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'Tiger feet' singer dies
Les Gray, lead singer of Seventies chart-toppers Mud, has died a week before he was due to make his career comeback.
The 57-year-old glam rock legend had suffered from throat cancer for some time. He died of a heart attack while in hospital in Portugal, his home for the past 12 years.
He had been due to host a Seventies-themed charity gig in Glasgow on Saturday and perform a duet with Alvin Stardust.
The show will now go ahead as a tribute to the star, who topped the charts with Tiger Feet, Lonely This Christmas and Oh Boy.
Gray had been receiving treatment for his cancer and at one stage doctors wanted to remove his voicebox, which would have ended his career.
Instead he opted for chemotherapy to cure the cancer and save his voice.
Mud, with Ray Stiles on bass and Rob Davis on guitar, won a national "Search for Sound" contest and made their UK TV debut on The Basil Brush Show.
Mud had three number one hits - Tiger Feet (1974), Lonely This Christmas (1974) and Oh Boy (1975). Their last chart entry was in December 1976 with Lean On Me.
They split in 1977 and Gray went solo, going on to tour with Les Gray's Mud. Davis became a successful songwriter responsible for Spiller's Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) and Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out Of My Head.
Gray moved to the Algarve with wife Carol and she helped to nurse him through his cancer, which he blamed on his 50-a-day smoking habit.
Story filed: 13:21 Monday 23rd February 2004
Les Gray, lead singer of Seventies chart-toppers Mud, has died a week before he was due to make his career comeback.
The 57-year-old glam rock legend had suffered from throat cancer for some time. He died of a heart attack while in hospital in Portugal, his home for the past 12 years.
He had been due to host a Seventies-themed charity gig in Glasgow on Saturday and perform a duet with Alvin Stardust.
The show will now go ahead as a tribute to the star, who topped the charts with Tiger Feet, Lonely This Christmas and Oh Boy.
Gray had been receiving treatment for his cancer and at one stage doctors wanted to remove his voicebox, which would have ended his career.
Instead he opted for chemotherapy to cure the cancer and save his voice.
Mud, with Ray Stiles on bass and Rob Davis on guitar, won a national "Search for Sound" contest and made their UK TV debut on The Basil Brush Show.
Mud had three number one hits - Tiger Feet (1974), Lonely This Christmas (1974) and Oh Boy (1975). Their last chart entry was in December 1976 with Lean On Me.
They split in 1977 and Gray went solo, going on to tour with Les Gray's Mud. Davis became a successful songwriter responsible for Spiller's Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) and Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out Of My Head.
Gray moved to the Algarve with wife Carol and she helped to nurse him through his cancer, which he blamed on his 50-a-day smoking habit.
Story filed: 13:21 Monday 23rd February 2004
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