Steve Priest - bass player with 1970s' Glam rockers The Sweet - has died at the age of 72.
The group's guitarist Andy Scott announced the news on Facebook, but he did not reveal the cause of Priest's death.
He wrote: "I am in pieces right now. Steve Priest has passed away.
"His wife Maureen and I have kept in contact and though his health was failing I never envisaged this moment. Never.
"My thoughts are with his family."
The Sweet found success in the 1970s and had hits such as Blockbuster, Ballroom Blitz and Fox On The Run.
Scott added that the late musician was "the best bass player I ever played with".
He said: "The noise we made as a band was so powerful.
"From that moment in the summer of 1970 when we set off on our musical odyssey the world opened up and the roller coaster ride started."
The Sweet were key movers in the glam rock era, achieving a total of 13 Top 20 hits in the 1970s.
Priest joined the group, then known as the Sweetshop, in the late 60s. Stardom beckoned when they signed to RCA worldwide and had their first hit with Funny Funny in 1971.
That was followed by hits such as Little Willy and Wig-Wam Bam before Block Buster! became their first and only UK number one.
That was followed by three consecutive number two hits with Hell Raiser (1973), The Ballroom Blitz (1973) and Teenage Rampage (1974).
The band turned to a more hard rock style with their mid-career singles, like 1974's Turn It Down. Fox on the Run (1975) also reached number two on the UK charts.
These results were topped in the then West Germany and other countries on the European mainland. They also achieved success in the US with top ten hits Little Willy, The Ballroom Blitz, Fox on the Run and Love is Like Oxygen.
David Ellefson of Megadeth said that Priest was "without parallel".
He added that the Sweet "gave me one of my earliest memories of great hard rock on the radio as a kid and [1974's] Desolation Boulevard still holds up as one of rock’s greatest albums from that period."
