Magic…

The first time I heard Jeff Buckley it was the mid 90’s, in the midst of that era’s magnificent grunge movement. His only studio album, Grace (1994), was hugely popular amongst fans of indie music in Australia. A year later, commercial radio picked up the track ‘Last Goodbye’ & he crossed momentarily into the Aussie mainstream. I met Jeff Buckley at an in-store performance and record signing at Gaslight Records in ’95. My girlfriend at the time gave him a kiss on the cheek & he asked me if I wanted one too. I respectfully declined – so he asked, “It’s the hair, right?”.

Buckley died on 29th May 1997, while attempting to swim in a slack-water channel of the Mississippi River, Memphis. He was working on new material for a 2nd studio album. It was an enormous loss. He was 30 years old – his father died at the same age (sixties cult icon, Tim Buckley). One ponders what might have been. Fast forward 16 years, and we can still hear Jeff Buckley’s vocal influence. (Muse, Coldplay, Doves, Travis)

Fires out.