James Freud

IN the preface to his second autobiography, I Am The Voice Left From Rehab, James Freud wrote: "I have performed for royalty, dined with Superman, stood on a stage before 100,000 people and graced the covers of magazines.

"I lived an enchanted lifestyle at the top of the charts, where fame was as fickle as the industry I once loved so dearly.

"I woke up one day to find it had all deserted me and like a tornado had moved on to sweep up and spit out some other unsuspecting teenager with a dream."

He wrote with brutal honesty about the alcohol addiction which, in the end, he could not conquer.

A successful first autobiography, I Am The Voice Left From Drinking, chronicled the whirlwind of pop stardom in the '80s. The second book was a harrowing account of the damage alcoholism brought to himself and his family, and his apparent recovery from it.

Freud, who sang Barbados and Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight, two of the biggest for '80s band Models, took his own life, a statement released on behalf of his family said.

His death came only a week after Models were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Freud was absent from the ceremony.

Freud, whose real name was Colin McGlinchy, started his career as a 17-year-old with Teenage Radio Stars, a band featuring his school friend and future band mate in Models, Sean Kelly.

Teenage Radio Stars lasted only one year, 1978, but won notice with their song I Wanna Be Your Baby. It was enough to earn the attention of Michael Gudinski, who signed Freud to his Mushroom records label.

Freud's debut single, Modern Girl, was a No.12 hit in 1980, followed by a debut album, Breaking Silence.

He then supported English new wave star Gary Numan on a tour that year, after which Numan invited him to England to record with him, although the album was never released.

In 1982, Freud returned to Australia to join Kelly in Models, a band that had already experienced some success with the Local &/Or General album in 1981.

Freud became its bass player, but his commercial instincts helped lift the band to wider success with the 1983 album The Pleasure Of Your Company, which featured the hit single I Hear Motion.

The band then won a new fan base touring that year as the support act to David Bowie.

That album is now regarded as an Australian classic and features at No.46 in a new book, The 100 Best Australian Albums.

The band reached its commercial peak in 1985 with the Out of Mind, Out of Sight album, which went to No.2, as did Barbados, written by keyboard player Andrew Duffield and sung by Freud.

Although the song sounded sunny, it was a dark tale of alcoholism, with Freud singing: "All I see is washed away, I am the voice left from drinking."

The album's title tune, written and sung by Freud, went to No.1 in July 1985, but that success was never repeated and the band broke up in 1988.

Freud resumed his solo career with the 1989 album Step Into The Heat, at the time said to be the most expensive album Mushroom Records had ever issued, but it failed to crack the top 10.

In 1990, Freud took a role as touring bass player in Kylie Minogue's band.

Gudinski remained a friend and invited Freud to tour in the 2006 Countdown Spectacular, where he performed Out of Mind, Out of Sight each night on tour.

"James was a true pioneer," Gudinski said. "He successfully crossed over from the burgeoning punk scene in the early '80s to create some of the most played tracks in Australia's recording history."

After the release of his first book in 2002, Freud relocated his family to the Gold Coast and for a time worked as a project co-ordinator with a local record label. But he found his experience with the business side of music as dispiriting as his time as a pop star.

He wrote the last pages of his second book while waiting to take the stage at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in September 2006, where he performed to 10,000 fans.

Freud is survived by his wife Sally and sons Harrison and Jackson.