It is with deep shock and sorrow that we have learned of the sudden and tragic death today of celebrated music journalist Vince Lovegrove in a motor vehicle accident in Byron Bay, Australia.
Vince Lovegrove became the last journalist to work officially with Michael on what was to become a controversial book following Michael’s untimely death. During those difficult months he collaborated very closely with Kell on an almost daily basis as he transcribed from Kell’s tapes. At Kell’s request, I spent the last few weeks working on the book with him helping him sort through re-edits on tapes and files Kell had supplied before Kell was suddenly hospitalised. Kell really respected Vince and regarded his biography on Michael as the most accurate at the time. It was a helpful and divergent exercise for Kell during early days of grieving for Michael.
Vince and I were often on the phone between Sydney and London and he shared aspects of his own life. On one particular day while working on Michael’s story, we shared about the tragedies in our own lives. I was blown away by his story, but he seemed very intrigued with something personal I had shared.
He cried over the phone, “You must let me use this in the book!”
“Why? How can that be relevant?” I asked him.
“Because you were the man leading Michael’s ashes ceremony,” he said with a definite resolution. “What can you remember?” he asked. I shared a few things with him and the last thing I recounted really sent him. “That’s the ending! That is our ending to Michael’s book!” he yelled.
Vince was not popular with everyone, as most journalists tread on toes through their writing careers. But I can genuinely say that he touched our lives with his genuine devotion to writing Michael’s biography, even though Kell didn’t fully agree to all that was eventually published. Yet through the resilience in his own life to the tragedy of losing a loving wife and child to illness (sensitively documented in “Suzi’s Story”), Vince showed himself to be a man of immense strength and courage, and one who valued life as being so very precious. We at www.MichaelHutchence.org respected him and found him to be a man of discernment forged by personal tragedies. Eight hours before Vince died, he had providentially concluded his last post to his music blog with this, a fitting epitaph to a life that reached out to many:
May God receive you and rest you, dear Vince.
Ian Patterson
For the Co-directors of Michael Hutchence’s Official Memorial Site
Susie Hutchence, Mario and Jacqui Ferrari.