Chris Bailey, frontman of Australian rock band The Saints, died Saturday at the age of 65.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
“Chris lived a life of poetry and music and stranded on a Saturday night,” read a post on the band’s Facebook page.
Born in Kenya and raised in Ireland and Australia, Bailey co-founded The Saints with high school mates Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay in 1973.
“Chris and I met when we were about 14 during detention at Oxley High School and became close friends which later developed into what I always thought was an extremely strong artistic partnership,” tweeted Kuepper.
“Couldn't have hoped for a better singer.”
The Saints released “(I’m) Stranded” in 1976, putting them in the same league as the Ramones and Sex Pistols – even though “punk” was not a label Bailey embraced. The band put out more than a dozen studio albums between 1977 and 2012 and Bailey recorded seven of his own.
Australian rocker Jimmy Barners remembered Bailey as “one of the greatest songwriters this country produced.” He tweeted: “The Saints were punks before punk. He was a master of words and helped tell our story.”
Bailey is survived by wife Elisabet and three sisters.