English singer, songwriter, entertainer and actor Kenny Lynch has died at the age of 81.
Of Caribbean and Irish heritage, Lynch was one of the few black singers in British pop music during the 1960s and appeared in many variety shows, which were hugely popular at the time.
In 1963 he appeared alongside The Beatles on their first British tour when both acts were on the bill for a string of dates headlined by singer Helen Shapiro.
In the same year, Lynch became the first artist to cover a song by the Fab Four when he re-recorded Misery from their debut album Please Please Me.
On the big screen he appeared in Carry On Loving in 1970, as well as silent movie short The Plank and The Alf Garnett Saga, and on TV he starred in the short-lived sitcom Curry And Chips alongside Spike Milligan.
A statement from Lynch's family issued on Wednesday and shared on his Twitter account said: "Saddened to share this news with you all. Sadly our dad passed away in the early hours this morning.
"He will be remembered & missed by many. We would like to say a massive thank you to the NHS & the people at Sue Ryder for all their support. Bye Dad, we will love you always!"
Another veteran of that period, Jimmy Tarbuck remembered his friend Lynch as "a great singer and a wonderful personality who looked great in a good suit".
Tarbuck added that he had visited Lynch at home in the last month when he was very ill, recalling that he was "ready to die".
Tarbuck said: "I went down to the house to see him, in the last month. It was very strange, he was ready to die.
"It wasn't a shock at all, I don't want to appear cold, but it wasn't, he told me, he said 'I've had enough, I want to go', and then we reminisced and we were roaring laughing, just at things that have happened.
"The funniest being we stood in for Les Dawson who wasn't well and they had some costumes made for Les Dawson as a lion and he (Lynch) put it on ready for the show and the fire alarm went off in the hotel.
"We all had to get out on the pavement out in Glasgow and he said 'I can't go out like this, in a lion skin', and I said 'Well it's either that or you're on fire', so we went out in the street and there were people doing double takes of him in this lion skin and me on the floor with laughter.
"He accused me of setting the fire alarms off so everyone would see him. Well we laughed over that. He was just wonderful."
