Jon Brookes, drummer with British band the Charlatans, dead at 44

By Mikael Wood

Aug. 13, 2013 9 AM PT

Jon Brookes, drummer with the British band the Charlatans, died Tuesday morning, according to a statement on the group’s website, which said Brookes had been receiving treatment for a brain tumor since 2010. He was 44.

“Jon was a brilliant drummer, an inspiration, a founding member of the Charlatans, part of our family and a friend to everyone in and around the band,” the statement reads. “Losing someone who was always so full of life is a tragedy that will be shared by so many.”

The group said Brookes, who’d been working on new material this summer, “passed away peacefully” in a hospital “with his family at his bedside.”

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“We are torn apart,” Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess wrote on Twitter. “Love & thoughts to Jon’s family.”

Part of the so-called Madchester scene that also included the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, the Charlatans were known for mixing rock guitars and dance beats in songs such as “The Only One I Know” and “One to Another.”

The band’s most recent studio album, “Who We Touch,” came out in 2010.

Watch and listen to the video for the Charlatans’ song “Weirdo” below.