John Brown

Biography

From throngs of musicians named John Brown, this one is best-known as a loyal sidekick to the remarkable performer Wreckless Eric. Among the British musicians who answer to John Brown or Johnny Brown, this is the one who bravely shoved new wave rock down the throats of European audiences who weren't quite ready for the new genre. In particular, Brown had gobs of potato salad, among other food sundries, tossed at him by German audiences demanding classic rock. Kris Kristofferson would want to "Blame It on the Rolling Stones," but the real culprit here was the Who, and not just for helping construct the classic rock edifice that new wave music was such a departure from. Wreckless Eric and company were actually set to open for the Who on an enormous tour scheduled during a period quite early in the development of the new wave scene. Pundits enjoy speculating on what might have happened had this tour not been cancelled completely, such as fans of the Who turning into new wave fanatics en masse. At any rate, what Wreckless Eric wound up doing instead was touring Germany, to an awful response. Brown plays on classic '70s Wreckless Eric releases such as Wonderful World and Big Smash. The Wreckless Eric enterprise was, for a time, associated strongly with Stiff Records, a firm that seemed to have something of a monopoly on the new wave culture. Stiff was one of those labels that became as well-known, if not better-known, then some of the artists on its rosters -- some of whom claimed they had literally been stiffed by the time it was all over. "The post Stiff John Brown story is an epic of tragic proportions," Wreckless Eric writes on his cyberspace fan site. Yet the bandleader's late-2001 trip to South Wales to renew a contact with Brown hardly worked out tragically at all, leading to the bassist's decision to rejoin Wreckless Eric for a new series of British dates. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide