The Clean’s Hamish Kilgour leaves music legacy
Kiwi music pioneer Hamish Kilgour, who has been found dead in Christchurch, was a ‘‘genius in his own way’’, friends say.
The well-known co-founder of Dunedin band The Clean was last seen at a shopping centre on November 27, leaving his family concerned for his wellbeing.
He was found dead on Monday evening, and his death has since been referred to the coroner, police said. He was 65.
Kilgour’s friend Kat Zolita Mason said she was devastated at the news.
‘‘He was just so funny and lovely.’’
Kilgour was not just a great musician but a great person, she said. ‘‘He was a genius in his own way, really.’’
Fellow musician Nadia Reid wrote online: ‘‘May you be in peace now, Hamish.’’
Journalist Richard Langston, who was behind the music fanzine Garage, which documented the Dunedin scene in the 1980s, said Kilgour was a ‘‘beautiful creative person’’.
‘‘All those songs in which he celebrated, told stories, and kicked against conservatism. He took his own path in life and that’s a brave way to live.’’
Kilgour co-founded The Clean with his brother David in 1978.
The band released the single Tally Ho in 1981. It peaked at number 19 in the charts but paved the way for future success of their record label, Flying Nun.
The band’s next release, the five-track EP Boodle Boodle Boodle, soon followed and reached number five in the charts.
Their recordings and fearsome live performances also garnered international attention, namechecked by the likes of American indie stalwarts Sonic Youth and Pavement.
By 1982 the band would go into an extended hiatus, with Kilgour later involved with Bailterspace, but when the sonic noise merchants played in New York he elected to move there permanently in the late 1980s.
Kilgour formed The Mad Scene in the early 1990s and released the EP Falling Over, Spilling Over, and was also part of several later albums with The Clean, most recently Mister Pop in 2009.
Kilgour won an Aotearoa Music Award in 1992 for album cover of the year for Pink Flying Saucers Over the Southern Alps, and this year featured on the cover of Needles and Plastic, Flying Nun records, 1981-1988 by Matthew Goody. In 2017 he and members of The Clean, including the late Peter Gutteridge, were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.