Another one gone by own hand. Sad!
JAMES FREUD, bass player and singer with the successful 1980s band Models, died at the age of 51 at his home in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn yesterday.
The singer and songwriter, whose songs Barbados and Out of Mind, Out of Sight were the band's biggest hits, took his own life, according to a statement issued on behalf of the family and friends.
Only a week before, the Models had been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, with Freud absent from the ceremony. The explanation was that he "had another bicycle accident", which some took to be a reference to Freud returning to drinking after a well-publicised dry spell. The statement from his family said that "James's battle with alcoholism has been well-chronicled. His two books on his recovery and five years' sobriety were bestsellers and gave a lot of people who were suffering the same affliction comfort and hope.
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James Freud of the Models. Photo: Cathryn Tremain
"Unfortunately, James has succumbed to his disease and taken his own life this morning."
Freud, whose real name was Colin McGlinchey, began his musical career as a 17-year-old in the Teenage Radio Stars and had his first hit in 1980 with Modern Girl. Two years later he joined his old friend Sean Kelly in his band, Models, and was a significant contributor to their 1983 breakthrough album The Pleasure of Your Company. Last month it was named at No. 46 in the new book The 100 Best Australian Albums.
John O'Donnell, former record company executive and co-author of the book, said to him that album "was James Freud at his best. He went on to write and sing some of the band's biggest hits, and he is largely remembered for his pop-star good looks and Models' pop songs, but he was much more interesting and talented than that might have suggested him to be."
The Models with Freud (below centre)
Before and after Barbados, in which Freud described his alcoholism, he had always been frank about his experiences with drugs and alcohol.
In the first of his two books about his addictions and recovery, I Am the Voice Left From Drinking, he describes a scene from well before his fame with the Models: ''We were all going nowhere, man. Lots of rubbish, drugs, music … After a couple of months of abundance there was a heroin drought, so we started shooting up speed again … We weren't sleeping at all.''
According to Stuart Coupe, a veteran music journalist who wrote the foreword to I Am the Voice Left From Drinking, that kind of honesty was typical.
"He was without doubt one of the good guys and very, very amusing and fun to be around, not to mention being extremely talented and a great and gifted live performer."
He also pointed out Freud, whose wife, Sally, wrote a book about the Sydney Swans, "gave us [the song] One Tony Lockett".
Last week Freud's former bandmate Kelly told the music industry newsletter Music Network that "we actually don't spend much time together any more but because we were so close and almost like brothers … it keeps us friends".
James Freud is survived by Sally and sons Harrison and Jackson
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/industry-in-shock-after-death-of-model-james-freud-20101104-17fux.html?autostart=1
