SINGER Colin Vearncombe, popularly known under his performance name Black, died peacefully surrounded by his family in Co. Cork two weeks after being injured in a car crash.
The Liverpool native, 53, who had a top ten global hit with Wonderful Life in the 1980s and had been living in Ireland in recent years, suffered head injuries in the accident on January 10.
The father-of-three was placed in an induced coma but he died on Tuesday, January 26 in hospital, after he failed to regain consciousness.
His wife Camilla paid tribute to the staff at Cork University Hospital who cared for him.
In a statement on Facebook the family said: "Colin received the best possible care from the expert and highly professional staff there and we are deeply grateful for everything they did.”
Vearncombe had his first top ten hit with the single Sweetest Smile in June 1987 when he was 25 years old, the BBC reports.
His second hit song Wonderful Life made the top ten in Britain, Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Italy after it was re-released.
His album of the same name peaked at number three in the British charts.
But Vearncombe always maintained that the pop star lifestyle was not as he had hoped.
"I was frustrated by how few of the people in the music world I respected. Maybe I just didn't go to the right clubs,” he said.
“I've never been a great schmoozer or networker and the idea of setting out to meet a certain type of people is anathema to me.
"It was two years of disappointment - I didn't have any wild sex, I'm not a druggie, so I was just digging a hole for myself."
He released 15 records under his own name before returning to his performing name in 2015 for his crowd-funded album, Blind Faith.
During his time living in Ireland Vearncombe published poetry and staged exhibitions of his paintings in southwest Ireland.
A private funeral and a memorial service will be held in Liverpool with the date and time to be announced in due course.
