It is with huge sadness that on Friday morning I discovered that ALTITUDE host and all-round creative force MODAL ROBERTS sadly passed away on the evening of Wednesday 19 September 2018 following a battle with cancer.
In a statement on her Facebook page his tremendous daughter Catherine announced:
“After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two months ago, on 19th September at 5.10pm my dad Philip Reid Roberts sadly passed away. Thank you so much to everyone who has been so kind and supportive during such a difficult time.
Funeral arrangements are currently being made so please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like this information or if you have any further questions. I would also really love to hear from any of you who knew my dad so that we can share the memories we have with him.
My dad fought his cancer with bravery, positivity and determination and passed away in a comfortable and peaceful environment without any pain.”
A fund to make donations to is set to be arranged very soon and once we have details we shall be posting links here.
MODAL came on board at KAOS in late 2014 with his ALTITUDE radio show and regularly produced shows right up to early this year when he delivered an incredible tribute of his own to Mark E. Smith of The Fall with episode 95. In the meantime he was also running and working on his own label ALTITUDE RECORDS while releasing his first album last year entitled “Rapture” following a number of releases on German Shepherd Records including the excellent “Disco Pharm” EP.
In addition to his solo exploits he was busy running Alt-Karaoke events and piecing together his The Velvet Afterlife project, a piece of music theatre based on Lou Reed and Nico reuniting in heaven. Also he was well known for being a member of Marc Riley With The Creepers in the 80s, the infamous mid career vehicle for the man nicknamed “Lard” that began his life playing in The Fall, became a BBC Radio One morning DJ before ending up a mainstay at 6music.
In tribute to MODAL here at KAOS there are plans for both THE TINDER DIARIES and SOUNDTRACK TO INFINITY to dedicate shows to the great man, not least as he was the person that introduced both Jason and Brad to the station, as well as plans to re-run some old episodes of ALTITUDE in the schedule and generally sprinkle his work and material into various shows including THE LIMEY, EMBRACE THE RANDOM and CHUNKS.
Other tributes have included this from his old label German Shepherd Records that is donating any coming proceeds from MODAL ROBERTS back catalogue sales to Cancer Research:
His mother called him Phil
MODAL LINKS:
modalroberts.com
ALTITUDE RECORDS
ALTITUDE MIXCLOUD
FACEBOOK
SOUNDCLOUD
YOUTUBE
