Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has paid tribute to one-time member Mark Tulin, who has died.

Tulin, a volunteer for marine medical association USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, died during an underwater clean-up operation on Saturday (February 25), the organisation said.

The 62-year-old rose to fame as the bassist in The Electric Prunes in the 1960s and worked briefly with The Smashing Pumpkins two years ago.

Writing on the Glittercop blog, Corgan said he had last seen Tulin less than 60 hours before his death and said the musician “always be a star”.

He added that, along with his Electric Prunes bandmates, the bassist had “changed the world with their dark musical dreaming, and of course their Anglophile obsessions”.

USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber said attempts to revive Tulin, a trained deep sea diver, had failed on Saturday.

(by Jason Gregory)