Jeff Baynes, a significant figure in the early days of British music videos as cameraman, DoP and director, has died at the age of 75 following a long illness.

Jeff was the cameraman on the early music videos for Madness at the end of the 1970s and early 80s, from their 1979 hit Baggy Trousers onwards, and their feature film Take It Or Leave It (1981), all directed by Stiff Records label boss Dave Robinson. He was also the cameraman on videos directed by Russell Mulcahy, including The Buggies’ Video Killed The Radio Star in 1979 - which became the first video broadcast on MTV when it launched in the US in August 1981.

At a time when music videos were mainly shot on video, Jeff pioneered the use of film cameras often used in documentary filmmaking to shoot music videos. By that time he had already garnered significant experience in documentaries, as a camera assistant to Chris Morphet and Nic Knowland. In 1979, he assisted Knowland on the film Rhythms Of Resistance, a film about South African musicians directed by Jeremy Marre which helped inspire Paul Simon to work with many of the same musicians on his Graceland album.

Jeff joined Tattooist International, based in Camden Town, which was part owned by Nic Knowland, a hub for budding cinematographers when music video production took off at the beginning of the 1980s. Not long afterwards he began directing videos himself, for the likes of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, The Vapours, Gary Numan and The Special AKA (previously The Specials). He also continued to work as a cameraman, including a The Comic Strip Presents… episode directed by Stephen Frears.

Jeff Baynes’ music video directing credits in the 1980s also includes the live action section of The Housemartins’ Happy Hour and several other videos for the band, including Caravan Of Love; The La’s There She Goes; The Pogues’ Dirty Old Town and videos for Debbie Harry, World Party and The Beautiful South. And also for bands launched by Madness members such as Crunch and Butterfield 8. He largely moved away from videos in the Nineties and Noughties, into TV documentaries and drama, while still directing videos for M-People, Billy Bragg and others.

More recently Jeff returned to music and Madness, directing One Man's Madness, a documentary about the band’s saxophonist Lee Thompson, released in 2018.

Madness guitarist Chris Foreman paid tribute to Jeff on Instagram: “We first met Jeff when we were filming the Baggy Trousers video. He did the opening shot across the polished wooden floor of Islip Street school. I clearly remember him running along with his heavy camera practically touching the floor. He was great fun and always had loads of good ideas.

“He worked on Take it Or Leave It, our feature film and I learnt a lot from him about lenses, lighting, what depth of field was, editing and filmmaking in general. He was a very knowledgeable man with a great sense of humour.

"He made a hilarious film with Lee called One Man's Madness and filmed a lot of the band's interviews in his house. Goodbye Jeff and thanks for all the films you leave behind and being such a nice guy.”

• More on Jeff Baynes' career on his website here