Andy Fraser - Free Legend - RIP 19 March 2015

At the age of 15, Andy Fraser joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers as a bassist on the recommendation of Alexis Korner. By 1968 he was a founder member of Free, with his phenomenal musical skills showing themselves not only in his abilities as both a bassist and pianist, but also as a consummate songwriter. The teenager’s prodigious partnership with Paul Rodgers was responsible for some of the greatest songs of all time. He was still in his teens when he co-wrote ‘All Right Now’ - our 'Video Of The Day'. When Free split up, Fraser formed Sharks with guitarist Chris Spedding. Soon afterwards, he relocated to California and used his writing talents to create hits for Robert Palmer, Joe Cocker, Chaka Khan and Rod Stewart. Fraser was diagnosed with HIV and Kaposi’s sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, and virtually disappeared until 2005 when he re-emerged releasing new solo albums and became a lot more high profile. In mid-2013, Fraser played a supporting role as bassist in the band of protege Tobi Earnshaw for a short series of UK dates. Fraser died on Monday at his home in California.