band that just write about sex.
Pope said: “Besides writing about sexuality, we were also writing about politics and people didn’t pick up as much on that here.”
Later in life, Staples worked in Hollywood, writing the music for movies and television shows, including working on the 1978 Canadian film One Night Stand.
In her 2000 autobiography Anti Diva, Pope spoke about her friendship with Staples and the formation of Rough Trade, which included a previous group named the Bullwhip Brothers.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
