A few days ago, it had been reported that, sadly, Kings Of The City frontman Danny Wilder had passed on….we would like to send our condolences to his friends and family on their loss. Above, Charlie Sloth spun a mix in tribute to the fallen artist; below is an official statement from the bandmember Ali Bla Bla:

Yesterday I buried one of my best friends. There was an extremely large turn out and a lot of lovely words shared about him.

I met Danny 10 years ago by chance and since then we had been making music together. We formed our band in ‘09 and have had an honourable journey ever since.

The real struggle began last October. I remember the day Zane Lowe premiered our song on his BBC Radio 1 show. It was a new peak for us, a great, glorious moment. Spirits were high and we were unified by our new sense of hope. Two days later everything changed.

I remember being with my girlfriend late at night, talking about all the great things we were going to do as a band, and then receiving a group email from Danny to the band.

It was the worse news I had ever received.

My brother, my friend and my inspiration had been diagnosed with cancer. It felt like the world, that had finally opened its arms to me, calling me over, telling me everything was going to be ok, had suddenly turned around and done the opposite. None the less, we were ready to support our friend, and were genuinely as positive as him. We felt that this was a test from life and that he would come through winning, in a sort of true underdog sense.

In the last year we managed to record an album with Danny, which we plan to release soon. He stayed strong and positive through out the whole time, and did his best to lay down the law in the studio. Nothing was getting in his way of doing what he had to do. Something I will always respect.

His last music video filmed was for the song entitled ‘Grave Digger’. I remember it was an extremely cold winter’s day in an abandoned warehouse. It was still an amazing performance.

We played the Jazz Café on May 10th 2013. It was a very different vibe compared to our previous live shows. I was told by people after that Danny had sung the best he ever had in his life and that it was a very humbled performance from the band. All previous delusions of self righteousness and egotistical cliches had fallen out of the window. It was the last show he ever played.

Danny loved Jim Morrison and The Doors. He’d often refer to his ordeal as “Riding the Snake”, a reference to The Doors classic “The End”. Whenever there were times of despair, I would tell him: “Keep riding the snake, you’re nearly there man, keep riding.”

During the year of his cancer, we had managed to gain new management and suddenly had some new hope again. Right towards the end of his life, we were given 3 months of high end professional studio time to finish the album in by the management.

We were there for two weeks, in which Danny was only able to come once, before realising we wouldn’t be able to record again, so had to give it up. That one time he visited was his last ever recording session, which I’m glad was recorded visually.

There was nothing more heart breaking then coming to terms with accepting the possibility that he wouldn’t make it and that this was it. Whatever he had given me the honour of recording was final, and I could no longer say “Hey man why don’t you chuck this harmony on?” or, “I can’t wait till you lay that tune, let’s do that today”. This guy had songs coming out of everywhere. I still have a big bunch of demos he recorded and sent to me on his phone that we never got to finish. I hope to get them out somehow one day.

The last few weeks will always be a time that I will never be able to forget. I think is something I can only really talk about on a song or some lyrics, it takes a lot out of a man to describe the pain in his brother’s eyes.

The week before he passed, he had asked me to come and visit him, so I went and judging by his state, I knew it was the last time I was going to see him. Memari (KOTC Bassist) and myself sat with him in his room for a couple of hours and reminisced about good times. We spoke of all the stupid antics that had happened on stage over the years and had a little laugh. It was a very emotional time but we said our good byes and walked out, broken men.

The last thing Danny said to me via text was “Thanks for coming”. The last thing I replied to him was “Anytime brother”, and I stick to my word Dan.