Information about death Karl Wallinger his spokesman confirmed, adding that the musician was “ahead of his time”. The cause of death of the 66-year-old was not announced.
Born in Wales as Karl Edmond de Vere Wallinger he appeared on the music scene in the early 1980s, when he joined the band led by Mike Scott groups The Waterboys, mainly as a keyboardist, but also a multi-instrumentalist. He participated in the recording of the first three albums, including the award-winning “This is the Sea” (1985). The single “The Whole Of The Moon” became the group’s first big hit.
Check out the lyrics of the song “The Whole Of The Moon” on Teksciory.pl
After parting with The Waterboys, he headed his own band WorldParty. During this time he also worked with Sinead O’Connor on her debut “The Lion and the Cobra” (1987). The singer, who was then taking her first steps in revenge, appeared on two World Party albums. The debut “Private Revolution” (1986) was a big hit “Ship Of Fools”.
The next album – “Goodbye Jumbo” (1990) – won, among others, Grammy nomination. It was then that Wallinger began working with his successor in The Waterboys, a composer and musician Guy Chamberslater co-creator of hits Robbie Williams.
In the mid-1990s, the musician, together with World Party, appeared on two hit soundtracks for cult films of that era – “Reality Bites” (Polish title “Orbiting without sugar”) i “Clueless” (“Sweet Worries”). The songs were used appropriately there “When You Come Back to Me” and “All The Young Dudes” (cover written by David Bowie number for the group Mott The Hoople).
In 1997, a song written by Wallinger appeared on the album “Egyptology”. “She’s the One”, distinguished, among others, the Ivor Novello Award. However, it became a big hit only two years later when performed Robbie Williams.
“It’s one of the best songs I’ve ever written, even though I didn’t write it at all” – Robbie has mentioned many times during concerts that he loves this song. The bassist and drummer who performed with World Party on tour took part in the recording of the cover. Kurt Wallinger had no idea about this and wasn’t thrilled when he found out. However, the musician soon had bigger worries on his mind.
When the single was released, Wallinger was hospitalized with a brain aneurysm and doctors barely managed to save the artist. So the song was a triumph, and its author was lying in front of the TV and eating soggy crackers because there was little else he could do. Years later, however, the musician was happy that, at least in someone else’s version, the song became a hit.
“As luck would have it, it saved my ass financially for a few years while I was holding on to the railing and wondering, ‘How did it all happen?'” Kurt told The Telegraph.
Health problems meant that he returned to the road and active music-making only after a few years, but World Party’s last studio album – “Dumbing Up” – was released in 2000, before the diagnosis. Since the end of the US tour in 2015, Wallinger has not published anything and stopped appearing on stage.
Apart from his parent formation, he also collaborated with Peter Gabriel on his album “Big Blue Ball” released in 2008 (the songs came from the early and mid-1990s).