Chris Bailey, the leader of the Australian band the Saints, has died. “It is with great pain in our hearts that we have to inform you about the passing of Chris Bailey, singer and songwriter of The Saints, on April the 9th 2022,” reads a statement posted on the group’s official Facebook page. “Chris lived a life of poetry and music and stranded on a Saturday night.”

Bailey spent his childhood in Belfast until his family emigrated to Australia when he was seven. He formed a band with his Brisbane schoolmates Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay in the early 1970s, which would eventually be named the Saints. In 1977, they released their pioneering punk debut (I’m) Stranded and followed that up quickly with two more albums in the same vein, Eternally Yours and Prehistoric Sounds, both of which came out in 1978.

Bailey was the Saints’ only consistent member throughout their five-decade existence. All told, he released fourteen albums as the Saints, continuing to change up his sound as he moved from Sweden to the Netherlands. The Saints’ most recent album was 2012’s King Of The Sun. Bailey also released a number of albums under his own name.