A trip back to the 1960’s today to showcase the music of Joe Brown. As a rock and roll singer and guitarist, he has performed for more than six decades. He was a stage and television performer in the late 1950s and has been a UK recording star since the early 1960s. He has made six films, presented specialist radio series for BBC Radio 2, appeared on the West End stage alongside Dame Anna Neagle and has written an autobiography. In recent years he has again concentrated on recording and performing music, playing two tours of around 100 shows every year and releasing an album almost every year. Described as a “chirpy Cockney”, Brown was one of the original artists managed by the early rock impresario and manager Larry Parnes. He is highly regarded in the music business as a “musician’s musician” who “commands respect and admiration from a wide spectrum of artists”.
In 1956, Brown formed a skiffle group group, The Spacemen, which lasted until the skiffle movement faded towards the end of the 1950s. He worked for British Railways at their Plaistow Locomotive works for two years in the late 1950s, becoming a steam locomotive fireman. He left the job because “the smell of the diesels drove me out when they took over from steam”. In 1958 Brown was spotted by television producer Jack Good who hired him as lead guitarist in the orchestra of his new TV series, Boy Meets Girls. During this period he backed a number of U.S musicians such as Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran on their UK tours.
Brown signed to Decca Records. He charted with “The Darktown Strutters Ball” in 1960, and had UK Top 10 hits in 1962–63 with “A Picture of You”, which reached number two on the NME charts; “It Only Took A Minute”, and “That’s What Love Will Do”. Piccadilly’s release of Brown’s “Crazy Mixed Up Kid” in April 1961 was the label’s first single. Brown’s recording band was a collection of session musicians, and was named the Bruvvers by Jack Good to give Brown the identity of having his own backing band for record releases. It was in 1962 when he needed a band to tour with him that ‘Joe Brown and the Bruvvers’ was cemented, containing two members of the Spacemen, brothers Tony and Pete Oakman, who had also remained with him in the “Boy Meets Girls” band.
Brown was voted ‘Top UK Vocal Personality’ in the 1962 NME magazine poll. During the 1960s he appeared in a number of films, pantomime and stage musicals. In December 1963, the film What a Crazy World, based on a stage play, starring Brown and Marty Wilde among others, had its world premiere in London. Brown also starred in the hit musical Charlie Girl in the West End between 1965 and 1968; and in the musical comedy film Three Hats for Lisa in 1965 with Una Stubbs, Sophie Hardy and Sid James.
In 1972, he formed another band, Brown’s Home Brew, which played rock and roll, country and gospel music and featured his wife, Vicki Brown, and Pete Oakman from the Bruvvers. This eclectic collection of musical styles, together with his hits, became the basis of his live sets ever since. George Harrison was best man at Brown’s second wedding in 2000; Brown had appeared on two songs on Harrison’s album Gone Troppo, and also was featured on a track on Harrison’s last album, Brainwashed. Following Harrison’s death from lung cancer in November 2001, Brown appeared with his group at the tribute concert Concert for George, held on the first anniversary of his passing. Brown demonstrated his versatility by playing guitar whilst singing “Here Comes the Sun”, mandolin on “That’s The Way It Goes,” and ukulele on the closing number, “I’ll See You in My Dreams”.
In 2008, Brown’s 50th anniversary celebrations included a UK gold album for sales over 100,000 copies of Joe Brown – The Very Best Of. His album More of the Truth was released in the UK on 13 October 2008, and in 2009 the US musical instrument manufacturer Kala launched a series of ‘Joe Brown’ ukuleles. At the Mojo magazine’s awards in London on 11 June 2009, Brown was presented with the lifetime award for outstanding contribution to music after 51 years’ recording.
