2025’s “Top” Ten Music Losses: Gilson Lavis (#3)

Tweet

Don’t look at me like that. Any other year he would have been #2 or maybe even #1. Yes, I know you’ve never heard of him, and you’ll still be shrugging after I explain. I love this band, and his death was quite painful. Here’s today’s music loss from 2025. #3: Gilson Lavis Squeeze is their name, and great power pop is their game. And, in the “classic” era, Gilson Lavis was their drummer. For the life of me, I don’t understand why Squeeze wasn’t bigger in the U.S. Do I say that every time I mention them? There’s a reason. Before joining Squeeze, Lavis had a gig playing drums for Chuck Berry on Berry’s UK tour. He joined Squeeze in 1976 and stayed through the band’s most popular albums, until his drinking got the better of him. Lavis joined Alcoholics Anonymous and got his drinking under control. Unfortunately for him, Squeeze reunited and he started drinking again. He decided he couldn’t stay sober and be a drummer, so he quit and moved to the country, painting and giving drum lessons. When fellow former Squeeze member Jools Holland contacted Lavis for a drumming gig in the Jools Holland Big Band, Lavis didn’t want to, associating rock and roll drumming gigs with alcohol consumption. Holland was insistent AND supportive, and Lavis managed to work with Holland for 30 years while staying sober. No cause of death was listed for Lavis, but the photos of him in 2023 showed him looking very frail. He was a solid drummer for a ferociously underrated band. Gilson Lavis Born David Leslie Gilson Lavis, June 27, 1951, Bedford, Bedfordshire Died November 5, 2025, Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire (unknown cause) (age 74) One of my favorite Squeeze songs, “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell).” Just because I can’t eat seafood doesn’t mean I can’t listen to songs that mention it!