Yesterday, September fifth, it was introduced that the earlier co-vocalist and bassist of Flipper, Bruce “Free” Calderwood had handed away on the age of 66. Initially introduced by Who Cares Anyway – a collective that documents the post-punk motion in San Francisco, the historic collective posted a photograph of Calderwood to their Instagram with the caption,
“After a chronic battle with life, Bruce “Free” Calderwood of Flipper handed away from an obvious coronary heart assault earlier this week on the age of 66.”
With the unique announcement from a third-party, Flipper confirmed the loss of life of Calderwood on Fb with the straightforward caption, “RIP Bruce Free Calderwood” alongside of a photograph of him behind the microphone.
Flipper originated in 1979, with two of the founding members, Ted Falconi and Steve DePace, remaining to this present day. Accomplished by new addition, Mike Watt, the line-up has seen fairly a number of adjustments through the years with vocalists and bassists, with Bruce Calderwood having the third-longest profession with Flipper. Dedicating his time to Flipper for over 36 years, regardless of the band’s hiatuses, he appeared on all 4 of the band’s studio releases, periodically handing off bassist duties to John Dougherty and Krist Novoselic, constantly remaining their vocalist till a collection of well being incidents made it inconceivable for Calderwood to proceed with Flipper in 2015 and he retired.
Calderwood had a wide range of well being points all through his later years in Flipper due a automobile accident that badly broken his again, limiting his potential to carry out, however continued to tour regardless of the damage earlier than ending up in a second automobile accident in 2009. Nevertheless, according to an interview in 2009, these again points stemmed all the way in which again to highschool when Calderwood injured his again for the primary time throughout highschool gymnastics, beginning a ‘destabilization’ of his whole system. After his second critical automobile accident, Flipper remained comparatively inactive till a slew of exhibits by which Calderwood was merely unable to carry out, resulting in David Yow stepping in as the band’s vocalist till 2022, earlier than leaving and present vocalist and bassist Mike Watt stepped into the roles.
Flipper have been cited as inspiration by quite a few bands and artists, like Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic (who later performed in Flipper for a short stint from 2006 to 2009), the Melvins, and Jane’s Habit for his or her out-of-the-box stay exhibits, fearless individuality, and closely distorted interpretation of punk.
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