The Amazing World of Arthur Brown

Arthur Brown: Uncrowned King of the Underground, Last Disciple of the First Spiritual Awakening, Enduring Champion of Freedom and Love, Charlatan, Fool, Genius, Innovator, Ordained Minister of the Lord, God of Hellfire, or simply the greatest singer we have never heard: Discuss...

In his 60 odd years on this earth, Arthur Brown has continually delighted and exasperated in equal measures. The eternally mischievous Puck in rocks Mid Summer Nights Dream, Arthur has had the most fascinating, yet disjointed career of any major artist of his generation.

He began with a massive first: In 1968, his seminal album The Crazy World of Arthur Brown was the first record to simultaneously top both US and UK singles and album charts, yet he quickly moved away from the commercial mainstream and into the unexplored hinterland of electronic music.

In 1970, he was asked, by Jimi Hendrix, to form a new group, but declined... he wanted to pursue his experimental explorations. He was the first person to utilise a drum machine in electric music, and the first to pioneer the use of full theatre in rock. Along the way, he has collaborated with an eclectic collection of artists: Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Alan Parsons, Frank Zappa, The Prodigy, Hawkwind, The Pretty Things, The Stranglers and The Darkness; and his acknowledged theatrical influence on Alice Cooper, Genesis, Iron Maiden, Queen and countless others is a matter of record.

Throughout, Arthur Brown has always been a performer: Headlining the first, seminal Isle of Wight Festival, The Fillmore, the first Glastonbury Fayre (1969) and the last Glastonbury Festival in 2006 (headlining again, in the acoustic tent). Last year, he performed solo to 250,000 people in St Petersburg, and was seen (in the same week) playing to an delighted audience of 11 children at a public swimming pool, in Lewes, England.

He has been arrested on numerous occasions, for many and varied offenses: unlawful assembly, drugs, drunkenness and once, in Italy, for indecent behaviour, where he was thrown in jail, and detained for several weeks.

With his trademark flaming headgear and the song Fire still accumulating millions from CD compilations, films and adverts, Arthur is known and recognised worldwide as The God of Hellfire, yet this represents the least of his true talents. For those fortunate enough to have been exposed to it, it is his massive, incredible voice, alive with emotion, passion and love, which truly defines him.

Now, at last, he has found an outlet for this wonderful voice, which has remained a secret for so many years and, with his new band The Amazing World of Arthur Brown, he has finally revealed his true self, creating an astonishing record, worthy of his massive talent and defining his spiritual view of a disturbed world. Together with his partner in The Amazing World - Nick Pynn - he has recorded a collection of 11 songs, which form the new album The Voice of Love and which mark the beginning of a new career for the man who is the greatest singer of his generation, yet remains all but undiscovered to a great many of us. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.