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Here’s a diary of sorts from my weekend at Glastonbury 2011, with my father, the singer Arthur Brown, The God of Hellfire.

I wasn’t going to go this year, but at the last minute, Arthur rang me and had one spare backstage pass for the weekend and was I sure? After talking with my girlfriend Amanda, I didn’t have to think for too long and hopped on the train down to Lewes to meet him.

We drove from there in Arthur’s car, which was an experience; Arthur drives like he lives, and Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady would have been proud of him! It’s probably the longest journey we’ve ever taken together and we got some good talking done. He’d got us a house to stay at, in the village of Pilton, just next to the Glastonbury Festival site and we arrived mid afternoon. We had the neccessary resident’s pass to get into the village and after parking and removing the travel cases containing his stage gear, including the Fire helmet, we went in through the gate. Read the rest of this entry »

Arthur Brown, Jim Morrison and Arthur Lee were the angry, acid drenched voices at the end of the 60′s, haunting a world that had recovered from two world wars, but was now strewn once again with war in Vietnam and the death of peace and love.

They were replaced in the 70′s with the dulcit tones of Barry White, Dennis La Corriere from Dr Hook, Donna Summer and Abba, as the world once again relaxed into a new dream of peace and prosperity, where people lounged around in poppy strewn fields, wearing flowered shirts and flares, smoking Rothmans whilst driving their speed boats and Formula 1 cars and strutting their smiling stuff in the Disco’s. It didn’t last and was torn apart by the arrival of Cocaine, terrorism, mass unemployment, strikes and the angry, bile laden shouts of Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer and the next generation of disillusioned youth that was Punk Rock.

The 80′s came and the endless summer returned, with Boy George, Matt Bianco and Duran Duran all singing happy songs in their new sundrenched videos, as the Coke fuelled Yuppies paraded in their Porsches and red braces, buying up properties like sweets. It didn’t last, torn apart by the war in Argentina, reposessions and drug habits that filled the spaces left by the falling economy and this time, more than ever, people retreated into the happy drug mist supplied by the latest drug of choice, ecstasy, compered by the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and a new version of disco, that never quite matched the innocent smile of the 70′s. It didn’t last.

Wars and unemployment and music. It goes on, round and round in circles, reinventing itself with every new generation thinking they are the first and only ones to feel young and free and right…x

My new book ‘Damaged Goods’ is now available to buy, in paperback and ebook. Kindle should be done today too.

It’s a story of adoption, misplaced childhood and troubled adolescence, through to growing up and finding my own way. Accompanied by all the music and characters that filled my life. At nearly 500 pages long, with photo’s, it was a lot of work to write, but I’m glad I did it.

If you’ve read and enjoyed ‘Yeah Baby’, then ‘Damaged Goods’ will fill in all the gaps.

J x.

My new book ‘Damaged Goods, a True Story of Adoption, Music, People and Choices‘ is now finished, at 62,117 words, 475 pages, with all the photo’s and adjustments.  Off to the publishers this week.

‘Songs are like our children, well, good ones anyway. They start out small and grow bigger and they have our dreams in them.’

Here’s a few old rock badges that were in the drawer with the tickets,

An original Sex Pistols badge from 1976, a  Hawkwind promo badge for the 1979 album ‘PXR5′ and a Punishment of Luxury badge from the same year.

I was going through a draw when I came across a load of old tickets in a box, from gig’s and shows that I’ve been to.

There’s a few good ones, but they’re all quite recent and I wish I had all of the gig tickets from the old punk days , there would have been hundreds when I used to go to at least one a week, the Clash, the Banshees, the Antz,the Cure, and the Specials and Madness and all that stuff.

Maybe one day I’ll find another box with all of them in.

J x

Tom Waits

Tom will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 2011 Induction Ceremony, about time too – my favourite musician of modern times – absolutely unequalled!!!

Father, with his latest song & video

Music is like life. As we only have so many days, so there are only so many notes. People put them together to make sense from all the chaos. It’s like looking up at the stars – It’s comforting.

The mental landscapes created by listeners, are as numerous as all the notes, in all the music ever written. They are both fleeting and immortal, imagined and yet as real and bright as anything in creation.

When words are added, your imagination puts you into the tale woven by the lyrics.

Like reading a good book, laying in bed at night in the dark, listening  to your favourite music, takes you to another world, where you can find stories, emotions and memories from other people. We twist them around until they fit our life, allowing us to live out our dreams and desires, through someone else’s, giving vent to our hidden feelings and emotions.

From sweeping sagas of love and loss, to adrenaline filled snapshots of youth, stories of the road and endless other possible lives, they’re all there.

People and music are inseparable. Songs are like our children, well, good ones anyway, they start out small and grow bigger and they have our dreams in them.

Knowing that someone else has felt the way that you do is part of the magic. It stops you from feeling alone.  Sometimes it can seem that a song was written just for you, by someone you never met, because our stories are often not that different – we all live our lives on the same world. Read the rest of this entry »

We have just been to see the Howard Marks film, Mr Nice. What a great film.

I met Howard backstage when he was compering my father, Arthur’s career retrospective, ‘Arthur Brown’s Otherworlds.’

He was as affable and fun as he is portrayed in the film and I am only sorry that I don’t have a copy of the photo taken of the two of us, stood outside the gents!

See the film !

J x.