Founder of Dunedin band The Chills, Martin Phillipps has passed away, age 61

Martin Phillipps, the founder and frontman of seminal Dunedin band The Chills, has died unexpectedly at age 61.

Phillipps’ death was announced this over the weekend on The Chills’ social media pages.

“It is with broken hearts the family and friends of Martin Phillipps wish to advised Martin has died unexpectedly,” The Chills’ post read.

“The family ask for privacy at this time. Funeral arrangements will be advised in due course.”

The lead singer and guitarist was the mastermind behind The Chills and has been part of the band since its formation in the 1980.

Being from the great city of Dunedin, Phillipps has worked and wrote music with our very own Matt Heath. Matt sharing on air this morning "I was friends that man back in the day, he mentored me, he'd give us advice and once even wrote a song he thought we should play, recorded it for us"

The Otago Daily Times reported Phillipps was recently admitted to Dunedin Hospital with liver problems.

He battled with drug addiction, alcoholism and contracted hepatitis C in the 1990s.

The Chills website described Phillipps as having “a single-minded determination to take quality, original NZ-sounding, melodic rock music global”.

Some of the The Chills’ biggest hits include; Pink Frost, Heavenly Pop Hit, I Love My Leather Jacket and Kaleidoscope World.

You can listen to when The Big Show caught up with Phillipps in 2021 here

The whole Radio Hauraki family pay our respects to a Kiwi icon.