Pinball

Biography

Brian Protheroe (born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on 16 June 1944) is an English musician and actor. Born to a Welsh father and English mother, Protheroe joined a local church choir when he was 12 years old and started piano lessons at about the same time. The music of Cliff Richard and the Shadows inspired him to start learning the guitar. He joined a rock band called The Coasters as lead singer in 1961 and also joined an amateur theatre group called The Studio Theatre at around the same time....

Brian Protheroe (born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on 16 June 1944) is an English musician and actor.

Born to a Welsh father and English mother, Protheroe joined a local church choir when he was 12 years old and started piano lessons at about the same time. The music of Cliff Richard and the Shadows inspired him to start learning the guitar. He joined a rock band called The Coasters as lead singer in 1961 and also joined an amateur theatre group called The Studio Theatre at around the same time.

First job was a library assistant for a year followed by three years as a student technician in a hospital pathological laboratory.

Musical influences around this time were Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Josh White, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie Mcghee, Dave Brubeck, and the choral church music of Bach.

Brian joined the folk group, Folk Blues Incorporated (FBI) when he was 19, while at this time listening to Bob Dylan and especially The Beatles.

He came to London with FBI in 1965 and played in folk clubs in and around London.

"The three of us lived in one room of a flat in south London owned by a blues singer called Gerry Lockran. We had no money and lived fairly rough for about three months before we gave it up and went home. During this time we met Paul Simon who was playing the same clubs as us."

In 1966, Brian began his career as an actor. His first job was with his local repertory theatre in Salisbury. He worked there for about 7 months then spent the next 5 years in various theatre companies around England, developing his musical skills as well as becoming an experienced actor.

In 1968 he worked for nearly two years in a theatre company in Lincoln in north east England where he met Martin Duncan who was also a musician, writer and actor. Over the next few years they collaborated on various musical and artistic projects.

"When we wrote together Martin would usually write the lyrics and I would set them to music. I was quite conventional in my approach to song writing but Martin had a more anarchic style and a wonderful surreal sense of humour that would force me into unusual musical forms."

During 1973 Brian lived in a flat in London's Covent Garden.

"I wasn't working much as an actor and wasn't in a relationship at the time but was writing the occasional song. I wrote a song called "Pinball" one weekend about my life at the time and made a simple home demo of it along with a couple of other songs."

Later in 1973 Brian was playing the part of a pop singer in a play called "Death on Demand" when a representative from Chrysalis Records heard a song he had written for the show.

"He asked if I had any other material so I played him my home demos. He liked them and I was offered a recording contract."

Brian's first single, "Pinball" was released in August 1974 followed by Pinball. This was followed over the next couple of years by two more albums - "Pick-Up" and "I/You."

Brian's acting career continued and in 1976 he starred in the London Production of the rock musical, "Leave Him to Heaven" at the New London theatre.

Basta Records collected his first three albums, remastered and released them as a box set with a "new" disc of unreleased material. The package was called "Brian's Big Box" and was the first time his material was available in more than two decades.

With the development of the internet, his recordings became more available to the fans that remembered him from the 70s, and he is enjoying a resurgence in popularity and has begun recording again.

The 2005 album "Citysong" was released by Basta as "Brian Protheroe's New Single and 17 Bonus Tracks." It also included two homemade movies to accompany the single. It was also released on iTunes.

In 2006, EMI released "Pinball and Other Stories," a career retrospective, with the included tracks having been remastered at Abbey Road studios.

His personal web page includes his extensive Theater/TV/Movie experience.

As a pianist Brian is a big follower of Dr. John and Randy Newman.

Every Roman Knows! is the official BP fan page. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.