Arthur Brown (born Arthur Wilton Brown on 24 June 1942) is an English rock and roll musician best known for his flamboyant, theatrical style and significant influence on Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel,, George Clinton, Kiss, King Diamond, and Bruce Dickinson, among others, and for his number one hit in the UK Singles Chart and Canada, "Fire" in 1968..
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After attending Roundhay Grammar School in Leeds, Brown attended the University of London and the University of Reading and studied philosophy and law, but he gravitated to music instead, forming his first band Blues and Brown while at Reading. After a spell fronting a number of bands in London, Brown then moved to Paris in 1966, where he worked on his theatrical skills. During this period he recorded two songs for the Roger Vadim film of the Emile Zola novel La Curee. Returning to London around the turn of late 1966 to early 1967 he was a temporary member of a London-based R&B/Soul/Ska group The Ramong Sound that would soon become the hit making soul group The Foundations.
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The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
By the time the Foundations had been signed to Pye Records Brown had left the group to form his own band, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. The band included Vincent Crane (Hammond organ and piano), Drachen Theaker (drums), and Nick Greenwood (bass).Brown quickly earned a reputation for outlandish performances, which included the use of a burning metal helmet that led to occasional mishaps, such as during an early appearance at the Windsor Festival in 1967, where he wore a colander on his head soaked in methanol. The fuel poured over his head by accident and caught fire; two bystanders doused the flames by pouring beer on Brown’s head, preventing any serious injury.The flaming head then became an Arthur Brown signature. On occasion he also stripped naked while performing, most notably in Italy, where, after setting his hair on fire as usual, he was arrested and thrown out of the country. He was also notable for the extreme make-up he wore onstage, which would later be reflected in the stage acts of the aforementioned Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson and Kiss.
By 1968, the debut album, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown became a surprise hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Produced by The Who's manager Kit Lambert, and executive-produced by Pete Townshend on Track Records, the label begun by Lambert and Chris Stamp, it spun off an equally surprising hit single, "Fire", and contained a version of "I Put a Spell on You" by Screaming Jay Hawkins, a similarly bizarre showman. "Fire" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.The song has since seen its infamous opening line "I am the God of Hellfire" sampled in numerous other places, most notably in The Prodigy's 1992 rave anthem "Fire".
Brown's incendiary stage act sometimes caused trouble, even getting him kicked off a tour with Jimi Hendrix. On one tour, Brown waited until sunset when his band was playing, and then he had a winch lower him onto the middle of the stage from above, wearing a suit and helmet welded from sheet metal. Parts of the suit were completely lit in lighter fluid and sparklers. In due course, Brown created a perception that he was always on the verge of setting fire to the stage, leading some concert organizers to demand he post a bond with them if he could not show he was adequately insured against uncontrollable fire and fire damages.
Theaker was replaced by Carl Palmer, later of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, during the band's second American tour, on which Vincent Crane also left - although he soon returned. However, Crane and Palmer eventually left in 1969 to form Atomic Rooster, spelling the end for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown..
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Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come
Though Brown never released another recording as commercially successful as "Fire," he did release three albums with his new band Kingdom Come in the early 1970s.The Kingdom Come albums featured a wild mix of progressive rock and demented theatrics, and the accompanying live shows caused some controversy over Brown's simulated crucifixion and accompanying hypodermic syringe motifs.The third and final Kingdom Come album, Journey, is noteworthy for being one of the first (if not the first) rock albums to feature a drum machine, especially on the track "Time Captives".-
Later career
In later years, Brown released several solo albums and also contributed vocals to the song "The Tell-Tale Heart" on the Poe-based concept album Tales of Mystery and Imagination by The Alan Parsons Project. In 1975 he had a small but meaningful part in The Who's rock opera movie Tommy as "The Priest". During 1977 he toured with ex-Tangerine Dream synthesiser player Klaus Schulze, (as can be heard on the live-album ...Live...), while in 1979 Brown provided the vocals for on Schulze's album Dune.In the 1980s, Brown moved to Austin, Texas, and obtained a master's degree in counseling. Together with former Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black, he also became a painter and carpenter for some years,[ and released an album with him, Brown Black And Blue, in 1988.
Arthur Brown playing at the Wickerman Festival, 2005
Brown returned to England in 1996. In 1997, he re-recorded "Fire" with German band Die Krupps, while in 1998, he provided a spoken-word performance on Bruce Dickinson's The Chemical Wedding album, reading a portion of three poems by William Blake, and appeared as Satan in Dickinson's music video for "Killing Floor". He also appeared on TV, guesting on Kula Shaker track 'Mystical Machine Gun' several times during 1999.
