Bob “Bongo” Starkie, guitarist for Skyhooks – one of Australia’s most influential rock bands – has died aged 73.
He breathed his last after a year-long battle with acute myeloid leukemia. According to his daughter Indiana, her father died “surrounded by his friends and family” and “peacefully”.
In a Facebook post on Friday (November 28), the pioneering Australian rock band paid tribute to the late guitarist with a heartfelt tribute.
“It is with sadness in our hearts that we must announce the news of the passing of Bob “Bongo” Starkie early this morning,” they confirmed the heartbreaking news. “Music was in his blood until the very end.”
“He embraced theater, from the striking facial makeup to the unique stage costumes,” the Skyhooks member recalls. “Music always came first and touring and performing on stage was his absolute joy.”
In the same tribute, Starkie’s daughter noted that he was deeply loved by his daughters Indiana and Arabella, his grandchildren Phoenix and Lucia, his partner Chrissy, his close friend Ian and his sons-in-law Simon and Chris, adding: “He felt the love until the very end.”
For the unversed, Starkie joined Skyhooks in August 1973, replacing his older brother Peter Starkie, who died in 2020 at age 72 following complications from a fall.
Peter was one of the musicians who helped establish the first outfit that would come to dominate Australian rock in the mid-1970s following the formation of Skyhooks in Melbourne in 1973.
