Peter Louis Vincent de Freitas (2 August 1961 – 14 June 1989) was an English musician and producer. He was the drummer in
Echo & the Bunnymen, and performed on their first five albums.
De Freitas was born in
Port of Spain
Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...
, Trinidad and Tobago, and educated by the
Benedictines
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, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
at
Downside School
Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 11 to 18. It is located between Bath, Frome, Wells and Bruton, and is attached to Downside Abbey.
Originall ...
in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
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, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
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, south-west England. His father, Denis, was a copyright lawyer. He joined the Bunnymen in 1979, replacing a drum machine. Bunnymen's singer
Ian McCulloch related that they told him "to get stuck into the toms.
Budgie
Budgie may refer to:
Arts
* Budgie (album), ''Budgie'' (album), the debut album by the Welsh heavy metal band Budgie
* Budgie (band), a Welsh heavy metal band from Cardiff
* Budgie (musician) (born 1957), English drummer
* Budgie (TV series), ''Bu ...
the Banshees
The Banshees were an American garage rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1966. The group is best remembered for its sole single, featuring the dissonant proto-punk anthem, "Project Blue". The song has become a classic of the musical gen ...
] was the only other drummer doing that stuff at the time and Pete loved his drumming".
He funded, produced and played drums under the name Louis Vincent on the first single of The Wild Swans (band), the Wild Swans, "The Revolutionary Spirit", in 1982, for the
Zoo Records
Zoo Records was a British independent record label formed by Bill Drummond and David Balfe in 1978. Zoo was launched to release the work of the perennially struggling Liverpool band Big in Japan (the label's first release being the ''From Y T ...
label.
In 1985, de Freitas temporarily left the band. He spent several months drinking in
, while attempting to form a new group, the Sex Gods. By 1987, he returned to the Bunnymen to record their fifth album, though only as a part-time member. He was married in the same year and his daughter Lucie Marie was born in 1988.
De Freitas died in a motorcycle accident in 1989 at the
age of 27, on his way to Liverpool from London. He was riding a 900cc
Ducati
Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. () is the motorcycle-manufacturing division of Italian company Ducati, headquartered in Bologna, Italy. The company is directly owned by Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini, whose German parent company is Au ...
motorcycle on the
A51 road
The A51 is a road in England which runs for 85 miles (137 km) from Chester, Cheshire to Kingsbury, North Warwickshire.
It takes on the following route:
*Chester
*Vicars Cross
* Littleton
*Tarvin (bypass opened 1984)
*Duddon
* Clotton
*Tar ...
in Longdon Green, Staffordshire when he collided with a motor vehicle at approximately 16:00. His ashes are buried in
Goring-on-Thames
Goring-on-Thames (or Goring) is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about south of Wallingford and northwest of Reading. It had a population of 3,187 in the 2011 census, put at 3,335 in 2019. Goring ...
.
His sisters Rose and Rachel were founding members of the band
the Heart Throbs
The Heart Throbs, also known as The Heartbreakers, is the name of a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Antonio Thomas and Romeo Roselli, currently wrestling on the independent circuit. Thomas and Roselli are billed as being popular "wi ...
. His brother Frank is the bass player of
the Woodentops
The Woodentops are a British rock band that enjoyed critical acclaim and moderate popularity in the mid-1980s.
History
The band formed in 1983 in South London with an initial lineup of Rolo McGinty (vocals, guitar, formerly of the Wild Swans an ...
.
See also
*
27 Club
The 27 Club is an informal list consisting mostly of popular musicians, artists, actors, and other celebrities who died at age 27. Although the claim of a "statistical spike" for the death of musicians at that age has been refuted by scientific ...
*
The Colourfield
The Colourfield were an English band formed in 1984 in Manchester, England, when former Specials and Fun Boy Three frontman Terry Hall joined up with ex-Swinging Cats members Toby Lyons and Karl Shale. Despite the fact that all three members ...
*
The Wild Swans
The Wild Swans (Danish: ''De vilde svaner'') is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a princess who rescues her 11 brothers from a spell cast by an evil queen. The tale was first published on 2 October 1838 in Andersen's '' ...
References
External links
*
People educated at Downside School
1961 births
1989 deaths
Trinidad and Tobago drummers
British male drummers
New wave drummers
English people of Trinidad and Tobago descent
Echo & the Bunnymen members
The Wild Swans members
Motorcycle road incident deaths
Road incident deaths in England
20th-century British musicians
Trinidad and Tobago people of Portuguese descent
20th-century male musicians
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