Kate Bush has paid a touching tribute to her late bassist and friend, John Giblin.

The pair worked together for several years, beginning with the pair of 1980 hits ‘Babooshka’ and ‘Breathing'.

John - who also performed and recorded with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, and Annie Lennox - sadly passed away aged 71 on May 14, "after battling illness", his collaborators in the band Osibisa confirmed in a social media statement.

And 64-year-old singer recalled having "huge amounts of fun working with the gifted musician.

In a post on her website, Kate shared: “Everyone loved John. He was a really beautiful man in every sense of the word. Everybody wanted to work with him because he was such a great talent and everyone wanted to be his friend because he was such a wonderful person.

“I loved John so very much. He was one of my very dearest and closest friends for over forty years. We were always there for each other. He was very special. I loved working with him, not just because he was such an extraordinary musician but because he was always huge amounts of fun.”

She went on: “We would often laugh so much that we had to just give in to it and sit and roar with laughter for a while. He loved to be pushed in a musical context, and it was really exciting to feel him cross that line and find incredibly gorgeous musical phrases that were only there for him. He would really sing. It was such a joy and an inspiration to see where he could take it.

“We’ve all lost a great man, an unmatchable musician and I’ve lost my very special friend. My world will never be the same again without him. Kate.”

John took over from Derek Forbes as bass player in Simple Minds in 1985, and appeared on three of the 'Don’t You (Forget About Me)' group's albums.

Meanwhile, Kate is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Brooklyn, New York on November 3.