Free bassists Andy Fraser dead at 62

[That 70s Guy]

classicrockmagazine.com

Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke comment on death of bassist at 62

Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke have led tributes to former Free bandmate Andy Fraser, who died on Monday aged 62.

His passing was confirmed last night. No cause of death has been reported, but he’d been dealing with AIDS and cancer for many years.

Singer Rodgers said simply: “Losing Andy is very personal. No words. Sad day.”

Drummer Kirke said: “Andy didn’t think of himself as a bass player, more a musician who could play anything to ‘get the thing going.’ When I last saw him he took me for a spin in his car, while he played some tracks he’d written. He’d played everything, but it was his singing that surprised me the most.

“He was a consummate musician. A unique player. We will never see his like again.”

Quireboys frontman Spike tells TeamRock of his shock just as his Spike’s Free House project was preparing to tour with Fraser. He says: “Andy was so looking forward to playing with Simon again and reviving those old Free classics and the work of Frankie Miller.

"Everyone was getting ready for rehearsals in May. The flights were booked, the studio space was set aside and we just couldn’t wait to get going.

“I just can’t believe it. It’s too early to even think about what we might do now. Everyone needs time to reflect. It’s a sad time for fans of Free and the whole of the rock world – Andy was a supreme musician and very brave man, and he’ll be sorely missed.”

Glenn Hughes, who’d been planning a collaboration with Fraser, said: “My biggest bass-playing influence. Honoured to have shared the stage with you. You are loved, my brother.”

Joe Bonamassa reported: “I’m extraordinarily sad – Andy was one of the greatest and I was proud to call him my friend.”

Fraser’s daughter Hannah hailed his “fearless commitment to honesty and justice” through his work with the Rock Against Trafficking charity, the Occupy movement and his standpoint on gay rights and ecological issues.

She added: “Andy was a survivor who overcame some of the most challenging health issues in his life. He left this earth healthy, happy and full of plans to make this world a better place for us all. It's alright now, and he's finally free.”

 

[Sweaty]

Sad News,

 

[recgord27]

Very sad news. Another great musician gone. His work with Free was sublime, especially at such a young age. R.I.P.

 

[Johnny-Too-Good]

Free's Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke pay tribute to their ex-bandmate


Andy Fraser was the musical lynchpin of Free. While all four original members were exceptional talents, it was Fraser, with his classical training and greater experience playing in clubs across London in the mid-60s, who gave the band its edge.


“Andy was the most amazing musician,” says Simon Kirke, speaking to Classic Rock in the days following Fraser’s death. “As a bass player he was up there with Jack Bruce. But as Andy would say, if he was around now, he wasn’t just a bass player, he was a great all-round musician. He had this amazing ability to listen
to something and play it straight back.”


When Andy Fraser walked away from Free in 1972, having co-authored their two biggest hits in All Right Now and My Brother Jake, his future looked assured. He’d just formed his own band, Sharks, a Free-alike outfit also signed to Island Records, that featured Chris Spedding in the Kossoff role and gravelly voiced singer Snips (aka Steve Parsons) holding the mic. But following a car crash Fraser left the band and eventually fell into comparative obscurity.

Having relocating to California in the mid-70s, his name would still come up on credits for albums by Rod Stewart, Robert Palmer and others. Mainly, though, no one really heard from Fraser for years, decades. Not even his old Free bandmates Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke.

“He was a very confident, amazing little guy,” says Kirke. “At the same time, he wasn’t the easiest bloke to get along with. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. He could be a royal pain the arse. I think growing up the son of
a mixed-race couple it was very hard, and he developed this shell of toughness around him, even though he was quite a small guy. After we split up in 1972 we never really kept in touch. But he was a musical force. I was very much in awe of him, because he had this amazing ability to play music of whatever genre.”

After Free’s final split, in 1973, Rodgers and Kirke went on to huge success in America with Bad Company. I once asked the bassist if he was ever jealous of his former colleagues. “No, no, no, no, no,” he insisted. “No, never! Truly, I wouldn’t have wanted to be a part of that. And I’m very happy that they earn a shit-load of money. But no, that wasn’t me at all. I had new things I had to do. I had to start again from scratch.”

Fraser had once fancied himself a solo singer, but he gave up that ambition as the years sped by and he was first diagnosed with cancer, and then as ***-positive. Yet still he never reached out to any of his former companions in Free.

“After Andy moved to LA I didn’t see him for years and years,” says Kirke. “Then I came through town when I was playing with Ringo Starr. We got in touch and he came to see the band, and Jack Bruce wanted to meet him. But the House Of Blues staff, where we were playing, wouldn’t let Andy in cos he was wearing shorts!

“Prior to the show, though, I’d met Andy in the hotel and he played me some songs he’d been working on that he played everything on. Then he casually let me know that he was ***-positive, and I had no idea: a) that he was gay, and b) that he had contracted ***. So we didn’t really talk about it. I wished him well, gave him a hug.

“When I heard he’s passed away I was so surprised. He was a health nut. He was into healthy living, exercising for hours every day. So even though I knew he’d been ill I was still really surprised to hear he had died. I really hadn’t known he was quite so ill. But that was Andy. He never let on about how much he might have been suffering. He was a tough little nut.”

Paul Rodgers’s relationship with Fraser was more complicated. While the pair made a formidable songwriting team, the difference in personality between the two was ultimately insurmountable. “There’s not much interaction between me and Paul these days,” Andy told me when we spoke in 2014. “We’re both on different pages, and whenever we talk we both have an uncomfortable time.” Rodgers has never denied that Fraser’s split from Free in 1972 was the culmination of a lengthy power struggle between the two of them for musical ownership of the group. Yet he admits that the bassist’s passing grieves him.

“You know, I feel I only knew Andy when we were kids, I never really knew the man,” Rodgers tells Classic Rock now. “I tried over the years to find common ground, but we couldn’t reconnect. He was a gifted songwriter and a gifted bass player who will live on forever musically. I will always think well of him. I hope he is at peace now.”

Andy Fraser: 3 July 1952 – 16 March 2015

 

[Johnny-Too-Good]

Free bassist Andy Fraser died after suffering a heart attack in March, it’s been confirmed.


The musician, who had been dealing with AIDS and cancer in recent years, passed away in March aged 62 at his home in Temecula, California.

No cause of death was given at the time but the Riverside County Coroner’s Office has now revealed he had hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease which led to a heart attack.

The man who wrote Free’s classic track All Right Now had been in good shape, according to his daughter Hannah Fraser, and there had been no sign of his health deteriorating in the weeks leading to his death.

She tells PRLog: “Andy practiced a dedicated daily exercise routine and followed a strict healthy diet. He was in excellent shape.

“We celebrated with him as he performed on stage just weeks before he passed. Andy was bouncing and jamming, flying high on life right to the end.”

Fraser was a founding member of Free at the age of just 15 and was diagnosed with *** and a form of cancer called Kaposi's Sarcoma in the 80s.