Enlarge image
Alan Lancaster in 1976
Photo: Erica Echenberg / Redferns
Bassists are often the underdogs in bands.
It was different with Alan Lancaster.
In the mid-1970s, when the rock group Status Quo, which he co-founded, was celebrating its greatest hits, Lancaster had already moved to Australia and was becoming increasingly estranged from its bandmates.
Nevertheless, it was apparently indispensable for the sound and self-image of the British band.
When he did not want to move away from Australia for a music video of their probably greatest hit "Rocking All Over The World", the band resorted to unconventional means: they quickly replaced him with a puppet.
In 1985 there was a final break between Lancaster and his colleagues and then legal disputes.
Even later there was a renewed rapprochement and reconciliation.
For a reunion tour in 2013/14, Lancaster played again with the regular cast.
On Sunday the band announced Lancaster's death on their website.
The bassist died at the age of 72, it was said.
He had suffered from multiple sclerosis for years.
"We were friends and colleagues for years and we celebrated fantastic successes together with Rick Parfitt and John Coughlan," wrote status quo singer Francis Rossi.
"Alan was central to the sound and huge success of Status Quo in the 1960s and 1970s."
With Rossi and Coughlan there are still two members of the band, which their fans like to call »Frantic Four«.
Parfitt had already died in 2016.
ssu / dpa