Blazing Brian: Great Musicians Called Brian Quiz

Answer: The Stranglers

Jet Black was already getting on (aged 36) compared to your average rock star when he joined The Stranglers in 1974, and had already had a variety of professions before opening the off-license which he was still running when he joined the fledgling rockers.

Actually, the average age of the band was much higher than many (but, significantly, not all) punk bands, which might explain the world-weariness in the songwriting that at times bordered on misanthropy. In fact, The Stranglers have always been set apart from the punk mob they get lumped in with, musically as well as lyrically, but they also have a lot of common with them and are loved by the punk audience.

The Stranglers' debut album, "Rattus Norvegicus", was an instant smash and has stood the test of time, as have other Stranglers' albums. Their influence has been insidious, many a band ripping off something of the sound without grasping (or being able to capture) the deep underlying nastiness that they expressed through erudite musing interpolated with boorish flippancy. And great tunes.

All the other bands came from the same sort of area (London) at about the same time (1974).

Answer: Love Potion No. 9

Tygers of Pan Tang formed in Whitley Bay (England) in 1978, and a year later released the brilliant "Don't Touch Me There" single on the venerable New Wave of British Heavy Metal label Neat records. It caught the attention of MCA Records who snapped the band up.

The debut album "Wild Cat" was about as good as New Wave Of British Heavy Metal can get. Stand out track has to be "Suzie Smiled", which later lent its name to an insightful book on the NWOBHM phenomenon by John Tucker, but it's top notch stuff from start to finish. However, there was already trouble in the ranks and although Thin Lizzy star-to-be John Sykes joined on second guitar, vocalist Jess Cox left and was replaced Jon Deverill. After "Spellbound" and the disappointing "Crazy Nights" albums, Sykes left and was replaced by Fred Purser, who appeared on "The Cage". MCA wanted the Tygers to deliver more commercially viable material and insisted on covers due to the popularity of "Love Potion No. 9", but the lads didn't agree, so they split-up.

The song has been done by every Tom Dick and Harry. The Searchers' version is probably the most widely known after The Clovers', although my personal favourite is by Ronnie Dio and The Prophets.

Answer: Let It Bleed

Inevitably, when rock stars die young they tend to take on iconic status and whilst we've seen Mick Jagger and Keith Richards get old and enfeebled, heard their excruciating attempts at keeping up with the times, and their dire efforts to recapture what made them great in the first place, Brian Jones's image is intact because he died whilst he was still cool, aged just 27.

Our Brian started The Rolling Stones, recruited Ian Stewart Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Tony Chapman and Dick Taylor. He also came up with the name, choosing it on the spur of the moment from the Muddy Waters' track "Rollin' Stone".

Jones seemed able to play anything, which he did, undoubtedly helping forge the Stones' sound that had so much more going on than their contemporaries. However, as the Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership started to be the focus of the band, Jones' role was diminished and he was gradually overshadowed by Jagger and Richards. Many other factors led to a gulf being created between Jones and the other Stones, including Richards nicking his girlfriend, and over-indulgence in alcohol and drugs. Whatever the reasons, he seemed adrift, so he was asked to leave after the release of "Let It Bleed", although the last album he had really got stuck into was "Beggars Banquet".

Answer: Septic Death

It's a shame that Brian Schroeder is renowned for his artwork rather than his contribution to music since Septic Death are second to none when it comes to unbridled punk thrash, and had such a bizarre mix on their recordings that they were really unsettling, albeit thrilling. His vocals are either an expression of existentialist fear and trembling, or just a bloke screeching, depending on interpretation.

Septic Death released quite a lot of material, mostly in limited edition, which has become fiercely sought after, but many a bootlegger has compiled the stuff for the skint buyer. An authentic, posh, well-documented collection would go down a storm.

Brian also ran record label Pusmort, which brought many an American hardcore punk band to the attention of European listeners, and vice versa, through the seminal compilation "Cleanse The Bacteria" (1985).

Paul Revere & The Raiders were a choice because they come from the same town as our Brian, i.e. Boise, Idaho.

Answer: The Kick Inside (1978)

"The Kick Inside" is Kate Bush's 1978 debut album, and contains her hit "Wuthering Heights".

Despite his posh persona, Bryan Ferry comes from a working class background in Washington, north-east England. It was at art school in Newcastle that Bryan started up his first bands, but it wasn't until he moved down to London that he formed Roxy Music in 1971. They made quick progress, not because of their musical talents so much as the contacts they made, mostly thanks to guitarist Phil Manzanera. The eponymous debut album came out in 1972 and was an instant hit with critics and punters alike.

"For Your Pleasure" followed in 1973, and was equally well-received. 1973 also saw the release of "Stranded", arguably the band's best effort. "Country Life" came out in 1974, but then it all started to go a bit pear-shaped as the band's ersatz sophistication and mock-emotional depth started to get lost as they took themselves more and more seriously. This culminated in their final album before splitting, "Avalon", which is loved by some, but often derided as the antithesis of what the band had been about in the beginning by others.

