Photograph: Jean-Louis Atlan/Sygma/Getty Images
Victor Willis, who has died aged 74 after suffering from “a short but aggressive illness”, was the lead vocalist of the disco group Village People, and the most instantly memorable member of this most flamboyant of combos. Willis would often perform onstage wearing the uniform of a policeman or a naval officer, while his bandmates dressed as a cowboy, a construction worker, a GI, a leather-clad biker or a Native American chief.
The idea, conceived by the group’s svengalis, Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, was that they would represent a range of American male stereotypes.
