The Beatles used to open shows for Joe Brown
FORGET Clapton, Page, Knopfler and Beck — Joe Brown must be the greatest guitar icon Britain has ever produced!
After all, it was the spiky-haired 75-year-old who let The Beatles be his support act when they were still unknown, and he was also the man who played guitar behind his head, something Jimi Hendrix soon copied. Joe also gave Hank Marvin his Italian echo machine, leading to The Shadows’ trademark much-copied sound, and has mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, ukulele and other instruments, without getting a single lesson from anyone.
“The Beatles opened shows for me!” Joe laughs.
“It sounds like quite a claim to fame now, but at the time, it wasn’t. Brian Epstein, their manager, wanted to put the boys in bigger theatres, but they couldn’t fill them.
“Yes, they were doing great in The Cavern and places like that, but he wanted them to have bigger audiences. “I had a big hit at the time, Picture Of You, and did a couple of shows with them up in Liverpool and they opened for me.
“Then I got to know George Harrison very well, when I moved to Henley-on-Thames. We became good friends and he was best man at my wedding. “Neither of us were musical snobs, and George would phone me and say: ‘I’ve got a record to send to you. “‘Wait until you get it!’ Then it would turn up and it would be Hoagy Carmichael or George Formby, or an album of Hawaiian guitar players!
“I’m doing a gig soon for Bill Wyman’s 80th birthday with Mark Knopfler, and they’re the same, not music snobs. “The only music I don’t like is modern jazz, because it’s a cacophony of self-indulgence!”
By: Craig Campbell
Source: Sunday Post
