ROME: Claudio Coccoluto, a renowned Italian house music DJ who packed out clubs across Europe in the 1990s, died on Tuesday aged 59, his former employer, Radio Deejay, said.

He died “after having fought for a year against a serious illness,” Radio Deejay wrote on its website. Coccoluto died in his home in Cassino, a town some 130 kilometres (80 miles) south-east of Rome, the broadcaster added. Fellow DJ Gilles Peterson paid tribute on Twitter to a man he described as “an icon of Italian DJ culture... a true gentleman... always curious, always excited to exchange music and always a thrill watching him in action”.

Coccoluto started spinning records at the age of 13 in his father’s house appliances store in Gaeta, a seaside town halfway between Rome and Naples. He was the first European DJ to play at New York’s Sound Factory Bar.—AFP