Victor Brown (musician)

Victor Brown (died 2016), known professionally as Vic Evans, was a Cuban-born, Jamaican-British variety performer, known for being one half of Harriott and Evans.

Victor Brown was born in Banes, Cuba, the son of Jamaican parents: John Brown, an engineer, and his wife Mirian, née Brown. He trained as an engine-room seaman and left Jamaica for Britain in 1939, before serving in World War II. He subsequently performed (eventually, with his brother Noel, as the Brown Brothers) for the Entertainments National Service Association and the League of Coloured Peoples, and then in nightclubs. He worked with Prince Zulamkah and then briefly joined forces with the pianist, Winifred Atwell.

In 1947, he moved with his wife, Kameedea, née Packwood, to West Africa, where she was working as a nurse. While there, he joined Ghanaian music troupes (playing with E. T. Mensah and Guy Warren) and tried to establish a timber business. When that failed, he returned to Britain and began performing with his brother Noel, working their way to the Gateways, a pioneering lesbian club in Chelsea, where he met the pianist Chester Harriott. The pair formed a duo, with Chester on the piano and Brown singing (he was a tenor), an arrangement which proved successful; they spent eight years playing and touring as a variety act, Harriott and Evans (for Victor was then known on stage as Vic Evans), mixing with a booming jazz scene and travelling across the world. They went their separate ways in 1962. In later life, Victor and his wife moved to Lancashire. He died in 2016, aged 95.

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