Bryan Ferry's solo career had been running alongside Roxy Music's quite comfortably since his debut album "These Foolish Things" in 1973, and now it took the driving seat. Roxy Music have since reformed.

Answer: Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno candidly admits that his involvement in music is quite arbitrary, and he was always more interested in the art part of the term "art rock" that was applied to Roxy Music. Originally he was meant to be the sound engineer when Roxy Music played live, albeit a sound engineer who fiddled with the sound through a synthesizer and added bits of recorded sound. However, he ended up on stage with them, and was even quite prominent in the inner-sleeve photos due to his startling image.

He only appeared on the first two Roxy Music albums before leaving just as they were heading towards pop stardom, citing that as exactly why he wanted out. He stuck with music though, and despite his shying away from the limelight, his innovation and fearless crashing (quietly) through barriers has seen him influence popular music hugely, either directly or through watered down versions of his avant-garde explorations seeping into the mainstream.

Answer: Stray Cats

The Stray Cats moved to England as they were making no waves in the USA and the English were known for their love of old school rock n roll, manifested in the Teddy Boy revival. Although the new Teds often clashed with the era's kingpins (the punks), they had a shared musical heritage, and there was a fair amount of overlap.

The Stray Cats managed to straddle the fence, were hugely popular with a whole range of people, and had hits with both "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut" from the debut album. The US eventually woke up to the Stray Cats, just in time for them to release the third album, "Rant and Rave", but it seemed lacklustre compared to the first two. The band had now found fame and began to monkey about a bit too much. They broke up in 1984, although they have since reformed (more than once).

They all went on to do interesting stuff, but Setzer was the most sought after and he started appearing alongside big names, such as Robert Plant in The Honeydrippers.

Answer: Violent Femmes

Not a very original title for such an inventive album! The "Violent Femmes" album has the perfect balance between biting humour and bitter sweet love songs, catchy tunes that display an outstanding musical maturity in such a young band, fast-driving rhythms and slow meandering melancholy, making it surely one of the greatest debut albums of all time. In fact, "Violent Femmes" is so near perfect that they could never live up to it and their later stuff tends to get ignored by most folk.

Our Brian plays both acoustic and electric bass, as well as one of the albums leitmotifs, the xylophone.

"Script For A Jester's Tear" is Marillion's debut album. "Colour By Numbers" is by Culture Club. "Cargo" is by Men At Work. All came out the same year.

Answer: Canterbury

The Roxy Music saga continues: Diamond Head got the name from Roxy's guitarist Phil Manzanera's debut solo album, released in 1975! The band actually got together around that time, although it was all very bedroom-based as the lads were still pretty young. Mind you, by 1977 they were gigging around the local (Stourbridge, West Midlands) area and learning their trade. In fact, one thing that struck pundits about Diamond Head and fellow New Wave Of British Heavy Metal acts is how accomplished many of them were compared to their DIY punk counterparts of the same era who were learning how to play as they went along.

The debut album, commonly known as "Lightning To The Nations" despite its lack of official title, was put out independently in a display of confidence, and possibly wrath, as no label could get it together to launch the band. Only 1,000 copies were pressed and it wasn't in the shops, making it a record collector's treasure, but its influence on heavy metal is so far-reaching it's still talked about with awe, and rightly so as it's amongst the greatest heavy metal albums to come out of England.

"Borrowed Time" lacked the urgency of the debut, but it was still a great album, a classic slice of NWOBHM sans rough edges.

"Canterbury" was the album on which Diamond Head should really have pulled out the stops and shown the world what they were about, but it didn't happen. Who knows if they succumbed to record label pressure to make an accessible album, or if they were just trying too hard, but something didn't work and it all fell a bit flat. Some die-hard fans still rate it, and it might be a rediscovered gem in years to come, but as it stands it's another white elephant in the fascinating history of NWOBHM.

Answer: Bon Jovi

David Bryan was knocking about in bands with Jon Bon Jovi way before the band Bon Jovi took shape, but good Jewish boy that he was, he decided to go to college to study medicine. He then got a call from Jon, and decided to have a blast at rock stardom.

The first album, "Bon Jovi" (1984) got quite a lot of attention, as did the follow-up, "7800° Fahrenheit" (1985), and the band toured like mad. Then they recorded "Slippery When Wet" (1986) and the world went mental. Two years later they released "New Jersey" and still toured like nutters, which took its toll, and they came home wrecked, and probably hoping they'd never have to play "Livin' On A Prayer" ever again.

They eventually came back and were just as popular, but the golden years of carefree, fist-punching, daft hard rock were gone and they had to reinvent themselves slightly, as they did when Jon Bon Jovi cut his dodgy barnet. Our Bryan, however, was still sporting a daft poodle cut well in the late 2000s. Good on him.

All the choices are from New Jersey.