Shock as prominent Bay musician has heart attack

One of the Bay's leading musicians is in hospital following a heart attack - and suggests his unhealthy lifestyle may be partly to blame.
Kokomo band leader Derek Jacombs underwent surgery in Hamilton yesterday after experiencing warning signs of a heart attack last Thursday.
Mr Jacombs, a co-director of the Montana National Jazz Festival, was due to return to Tauranga today.
The singer, songwriter and guitarist, who is in his early 40s, was hospitalised in Tauranga when symptoms he had noticed for a few days worsened before being transferred to Waikato.
The band were forced to pull out of a show last Friday at Villagrad Winery in Hamilton, where they were due to perform alongside award-winning singer Paul Ubana Jones. They have since cancelled all other shows for the indefinite future, including the Queen's Birthday jazz weekend in Manawatu.
The illness has shocked fellow band members Grant and Sonia Bullot and Nigel Masters, as well as Colin Lunt, co-director of the jazz festival held in Tauranga last month.
"It bowled us over," Mrs Bullot said today. "It was the last thing we expected to hear - he's not a big man."
She blamed the "musicians' lifestyle" for the attack.
"We tend to go on the road finding a meal wherever and whenever we can. The whole band smokes cigarettes - it has made me wonder."
She said Mr Jacombs was having his arteries widened today.
In a statement issued yesterday, Mr Jacombs said the symptoms had been niggling at him for several days before he took any action.
"It came as a bit of a surprise to me," he said. "I had been feeling some really uncomfortable sensations in my left arm and chest for a couple of days but I probably wouldn't have even gone to my doctor if I hadn't, coincidentally, been driving past his surgery. Now I'm very glad that I did.
"Like everyone, I still think of myself as too young to have problems like this but I guess none of us is bullet proof."
He said he was disappointed to have to cancel gigs and that he would not be able to take part in the nationwide launch this week of the new album RustySwingFeel that Nigel Masters (Kokomo's bass player) and he had recorded as The Self-Righteous Brothers.
"We've already had a rave review in New Zealand Musician and it's listed as the feature album of the month for May on an American website but I guess all I can do right now is lie back and leave it to the record company," he said.
Mr Jacombs is also the artistic director of the Montana National Jazz Festival but, despite what seems like a full slate of commitments, he doesn't think that he has been overdoing things.
"I guess it has been fairly busy," he said, "especially with the jazz festival having just finished but if I had to blame this on anything I'd put it down to the rather unhealthy lifestyle I lead - a bit too much junk food and a whole pile too many cigarettes.
"That's the first thing that's gone. As soon as I found out how serious this was, I became a non-smoker on the spot. I've smoked my last cigarette and, you know, I already feel better, after even a few days without them."
Mr Lunt felt the effort required to bring together the Montana jazz festival could have played a part in Mr Jacombs' illness.
"Whatever Derek might say, he does put a huge effort as a volunteer into the jazz festival - for that we must be very grateful," Mr Lunt said.
"He is primarily responsible for artistic selection and programming, which is very demanding, highly time consuming and a huge responsibility. We all wish him a full recovery."