Tributes were paid yesterday to Midland rock legend Jim Capaldi who died at the age of 60. 60. Drummer Capaldi, who was born in Worcestershire, found worldwide fame with sixties psychedelic rock group Traffic which he formed with Birmingham musician Steve Winwood. Capaldi was suffering from stomach cancer. He died early yesterday, a spokeswoman for his family said. Traffic were inducted into the American Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in March last year. The band, whose motto was "to sound like the same group, but never to sound the same", had top five hits with Paper Sun and Hole in My Shoe in 1967. As well as drumming with the band, Capaldi penned many of its hits and his musical career spanned more than four decades. Outside of Traffic he achieved chart success with Love Hurts, a version of the Roy Orbison song, in 1975. The musician died in the early hours of yesterday at the London Clinic in Harley Street. Spokeswoman Judy Totton said: "He passed away peacefully at 2.30am with his wife Aninha and his two daughters Tabitha, aged 28, and Tallulah, aged 26, his brother Phil and other family members at his bedside." Paying tribute to Capaldi, Midland star Bev Bevan, former drummer with ELO and The Move, said he had never let fame change his character. "I've not seen him for quite a few years since we bumped into each other at an awards ceremony at the Grovesnor Hotel in London, but it was like we had never been apart and he just flung his arms around me, his was that kind of guy. "One of my favourite memories was working with him back in 1968 at the Zurich Pop Festival with The Move and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was wild and we had a great drum battle with everyone, even Pink Floyd, we were like a big bunch of kids. "He was a great drummer and a lovely man. He was so down to earth, a Worcestershire lad who was as nice as you'd expect all people from that part of the world to be. "He was a fantastic songwriter too. Paper Sun and Love Hurts spring straight to mind and that would be his most fitting epitaph. "Traffic were one of the first of the super groups, they helped invent a more freeform type of music and broke away from the pop- group mentality." Another Midland rock legend, Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, said: "I have known him on and off over the years and remember going down to a cottage Traffic had in Berkshire to jam with him. "They had the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame presentation a year ago and they had the usual luminaries there and the mix of old and deadwood, but it was such a relief to be there and to know a guy who had retained his soul, the spirit we needed to maintain the music got going in the first place." Capaldi was a five-time winner of the "most played compositions in America" BMI/Ascap Awards for radio airplay. About 25 million copies of songs written or cowritten by the musician were sold in his lifetime. Nicola James Capaldi was born in Evesham and also wrote the lyrics to reggae anthem This is Reggae Music. He also penned the song that marked the return of the Eagles in 1996 - Love Will Keep us Alive. Capaldi, whose grandparents were originally from Italy, was friends with Bob Marley and travelled with him while the legend was writing his Catch a Fire album. Traffic, which began with Capaldi, Winwood, Dave Mason and the late Chris Wood, enjoyed multi-platinum success with ten album releases. Winwood and Capaldi reformed in 1993 - the band had gone their separate ways in 1974 - to make a new album, Far From Home. Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Paul Weller all performed with Capaldi on his solo material. Capaldi married Brazilianborn Aninha in 1975 and the pair worked together for Brazilian street children's charity Jubilee. Where have all the Brum rockers gone? Two years ago Jim Capaldi returned to the Midlands with a new album - and bemoaned the lack of "biggies" in the region's music scene. He remembered the Birmingham of the mid-60s when top bands would jam together after gigs. And he thought back to the live music at city centre nightspots such as the Elbow Room which inspired his band Traffic. The best music had disappeared, he told The Birmingham Post at the launch of his Living On The Outside album in 2001. "Who are the biggies? There are no biggies," he said. "Past the middle of the seventies, there's been nothing to speak of. I did enjoy some of the punk stuff, at least for the attitude. "But there hasn't been anything else since, has there? Dire Straits and the Police are the last things worth talking about. "Once I get out there in front of the kids, they're just blown away. They don't often get the chance to hear good live music played by people who know what they're doing," he said. Traffic's experimental music in the 60s drew attention from stars such as Steve Winwood, from the Spencer Davis Group, who would join in on jamming sessions at the Elbow Room. Traffic was signed to Island, a then fledgling record label, and the quartet escaped to a cottage in rural Berkshire to compose Mr Fantasy and the three hit singles Paper Sun, Hole In My Shoe and Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush in 1967. Capaldi described himself as the band's ringleader, chief writer and worrier. He said: "I was embarrassed about some of the silly, psychedelic, pop-up book stuff." By the summer of 1971 two band members had left and Blind Faith bassist Rick Grech, Ghanaian percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah and Derek and the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon had been hired. Rhythm ran deep in his Italian blood By Jessica Shepherd Jim Capaldi's Midland roots can be traced to his Italian grandparents. Pasquale Capaldi, an accordion player, and his wife Angelina, a mother of nine, left the Mediterranean coast to settle in Evesham, Worcestershire, in 1911. As the son of a legendary music hall couple, Jim Capaldi was born with rhythm in his blood. He was brought up listening to his father Nick's accordion performances on Radio Luxembourg and the soprano voice of his mother Maria who sang in a touring troupe. All his life Capaldi moved in musical circles and even shared Christmas with George Harrison in 1995. He said: "My dad came and played accordion for everybody. He was the star of the show. George loved him and Ravi Shankar was there too." Capaldi was proud that he had worked with the former Beatle and devastated when Harrison died. "Apart from the track he did with Jools Holland, I'm the last person he worked with. He played his guitar solo for me the Christmas before he passed away. I was very honoured." The young Capaldi started as a drummer in his teens and formed Deep Feeling with Worcester friends Dave Mason and John Poli Palmer, who later married into his family. He left school to study Industrial Ceramics and worked as a plasterer's labourer, truck driver and church restoration artist before his musical career took off. | 
