Producerobit: Steve Raitt

Musician and sound engineer Steve Raitt has died after a long illness.

Raitt played with the TC Jammers; sang back-up for his sister Bonnie Raitt; and produced records for Ipso Facto, amongst others. He was a well-liked and well-respected engineer for live bands playing Minneapolis - St Pauls.

Diagnosed with brain cancer in 2001, he wasn't expected to live past six months, but a positive attitude and careful diet helped. As Bonnie explained to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, though, a second tumour proved more difficult to beat:

"While we are very sad that he lost his valiant eight-year battle, we are relieved to know his struggle is over and that he's now truly free," Bonnie Raitt said in an e-mail Sunday. "Since last summer, he was fighting paralysis on his left side and then blindness since the holidays -- all due to a second tumor diagnosed last summer.

"I was closer to Steve than anyone in my life so you can imagine how I'm feeling.

"We've been showered with calls and messages since we shared the sad news and I'm so incredibly moved by the impact he had on so many lives."

Raitt was 61; he died on Saturday.

A lot of good work for charidee

Let's just preempt the comments box and say: Yes, we know Annie Lennox's Band Aid style single is in a good cause and, yes, it will raise a bit of money.

However, wouldn't it be better all round if Shakira, Joss Stone, Dido, Celine Dion, Pink, Fergie, Gladys Knight, Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge, KT Tunstall and Madonna all released a proper single - one that they might have released anyway - and gave the money from that to Nelson Mandela's 46664 Aids charity instead? Wouldn't that raise more money and, indeed, mean that the artists involved could feel a sense of actually contributing to the cause by redirecting some of their royalties, rather than just spending an hour or so making a record that nobody would really want for its own merits?