Manny Charlton: Founding member of rock band Nazareth dies at 80

The guitarist died in Texas on Tuesday at the age of 80.

Charlton spent two decades with the band and also produced several albums.

He was also at the helm of their global hit ‘Love Hurts’ - a track singled out in a tribute from bass player Pete Agnew, the only founding member still with the band.

He wrote: “He was most proud of Love Hurts, one of the best sounding records of all time and one of the songs on his first album as producer.”

Agnew continued: “Manny was there from the beginning.

“We all came up together through the tough times, and through the wonderfully successful years as the band became an internationally acclaimed outfit.

“Not only was he a team player who loved jamming for hours at a time with the band,he was never happier than when sitting in the producer’s chair searching for that special racket he called it, that he was always trying to create.

“We had our ups and downs over the years, but we never once disagreed about the music.”

Charlton was born in Andalusia in southern Spain in 1941, but moved with his family to Scotland as a child.

Together with Agnew, singer Dan McCafferty and drummer, the late Darrell Sweet from Burntisland, he formed Nazareth.

They started out playing covers in the Kinema Ballroom in Dunfermline before breaking out and hitting their stride with a string of hugely successful albums in the 1970s.

Charlton produced their ‘Hair of The Dog’ album in 1974 which went on to sell more than two million copies, thanks largely to their cover of their Everly Brothers’ Love Hurts which became a huge top ten hit.

He remained with the band until 1989, and played on some 17 albums.

He then launched his own solo career which took in around a dozen albums.

Charlton also produced some of the earliest demos made by Guns ‘N’ Roses - and the connections with the US rockers continued as they went on to cover Love Hurts.