There are musicians who perform in bands there are musicians who “are” the band the ones whose enthusiasm keeps everything together offstage long after the final note has been played. The latter was clearly the case with EMF’s original keyboardist and sample player, Derry Brownson. His death at the age of 55, after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, carries the special burden of losing someone who, by all accounts, appeared to be fundamentally, stubbornly alive.
For the uninitiated, EMF Epsom Mad Funkers built their reputation on a sound that seemed to capture the essence of the early 1990s: the reckless energy, the indie-dance crossover the feeling that things were happening more quickly than anyone could comprehend.
Driven by a guitar riff that alternated between blues and flamenco and a sampled statement from Andrew Dice Clay that somehow, improbably, worked, their debut single “Unbelievable” peaked at number three in the UK in late 1990 before rising all the way to number one in the US the following summer. Before they had a single song to show for it, Brownson was one of the first three people with the name and the spirit.
Derry discussed his diagnosis in public in July 2025. He described the NHS care he received as “absolutely above and beyond” after undergoing surgery to remove a portion of the tumor. Tho there was bravery, it was the directness of his framing that impressed onlookers.
He remarked, “It’s just a battle really”. He was eager to resume playing. not giving a performance for the cameras. In a room with his bandmates, he was playing as he always had.
The fact that he was able to accomplish that makes the months leading up to his passing seem somehow important. He went back to Cinderford, the Forest of Dean town where the band had formed decades earlier, with EMF in July 2025 to perform at Cindyfest.
Ian Dench, a bandmate, called it a moment of true circularity all those years crumbling back into one stage, one town. “That was a wonderful, wonderful moment”, Dench said, “before Derry got very ill”.
Just weeks before he passed away, Derry continued to joke around with Dench via text while performing in what would be his last show, Frome, by May. It’s the kind of information that sticks in your memory.
Instead of being eulogistic, the tributes that followed his death painted a portrait that felt three-dimensional. Dench, who knew Derry better than anyone, said he couldn’t think of anyone who “embodied lust for life” the way Derry did.
He then quickly changed the subject to recount how Derry threw a television out of a hotel window after a pundit made disparaging remarks about Wolverhampton Wanderers. classic rock and roll mythology, but it seems that the man who created it also quietly took care of the hedgehogs close to his Devon home.
The aspect of him that defies easy description is the conflict between sensitivity and wildness; it’s likely the most accurate description of him. In their later years, EMF had been quietly constructing something. Fourteen songs from a new album were recorded earlier this summer. In May 2025, a blue plaque was erected in Cinderford.
With the passing of bassist Zac Foley in 2002, several hiatuses the changing tides of what the music industry deems relevant, the band had already outlived the period that made them famous. Since Brownson is now the second member of the original lineup to pass away, it is difficult to overlook the accumulation.
In one version of this tale, Derry Brownson is characterized by a single riff, sample, or chart position. Those who knew him appear committed to opposing that reduction. He was tender, chaotic funny. He had an unreasonable passion for football that only true fans can comprehend. When it mattered, he returned to Cinderford and stood on a stage. That was not what the illness ultimately took from him.