Dyan Joan Birch (25 January 1949 – 10 October 2020) was an English singer.
Born in Liverpool, Birch worked as a teenager in Brian Epstein's NEMS record shop in the city. In 1969, she and her friends formed the band Arrival, and moved to London.[1] The group had two UK chart hits in 1970, "Friends" and "I Will Survive", both featuring Birch, and played at the Isle of Wight Festival that year.[2] The group later expanded and changed style, becoming Kokomo, who were successful in London pubs and clubs in the mid-1970s. Several members of the band became respected session musicians,[2] and Birch became a backing singer on records by Bryan Ferry, Gloria Gaynor, Frankie Miller, Marianne Faithfull, Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Alvin Lee.[3]
She was the younger sister of the late Pamela Birch of the Liverbirds.
Birch died on 10 October 2020 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), at the age of 71.[4]
- ^ Hardy, Phil; Laing Dave, The Encyclopedia of Rock, Volume 3, p. 26. Panther 1976. Retrieved 11 October 2011
- ^ a b Richard Williams, "Dyan Birch 1949-2020", The Blue Moment, 23 October 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020
- ^ Dyan Birch Discography, Yahoo! GeoCities (extracted from Wayback Machine). Retrieved 20 October 2020
- ^ "RIP Dyan Birch, loved by all the Kokomo family". Kokomo. 12 October 2020.