Gentle Giant bassist and composer Ray Shulman dies at 73

In the Facebook post written on Ray's official page, Derek writes a tribute to his brother and explains that he passed away after "he bravely battled a long illness". Describing his brother as a true artist and an "incredible composer, musician, music producer & tech wizard who preferred to stay in the background and let his body of work speak for him rather than talk about himself", he says that Ray will "deeply missed by the music community as a whole".

Ray, alongside his brothers, Phil and Derek, started their first band together in 1966 – Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. They achieved their first top-ten single with the song "Kites", and during their rise to success, the brothers recruited a young pianist named Reginald Dwight – now known as Elton John.

They split three years later, and the Shulman trio quickly went on to form Gentle Giant alongside guitarist Gary Green, keyboardist Kerry Minnear and drummer Martin Smith. Gentle Giant quickly became early pioneers of the progressive rock genre alongside bands such as King Crimson and Genesis. Following the eventual disbandment of Gentle Giant in 1979, Ray became a record producer, working with the likes of The Sugarcubes, The Defects, Ian McCulloch and also scored some video games.