The well-known musician Nicu Covaci (77 years old), founder and leader of the band Phoenix, passed away on Friday evening at the Timişoara County Hospital, following several medical problems recently. The announcement was made by the manager of the hospital, Sandesc Dorel, on his Facebook page, but also on the official Facebook page of Nicu Covaci.
Covaci will be buried in the Heroes’ Cemetery in Timisoara. but the date has not been set yet.
Nicu Covaci’s health problems appeared in March, when the leader of the Phoenix band started to feel that his face was numb. Then his vision began to fail. That’s when he decided to get an MRI, and the results indicated a serious problem.
The diagnosis given by the specialists from the Department of Neurosurgery of the Timisoara County Hospital, led by doctor Horia Pleş, was “expansive intracranial process”. Then, through an intervention that lasted approximately 6 hours, a brain tumor was surgically removed.
The situation worsened later, with his colleagues posting an alarming message on Wednesday announcing that the Phoenix leader’s health is “not looking good at all”. According to them, the postoperative treatment could not be completed due to complications.
Doctor Dorel Săndesc, the doctor from Timișoara County Hospital who treated Nicu Covaci, said that the leader of the band Phoenix suffered from the most aggressive form of brain cancer.
“He suffered from a cruel disease, brain cancer, the most aggressive form of brain cancer that has been discovered here. He was, he was also searched in Spain and Romania and was operated on in our hospital by Professor Horia Pleș. A fairly good period followed, he was improved compared to pre-operatively, he was able to communicate with those around him, but the diagnosis was implacable, the anatomical-pathological form of this cancer showed that the evolution will be irreversibly negative and in a period short time. Despite all the treatments, radiotherapy and so on, which unfortunately was confirmed”, said Săndesc.
“He kept that extraordinary strength, that inner strength even when his body, which was also physically very strong, began to weaken. His strength remained expressed by that look of a lion in the winter, I could say, by the way he communicated with us, by his smiles, by the fact that he appreciated very much that friends came to him, some came and even sang“, the doctor continued.
Covaci’s life and music
Nicu Covaci, born in 1947, in Timisoara. Composer, guitarist, painter and graphic designer, he studied piano, accordion, but also foreign languages - French, German and English. Later, after teaching himself to play the music box, he also took guitar lessons. He followed the German section of the primary school, the Romanian section of the general school, the plastic arts high school and the Institute of Plastic Arts in Timișoara.
Nicu Covaci fled together with most of his bandmates from the communist regime in Romania in 1977 through a spectacular escape that was written about a lot (hidden in a truck). He settled first in Holland, then in Germany and finally in Spain.
The Phoenix band was hugely successful, but in the 70s it had become a rather underground phenomenon, being banned from concerts, television and radio, by communist censorship. Covaci wrote on his personal blog:
“The Phoenix formation was banned in 1974. (…) I realized that it was no longer working and I decided to leave. As soon as I got to Amsterdam, I started walking around the studios to find out how to continue with the band outside. The only solution was to take them out of the country illegally. Desperation pushed me to do this gesture. I put them in the Marshall speakers and started for the border. At night, we arrived in Orşova. The border guards (…) told me to unload the car and proceed to a body search. I told them that my installation is in the car (…). One had climbed onto the box where Tăndărică was and was dangling its legs an inch from his face. In the end they let me go and I started to cross the dam towards the Serbs. (…) When I’m done, the Serbs start to open the car. When they saw so many tools, they slammed the car door and told me to go. I took her up the mountain. (…) The boys came out with daylight and when they asked me where we were, I looked around at the fir trees and the golden clouds at our feet and told them ‘In heaven’”.
Nicu Covaci has had several disagreements with his former bandmates over time, even winning a copyright lawsuit in court. Thus, songs such as “Mugur de fluier”, “Hey, tramvai” or “Fata verde” could no longer be played without the consent of Nicu Covaci. In the same process, Nicu Covaci’s request to receive 400,000 lei as moral damages from his former colleagues Josef Kappl, Mircea Baniciu, Mani Neumann and Radu Almășan was rejected.
Nicu Covaci said then: “I’m not interested in money, I’m interested in not making fun of me and my songs. To leave me alone! Phoenix must remain Phoenix, no funerals, no abortions. I don’t like it when I’m robbed, and besides, I’m also mocked. I will not under any circumstances allow them to play my songs again because they were not honest, they were not fair.”
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