LONDON (AP) — Mark E. Smith, lead singer and driving force of British post-punk band The Fall, has died at the age of 60.

The band's manager, Pam Van Damned, says Smith died at his home on Wednesday. The cause of death wasn't immediately available.

Smith formed The Fall when punk hit 1970s Manchester, and the gray industrial English city sprouted innovative bands including Joy Division and The Buzzcocks.

Famously curmudgeonly, Smith kept The Fall going for four decades, and was its only permanent member.

Spiky, unpredictable and poetic, the band was never a huge commercial success but had a big influence on other artists.

"Babydriver" director Edgar Wright tweeted that Smith was "not merely a legend of indie music but someone who, for me, was a gateway into that very genre."