Dexys Midnight Runners keyboardist Andy Leek dies just a few days after marrying at age 66
British singer and keyboardist Andy Leek has died, aged 66, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
The former member of band Dexys Midnight Runners, best known for their hit Come On Eileen, died on November 3 while under hospice care, his wife Deborah Smith Lawrence said.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Dexys Midnight Runners perform Come On Eileen.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The pair, who were together for 35 years, had planned to marry at Christmas but brought the wedding forward due to Leek’s health and wed on October 30.
Just four days later he died.
“The poet Mary Oliver wrote: ‘Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.’ And the unimaginable has happened. My beautiful Andy left us on Sunday November 3,” Smith Lawrence wrote in a Facebook tribute.
“Mercifully he was held safe at Goscote Hospice, which is the most peaceful place I have known in my entire life.
“He received truly compassionate and loving care from people there.
“I was with him, by his side in those most fragile last moments and he died as he lived, courageously.
“We were together for 35 years and, being the bohemian souls we are, felt no need for the convention of marriage.
“Yet recently we wanted to wed and we were planning a Christmas wedding.
“Tragically this was not to be and we were married on October 30 at Walsall Manor.
“I cannot convey how bittersweet this is, to have married and to have lost the love of my life within one week.”
“Equally I have no words to convey the shock and the sorrow I feel, yet I have the enduring love and a lifetime of the most amazing memories of being with such an exquisite man.”
“My soulmate, my husband and my best friend. Andy’s incredible talent and musical legacy as a poet, songwriter, musician and a world class singer will endure.”
Leek joined Dexys Midnight Runners soon after their first single, Dance Stance, in 1979.
He left the band after their first No.1 hit, Geno, to pursue a solo career.
Come On Eileen, the group’s best-known hit, made it to number one in the UK in 1982.
Leek’s solo song Say Something went on to reach number one in Lebanon during the civil war.
In 2009 he was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease, a movement disorder that affects the nervous system and worsens over time.
Originally published on 7NEWS
