Thee Michelle Gun Elephant Guitarist Futoshi Abe Dead At Forty Three.

Very sad news here with word that Thee Michelle Gun Elephant guitarist Futoshi Abe - far right in the image - has died of cancer at the age of forty three. At their peak TMGE were, in my opinion, one of the greatest rock bands on the face of the planet with Abe as a key component of their sound. They were a band I first discovered thanks to their involvement in Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring, a band influential enough that I later learned that when approached to make Blue Spring Toyoda actually made their inclusion on the soundtrack a condition of taking the job. No TMGE, no Toyoda in the director's chair. It's time to fire up the stereo, I think. Play it loud.