Heart disease killed Boney M frontman Farrell

Boney M frontman Bobby Farrell died of heart disease, Russian investigators said on Wednesday, almost a week after the singer was found dead in his hotel room in St. Petersburg. "It was not a suspicious death. Heart disease was the cause," Sergei Kapitanov, representative of St. Petersburg's branch of Russia's investigative committee, said by telephone.

Farrell, 61, was famous for dancing and lip synching for the disco band Boney M, which rose to prominence in Europe, the United States and the Soviet Union with songs like "Rivers of Babylon" and "Rasputin".

He was found dead on December 30 after a performance in the Russian imperial capital -- where Boney M has been popular since it first rose to stardom during the Soviet era.

Boney M was put together by German singer-songwriter Frank Farian who also produced most of the vocals for the group, which stormed to the top of the charts in the late 1970s with a string of disco hits.