A further change of musical direction occurred when he formed an acoustic band and went on tour with Tim Rose in 1999. This band then added Stan Adler (cello and bass) and Malcolm Mortimore (percussion) and produced the Tantric Lover album. However, the lineup did not last, and Patten and Brown put a new band together with multi-instrumentalist Nick Pynn. Straightaway they started doing festivals and international tours, and in 2002 Brown was asked to support Robert Plant on his Dreamland Tour. By now Patten had been replaced by Chris Bryant.
Brown was getting much more media exposure now as well as playing many gigs all over the world, mostly with his 'Giant Pocket Orchestra' but also with new band Instant Flight, who perform in the same style as the original band in the 1960s. In the middle of this, Brown released Vampire Suite, an album with Josh Philips and Mark Brzezicki of the band Big Country, released on Ian Grant's Track Records. Also around this time, Brown's back catalogue was rereleased by Sanctuary Records.
Brown reunited the surviving members of Kingdom Come (except Des Fisher) in 2005, for a one-off concert at The Astoria in London, performing material from Kingdom Come's album Galactic Zoo Dossier, with an encore of "Spirit Of Joy." This show won Brown the 'Showman Of The Year' award from Classic Rock magazine.
In 2007, Brown and Pynn released Voice Of Love on the Côte Basque record label, featuring a number of original recordings.
In August 2007, during a concert in Lewes, Sussex, Brown once again set fire to his own hair. While trying to extinguish the flames, Phil Rhodes, a member of the band also caught fire. Brown carried on after the fire was put out; he had however lost a few chunks of hair.
He appeared as a priest in the video for The Darkness song, "Is It Just Me?".
In 2010 Arthur Brown played a set at the Glastonbury Festival in the Glade, and he also played at Lounge On The Farm (with Lucie Rejchrtova on keyboards). On 10 June 2011, days before his 69th birthday, he played a nearly 2-hour set at the Ray Davies Meltdown Festival at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London where he invited UK singer-songwriter Z-Star to duet with him.
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Hawkwind association
Arthur Brown has had a number of associations with Hawkwind. In 1973, he was one of the performers on sometimes Hawkwind vocalist Robert Calvert's album Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, together with a number of other Hawkwind members.In 2001 and 2002, Brown made several guest appearances at live Hawkwind concerts, subsequently touring with them as a 'guest vocalist.' On their December 2002 tour, Hawkwind played several songs by Brown from the Kingdom Come era, along with "Song Of The Gremlin" which Brown had sung on Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters; this was documented on the Hawkwind DVD Out Of The Shadows.
Brown also provided vocals on two of the tracks on Hawkwind's studio album Take Me to Your Leader, released in 2005. One is the spoken-word "A Letter To Robert," where Brown recalls a conversation with Robert Calvert. Arthur continues his association with Hawkwind, touring with a support set for them on their 40th anniversary tour in the UK in 2009.
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DOWNLOAD-DISCOGRAPHY(all his work will be added sooner or later)
Arthur Brown Set
- 1966 - The Game Is Over (film soundtrack) imdb
Crazy World of Arthur Brown
- 1968 – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown download
- 1989 - Strangelands (recorded in 1969) download
- 1993 - Order From Chaosdownload
- 2000 - Tantric Lover download
- 2003 - Vampire Suite download
Kingdom Come
- 1971 – Galactic Zoo Dossier download
- 1972 – Kingdom Come part1 part2 part3 part4 part5
- 1973 – Journey download
- 1994 - Jam (recorded in 1970)
Solo
- 1975 – Dance part1 part2 part3
- 1977 – Chisholm in My Bosom part1 part2
- 1982 – Requiem download
- 1983 – Speak No Tech download
- 2002 - The Legboot Album - Arthur Brown on Tour
- 2007 - Voice of Love download
Collaborations
- 1976 - Tales of Mystery and Imagination (with the Alan Parsons Project) download
- 1979 - Dune (with Klaus Schulze) download
- 1979 - Time Actor (with Richard Wahnfried) download
- 1980 – Faster Than the Speed of Light (with Vincent Crane) download
- 1980 - Klaus Schulze Live (with Klaus Schulze) download cd1 cd2 (lossless) cd1 cd2 (mp3 320kbps) covers
- 1984 – The Complete Tapes of Atoya (with Craig Leon) download
- 1988 - Brown Black And Blue (with Jimmy Carl Black) part 1 part 2 part 3
- 1998 - The Chemical Wedding (with Bruce Dickinson) download
- 2000 - Curly's Airships (with Judge Smith)
- 2007 - Fifteen Years After (with All Living Fear)
Compilation albums
- 1976 – Lost Ears (Kingdom Come)
- 2003 - Fire - The Story Of (Arthur Brown) download
1 comment:
Magnificent!!!
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