Musicians Pay Tribute To Record Label Boss Alan Wills

British musicians Miles Kane, David Mccabe and James Skelly have paid tribute to record label founder Alan Wills, who died on Sunday night (11May14).

The Deltasonic Records creator was left critically ill after suffering serious head injuries in a cycling accident last week (ends09May14), and he died of his injuries in hospital. He was 52.

Now musicians who have worked with Wills paid their respects to the man who helped kickstart their career.

Kane, whose band The Rascals was first signed to Deltasonic, has tweeted: "RIP Alan Wills such sad news he made me believe in my dreams and gave me my first break and that I'll never forget big love to the family!"

The Zutons frontman MCCabe adds, "You gave me my first and only record deal and you where (sic) the best person to have around to learn from Rip Alan (willsy) Wills all my love."

The Coral's Skelly adds, "Alan was a true and loyal friend. I am gutted."

Wills performed as a drummer for Liverpool, England bands Shack and Top before focusing on finding new talent as a record company boss.

Courtney Love talks of Kurt Cobain death

Courtney Love says her husband Kurt Cobain died because he was an 'oblivion seeker'.

The 'Celebrity Skin’ singer and the late Nirvana frontman - who committed suicide in 1994 – experimented with numerous drugs throughout their relationship, including heroin, but while she just wanted to get high on occasions Kurt possessed a nihilistic streak.

She said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper: 'He had his drug life. He was an oblivion seeker. I never wanted that. I was the kind of drug addict that just wanted to be comfortable in my skin. Escapism once in a blue moon. Kurt would just go on until he dropped. So he died, that wasn’t fun.'

Courtney, 45, believes she was made a scapegoat in the wake of his death and admits it came as a shock for her to be so unpopular, especially in the US.

The rocker – who had a daughter, 17-year-old Frances Bean, with Kurt – added: 'Being a scapegoat was new for me. I sometimes got the feeling Kurt enjoyed that I pissed people off. I didn’t like it at all.'

World music champion Charlie Gillett dies at 68

LONDON — Charlie Gillett, a DJ and music historian who helped bring music from around the world to wider attention, has died at the age of 68, his employer, the British Broadcasting Corp. said Thursday.

The BBC said Gillett died in a London hospital on Wednesday. He had an autoimmune disease and last week suffered a heart attack.

Soft-spoken Gillett was a fixture of the BBC's domestic radio stations and its international World Service, where his show "Charlie Gillett's World of Music" offered a wildly eclectic mix of music from around the globe.

In contrast to the narrow formats of most Western radio stations, Gillett played everything from Cajun boogie to Nigerian soul to Portuguese fado, gaining a devoted international following.

World Service director Peter Horrocks said Gillett was "an inspiration whose spirit of adventure and passion for the rich diversity of global music opened the ears of the world."

Many musicians had reason to be grateful to Gillett. Among the artists he championed were Senegal's Youssou N'Dour and Mali's Salif Keita, and he was credited with launching the career of Dire Straits by playing the then-unknown band's song "Sultans of Swing" on his BBC London radio show in 1976, prompting a battle to sign them by record companies.

Born in Morecambe, northwestern England, in 1942, Gillett studied at Cambridge University and at Columbia University in New York, where he wrote an MA thesis on the history of rock 'n' roll. He expanded it into the book "The Sound of the City," published in 1970 and regarded as one of the best accounts of the genre's early years.

In the 1970s Gillett co-founded the Oval record label, whose releases included the influential Cajun compilation "Another Saturday Night," and for a time managed pub-rock band Kilburn and the High Roads, whose lead singer, Ian Dury, went on to fame with The Blockheads.

Gillett is survived by wife Buffy and their children Suzy, Jody and Ivan. Funeral details were not immediately available.