Primal Scream keyboardist Martin Duffy dies aged 55

Martin Duffy, keyboard player for Primal Scream and Felt, has died, aged 55.

The cause of death was a brain injury due to a fall at his home in Brighton, his bandmate Bobby Gillespie said. "I've known Martin since he was a teenager in Felt," Gillespie wrote on Instagram. "He played keyboards on every album of ours from the first to the last, finally joining the band in 1991.

"Martin was a very special character. He had a love and understanding of music on a deep spiritual level. Music meant everything to him."

Born in Birmingham in May 1967, Duffy grew up in the suburban area of Rednal. He joined Felt in 1985 after the band's frontman, known mononymously as Lawrence, put up a notice in a Birmingham branch of Virgin Records advertising for a guitarist, and somebody recommended Duffy.

It was around this period, in the mid-1980s, that the band signed to famed indie label Creation Records and embarked on a run of album releases that many fans consider their peak. Two instrumentals by Duffy featured on the band's 1988 album 'The Pictorial Jackson Review'. Felt split in 1989 after Lawrence decided he had fulfilled his intentions with the project.

Duffy had also began working with Primal Scream while he was still part of Felt, contributing to 1987 album 'Sonic Flower Groove' and 1989 follow-up 'Primal Scream'. He joined the band full-time shortly after leaving Felt, and continued to be a vital member of the group as they released several hit singles and albums, including 1991's 'Screamadelica', in the decades that followed.

Across his career, Duffy also collaborated with the likes of the Chemical Brothers, Beth Orton, Paul Weller and The Charlatans. In addition to contributing to the latter's 1997 album 'Tellin' Stories', he stepped in to fill the role of founding member Rob Collins, who passed away in July 1996, when the band supported Oasis at Knebworth in August that year.

Bobby Gillespie's statement confirming Duffy's death added: "He loved literature and was well read and erudite. An autodidact. A deep thinker, curious about the world and other cultures. Always visiting museums in every city we played or looking for Neolithic stones in remote places. Opinionated and stubborn in his views.

"Martin was the most musically talented of all of us. His style combined elements of country, blues and soul, all of which he had a God given natural feel for. He never played the same thing twice, ever. He was all about 'the moment', better have that 'record' button on when Duffy was on fire. His timing was unique, funky and ALWAYS behind the beat. George Clinton also dug Martin. I remember a session in Chicago where George said to him, 'go to church Duffy', and he did.

"Martin was also in possession of a unique wit. He had a swift eye for the absurd, the surreal and the ridiculous. He lived to laugh and play music. He was loved by all of us in the Scream. A beautiful soul. We will miss him."