In the post to Ian McDonald’s official fan page on Facebook, the multi-instrumentalist’s son posted the heart-warming statement. “I’m deeply saddened to tell you that my father passed away yesterday from cancer. He was incredibly brave, and never lost his kindness or his sense of humour even when the going was rough.” He continued to pay tribute to his father, “My father was a brilliant, intuitive musician, a gentle soul, and a wonderful dad. He will live on forever through his beautiful music and the love of his fans. Thank you all.” Al Greenwood, Foreigner co-founder, also posted a touching tribute to his bandmate via Facebook.

McDonald was an accomplished musician, predominately a saxophonist he also played the keyboard, flute, vibraphone and guitar. Before he was making waves in the rock scene, McDonald learnt his craft as an army musician, where he also taught himself music theory.  Upon his departure from the Army, he joined forces with Judy Dyble, Robert Fripp and Michael Giles to form King Crimson. The group’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, was released on 10th October 1969 via Island Records, and has proved to be highly influential and is regarded as one of the earliest successes within the prog-rock genre.

After leaving King Crimson, McDonald moved to New York City and in 1976 co-founded Foreigner. The group sired a huge catalogue of hits and became one of modern music’s most popular groups, McDonald played the guitar, woodwind instruments and keyboards. The group released their self-titled debut album in 1977, the ten-track album featured three big hits, “Feels Like the First Time” and “Long, Long Way From Home”. The album also featured the single “Cold as Ice”,  the track is highly ranked in published lists of greatest songs and is now regarded a key part of the rock genre’s canon.

McDonald left the group after their third studio album Headgames released in 1979 and saw great success as a session musician. McDonald’s musical talents can be heard on “Get it On (Bang a Gong)” by T-Rex. The talented artist continued to lend his talent to further collaborations and produced several albums. In 1999, McDonald released his solo album entitled Drivers Eyes, the album featured King Crimson band member John Wetton and Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm.

Since the news of the musician’s tragic passing, tributes from McDonald’s peers and fans have been pouring in. Among his bandmates, musicians who have also paid their respect include Gary Kemp, Sid Smith and the classic rock group Asia. The tributes posted to social media all tell of McDonald’s incredible influence and hail his immense musical talent.

The couple started becoming more involved with social media over the lockdown, doing agony aunt talks and answering fan questions. The Sunday Lunch series began when Fripp felt the need to occupy her husband, with Toyah saying “Here I am in this house with this 74-year-old husband who I really don’t want to live without. He was withdrawing, so I thought: ‘I’m going to teach him to dance.’ And it became a challenge. I do the lighting, the filming, the conceptual side and the persuading Robert to take part”.

Another way the King Crimson star has been kept busy recently was by his wife’s latest album, Posh Pop, which was released last August. Made with songwriter and producer Simon Darlow, the album was her latest offering since 2008’s In the Court of the Crimson Queen.

On making the album, Willcox said “When COVID stopped everything last year, it allowed me to concentrate on writing and recording the next album …. ‘Posh Pop’ was a magical experience created out of the need and ability to make contact with our fans in a heartfelt way …. Working with Fripp in the studio, we just handed him the chord charts the day before and said: ‘We want you to come in and improvise and that’s what we’ll use’. It was spontaneous.“

If you want to see Toyah outside of her YouTube channel, she’ll be embarking on a tour to promote Posh Pop starting this February, taking her around the UK, with dates running up until September. If you’re interested in getting tickets, you can look here.