Nick Marsh, singer and guitarist for the British rock band Flesh For Lulu, died Friday after battling cancer. He was 53.
A message was posted on the Marsh Family Cancer Crisis Fund page on gofundme at Noon Friday stating:
Dear all,
Sadly, Nick lost his fight this morning. He passed peacefully away, with Kat by his side holding his hand. A massive thank you to everyone who has shown support, in so many ways, to Nick, Kat and their beautiful girls. We’ve lost a good’un.
xx
In addition, the Urban Voodoo Machine posted the following on their website:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It is with tremendously heavy hearts that we must announce that our dear brother Nick Marsh lost his courageous battle with cancer this morning. As you can imagine The Urban Voodoo Machine and it’s entire extended family are deeply saddened and reeling at this sudden and horrible news. Our immediate thoughts go out to Nicks family, most especially his partner Katharine Blake and their daughters Ava and Rosa. A full tribute will follow shortly, in the meantime should you wish to send messages of the support to Katharine and the girls please do so by visiting the Marsh Family Cancer Crisis Fund page at http://www.gofundme.com/marshfamily and perhaps leave a small donation whilst you are there.
The Urban Voodoo Machine
Marsh had been diagnosed with mouth and throat cancer in March of 2014. Nick documented the start of his treatment on Facebook, telling Classic Rock “I didn’t know how else to approach it really.I just thought, ‘Here I am.’ Facebook is like an open diary if you want it to be. I just felt like I wanted to do that. I don’t know why now.”
Marsh formed the band Flesh For Lulu in the early 80’s with drummer James Mitchell. The two recruited former Wasted Youth guitarist Rocco and bassist Glen Bishop and, in 1983, they signed with Polydor Records.
After releasing the EP Roman Candle (1983) and full album Flesh For Lulu (1984), they were dropped by the label and, the next year, released Big Fun City (1985) on Statik and the EP Blue Sisters Swing on Hybrid.
Their first big success, though, came in 1987 when the released the Long Live the New Flesh on Beggars Banquet in the U.K. and Capitol in the U.S. The song I Go Crazy from the album was used in the film Some Kind of Wonderful, propelling it onto the college radio charts.
In 1989, the band released the album Plastic Fantastic which included the songs Decline and Fall and Time and Space, both major modern rock hits in the U.S.
The band broke up after being dropped by Capitol with Marsh saying that there were two distinct camps within the group on musical direction.
Marsh went on to form the band Gigantic with Rocco in 1996. They signed with Columbia but their debut album didn’t sell and the label dropped their contract.
In the years since, Marsh was an occasional member of the Urban Voodoo Machine, a very loose collective of musicians that plays “Bourbon Soaked Gypsy Blues Bop’n’Stroll”. He has also reformed Flesh For Lulu at different points and released a solo album.
Marsh is survived by his partner, Katharine Blake and daughters Ava Sophia (born 2007) and Rosa (born 2009).
