{"id":2181137,"date":"2025-11-29T19:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2181137"},"modified":"2025-11-29T19:00:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:00:23","slug":"skyhooks-guitarist-bob-bongo-starkie-dead-at-73-after-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/skyhooks-guitarist-bob-bongo-starkie-dead-at-73-after-cancer-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Skyhooks guitarist Bob ‘Bongo’ Starkie’ dead at 73 after cancer battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bob \u201cBongo\u201d Starkie, the guitarist for the Australian rock band Skyhooks, has died at age 73.<\/p>\n

Skyhooks archivist Peter Green announced Bongo\u2019s passing on the group\u2019s Facebook page on Friday, Nov. 28, noting the rock legend lost his battle with cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s with sadness in our hearts that we have to send out this news that early this morning Bob \u2018Bongo\u2019 Starkie has passed away,\u201d began the post<\/a>. \u201cFor the past year he has fought the brave fight against Leukemia <\/a>hoping to get back on the road to perform more shows. Music was in his blood till the very end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green shed light on how Bongo was the youngest member of the band and how he \u201cembraced the theatrics from striking facial make up to unique stage costumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThe music always came first and touring and playing onstage was his absolute joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bongo\u2019s daughter, Indiana Starkie, also shared a statement regarding her father\u2019s death. \u201cOur Dearest Grand-Daddy-Bop has peacefully departed listening to Chuck Berry<\/a>. Snuggling with his fur baby Bonnie, surrounded by friends and family,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cThank you for all your support, he has felt the love till the very end\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bongo is survived by Indiana and his other daughter, Arabella, grandchildren Phoenix and Lucia, partner Chrissy, and son-in-laws Simon and Chris.<\/p>\n

He was also the last surviving member of Skyhooks.<\/p>\n

Formed in Melbourne in 1973 by Greg Macainsh and Imants Strauks, the Skyhooks originally included Bongo\u2019s brother, Peter Starkie. However, shortly after its formation, Bongo took his brother\u2019s spot as guitarist, and Red Symons joined on guitar and vocals. In 1974, Graeme \u201cShirley\u201d Strachan also joined on vocals. <\/p>\n

The band\u2019s heyday was from 1974 to 1977, when they became one of Australia\u2019s most successful bands of the era. Their debut album, \u201cLiving in the 70\u2019s,\u201d spent 16 weeks at No. 1 in 1975.<\/p>\n

Additionally, their track \u201cYou Just Like Me \u2019Cos I\u2019m Good in Bed\u201d made history as the first song ever played on 2JJ, the original name for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation\u2019s (ABC) youth radio station, in January 1975. Other popular songs from the band include \u201cHorror Movie\u201d and \u201cJukebox in Siberia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skyhooks were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 1992.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.syracuse.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob \u201cBongo\u201d Starkie, the guitarist for the Australian rock band Skyhooks, has died at age 73. Skyhooks archivist Peter Green announced Bongo\u2019s passing on the group\u2019s Facebook page on Friday, Nov. 28, noting the rock legend lost his battle with cancer. \u201cIt\u2019s with sadness in our hearts that we have to send out this news […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[420053,420054,420055],"class_list":["post-2181137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bob-starkie","tag-freddie-strauks","tag-graeme-strachan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2181137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2181138,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181137\/revisions\/2181138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2181137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2181137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2181137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}