The Damned bassist Bryn Merrick dies after battle with cancer
The Damned Bass players Paul Grey, left and Bryn Merrick

The Damned Bass players Paul Grey, left and Bryn Merrick. [Photo: Peter Bolter]

The Damned legend Bryn Merrick has died at Llandough Hospital near Cardiff after a battle with cancer.

Bassist Bryn, 56, joined the Damned as a replacement for Paul Gray, who he met on the same cancer ward at Llandough hospital in Wales last year.

Friend Andy Johnson, singer and guitarist with Ramones tribute act The Shamones, revealed the news on Facebook on Saturday.

On behalf of his daughter, Ella, and sons, Richard and Christian, it is with so much sadness that I announce that my best friend, Bryn Merrick, passed away peacefully this morning after a long battle with cancer at Llandough Hospital near Cardiff,” he said.

Bryn also played in The Shamones, under the name BeeBee Shamone.

He was loved and adored by everyone who met him,” Andy said. “He was a true rebel and lived life in the fast lane. If you made friends with him, it was for life. He hadn’t a bad bone in his body.

Bryn was in Cardiff-based band Victimize before he joined The Damned.

He had previously survived a run-in with knife-wielding New York pimps and a motorcycle crash.

I went the wrong way round Culverhouse Cross roundabout whilst high on LSD,” he said.

He had previously said he was planning to take life more slowly at the insistence of his daughter.

Source : [Wales Online]

Bryn Merrick