Gang of Four’s Andy Gill may have died from coronavirus, his widow has suggested.

The pioneering guitarist died on February 1, months after returning from a tour of Asia with Gang of Four in November 2019.

He was initially admitted to hospital in January after developing a “respiratory illness”, with his cause of death listed as pneumonia and organ failure.

In a new post on her website, Gill’s wife – the author and activist Catherine Mayer – revealed that he had suffered the symptoms of the disease, including lethargy, a lack of appetite, and low oxygen levels.

“Andy thought it unlikely he had come into contact with [coronavirus],” she wrote, explaining that doctors had asked Gill whether he travelled to Wuhan, the city where the disease is thought to have originated.

“Gang of Four’s tour had taken the band only to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.”

The band’s tour manager also suffered from “respiratory distress,” which his doctor believes was caused by the disease.

A doctor who treated Gill told Mayer: “Once we learned more about Covid-19, I thought there was a real possibility that Andy had been infected by SARS-COV-2​.”

Gang of Four
Andy Gill with the original Gang of Four line up. Credit: Virginia Turbett/Redferns/Getty

Although medical tests on Gill subsequently revealed no trace of the virus, doctors stressed that it was far from a definitive conclusion.

“This is not,” the specialist explained, “a definitive answer. By the time of Andy’s admission into hospital, he had been ill for weeks,” Mayer wrote.

“The virus could have already left his body, but triggered immune complications.”







She added: “We may never find out whether Covid-19 killed Andy, yet I will always know, in indelible detail, how he died. I will always know, intimately, how Covid-19 kills, the suffering it causes and the unbearable stillness that follows.”

In the wake of Gill’s death in February, tributes flooded in from the likes of R.E.M.‘s Mike Mills, Tom Morello, Graham Coxon and Gary Numan.