Bobby Farrell

Flamboyant singer and dancer with the German group Boney M which had a string of hits in the late-1970s heyday of disco

With his wild, Afro-styled hair, outrageous disco dancing and outlandish costumes, Bobby Farrell cut a striking figure as the sole male member of BoneyM. His distinctive, deep bass voice helped to make memorable such disco hits of the late 1970s as Daddy Cool, Rivers of Babylon, Brown Girl in the Ring, Rasputin and Hooray! Hooray! It's A Holi-Hotiday. At least, most listeners assumed that it was Farrell's voice. Subsequently it emerged that Farrell barely sang in the studio, and the male voice on the group's hit recordings belonged to Frank Farian, the German producer who put Boney M together. Reluctant to appear on stage, Farian employed Farrell to sing on Boney M's live appearances and become the group's central visual focus. Liz Mitchell, one of Boney M's three female members, later explained: "It was understandable because Frank Farian is a white German and the music of Boney M was West Indian, American and African rhythms." Boney M went on to sell more than 80 million records, and the double A- sided single Rivers of Babylon/Brown Girl in the Ring spent 40 weeks on the British chart in 1978 and remains the

Boney M disbanded in 1986 amid legal wrangles between band members