Joe Blossom
Hamish Kilgour, who had been missing for more than a week, was found dead on Monday. (File Photo)
Kiwi music pioneer Hamish Kilgore, who was found dead in Christchurch, was “a genius in his own right”, friends say.
The well-known co-founder of Dunedin band The Clean was last seen at the city’s Palms shopping center on November 27, leaving Kilgour’s family concerned for his welfare.
He was found dead on Monday evening and his death was referred to the coroner, police said. He was 65 years old.
Kat Solita Mason/Distribution
Kilgour began his music career 40 years ago in 1978 when he formed The Clean with his brother David.
Kilgore’s friend Kat Solita Mason said she was devastated by the news.
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“He was very funny and nice.”
Kilgore was not only a great musician, but a great person, she said.
“He was a genius in his own right, really.”
Fellow musician Nadia Reid wrote online: “Hamish, may you rest in peace now.”
Richard Langston, the journalist behind Garage, the music fandom that documented the Dunedin scene in the 1980s, said Kilgour was a “pretty creative guy”.
”All the songs he celebrated, told stories and stomped against orthodoxy. He took his own path in life and that is a brave way to live. It had rewards and some costs. But the ledger was in his favor and ours.
“He led an inspiring life.
Kilgour founded The Clean in 1978 with his brother David Kilgour.
The band released the single Tally Ho in 1981. It peaked at number 19 in the charts, but paved the way for future success with their record label, Flying Nun.
The band’s next release was the five-track EP Boodle Boodle Boodle, It soon reached number five on the charts.
Their recordings and ferocious live performances have garnered international attention and have been name-checked by American indie stalwarts Sonic Youth, Pavement, Guided Voice and Yo La Tengo.
By 1982 the band would go on a long hiatus, and Kilgore would later be associated with Beilterspace, but he decided to move there permanently in the late 1980s when the Sonic Noise Merchants played in New York.
Kilgore later formed The Mad Scene in the early 1990s, releasing the EPs Falling Over and Spilling Over and later being part of several albums with 2009’s Mr. Pop The Clean.
Kilgour won an Aotearoa Music Award in 1992 for his album cover of Pink Flying Saucers Over the Southern Alps and was featured this year on the cover of Matthew Goody’s 1981-1988 Needles and Plastic, Flying Nun Records.
In 2017 he and members of The Clean, including the late Peter Gutteridge, were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.
Delivered
Hamish Kilgour (right) with his brother David in 1983.
A biography for the band’s induction, held appropriately in Dunedin, said: “The mix of folk-ish pop, insistent psychedelic instrumentals and offbeat but accessible minimalism has proven timeless.
“As is the philosophy and logic of The Clean.
“Trusting your musical instincts and doing it yourself is the group’s core philosophy, and their success demonstrates the importance and validity of taking full creative control over the timing, capture, presentation and expression of your art.”
