re: Endless Sleep - The Obituary Thread

Robin St. John Lumley 1946-2023

Robin Lumley was a British jazz fusion musician, keyboardist, record producer, and author who was a member of the band Brand X with drummer Phil Collins, guitarist John Goodsall, and bassist Percy Jones. He was also a member of The Spiders from Mars with David Bowie.

From Percy Jones:

Rob Lumley's health took a sudden turn for the worse a week ago. He went into hospital in Derriford, near his home in Tavistock, Devon, UK, for a quick operation, which had been scheduled, when he had heart failure. The bad news came in that same afternoon on March 9 th.

We've lost a friend and a great composer, and one of the main reasons that Brand X actually existed. Pete Bonas often referred to him as a “little instigating monkey”, who got the band to regroup as a four piece and part company with Island records. Even John, who had initially wanted to stick with the holdovers at Island, eventually was convinced to move when he realized that Rob had Phil Collins by his side, and was determined to make a deal over at Charisma records. Rob was good at wheeling and dealing, much better than John or I. He had a good business sense when it came to protecting the band's interests.

Robin had been living in Perth, Australia for decades with his wife Debra. He eventually moved back to the UK to retire on Dartmoor, and be near his daughter Jo. Still we never lost sight of each other over the years.