Boney M frontman checks out at 61

Boney M frontman, Bobby Farrell, has died while on tour in Russia.

The BBC reports that the 70s disco star was found dead in a hotel room in St Petersburg, Russia, where he had been performing.

His agent, John Seine, confirmed that Farrell, 61, had complained of breathing problems before and after a gig on Wednesday. But the cause of his death is yet to be determined.

Farrell, who was the only man in the chart-topping group that had hits which included Brown Girl in the Ring, Rivers of Babylon and Rasputin, was due to travel to Rome, Italy, for a television appearance there tomorrow.

He became Boney M's frontman in 1974, after the band was created by German singer and songwriter Frank Farian.

Farrell, who was a Dutch national born in Aruba in 1949, was more of a dancer and performer for the band than a singer. In fact Farian later claimed to have contributed his own vocals to many of the Boney M songs.

Seine described Farrell as "a fantastic person" who was also "quite bizarre".

"He had a big heart but he was explosive," he said. ®

Vocally-challengednote

Farian also produced Milli Vanilli, and confessed in 1990 to getting session singers to record songs for Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. When the scandal broke Milli Vanilli lost their best new artist Grammy after it was revealed that the men had lip-synched on all of the songs.

Pilatus died of a drugs overdose in 1998. But Morvan was recently spotted making a comeback of sorts.