Joe Brown born 13 May 1941

Born Joseph Roger Brown in Swarby, Lincolnshire, on May 13, 1941, moved to Plaistow, East Londoon at the age of 2. A multi-instrumentalist, Joe plays Guitar, Mandolin, Fiddle, Ukulele and Melodian onstage. His earliest moves were made with the bands such as the Spacemen Skiffle Group in 1956, who played East 

End pubs and Butlins camps and whose exploits are well documented in his first book " Brown Sauce ".

From the day when Jack Good first spotted Joe Brown playing guitar and put him in the Boy Meets Girls show in 1959 probably no-one else ever thought that in 2013 Joe would still be a household name, but the fact is that from those early days of chart success Joe has consolidated and is now one of the major talents on the U.K. scene.

Joe’s early professional musical career included playing guitar with Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and appearing with Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard & Chuck Berry, whilst Brian Epstein who promoted some of Joe's shows in the North West of England in the early days gave the opening slot a few times to a young band which he was then interested in working with called The Beatles.

Joe signed a management agreement with impresario Larry Parnes and signed to Decca Records. He charted with "The Darktown Strutters Ball" in 1960 and had UK Top 10 hits on the Piccadilly label in 1962-63 with "A Picture Of You", "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.

Joe was voted 'Top UK Vocal Personality' in the 1962 NME magazine poll. During the 1960s Brown 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, while he also starred in the hit musical Charlie Girl in the West End between 1965 and 1968, 

 and starred in the musical comedy film Three Hats for Lisa in 1965, alongside Una Stubbs, Sophie Hardy and Sid James . He presented the children's television series, Joe & Co, on BBC Television, three series of The Joe Brown Show for ITV.

In the early seventies he formed the acclaimed "Browns Home Brew" which included his late wife Vicki and Joe Fagin, their music was a mixture of Country Rock and Gospel. The band toured the college and rock Club circuit and had two albums released by Vertigo records.

With a new management deal in 1991\2 events turned almost full circle as Joe began to work again with major American talents, this time under the terms of a new publishing agreement with Warner

Chappell based in Nashville where he now regularly makes trips as part of that deal to write songs for the country market in the U.S.A. and latterly to record his own albums.

Joe lists as the highlight of his career performing at the Albert Hall as part of the Concert For George in November 2002. This very special concert organized by Olivia Harrison and Eric Clapton featured a wealth of talented performers and close friends of George performing his songs and it was a particular honour for Joe to have been asked by Olivia to perform ‘ I’ll See You In My Dreams ’ ( a favourite of George’s and in fact a song which he reintroduced Joe to ) as the closing song to that incredible evening.

At the Mojo magazine's awards in London on 11 June 2009, Joe was presented with the lifetime award for outstanding contribution to music after 51 years' recording. Joe was also appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours for services to music.

 

Unlike many other stars from the sixties who have come back to performing or have reformed their bands now that there is such interest in their music again, Joe has never stopped working, he performs nearly 200 shows a year and has kept his music current throughout. Joe has a very good web site at http://www.joebrown.co.uk , please check it out.