Delays frontman Greg Gilbert, RIP

Greg Gilbert, who led UK band Delays, has died after a five year battle with bowel cancer. He was 44. His brother and Delays bandmate, Aaron Gilbert, relayed the sad news in a moving tribute today. “I have no idea how to do this right now, but this afternoon at 2:22; we walked my brother back home to somewhere out there in the ether. Greg died surrounded in the endless love that us and all of you have given him on this journey, and we will never be able to fully express how much it meant to him (and all of us) to have you by our side lifting us up like a winged army. Your messages, your encouragement and your compassion have been our oxygen for the last 5 years.” You can read the whole of Aaron’s tribute to his brother below.

Diagnosed in 2016, Greg spent the last five years documenting his illness through art, poetry and music. In August of this year, he announced that he had stopped treatment and was only taking medicine for pain. “I still believe in magic, the power of a good gesture and laughter,” he wrote on Twitter. “I want to fill the days ahead with all of these and so much more.”

Greg and Aaron formed Delays in 2001, with a sound that was somewhere between dreampop and Britpop; Greg’s expressive falsetto vocals were one of the most distinctive elements. The band signed to Rough Trade and released their terrific debut album, Faded Seaside Glamour, in 2004. They went on to make three more albums, the most recent being 2010’s Star Tiger Star Ariel.

Rest easy, Greg. Listen to Greg’s music with Delays below.

I have no idea how to do this right now, but this afternoon at 2:22; we walked my brother back home to somewhere out there in the ether. Greg died surrounded in the endless love that us and all of you have given him on this journey, and we will never be able to fully express how much it meant to him (and all of us) to have you by our side lifting us up like a winged army. Your messages, your encouragement and your compassion have been our oxygen for the last 5 years.

He was my brother and my best friend, and we did everything together, and it was the greatest honour to be with him as he took one last gentle breath before leaving us. I could have sworn we were limitless… But now that ‘is’ has become ‘was’, I need to be mindful that there is still so much majesty out there in the universe, and so much to be thankful for despite the tidal wave of sadness washing over me right now.

We connect on a different level with every human we ever meet; firing synapses, the in-between thoughts and the midnight wanderlust ramblings are the things I’ll miss the most. The memory reels that felt like a movie I wanted to live inside forever. I’m so lucky to have had a brother to carve out such impossibly beautiful moments with, and to show me the true meaning of grace, courage and strength.

He is, and always will be in our melodies, and in all the breaths in between, he’s is in every brush stroke and every piece of art that his mind gave light to… And these are the crutches I’ll try my best to lean on when it all feels too heavy.

Death gives birth to a legacy, and it was his wish that he carried on living through your speakers from horizon to horizon, and through the technicolour delights he’s left for us to swim in. I’ll be singing with him in every blink and every gap and through every teardrop, and I’d love you to do the same, because his life was a chorus and the half life of music is infinite…

Thank you for sharing our grief, and for making it easier to carry at times while you were firefighting battles of your own… and thank you for making Greg such a special person in your lives. I’m so glad we all existed at the same time.

We’re only temporary, let’s make our temporary extraordinary. x