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Updated 5.49am
ICONIC MUSICIAN AND singer Tom Petty has died.
He was 66.
After initially being reported by US media as having died, before later reports said he was “clinging to life”, the news that Petty had died following a cardiac arrest was confirmed in the early hours this morning.
“He died peacefully at 20:40 Pacific time (03:40 GMT Tuesday) surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends,” said his long-time manager Tony Dimitriades.
The Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers frontman was rushed to hospital on Sunday, after he was found unresponsive and in full cardiac arrest.
News of Petty’s death was first reported by CBS News, which quoted the Los Angeles Police Department.
The news was also reported by Variety, quoting an unnamed source.
The LAPD then, however, tweeted that this information was “inadvertently provided to some media sources”.
An ambulance rushed to his home in Malibu, California, and he was taken to UCLA Santa Monica Hospital, TMZ reports. That outlet also reported that he had been taken off life support.
Petty had just finished up a 40th anniversary tour with his band last month, playing three concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. Variety reported that he had been due to play two dates in New York this November, while a number of shows had been called off due to laryngitis.
He told Rolling Stone that the tour would be his “last trip around the country”, but said that he was unlikely to quit performing altogether.
Born in Florida on 20 October 1950, Petty got an international audience when his band the Heartbreakers made it big with their 1979 album Damn The Torpedoes.
The group would eventually go on to have eight top-10 albums over their career, with their 1993 Greatest Hits album selling in excess of 10 million copies.
In 2002, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Petty also was a co-founder of supergroup the Travelling Wilburys alongside George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne and Bob Dylan.
Over the course of his career, Petty sold millions of albums and became iconic for hits such as Won’t Back Down, Free Fallin’ and You Don’t Know How It Feels.
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For the love of god please not Alan Hughes!!!
Won’t somebody please think of the children
I’d say you’ve guessed it Alan Hughes god spare us anyone for more cheese
Brush Shiels. Or Sil Fox with the odd mother in law joke.
My mother is law is odd, he can joke about her
It will be Alan ‘showbiz’ Hughes… Ta Daaa!!!!
Lol, couldn’t agree more. Like so many on this awful station he is talentless. Amazed but sceptical so many watched their first attempt and for that matter this station is still going.
Oh the Dublin accent that comes out of him makes me want to stab my eardrums with a rusty ice pick.
Late late toy show used to be an integral part of Christmas in my house. Apart from being jealous of the kids on the show and resenting the bille Barry kids it was great. I dont know if TV3 will ever match it but at least the kids get two shows to look at and the parents get twice as much tormenting and it will start a week earlier too. :)
Its the ps santa I forgot to ask for…….
Two words for you ” Santa notebook” ! It’s merely a normal notebook covered in christmas paper and glitter with the child’s name on it . It arrives towards the end of November complete with packets of stars and black dots . The excitement if the kids finding them in the hall in the morning is totally unreal . Only don’t do it on a school morning as they will be extremely hyper lol. After that you have five or even six weeks of the best behaved kids in the world. Desperately trying to get stars in their notebook. The amount iof overall stars decides what Santa gives and of course the overall amount of black marks too. Try it ! It’s bliss lol I ended up having to make them for extended family and work mates for their kids. I could have gone into business at one point lol .
Thats a great idea! I defo think santa will be sending them out this year. My lot have a lot of sympathy for santa so they cut of the pictures of what they want and pritstick them to their letter just so there can be no confusion
That’s very clever and hilarious lol I will get my son to do that this year. Loves Santa but has an intellectual disability and can’t read or write . Thanks for the tip Sam! !
Catherine Sims, that’s genius! I think I’ll start mine now! (First mark will be a black one each for drawing on the (brand new) carpet last night with the contents of my makeup bag).
Thank you!
Omg Denise poor you. Mind you I had a goth teenager tramp up the stairs in her very muddy nurocks boots two hours after the carpet had been fitted so I feel your pain lol
Christ – the rip! You’d be fit to be tied sometimes.
Brings me back to a giant black drawn smiley face on cream carpet
Haha imagine it’s Vincent Browne “Tell me why does it work like this ?!”
I want the government to scrap Alan Hughes in next weeks budget.
Why is TV3 still a television channel? Why is it still relevant??
Was it ever relevant?
Wait a second, they’re taking on the Late Late Toy Show by NOT going head to head with it? How daring of them.
You can’t buy tradition
I suppose TV3′s toy show will be something along the lines of ‘Terror Toys – the games that Kill’, or ‘Prisoners Play – Bringing Joy to the Joy’.
I feel like they should hire you.
Wouldn’t mind it being Georgia salpa… She’d look alright in a Santa suit
No doubt it’ll be that talentless idiot Alan Hughes who’ll be presenting it… How does he get away with it?? It was cringeworthy last year.
Frankly, who gives a shit?
Sure what does it matter?
2 nights for the kids instead of one.
I’m sure they dont give a hoot who presents it or what station it is on as long as they have loads of goodies and dont have to go to bed early.
They’ll be taking on Love/Hate next year.
“Adore/Abhor” – Upperclass D4 crime lords with excellent vocabulary skills.
Begun the Toy Show Wars has…
Would rather see resources put on some fresh content for a change, Irish TV just seems to endlessly copy each other or the British with very few new ideas.
j. Get that dumb grin off your mush
I hope it’s Vincent Browne. grilling some young lad on a bike. “Step up to what plate?? What???”
Ah shite
I say fair play to tv 3 a little bit of competition never hurt anyone …A new fresh face would be nice as a presenter …… enjoy kids
My Big Fat Gypsy Toy Show
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