RIP Grant McLennan

It was very sad to hear the news of the sudden loss of Go-Between co-founder Grant McLennan, who died yesterday in his sleep at his Brisbane home, aged 48.

McLennan formed The Go-Betweens with Robert Forster in 1977 and their first release was the "Lee Remick" single in 1978.

The Go-Betweens recorded a series of exceptional albums that achieved widespread critical acclaim and were fundamental in bringing Australian music to a global audience.

In 1989 The Go-Betweens took a ten year sabbatical and McLennan recorded four solo albums as well as forming groups like Jack Frost with Steve Kilbey of The Church and The Far Out Corporation with Ian Haug of Powderfinger.

When Robert Forster and Grant McLennan reformed The Go-Betweens in 2000, the band was greeted with adulation by a new generation of musicians like Belle and Sebastian, for whom their songs had been an inspirational teenage soundtrack. The three albums the band subsequently released were universally acknowledged as containing some of McLennan’s greatest compositions.

The Australian Performing Rights Association (APRA) recently voted McLennan's autobiographical song Cattle and Cane as one of the 10 greatest Australian songs of all time.

McLennan also won an ARIA award for Best Contemporary Album last year for the band's most recent offering, Oceans Apart.

I saw many of The Go-Betweens shows in the early 1980s and they always put on a great show and I am sure he will be sorely missed by many music fans.