The Cramps' Lux Interior dead...

I'm a bit shocked. I've just read that Lux Interior of The Cramps died this week. The NME says he died on Feb 4th of a pre-existing heart condition, aged 62. He was the lead singer of a band that fused punk with rockabilly in the mid 1970s, creating the prototype 'psychobilly' sound and you can see their influence in numerous bands since then, but they were the first. A real one-off.

I've seen them several times over the years, most recently at The Astoria (RIP Astoria too, while I'm at it). I really liked their swampy rockabilly sound and the mixture of trashy 1950s/60s garage and surf music and B movies influences they wove into their own music. It led me onto original rockabilly and strange old films I might not have come across otherwise. He's finally keeping that date with Elvis....

(pic: Redferns, in the NME.)

These are good personal accounts and comments.

Here's The Cramps doing 'The Way I Walk' live at Napa State Mental Hospital in 1978....