Wednesday morning Feb. 15 2006. I decide to check out Choice FM’s website. The front page announces the death of Lynden David Hall (LDH). I know he had been battling with a rare form of cancer known as Hodgkin’s Lymphoma disease for the last couple of years. But it can’t be – I’ve been listening to ‘urban music’ stations Choice FM and 1Xtra, and there’s been no such announcement on air. I hit the web search engines – no luck. Could choicefm.com have jump the gun, I wonder.

I’ve got a webradio show at 2pm. If LDH’s death is fact, then I need to know to pass it on. He is/was an important part of the British black music sector. It occurs to me to contact New Nation’s showbiz columnist Akosua Annobil-Dodoo. Regrettably she confirms the news. So how come the news isn’t widespread, I ask. She tells me she had spoken to LDH’s family, who confirmed the news, but needed time before going public. At 2pm, when I start my show, the superhighway is still not burning with the news, I debate with myself whether or not to make the announcement. Much later into the show, I play LDH tracks and make the announcement.

Late evening, I get a call from a Standard journalist desperate for quotes and contact details for artists like Beverley Knight, Courtney Pine, Shola Ama, etc. One obliges. Still nothing on the TV news, not even the local bulletins. Worse still, when I buy Thursday’s Standard, there's not even a little mention of LDH. They could have at least added something to the Brit Awards coverage, seeing that LDH was a former Brit Award nominee, for best male artist. The only good news, I hear later, is that before the televisions went on, the Brit Awards gathering in Earls Court were informed of LDH’s passing.

The slowness of, and the lack of, coverage in the mainstream media of LDH’s death, demonstrates the lack of interest the music industry generally has towards British black music. It perfectly underscored the themes discussed at the last Black Music Congress debate. The only good, or sorts, that came up was an Oxford medical doctor, and a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma sufferer in remission, pointed out a sentence that needed clarification and also added to our LDH One Wish feature.

I'm still taking in the news that a bright star of British R&B/soul is no more. LDH succumbed on Tuesday Feb. 14, aged just 31 years old. This south Londoner was one of the first BRIT School intakes. His first manager was veteran industyite Tony Hall (ex-Loose Ends manager), who helped him clinch a recording contract with Cooltempo.

Although there was a good buzz on his first single and it came out in at a time when classic nu-soul was on the absence, ‘Sexy Cinderella’, only made no. 45 in 1997. The follow up ‘Do I Qualify’ did better, lodging at no. 26. Emboldened by this, and supported with new remixes, a year later, ‘Sexy Cinderella’ made it to no. 17, LDH’s best chart position. These tracks came from his impressive debut album ‘Medicine 4 My Pain’, which he wrote, performed, and co-produced.

He won the MOBO Awards 1998 best newcomer gong, and garnered a Brit Awards 1999 best male nominations. Curiously, although his follow up album ‘The Other Side’ got a higher placing at no. 36, his debut finds greater affection among most fans. His sophomore set did deliver a no. 30 hit with the soulful ‘Forgive Me’, whilst ‘Sleeping With Victor’ only reached no. 49 in spite to the extra publicity it received in the press for its perceived sexual theme.

Unbelievably, Lynden was dropped in the new millennium. He did various gigs, like featuring on a Courtney Pine track or performing as a wedding singer in the Hugh Grant-starring film ‘Love Actually’. He also signed to Bristol indie label Random Records, on which he delivered a strong but under-rated third album ‘In Between Jobs’, last year. He also released the superb double-header single ‘Day Off/Stay Faithful’, which got nowhere, possibly because inadequate marketing by the small label.

Cruelly, not recognising some of the effects of early stages of the Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diseases, his wobbly performances or missing gigs, was said to be the result of drunkenness. One of LHD’s last wishes was to raise funds for, and awareness of, the Hodgkin’s Lymphoma disease. Last November, the cream of his peers, such helped realise that wish by performing Lynden’s Wish concert at London’s Jazz Café.

My wish is that Lynden’s death gets people to (re-)discover his music. One does not expect a big hit from some hastily released record. But we can all play his music and re-valuate his talent. If you don’t have copies, or they aren’t on hand, you can listen to samples from hmv.co.uk. My view is that he was a superb singer-songwriter who did not realise his potential. He deserved to be an international superstar. It just wasn’t meant to be, because I’m sure with an experienced and well-respected manager in Tony Hall, Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson as his Cooltempo/EMI A&R, and a major label behind his first two albums, it just did not happen, because it was not meant to be.

My lasting impression of LDH is that of a talented and handsome young man, who for a while could not be seen without his long leather coat. Though he could charm people with his talent on stage, off stage, he seemed either shy or a bit uncomfortable. RIP