Key Takeaways
- Derran “Derry” Brownson, founding keyboardist of EMF and a driving force behind their 1990 smash “Unbelievable,” has died at 55 after being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.
- Brownson kept performing after surgery and his 2025 brain cancer diagnosis, playing emotional hometown sets like Cindyfest in Cinderford and a final show in Frome while praising the NHS for going “above and beyond.”
- Remembered by bandmate Ian Dench as someone who embodied a “lust for life,” Brownson helped shape EMF’s genre-blending sound, remained central to their reunion albums Go Go Sapiens and The Beauty and the Chaos, and was known offstage for his sensitivity and love of hedgehogs near his Devon home.
Derran “Derry” Brownson, the founding EMF keyboardist who helped launch “Unbelievable” from England’s underground dance scene to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, has died. He was 55. The band announced that Brownson died Thursday, August 13, after being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.
According to the BBC, Brownson revealed his diagnosis in July 2025, after undergoing surgery to remove part of the tumor. He continued performing as his health allowed, including a deeply personal homecoming show at Cindyfest in Cinderford, England, where EMF formed in 1989. Brownson played several more dates before making his final stage appearance in Frome this past May.
His EMF bandmate Ian Dench remembered him as the kind of person whose energy could take over a room. “I can’t think of anyone who embodied lust for life like Derry did,” Dench told the BBC. “He was beautiful inside out.”
Dench said Brownson was still firing off jokes in text messages only weeks before his death.
That energy was embedded in EMF from the beginning. Brownson joined James Atkin, Zac Foley, Mark Decloedt and DJ Milf in the original lineup, with Dench arriving last. Together, they fused indie-rock guitars, rave beats, hip-hop samples and pop hooks at the exact moment British club culture was breaking into the mainstream.
Then came “Unbelievable.”
Released in October 1990, the song was a jolt of distorted guitar, dance-floor percussion and sharply cut vocal samples—including Andrew Dice Clay’s unmistakable “Oh!” and “It’s unbelievable!”
It reached No. 3 in the United Kingdom before hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1991.
“Unbelievable” also landed in the top 10 across Europe and earned gold certifications in the United States, Canada and Australia.
More than three decades later, it remains a fixture of ’90s playlists, sports arenas and pop-culture throwbacks.
The song powered EMF’s debut album, Schubert Dip, to No. 3 on the U.K. Albums Chart and turned a young band from the Forest of Dean into an international act almost overnight. EMF released two more albums during its original run before splitting in 1997, then regrouped multiple times over the following decades.
The band’s 2022 album, Go Go Sapiens, marked its first collection of new material in 27 years. The Beauty and the Chaos followed in 2024.
Brownson remained part of that comeback even after his diagnosis. Speaking before the 2025 Cinderford show, he praised Britain’s National Health Service for care that went “absolutely above and beyond” and made clear how much returning to the stage mattered.
“It’s just a battle really,” he said. “I want to get back into playing.”
That hometown performance became an especially meaningful full-circle moment. EMF was also honored with a blue plaque in Cinderford in 2025, while the BBC revisited the band’s rise in the documentary EMF—The Unbelievable Journey.
Dench said Brownson’s loudest stories never told the whole story: Away from the stage, he had a sensitive side and cared for hedgehogs near his Devon home.
