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The family of Liverpool musician and record company founder Alan Wills have appealed for anyone with information about his death to come forward after a coroner concluded he lost control of his bicycle “for an unknown reason”.

Mr Wills, 52, died after falling from his bike on East Prescot Road, Page Moss, in May.

An inquest into his death was held today.

Recording a narrative verdict, deputy Liverpool coroner Anita Bhardwaj said: “In the absence of any other evidence it is more likely than not the deceased lost control of his cycle for an unknown reason and he fell, hitting his head on the kerb, resulting in fatal head injuries.”

Constable Alisdair Bowden from Merseyside Police conducted an investigation into the incident and concluded Mr Wills had fallen from his bike after mounting the kerb at the side of the road.

He said: “What is not clear is why the pedal cycle may have mounted the kerb.”

CCTV footage taken near the scene showed a car near Mr Wills before he came off his bicycle.

Constable Bowden said in his opinion the car would have passed Mr Wills before the incident but that it was not possible to say for definite this was the case.

The hearing was told a police car on patrol had spotted Mr Wills lying at the side of the road following the incident and had stopped to see what had happened.

The inquest heard a witness, Luke Davies, had come forward to confirm he had seen the police car stop at the side of East Prescot Road next to the fallen cyclist.

An examination of Mr Wills’ bicycle following the incident found it was “not highly maintained but that there was no obvious signs of component failure”.

Dr Brett Lockyer, a pathologist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, conducted a post mortem examination into the death of Mr Wills, who died in hospital three days after falling from his bicycle.

He told the hearing there was no evidence of drugs, alcohol or natural disease in the musician’s body and said there was no significant injuries which would suggest he was struck by another vehicle.

He said: “The most significant injuries I found from the post mortem...would suggest that the cause of death was due to traumatic head injury.

“It is more than likely that the incident took him by surprise.”

Dr Lockyer added: “I think even if he was wearing a helmet it wouldn’t have lessened the injuries to his brain.”

Speaking to the ECHO after the inquest Ann Heston-Wills, Mr Wills’ partner, said: “If there’s any information anyone had please come forward.”

She added: “We want to thank everyone who’s supported us and sent lovely tributes. We’re missing him lots.”

Mr Wills was one of the city’s best loved musicians and champions of new music, creating the record label Deltasonic to give young bands a voice.

He put together his label initially to help the Coral, releasing their six albums.

Mr Wills went on to sign some of the biggest and most influential bands to come out of Merseyside in a generation, including the Zutons, The Dead 60’s, The Little Flames, The Rascals, The Basement, Candie Payne, The Longcut and The Suzukis, The Sand Band, The Tigerpicks and The Dirty Rivers.

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