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Lead Singer of UK Pop Band Jumps to Death at Belgian Festival

Ollie Millington, Redferns

Charles Haddon, lead singer of the up-and-coming UK synth pop trio Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, has died after apparently jumping from a telephone mast behind the stage at Belgian music festival Pukkelpop Friday night, NME reports.

Haddon, 22, apparently climbed up the mast, situated above a parking lot, following his band's performance at the festival. Police are calling the death a suicide. The organizers of Pukkelpop, which is situated in the eastern town of Hasselt, released a statement confirming the death and expressed their condolences to Haddon's family and friends.

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool had a promising career ahead of them after a successful debut in 2009. The band's single 'Dance the Way I Feel' reached No. 10 on the UK singles chart. The band also supported fellow UK pop act La Roux on tour. A debut full-length, 'Christ Died for Our Synths,' was to be released this October, and the band had a headlining UK tour scheduled. It is not known yet whether the band will hold the album or release it as planned.

Haddon's death is the second tragedy at Pukkelpop this year, and one of several in a tumultuous summer for music festivals on both sides of the pond.

On Thursday, Michael Been, the leader of '80s alt rock band the Call, and lately the sound engineer for his son's band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, died of a massive heart attack while backstage at BRMC's Pukkelpop show. He was 60.

Another suicide occurred at a concert this week. Michael Edward Pickels, 32, climbed onto the roof of the stage at a Swell Season concert at Saratoga Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA, and jumped to his death, landing on the stage near Swell Season's Glen Hansard. Both Hansard and his bandmate Marketa Irglova have expressed their condolences and thoughts about the tragedy on their respective Twitter accounts. SF Weekly reports that the victim was under considerable stress: he was out of jail on $150,000 bail and was facing charges of "assault with a firearm, domestic violence and false imprisonment."

On Aug. 2, Curtis Alan DeForest, a 26-year-old from Wichita, Kan., died while attending a Vans Warped Tour event in Bonner Springs, Kan. DeForest was taken to hospital at some point during the festival and later died. Though details were sketchy, Warped Tour organizers put out an announcement about the death that included a caution about staying hydrated in the hot festival conditions, which led some to believe DeForest died of dehydration.

As of writing, a cause of death has still not been released to the public. Many have speculated that high water prices at the event discouraged concertgoers from drinking enough.

In July, an overcrowded tunnel leading to the entrance of the Love Parade festival in Duisburg, Germany led to the deaths of 21 people and injured upwards of 500 others. Festival organizers had opened only one entrance to the festival, which saw an estimated 1.4 million attendees over the course of the weekend. As police tried to direct some of the crowd back out of the festival grounds, panic set in inside the tunnel. The festival continued as planned, but an investigation into what exactly went wrong is under way.

Watch the video for Ou Est Le Swimming Pool's top 10 hit 'Dance the Way I Feel' below:

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HQWALL

nice song
thanks for sharing

September 22 2010 at 12:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Louis

God gives you Life and God takes it back at his on time, but if you take your own life then that's the greatest sin of all!!! My God have mercy on him!

August 23 2010 at 2:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Leon

I wonder if he changed his mind on the way down?

August 23 2010 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mal

my symapthaties to the family.

August 23 2010 at 1:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
canwebesure

There are many good hearted posts here.

I don't understand that others did not see this coming and help him to get help.

Focus Adolescent Services, focusas. c o m has been helping for decades for free.

We should all send them a small gift for the lives they have saved, so that they can continue their good work.

August 23 2010 at 1:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
trish

I'm sorry, but I have very low sympathy for people who do drugs, they say their life is SO hard or things aren't going their way. Well life stinks and there aren't any magic pills to make it better. No one can say that they have a life much harder than mine, starting with child abuse, interfering mother ruining your only love in life, looseing a baby, only son left has CP and daughter not wanting to care for her brother when we are gone some day..BUT I NEVER once conteplated taking any kind of drug. Even when I had cancer I refused to take that s..t the 4 th day after surgery, I didn't like how it made me feel, all I did was sleep most of the day. That stuff is just SO much worse than living life-as up and down as it is, it's better than zoning out from it. Grow up people and be part of life don't run and hid behind pills or such..you'll save a hell alot of money if you do.

August 23 2010 at 12:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jack

The older generation and politicians and liberals and professors have lied to kids about how great they are so long they are now believing it. When the kids find out it was all a lie and older people taking the easy way out (usually too late) that drugs, booze, do-it-if-feels-good advice they get was no good...Maybe with their last breath they actually realized it...

August 23 2010 at 12:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jack's comment
Darrel56

C'mon Jack, thats what is wrong with you youngsters.
Lets blame someone else! It is always "their" fault.

August 23 2010 at 1:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rockin

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof
Tony thought that his rage was just some goof
But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof
"Hey," Herbie said, "Tony, can you fly?"
But Tony couldn't fly, Tony died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, "Hey, I know it's dangerous, but it sure beats Riker's"
But the next day he got offed by the very same bikers

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

August 23 2010 at 12:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Rockin's comment
Ronny V.

Ah, the Jim Carroll Band. He died last year from a heart attack. Sad this guy took his own life from a human standpoint. No loss musically. I watched the video... horrible! Looked like an eighties brit pop revival, complete with faceless 'Moulin Rouge' outfits and bad dye-job hairdo's.

August 23 2010 at 1:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Darrel56

Yeah buddy! Good tune, did not the composer of that song "die" not to long ago? Not many folks remember it out here on the west coast. He only toured one time to NorCal in the late 1970's.
And I am getting all misty eyed with folks not liking my opinion. Commentary "is a descriptive spoken account of an event or performance as it happens". What does the "now" generation have to be depressed about?

August 23 2010 at 1:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Denise

The drugs and alcohol added to his depression.......

August 23 2010 at 12:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mari

He probably thought fame and success could make him happy. Our hearts have a void in them that only Jesus can fill.....

August 23 2010 at 11:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply