Richard Lloyd, the co-founding guitarist of Television, has died, The New York Times reports. The cause was cholangiocarcinoma, a bile duct cancer. He was 75. In August, a GoFundMe was launched to raise money for Lloyd’s treatment. “His loving wife Sheila and his dog Willie Mays were with him at the end,” his family said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Television formed in 1973 after Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, and Billy Ficca ended their first band, the Neon Boys, and recruited Lloyd as a second guitarist. Part of a pioneering wave of New York City punk acts, Television built a cult following at local mainstays Max’s Kansas City and CBGB. The band’s sound—grounded in the driving, elaborate guitar interplay between Verlaine and Lloyd—was a sharp detour from their contemporaries’ three-chord melodies. After signing to Elektra in 1977, Television released the seminal Marquee Moon and, a year later, sophomore effort Adventure, before tensions between Verlaine and Lloyd led to the group’s breakup.
“Richard Lloyd chisels notes out hard while Verlaine works with a subtle twang and a trace of space-gazing delirium,” Chris Dahlen wrote in Pitchfork’s review of Marquee Moon and Adventure. “They play lines that are stately and chiming, rutting and torrential, the riff, the solo, the rare power chord, and most of all, the power note.”
Richard Lloyd was born Richard John Alt in 1951 in Pittsburgh. Following his parents split, his mother remarried and moved the family to Greenwich Village. Lloyd began playing the guitar at the age of seven after spotting one at a cousin’s sleepover. “I recognized that the guitar was their magic wand,” Lloyd told Guitar World in January, about his early encounters with Beatles’ records. “They were casting a spell over young people. It’s an impulse that never left me.”
After brief stints in Boston and Los Angeles, Lloyd moved back to New York in his early twenties, where he first encountered Verlaine and Hell. “We were ahead of the curve,” Lloyd told KEXP in 2017, of his time playing in Television. “Marquee Moon still sells—it’s never been out of print. And it’s still on top records of all time lists, which makes me proud and happy.” Television returned for one final LP, Television, in 1992. Verlaine died in 2023 following a brief illness.
After Television’s initial disbandment, Lloyd went on to have a prolific solo career, releasing nine albums and contributing guitar to records by Matthew Sweet, Stephan Eicher, and John Doe of X.
“For many years I wouldn’t touch Television songs,” Lloyd added in this year’s Guitar World interview. “But as the last functioning member of the band, I have a responsibility to the fans. I play a number of Television songs, my own songs, and some covers, so everybody has a good time.”
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