The musician, who was a member of two legendary groups of Punk Rock and British post-punk, died at the age of 65.
Le Monde
Keith Levene, founding member of the British punk group The Clash, whom he had left to launch another emblematic group of post-punk, public image limited, died at the age of 65, announced on Saturday 12 November several relatives of the musician on social networks. According to the British daily The Guardian which quotes Keith Levene’s family, the guitarist suffered from liver cancer and died alongside of his partner Kate Ransford in their Norfolk residence.
Several friends, former partners and musicians welcomed its important contribution to the world of post-punk music. His friend, the author Adam Hammond, notably estimated that Keith Levene had a “major influence on the first sounds of the clash”.
as well as helping to make pil the most important band of the age, keith also group the clash with Mick Jones and… https://t.co/tmo31sklax
It was at 18 that Keith Levene, born Julian Levene in northern London, founded The Clash in 1976 with guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Paul Simonon. With the manager Bernie Rhodes, Keith Levene convinces Joe Strummer to join the training, co -written the title What’s My Name but leaves the group even before the release of his first album and the success in 1979 of London Calling. A year before, after the separation of the sex pistols, the singer Johnny Rotten, once again become John Lydon, launches with Keith Levene the public image limited.
The group aims to be a “business”, hence the “limited”, music being only a means of expression among others, ranging from the production of films to audiovisual work through the abstract excursions in art.
The group’s first studio album, Public Image: First Issue, released in 1978, followed the following year from Metal Box, today considered a classic, then the Flowers of Romance in 1981, which will be the Last guitarist’s last album with the group. Keith Levene, who will then integrate the synthesizer into his compositions, will release several solo albums in the twenty years that will follow, including violent opposition in 1989 and collaborations with the former pil bass player, Jah Wobble. According to The Guardian , Levene also tried the construction of guitars, and prepares before his death a book on public image limited with the writer Adam Hammond.
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