Pete Brown

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Who is Pete Brown?

Songwriting

Pete Brown has been involved with music for a long time; as part of a songwriting team with Jack Bruce; as a performer; and latterly, as a producer. Although absent from mainstream British music as an artist since his last major label records in 1970, Pete Brown has never really gone away.

Although from 1971 to 1983 Pete released no new product, he did continue on the road with his last full-time band, Back To Front until 1977. 1983s Party In The Rain, now re-released by Mystic UK was mastered from demo recordings, and now includes unissued material. The record had previously only had limited distribution.

Concurrent with his rise as a producer Pete worked as a sideman on vocals and percussion with leaders as diverse as B.B. King musical director Calvin Owens and South African jazz pianist Mervyn Afrika. In 1998, he worked with U.S soul/funk man David Hadley, who was also a member of Pete's band, The Interoceters.

He has guested with The Hamburg Blues Band, and there will be more in the future.

He has also played percussion and sung with the Barrelhouse Blues Orchestra, but the unfortunate death of guitarist/organiser Paul Hart has left the band in limbo. Pete has said, "There are plans to continue with it at a later date, perhaps starting with a gig just before Christmas this year [2008]."

Pete spent much time up until recently working with his band, The Interoceters. They performed a live set that is drawn from all parts of his career and which reflects his move towards his first loves of soul and R&B. There are also some crowd pleasers from his long running partnership with Jack Bruce. The Pete Brown & The Interoceters Live Album is currently available from Mystic UK, as is Living Life Backwards, a compilation of Pete's work for EMI's Harvest label.

In the 1990s, Pete released two CDs with his longtime song writing partner, Phil Ryan; the well received Ardours Of The Lost Rake; and Coals To Jerusalem, which was followed with two very long tours. It is also hoped to form a new and larger band with Phil in order to
promote the new record, probably in early 2009.

In more recent times, Pete has produced records for and toured with Saichi Sugiyama, including two stints in Japan.

Pete wrote the lyrics for many of Cream's major hits, including Sunshine Of Your Love, White Room, I Feel Free and Politician. Many of these songs are now standards, and have become hits in recent years for artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Belinda Carlisle and David Bowie. Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce continue to feature the songs live and on record. They have been used considerably in commercials and films, including True Lies and Goodfellas. Interest in the songs has been generated by the much lauded reunion concerts by Cream in 2005. As well as a CD and DVD of the Albert Hall shows, there is a new Cream box set. Cream At The BBC has been available for number of years.

Last year, the BMI presented Pete and Jack Bruce with "Million-Airs" awards for two million plays of White Room In the USA.

Pete has written many lyrics for Jack Bruce solo albums through the years, from Songs For A Tailor, Harmony Row, Out Of The Storm, How's Tricks?, I've Always Wanted To Do This, Automatic, Willpower, A Question Of Time, Something Else and Monkjack, as well as more recent releases such as More Jack Than God, and Jet Set Jewel, a previously unreleased Jack Bruce album from 1980.

Pete has worked with Texan blues/rock band Sunset Heights on their debut record Texas Tea. He contributed to a solo album by their singer/guitarist Vince Converse. He has also written for Robert Plant sideman Innes Sideburn. There has been much work since the Millennium, including songs for the Saichi Sugiyama album So Am I.

Pete has also written with Neal Schon, of Journey and Santana fame; co-written songs for British band Decco, two of which are to be featured in the new Terry Gilliam movie Tidelands; written for Colosseum, including for Tomorrow's Blues, the last studio album to feature long time friend and collaborator Dick Heckstall-Smith. Pete wrote for Dick's first solo album, A Story Ended, as well as his last, Blues and Beyond, which he co-produced with Dave "Munch" Moore. Pete and Phil Ryan are writing and in production with their next record.


Dick Heckstall-Smith		Martin Scorcese

Poetry

Pete became one of Britain's only professional poets in 1960, living from performances of his own work until taking up songwriting in 1966. "Hearing a recording by Kenneth Patchen, one of the first Jazz and Poetry records, was a seminal experience for me as it opened un-thought of avenues for poetry and music," says Pete, who also sites other early influences as Dylan Thomas and Lorca.

"I started writing when I was 14 and, in 1960, when I was just 19, I turned professional. In other words, I stopped having day jobs. After that, I just wrote and performed. My first major collaboration was with Mike Horovitz's New Departures Group (1960 - 65), which included performances with musicians such as Dick Heckstall-Smith."

He worked with Mike Horovitz in the New Departures touring poetry and jazz group till forming his own breakaway group, The First Real Poetry Band, including guitarist John McLaughlin in 1967.

In 1961 Pete and Horovitz represented Britain at the Paris Biennale. Pete and Mike took part in the famed Albert Hall poetry readings of 1965 and 1966 alongside William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Robert Graves. Pete then toured Britain with Ginsberg and Robert Creely.

Keyboard player and composer Timothy Roberts has set some old Pete Brown poems to classical music on the CD The Door In My Face. It is available from Roberts web site. A serries of new poems, "The Cats Of War" is currently being given the same treatment.

Danah Zohar, writing about New Departures Live said, "It's like dropping in on a first-rate party at an old friend's and finding yourself entertained by a warm, wonderful bunch of incredibly talented troubadours."

Films & Television

Encouraged to write screenplays by Martin Scorcese, who has often used Cream songs in his films. Pete's first script was commissioned by the BBC's Kenneth Trodd in 1978. The first feature was the animated Felix The Movie for U.S independent Don Oriolo, released theatrically in 1990 and subsequently sold to the Disney Channel. In 1984, Pete co-wrote the dramatic links for the Rolling Stones video album Rewind with director Julien Temple. It remains one of the best selling videos ever. In 1989 Pete was commissioned by Yorkshire TV's Keith Richardson to write Framed, the dramatized biography of Scottish rock legend Alex Harvey. This remains an ongoing project.

Pete appears in the forthcoming John Brewer documentary Cream, and has also appeared in the Disraeli Gears Class Albums documentary which featured on TV and is available as a DVD.

Pete is now in partnership with young director Mark AJ Walters, and their recent short, Really, has been doing well on the international festival circuit. They have also been working on a feature film "to go into production in October this year [2008]."