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James Chance, key figure in New York’s no wave music scene, dies aged 71

Singer and saxophonist known for confrontational stage persona had experienced ill health for a number of years

“My whole attitude, my own personal style and everything was more out of rock’n roll.” He formed an instrumental quartet called Flaming Youth and – after a meeting with singer and poet Lydia Lunch at punk scene venue CBGB – the band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, whose tiny handful of songs, rarely passing the two-minute mark, had an outsized influence. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Chance’s other band Contortions made up half the acts on No New York, a compilation produced by Brian Eno that is seen as the key document of the scene. Releases became much more sporadic after James White’s Flaming Demonics in 1983, but Chance re-formed the original Contortions lineup for live dates in 2001 and occasionally since, and continued to tour with other backing musicians until 2019.

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