The British rock singer Ian Dury (57) died yesterday after a long battle with cancer.
The death of one of rock's most irreverent lyricists, who wove Cockney rhyming slang into rebellious songs about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, was marked by the singer Malcolm McLaren, one of Dury's contemporaries during the punk era. He paid tribute to him with a reference to Dury's first band, saying: "Long live Kilburn and the High Roads".
Suggs, from Madness, on whose latest album Dury featured, described him as one of the finest lyricists ever, and one of the greatest performers.
"Ian really was the reason Madness started. He was still giving us his all right till the end. He will be sorely missed."
Robbie Williams, who travelled to a war zone in Sri Lanka with Dury to highlight efforts to vaccinate children against polio, was said to be devastated.
Dury, whose biggest chart successes came with Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, Billericay Dickie and Sex'n'Drugs'n'Rock'n'Roll, revealed he was suffering from liver cancer two years ago.
He had already had cancer for three years but had managed to keep it from the public, but when it spread to his liver and became inoperable he revealed the illness in a Sunday newspaper.
It was not until the early 1970, when Dury turned to music, forming the band Kilburn and the High Roads, that his gravel-voiced persona burst on to the punk scene. The band struggled for seven years with little success, and in 1977 he formed Ian Dury and the Blockheads, whose first album, New Boots and Panties, was considered his finest during a relatively short music career for the band.
When he was seven years old Dury contracted polio, which left him with a damaged arm and leg and meant he had to wear calipers for many years. After contracting the illness he was sent to a special school for disabled children in Sussex before going on to a local grammar school. His talent for art was soon discovered and after school he became an illustrator and also lectured in art at the Canterbury College of Art in Kent.
More than 20 years after punk, Dury was still performing at outdoor rock festivals and was also campaigning for polio victims in Sri Lanka and AIDS victims worldwide. Two years ago he reformed the Blockheads with some of the original members, producing the cheekily titled album, Mr Love Pants.