Pete Brown
On 25/12/1940: Pete Brown was born in Ashtead, Surrey. When he was 14, he had his first poem published by US magazine Evergreen Review.In the 1960s, Brown became part of the Liverpool poetry scene.
In 1964, Brown was the first poet to perform at Morden Tower, Newcastle.
Brown formed The First Real Poetry Band with John McLaughlin on guitar, Binky McKenzie on bass, Laurie Allan on drums and Pete Bailey on percussion.
The band came to the attention of the band Cream as a potential writing partner for their drummer Ginger Baker. It soon became clear that Brown and bassist Jack Bruce worked well together. Brown and Bruce would write most of Cream's songs. The songs included the hits "I Feel Free", "White Room" and "SWLABR" and with Eric Clapton, they wrote "Sunshine of Your Love".
In 1968, Cream disbanded. Brown and Bruce would continue to work together as a songwriting partnership for most of Bruce's solo albums. Whilst still in 1968, Brown formed Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments.
In 1969, Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments recorded the albums "A Meal You Can Shake Hands With in the Dark" and "Mantlepiece". The lineup included Pete Bailey, Charlie Hart, Dick Heckstall-Smith, George Kahn, Roger Potter, Chris Spedding and Rob Tait. Before a gig supporting The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, London, the other members fired Brown from his own band. His vocals for "Mantlepiece" were re-recorded by Chris Spedding. The band renamed themselves The Battered Ornaments. After being dismissed, Brown formed the band Piblokto!, also in 1969. The band's name was taken from the Inuit word for "Arctic Hysteria", Piblokto, with symptoms including hysteria (screaming, uncontrolled wild behaviour), depression and echolalia (senseless repetition of words). The members of the band included Laurie Allan on drums, Jim Mullen on guitar, Roger Bunn on bass and Dave Thompson on organ.
Laurie Allen left Piblokto! to join The Battered Ornaments. Rob Tait from The Battered Ornaments joined Piblokto! in return.
In 1970, Piblokto! released the album "Things May Come and Things May Go but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever". Roger Bunn was replaced by Steve Glover by their next album "Thousands on a Raft" also released in 1970.
Mullen, Thompson and Tait left. Phil Ryan, Brian Breeze and John 'Pugwash' Weathers joined the band. The new lineup would only record one single "Flying Hero Sandwich"/"My Last Band". Weathers and Breeze left. Taff Williams and Ed Spevock came into to replace them.
In August 1971, Piblokto! disbanded.
Brown would go on to work with Graham Bond.
In 1972, Graham Bond and Brown recorded the album "Two Heads Are Better Than One". They would also record a single called "Lost Tribe". In addition, they recorded a lot of the soundtrack to the film "Maltamour".
In 1973, Bond left to form Magus. Brown then formed the band Brown and Friends and also the group Flying Tigers. Neither of them would record anything further than demos. Brown recorded an album of his poems called "The Not Forgotten Association".
In 1976, Brown recorded an album with members of Back to Front called "Party in The Rain".
In 1977, Brown left the music scene and started to write film scripts. He would collaborate with Phil Ryan to write film scores for 12 years. Brown formed his own label called Interoceter. The label released two albums by Pete Brown and Phil Ryan called "Ardours of the Lost Rake" and "Coals to Jerusalem".
In 1993, Pete Brown and Phil Ryan began touring. In the 1990s, Pete Brown would also appear with The Interoceters, performing his earlier material.
In 2004, Brown formed a film production company with Mark A. J. Waters and Miran Hawke.
In 2010, Brown and Ryan released the album "Road of Cobras" which also featured Maggie Bell, Arthur Brown, Mick Taylor and Jim Mullen.