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

In 1968 Joe Cocker had his first and biggest hit with A Little Help From My Friends - what was then, and arguably remains, the greatest ever cover version of a Beatles song. He then performed it live with his band, on a BBC show called How It Is - a kind of forerunner to The Old Grey Whistle Test.It's a fantastic performance, which happens to be captured by studio direction so bold and experimental that it's appropriate to describe as mind-blowing even now. It's astonishing, and must be one of the best pieces of live music footage in the BBC archive. So watch this to fully appreciate why Joe Cocker, who has died at the age of 70, was one of the greatest singers this country has ever produced. And what amazing stuff TV directors were getting up to (and quite possibly taking) in the late Sixties.

Affectionately known as 'Sleazy', Peter was a founder member of experimental art-punk outfit Throbbing Gristle - a band that caused outrage for their on-stage antics, and influenced a generation of post-punk and early electronic bands. He went on to form Coil with longtime partner John Balance - they were arguably pop's first openly gay duo, and Sleazy was a trailblazing campaigner against homophobia. He helped his Throbbing Gristle bandmate Genesis P-Orrige form the similarly influential Psychic TV. Before his musical career, he was an artist, designer and photographer, becoming a partner at Hipgnosis, responsible for some of the most iconic album covers of the 1970s, including Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, and the covers of the first three Peter Gabriel solo albums. He also designed the logo for Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's Kings Road shop SEX, and took the first promo photos of the Sex Pistols. Then he went on to direct over 50 music videos for the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine, The Crystal Method, Filter, Robert Plant, Joseph Arthur, Van Halen, Paul Mccartney, Erasure, The The, Sepultura and The Henry Rollins Band. Sheira Rees-Davies, who represented him in the US, says, "It was a great honour to work with such a kind creative beautiful soul for so many years." Sleazy recently reformed Throbbing Gristle with fellow founder members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, and the band started performing again. More projects were planned at the time of his death. Chris and Cosey's released an obituary through record label Mute which outlined his impressively creative career and ended with the words: "Peter was a kind and beautiful soul. No words can express how much he will be missed." Read the full obituary at thequietus.com. There is a book of condolences, where letters can be left at www.unklesleazy.tv .