Primal Scream’s Martin Duffy has died aged 55

Credit: Dena Flows / Creative Commons

Martin Duffy’s son criticises Primal Scream during inquest into father’s death

Thu 8 June 2023 9:47, UK

The son of the late Primal Scream keyboardist Martin Duffy has blamed the band’s Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes for his father’s poor financial situation before his death in 2022.

Duffy played on Primal Scream’s 1987’s debut Sonic Flower Groove and 1989’s eponymous follow-up Primal Scream before joining the group on a full-time basis. Despite playing on every album by the band, his son Louie told the inquest his role was “demoted” to session musician in 2011 which pushed Duffy into debt during the pandemic when live shows stopped and drinking heavily. Additionally, last year, he owed an £8,000 tax bill which added to his financial stresses.

Louie also stated that his father missed out on any earnings when Primal Scream sold 50% of their back catalogue to record label BMG because he was classified as a session musician. Last summer, Duffy stopped performing with the group after drinking before a show in Glasgow and making mistakes on-stage. Although they continued to pay him, Primal Scream told him he couldn’t return unless he was sober.

“After being forced off the tour, I literally saw dad age 10 years in a matter of weeks,” Louie said. He added: “He became very upset. He seemed completely devastated. After this he started drinking really heavily every day. I couldn’t stop him. It was frightening. I had never seen him like this before. He stopped contacting people and I was really worried about him.”

Louie claimed that during the lockdown Martin was forced to go on benefits after receiving no financial help from his bandmates, stating: “I remember Dad telling Bobby Gillespie on the phone that he was having to sign on for benefits to get by as he had no savings but the band offered no support either emotional or financial. I saw how much this upset him.”

Duffy also said of Gillespie: “I’ve seen on Instagram how Bobby Gillespie is always urging everyone to support the strikers – fair pay for the workers – and there is nothing wrong with that, Dad supported the strikers too, but not if at the same time you aren’t paying your own bandmate of over 30 years even a small share of the tour profits to make his life easier. As the band got older they did less touring and
more one-off gigs which meant Dad was getting paid less and less, only earning around £40k a
year for playing with Primal Scream, not a lot for someone with his talent and experience.”

He continued: “I am well aware that financial reward may not have saved Dad from himself – we will never know but I do know that while the band were reaping the rewards from touring Screamadelica a
classic British album, he was having to live month to month – just being paid session fees to
perform it – when in fact he had played such an important part in creating it. I know Dad found
this really insulting and not right. His 30 years of loyalty to Primal Scream was never repaid.”

The musician died on December 15th, 2022, aged 55 after suffering a fall in his flat.