Richard Lloyd, founding member and massively influential guitarist of (post) punk band Television, had died and we really couldn’t let that pass without a nod of respect. The musician, aged 75, if he didn’t influence you or your musical tastes directly, then he and his band almost certainly influenced some of your favourite bands.

His family confirmed that Lloyd died on Saturday morning at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee; “His loving wife Sheila and his dog Willie Mays were with him at the end,” his family said in a statement. According to his family, Lloyd’s death was caused by cholangiocarcinoma, a form of bile duct cancer that he was diagnosed with in March 2026. A crowdfunding campaign had revealed that Lloyd had developed tumours in his liver and, crucially, there was one that could not be surgically removed.

Television formed in 1973, they played a significant role in the emerging punk rock movement that grew up around CBGB, the legendary former music venue on the Bowery in New York City. The group was among the earliest punk acts to perform at the legendary music space. Indeed at some point during a 2007 interview published somewhere or other, Lloyd reflected on his role in shaping the club’s history, declaring: “CBGB’s is the most famous rock ‘n’ roll club to have ever existed and I fucking created it! I was the invisible force behind it.”

Their classic album was of course their 1977 debut Marquee Moon, and not that we knew it then but you could now argue that was where the ideas of something that would be Post Punk started to be a thing. We don’t really need to write pages and pages about Richard or Television, we do need to show a nod of respect today though and you might want to spend a wonderful ten minutes enjoying that title track…