Cha Burns (20 March 1957 – 26 March 2007) was the guitarist for

Fingerprintz The Silencers are a Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1986 by Jimme O'Neill and Cha Burns, two ex-members of the post-punk outfit Fingerprintz. Their music is characterised by a melodic blend of pop, folk music, folk and tradi ...

and the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

band, The Silencers and live guitarist for

Adam Ant Stuart Leslie Goddard (born 3 November 1954), known professionally as Adam Ant, is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK ...

Biography

Born Charles Burns, in

Coatbridge Coatbridge (, ) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as the Monklands (popula ...

, Lanarkshire, in 1957, Burns became a guitarist on the London punk and new wave scene of the mid 1970s. As well as forming

with fellow

local

Jimme O'Neill Jimme O'Neill is a Scottish singer and guitarist who has been the lead singer of Scottish rock band The Silencers since 1984. Having started his musical career with Cha Burns in Fingerprintz in the new wave music scene, they joined Martin Hanli ...

, Burns played guitar in

's backing band during 1982–1984 together with Fingerprintz drummer Bogdan Wiczling. Fingerprintz were recognised in retrospect as influential, but failed to gain any real commercial success in the UK.''The Herald'' (UK) feature article on Burns
In 1985, Burns and Jimme O'Neill formed The Silencers, although Burns's health became an issue during the recording of the first album, after he suffered a

brain hemorrhage The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

. Burns was back in the studio recording six weeks later despite the fact that he was still re-learning how to read. The Silencers received critical comparisons to

Simple Minds Simple Minds are a Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977, becoming best known internationally for their song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Billboard Hot 100, Hot 100 ...

and U2. A high point for the band was a support slot on a Squeeze tour which culminated in a gig at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. The Silencers had a European hit with "Bulletproof Heart". However the single, written by O'Neill in the Fingerprintz days and was about the Irish Troubles, did not receive much airplay in UK. During the late 1980s, The Silencers opened for

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

and U2 as well as touring for 4 months with Simple Minds. Despite modest success in the UK, The Silencers had an almost fanatical following in mainland Europe, especially France and Spain. In more recent years the band were best known for supplying the theme music of a popular advertising campaign for VisitScotland. Burns was once described by fellow band member Jimme O'Neill as ''"a dark, smouldering presence, rocking slowly back and forwards on his heels, caressing jagged, bittersweet melodies from his black Les Paul."'' After five albums, Burns left The Silencers in 2000, rarely playing on-stage again. After two years in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Burns moved to

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in late 2006 and had unsuccessful courses of treatment. Reportedly a keen environmentalist whose motto was "Planet Before Profit", he was keen to try metabolic therapy, a controversial alternative treatment not available on the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

, which uses natural methods including diet to boost the immune system. Ex-bandmate Jinky Gilmour aka JJ Gilmour organised a benefit concert for Burns at the ABC in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in February. Despite Burns's claiming he was the "forgotten man of Scottish rock", the 1,500 capacity venue sold out. The date was planned six weeks after his last course of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

. On that night Burns had regained enough strength to play with original band members and those from subsequent line-ups.

Death

Burns died from lung cancer on 26 March 2007, aged 50, in

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Cha Scottish rock guitarists Scottish male guitarists People from Coatbridge 1957 births 2007 deaths Deaths from lung cancer in Wales 20th-century British guitarists 20th-century British male musicians The Silencers (band) members