English rocker Jon Lord, who founded the band Deep Purple and co-wrote their most famous song, Smoke On The Water, has died aged 71.
The Leicester-born keyboard player, who had pancreatic cancer, died in London on Monday.
Lord was diagnosed with a tumour in his pancreas in 2011 and he headed to Israel in February to undergo specialist treatment.
Lord was due to make his live comeback at a show in Hagen, Germany earlier this month, but had to postpone the gig due to poor health.
A statement on his website said he had passed "from Darkness to Light" and was "surrounded by his loving family" when he died.
Last year, Lord told fans he was "fighting cancer and will therefore be taking a break from performing while getting the treatment and cure".
In a message on his website dated August 9, 2011, he added: "I shall of course be continuing to write music - in my world it just has to be part of the therapy - and I fully expect to be back in good shape next year."
Lord started playing the piano in his family home and took classical music lessons before turning to jazz and rock 'n' roll.
He moved to London at 19 to go to drama school, but was soon playing piano in pubs and bars and in 1964 joined cult blues band the Artwoods - formed by Ronnie Wood's brother Art.
The band were critical favourites but never translated that into commercial success and split up.
Lord then went on tour with manufactured psychedelic pop combo The Flowerpot Men, who had scored a hit with Let's Go To San Francisco, before joining Deep Purple in 1968.
The heavy rockers sold more than 100 million albums - many featuring Lord's classically inspired keyboards.
But their most famous song was the simple Smoke On The Water with its trademark riff.
The band split in 1976 and Lord joined bandmate Ian Paice in Paice Ashton Lord before playing with Whitesnake and a reformed Deep Purple.
Take a look at pictures of the band and their performances since the 1960s below.