Chris Bailey, lead singer of seminal Australian punk band The Saints, has died at the age of 65.
News of his passing was confirmed on the band’s social media. “It is with great pain in our hearts that we have to inform you about the passing of Chris Bailey, singer and songwriter of The Saints, on April the 9th 2022,” the statement read. “Chris lived a life of poetry and music and stranded on a Saturday night.”
Bailey was born in Nanyuki, Kenya in 1957 to Irish parents. He grew up in Belfast, Ireland before his family emigrated to Australia when he was seven years old and settled in the Brisbane suburb of Inala.
It was in 1973 that Bailey co-founded The Saints alongside Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay, who all attended high school together.
They became true punk rock pioneers as the genre was just taking off, employing classic techniques of punk music before even The Sex Pistols and The Clash. Their 1976 debut single, ‘(I’m) Stranded’, became a hit with critics in the U.K.
EMI swiftly signed the band and they quickly released their debut album of the same name. They released albums quite prolifically over the next decade, before Bailey revived The Saints for 1996’s Howling. Bailey also pursued a solo career away from The Saints, releasing seven albums between 1983 and 2005.
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The Saints went through several lineup changes over the years, although Bailey remained the only ever-present member. The band released fourteen studio albums in total, with the last one coming in 2012 (King of the Sun).
They remain one of the most influential punk groups of all time, and were recognised for their contributions to Australian music when they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2001.
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Check out ‘(I’m) Stranded)’ by The Saints:
