‘Wonderful Life’ singer left most of €3.72m to his wife
SINGER Colin Vearncombe – who was known by the stage name of Black – left the bulk of his €3.72m estate to his estranged wife. Vearncombe, who died in January of last year, aged 53, after suffering head injuries in a car crash in Cork, was best known for his 1987 single Wonderful Life.
The song with the doleful lyric ‘No need to run and hide, It’s a wonderful, wonderful life,’ was a worldwide hit in 1987.
Vearncombe wrote it as a sarcastic comment on his situation when he was actually hard up and homeless.
The subsequent album, also titled Wonderful Life, had 1.5 million sales.
The singer reportedly split up in 2009 from his second wife, Swedish opera singer Camilla Griehsel, 51, the mother of his three sons.
The couple were said to be separated at the time of his death, even though she had moved back into their family home at Schull in west Cork.
The Liverpool-born singer left assets in the UK worth €3,713,387. The figure did not include anything that he owned in Ireland or elsewhere.
His will left most of his estate and all his personal possessions to Camilla. The couple had been married for 27 years.
It also stated that she should get 80% of any future earnings from his work, with the other 20% going to his manager, Stephen Baker.
Two properties in Liverpool were also left to his wife, Mr Baker and other members of Vearncombe’s family.
The singer moved with his wife to west Cork in 2003, saying: ‘I like my elbow room and eccentricity is tolerated here.’
He was said to have immersed himself in the local artistic community and spent his time writing poetry.
Vearncombe was seriously injured when his Lexus car skidded on ice and crashed into another car close to Cork Airport on January 10 last year.
He died 16 days later, with this family at his side, without regaining consciousness in intensive care at Cork University Hospital.