Cathal Coughlan, frontman with acclaimed indie bands Fatima Mansions and Microdisney, has died aged 61. His family announced the news, saying he “slipped away peacefully in hospital after a long illness”.
Born in Cork, Coughlan first formed Microdisney with guitarist Sean O’Hagan in 1980, relocating to London in 1983. Playing variously smooth and jangling indie-pop, there was only the briefest brush with mainstream success when the single Town to Town came close to the UK Top 40, but they became much admired in the UK and Ireland indie scenes and recorded numerous sessions for John Peel. “I probably saw popular music as an easy route to cultural mobility, wherein a person with my then-fitful attention span and limited tolerance for the ‘wider picture’ of learning could live a creative life,” he later reflected.
