Joe Brown: Veteran happy to be back on the road

JOE Brown may be an unfamiliar name to the iPod generation, but he happens to be one of the original rock 'n' roll guitar pioneers.

His career spans seven decades and he's been praised by such notable guitar legends as Mark Knopfler, Keith Richards and Jeff Beck.

During that time he's been a singer, lead guitarist in an orchestra, had his own TV show, and also appeared in films, West End musicals and even pantomime.

The evergreen musician has spent half his life on the road and his latest tour rolls into Yorkshire later this month. "It's been fantastic, it's hard work but it's nice to do these tours because you get there and find all these people have turned up to see you play. So I say, 'keep going while you can, kid,'" he says, with a phlegmy laugh.

Brown began his career in music hall and rose to stardom in the 1960s

on the TV show Boy Meets Girl, before enjoying solo hits including Picture of You and That's What Love Will Do.

He reckons he was about 10-years-old when he first picked up an instrument.

"I was playing guitar before I'd even heard of Lonnie Donegan and I practiced an awful lot. I started playing with a band and some fool said somebody should give me a microphone so I could sing."

This was back in the 1950s at the dawn of rock and pop. "Skiffle is what started the whole pop music scene in this country and then rock 'n' roll came over from America," he says.

It was this invasion from across the pond that gave Brown the chance to play with some of the earliest rock 'n' rollers.

"The first gig I did was with Johnny Cash and then I went on tour with people like Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Brenda Lee.

"Back in those days they weren't allowed to bring over their own musicians so they had to use British guitarists and there weren't a lot of us around at the time. They were great days. We had a lot of fun."

It was also a hard slog at times. "When I started out I worked every single day for two years, for 15 quid a week. That was a tough apprenticeship," he says. But it instilled in him a working ethos that he still follows – he performs around 100 gigs a year, which isn't bad for someone nudging 70.

He clearly revels in performing for his fans. "It's my job, I've never been very ambitious and I never dreamed of stardom, but I'm lucky that I've always been in a reasonable amount of demand so I've never had to sit around waiting for the phone to ring.

"The only thing I haven't done that I'd really like to is write a big hit for somebody else to sing, that way I could sit back and watch the money roll in," he says, with a cackle.

In 2002 he appeared at the Glastonbury Festival and since then he's performed on Jools Holland's TV show, as well as stealing the

show at the tribute concert held in memory of his old friend George Harrison.

"Looking back it's hard to believe that The Beatles were my support act when I played in Liverpool back in 1962. Then of course they became superstars and deservedly so.

"Years later I moved to Henley and George rang me up one day and said, 'Hi Joe, it seems we're neighbours, you better come over and bring your ukulele'. He was a wonderful man and I miss him every day."

Brown's status as a guitar pioneer was recognised last year when he was awarded an MBE for his services to music and was also handed Mojo magazine's "Outstanding Contribution to Music" award.

Both were fully deserved and after 50 years in the business he's still pulling in the crowds.

"We don't go down the nostalgia road, we do play some of the old hits but it would be boring playing the same songs all the time. Instead we do a musical show, from Italian waltzes to a bit of blues, the only rule is it has to be music that I like and that I think the audience will like."

So he's not planning on hanging up his six-string any time soon, then? "I wouldn't know what else I'd do, I'm not one of those guys who can sit around doing nothing.

"Playing the guitar is my biggest pleasure, I love it mate."

Joe Brown plays the Victoria Theatre, Halifax on January 25 and York Grand Opera House on February 1.