{"id":31284,"date":"2026-01-14T01:28:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/?p=31284"},"modified":"2026-01-14T01:28:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:28:55","slug":"eighties-musician-paul-hardcastle-whose-hit-song-the-wizard-was-the-top-of-the-pops-theme-tune-reveals-his-son-has-tragically-died-in-a-motorcycle-accident-aged-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/?p=31284","title":{"rendered":"Eighties musician Paul Hardcastle whose hit song The Wizard was the Top of the Pops theme tune reveals his son has tragically died in a motorcycle accident aged 35"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Eighties music legend Paul Hardcastle has announced the tragic death of his son, Paul Hardcastle Jr, who died at the age of 35 following a fatal motorcycle accident. The 68-year-old singer, composer, and producer shared the heartbreaking news on Instagram, posting a childhood photo alongside a short message: \u201cJust to let you know that my super talented son Paul Hardcastle Jnr was in a fatal motorcycle accident earlier and has sadly died. RIP son love Dad.\u201d Paul Jr followed in his father\u2019s musical footsteps, earning recognition as a DJ and saxophonist. He appeared on his father\u2019s 2008 album <em>Hardcastle 5<\/em> and later worked on <em>Hardcastle X<\/em> in 2022. His debut single <em>Touch and Go<\/em>, produced by his father in 2010, reached number one on the USA Billboard Jazz Chart, marking a promising career cut short far too soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul Hardcastle Sr is best known for his 1985 hit <em>19<\/em> and for composing <em>The Wizard<\/em>, the iconic theme for BBC\u2019s <em>Top of the Pops<\/em>. Friends and fans, including James Argent and Hayley Palmer, shared emotional tributes online. The tragedy is made even more poignant by the fact that Paul Sr once survived a serious motorcycle accident himself, spending months in hospital as a young man. Now, he mourns the loss of a son who not only shared his talent, but also his passion for music \u2014 leaving behind a legacy of sound, memory, and love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eighties music legend Paul Hardcastle has announced the tragic death of his son, Paul Hardcastle Jr, who died at the age of 35 following a fatal motorcycle&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":282,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31286,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31284\/revisions\/31286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}