Arthur Brown (musician)
| Arthur Brown | |
|---|---|
Brown on stage, August 2009
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Arthur Wilton Brown |
| Also known as | The God of Hellfire |
| Born |
24 June 1942 Whitby, North Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1965–present |
| Labels | Track/Polydor |
| Associated acts | Kingdom Come, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Instant Flight, Hawkwind, The Alan Parsons Project |
| Website | Official site |
Arthur Wilton Brown (born 24 June 1942) is an English rock singer best known for his flamboyant theatrical performances, powerful wide-ranging operatic voice and his number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart and Canada, "Fire", in 1968.
Brown has been lead singer of various groups, most notably The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Kingdom Come, followed by a varied solo career as well as associations with Hawkwind, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Klaus Schulze, and Frank Zappa.
Though Brown has had limited commercial success, he has been a significant influence on a wide range of musicians and artists and due to his operatic vocal style, wild stage persona and concepts, he is considered a pioneer of shock rock and progressive rock and influential on heavy metal music.
Following the success of the single "Fire", the press would often refer to Brown as "The God of Hellfire", in reference to the opening shouted line of the song, a moniker that exists to this day.
After attending Roundhay Grammar School in Leeds, Yorkshire, Brown attended the University of London and the University of Reading and studied philosophy and law, but he gravitated to music instead, forming his first band, Blues and Brown, while at Reading. After a spell fronting a number of bands in London, Brown then moved to Paris in 1966, where he worked on his theatrical skills. During this period he recorded two songs for the Roger Vadim film of the Émile Zola novel La Curée. Returning to London around the turn of 1966 to 1967 he was a temporary member of a London-based R&B/soul/ska group The Ramong Sound that would soon become the hit-making soul group The Foundations.
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