Kevin Scott Macmichael (7 November 1951 – 31 December 2002) was a Canadian guitarist, songwriter and record producer, best known for being a member of the 1980s UK-based pop-rock band,

Cutting Crew Cutting Crew are an English rock band formed in London in 1985. They are best known for their debut album ''Broadcast'' and hit single, " (I Just) Died in Your Arms". History 1985–1986: Formation While still in his teens, Nick Van Eede (b ...

, who had a number-one

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

in 1986 with " (I Just) Died in Your Arms". Cutting Crew was nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

Early life

Macmichael was born in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...

and raised in

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Dartmouth ( ) is an urban community and former city located in the Halifax Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada. Dartmouth is located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour. Dartmouth has been nicknamed the City of Lakes, after the larg ...

Musical career

Early years

Kevin got his first guitar in 1963 along with friend Sandy Bryson. They were

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

fans from the very beginning, learned to play many of their early songs, and went to see '' A Hard Day's Night'' in Halifax. MacMichael and Bryson started a band called The FourToGo in Dartmouth in 1964 with drummer Darrell Lysens and lead guitarist Al Arsenault, managed by Larry Manette. MacMichael then played with Bedford Row and Yellow Bus, later playing with the Nova Scotia band Chalice before joining the band Spice in 1978.

Cutting Crew

In the early 1980s, Macmichael was part of the Halifax band, Fast Forward, when he met Nick Van Eede, who was touring Canada as vocalist with the band The Drivers. Macmichael moved to London, England and began Cutting Crew along with Van Eede, bassist Colin Farley and drummer Martin "Frosty" BeedlePierre Perrone
Obituary
''The independent'', 7 January 2003 in 1985.

Robert Plant

After Cutting Crew's run of success ended and

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

let them go, he worked with

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

playing guitar and composing songs for his 1993 album, ''

Fate of Nations ''Fate of Nations'' is the sixth studio album by English singer Robert Plant, released 25 May 1993 on Es Paranza Records in North America and Fontana Records internationally. It features former Cutting Crew guitarist Kevin MacMichael on all so ...

''. His interlude with Plant was short-lived; MacMichael recalled when he auditioned for Plant: "'Play me something', he said. He's about my age so the first things that came to mind were songs by

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", rele ...

and

Moby Grape Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting, and who collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz with rock and psychedelic music. They were ...

. His jaw just dropped and he picked me up off the sofa and said: 'Never leave me'." The partnership lasted the single album and a world tour before Plant reunited with Jimmy Page, but the album's single "Calling to You", on which he played guitar, resulted in a Grammy nomination.

East Coast

After nine years in the United Kingdom, MacMichael returned to Nova Scotia where he collaborated with a number of Canadian East Coast musicians including Wayne Nicholson, Tribute,

Chris Colepaugh Chris Colepaugh is a blues-rock musician and front man of the band Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew. The band was founded in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1996. A busy touring band, Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew won the East Coast M ...

& The Cosmic Crew,

The Rankin Family The Rankin Family (originally known as The Rankins) are a Canadian musical family group from Mabou, Nova Scotia. The group has won many Canadian music awards, including 15 East Coast Music Awards, six Juno Awards, four Society of Composers, Author ...

and

Sons of Maxwell Sons of Maxwell is a Canadian music duo who perform both traditional Celtic folk music and original compositions with a pop-folk sound. The duo consists of brothers Don Carroll and Dave Carroll, originally from Timmins, Ontario, residing in Hali ...

Death

On 31 December 2002, he died of lung cancer at the

Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, is a large teaching hospital and Level 1 Trauma Centre affiliated with Dalhousie University. The QEII cares for adult patients. Pediatric patients within the region are c ...

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

. His surviving family members include his wife and two daughters, father, brother, and sister.

References

External links

Kevin Macmichael biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macmichael, Kevin 1951 births 2002 deaths Canadian rock guitarists Canadian male guitarists Canadian songwriters Canadian record producers Canadian expatriates in England Deaths from cancer in Nova Scotia Deaths from lung cancer Musicians from Halifax, Nova Scotia Musicians from Saint John, New Brunswick People from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia 20th-century Canadian guitarists 20th-century Canadian male musicians