Former Echo & The Bunnymen keyboard player Jake Drake-Brockman — dubbed the “fifth Bunnyman” — was killed in a motorcycle accident on the Isle of Man in the UK on Tuesday, according to the BBC.
In a sad twist, that’s the same fate that befell original drummer Pete de Freitas, who died in a similar motorcycle crash in 1989.
It was after that tragedy — and the departure of frontman Ian McCulloch — that Drake-Brockman, who had played with the Bunnymen as a touring member through much of the ’80s and performed on 1987’s Echo & The Bunnymen, officially joined the band. That incarnation of the Bunnymen split in the early ’90s after a lone McCulloch-less album, Reverbration.
Although Drake-Brockman hadn’t currently been playing with the reunited version of Echo & The Bunnymen — which will release The Fountain next month, and is set to announce U.S. tour dates tomorrow — the remaining members clearly were saddened by the keyboard player’s untimely passing, announcing his death on the band’s Twitter feed, and posting a stark photo and this tribute to him on the front of Bunnymen.com:
Jake Drake-Brockman
Our thoughts are with his wife, family & friends .
Love
Ian, Will, Les, Peasy, Pete, Peter & all his fans
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