Bobby Farrell of Boney M. passed away 30 December, 2010.
Boney M. was a 70's disco-funk group created by German record producer & singer-songwriter Frank Farian, also behind the infamous Milli Vanilli scandal. He recorded the dance track "Baby Do You Wanna Bump" in December 1974, and when the record was released as a single, it was credited to "Boney M.", a pseudonym Farian had created for himself after watching the Australian detective show Boney. After a slow start, the song became a hit in the Netherlands and Belgium. It was then that Farian decided to hire performers to 'front' the group for TV performances, which eventually led to Bobby Farrell being hired to sing and dance for the group's shows. Coincidentally, Farrell died in St. Petersburg on the anniversary of Grigori Rasputin's death.*
I don't know Boney M.'s catalog too well, but was given Nightflight to Venus and was pleasantly surprised by the title track's awesome drums, robotic vocals, and overall intergalactic funk attack. The deeply percussive segue into the Russian-themed "Rasputin" is a winner too, as the video above shows. They also had pretty sweet style.
R.I.P. Bobby.
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*Source: Wikipedia
