It may sound like a cliché to say this but the dance music world is in a profound state of shock following the news that Andrew Weatherall – an iconic DJ in any way you wish to define that – has passed away.
A press release from Prescription PR announced that Weatherall passed away in the early hours of Monday, February 17 2020 at Whipps Cross Hospital in London. Weatherall was stricken by a pulmonary embolism and was being treated in the hospital before the blood clot reached his heart. He was 56 years old.
Andy Weatherall was widely regarded as among the most beloved of that first wave of acid house DJs in the UK. With Terry Farley, Cymon Eckel and Steve Mayes he founded Boy’s Own (their zine is probably the single media source we’re all descended from) and became a go-to remixer for the ubiquitous ’90s “club mix,” particularly of tracks that fit (uneasily) onto the alternative rock charts. How many people had their first taste of dance music in the modern sense from the ear-splitting eruption that launches his remix of the Happy Mondays’ “Hallelujah” with Paul Oakenfold?
For those abroad, a name like Andy Weatherall was exactly that – a name on a record, a name on a flyer, a name that people just back from the UK or Ibiza would say. It was a name that meant something. His name was a watchword for a deep expansive mind that could take in everything – anything – and make it swing. The term “tastemaker DJ” was made for him and after his passing should probably be retired.
Funeral arrangements for Weatherall are pending and will be made “in due course,” according to James Parrish of Prescription PR.
Photo via Rotters Golf Club
