Strawbs founding member and longtime frontman Dave Cousins has died, aged 80. The information was reported this afternoon on Cousin’s Fb web page.
The assertion reads: “DAVID JOSEPH COUSINS 1940-2025
It’s with profound unhappiness that we now have to announce the passing of David Joseph Cousins on the Pilgrims Hospice in Canterbury, peacefully following a protracted sickness, immediately, Sunday 13 July 2025.
We are going to all want to rejoice the lifetime of this unbelievable singer-songwriter, relation, colleague and/or particular buddy presently.
We, subsequently, ask you to get pleasure from listening to your favorite Cousins music because the solar goes down, in no matter a part of the world you might be, having fun with what he would confer with as a glass of vino collapse (wine)…
As extra info turns into accessible, you’ll be knowledgeable on his and Strawbs’ Fb pages and on Strawbsweb.
In the meantime, we ask you to affix in remembering a beautiful, gifted man, whose life has touched us all.”
Born David Joseph Hindson on January 7, 1940, Cousins fashioned Strawbs out of bluegrass band Strawberry Hill Boys, shifting first into folks and later progressive rock. An early singer was future Fairport Conference member Sandy Denny, with whom Strawbs recorded All Our Personal Work in 1967. The band have been the primary UK group signed to A&M Information and Tony Visconti labored with the band on their self-titled 1969 launch, which was produced by Gus Dudgeon.
Rick Wakeman joined the band for 1970’s Simply A Assortment Of Antiques And Curios however would go away following the subsequent yr’s From The Witchwood to affix Sure. Though finest recognized for his or her 1973 No. 2 hit Half Of The Union from that yr’s Bursting At The Seams album, 1972’s Grave New World and 1974’s Hero And Heroine signify the traditional Strawbs sound.
Cousins made an unlikely cameo on Def Leppard‘s 1980 debut album, On By means of The Evening, his talking voice may be heard originally of When The Partitions Got here Tumblin’ Down.
In newer years’s the band toured with each acoustic and electrical line-ups, which at numerous instances have featured each Adam and Oliver Wakeman, John Younger and Dave Bainbridge, in addition to recording albums for the Esoteric label comparable to The Ferryman’s Curse (2017), Settlement (2021) and The Magic Of It All (2023).
Cousins, who has confronted quite a few well being points in recent times, together with a serious most cancers operation, stent replacements and a full knee alternative, stop touring in 2021 and Strawbs carried out their last present at Fairport Conference’s Cropredy Pageant on August 11, 2023.
