Obituary – former Satelliters bassist Stuart Westcliff a/k/a Zoltan

Stuart Westcliff a/k/a Zoltan a/k/a Stu (1969 – 2011)

 

Ex-Satelliters bass-player and close friend of the band passed away of heart failure at the age 42, mid-October 2011.

Zoltan aka Stu was the most passionate guy we knew. We first met him when we played together in 1995 in Frankfurt. Back then he was the bass-player of The Insectmen, a really crude and mean garage-punk-trio playing well-chosen covers like “Tiger-Girl” or “Go Go-Gorilla” in their very own and great style. Since then we never lost touch. We shared the stage from time to time and after his band broke up and in 1998 and we were going through some line-up changes, he agreed to join The Satelliters. Zoltan took-over the bass-playing in a storm and brought our backing vocals, song-writing and arrangements to new dimensions. Without him we would have never been able to record one of our best records ever, our “mile-stone,”
“What´s Up With Timothy Dee?”

Rehearsals were so much fun and recordings always filled with new input, because he always had something new in the pocket and pushed things to the limit and beyond. His influences are still vivid in our music and his criticism on later records and live-shows were well-founded and welcome. When he left the band due to his disease he became a closer friend than ever and made his never easy way step by step. He never lost touch with music and bass-playing. He jammed from time to time with different people and helped out Redondo Beat when needed. He carried on collecting cool bass-guitars, recorded some fine lounge tunes as Stuart Westcliff and released one 45 on Redondo Beat´s Label Soul Sale. Beside music, Zoltan was a cineaste and an avid reader and he loved the Mighty Boosh. He always came up with new and unknown films, books and sure great music (most of it Soul and Soundtracks) and gave us new input over and over. He was a sensitive, friendly and funny guy and we always had a lot of fun making music and hanging out together…we sadly miss you!

The planned re-release of “What´s Up With Timothy Dee?” on Dionysus Records will be dedicated to Zoltan to keep his works and music in living memory.
We lost a close and long-time friend and band-mate and our world will not be the same without him – thank you Stu!

Steve Satellite
on behalf of The Satelliters & Redondo Beat

Written by Dionysus Records