Bob Andrews Biography

EARLY DAYS:

Born in the UK, just outside Leeds, Yorkshire, Andrews grew up in the district of Kirkstall, attending a small, local church elementary school, St Stephens. He started piano lessons at age seven after his mother detected his enthusiasm for banging on his grandmother's neighbour's piano. He switched teachers at age 11 to a local piano master, Charles Seed. Passing the 11+ entrance exam to attend grammar school, he learned ukulele playing in a skiffle group formed with school friends. Andrews' earliest introductions to music came through the radio and his teenage next-door neighbor who bought Elvis and Bill Haley records. Hanging out at a local penny arcade in Blackpool while on a family holiday, he was exposed to The Everly Brothers, where he would sing along to the harmonies.

At 13, he discovered Chuck Berry, the Stones, the Beatles and girls, not necessarily in that order, stopped piano lessons, and learned to play bass and electric guitar. A whole new musical world opened up when Andrews heard Howlin’ Wolf and the Chicago blues, and learning those infamous guitar riffs, played underage in pubs. By 1965, At age 16, he had been kicked out of high school (for having long hair), secured a job as a trainee surveyor, and with a newly minted Farfisa organ, was gigging five nights a week...

THE YOUNG MUSICIAN:

Bob became a professional musician in 1966, spending two years working in Germany and Spain, in nightclubs and on U.S. military bases. In these musically formative years, Bob honed his chops on keyboards, playing six or seven nights a week. Playing US Army and Air force bases was particularly enlightening, as the clubs were furnished on a weekly basis with the latest stateside records, exposure to which was crucial to Bob's musical education and ultimate influences of Soul and R&B. In 1968, after nearly two years of continuous playing, he returned to U.K and eventually to London where an acquaintance found him a gig playing organ for P.P Arnold's backing band. Bob's immaturity lost him that job, but a chance reply to a "Musicians Wanted" ad in the Melody Maker newspaper landed him a position with pop act Kippington Lodge, which eventually evolved into the band Brinsley Schwarz.

BRINSLEY SCHWARZ:

Named for guitarist Brinsley Schwarz the band was central to the emergence of the pub rock genre, widely perceived as a rejuvenation of traditional rock ‘n’ roll energy and songwriting values in the face of music scene then dominated by prog-rock and bands playing bloated versions of Mussorgsky. The band became notorious early on for their participation in a giant hype of the band in 1970, where their then management company, Famepushers, secured a gig for them at New York's Filmore East, and sent 100 UK journalists to hear them. The whole junket went terribly wrong and the band ended up in debt and with a sour press from it all. Brinsley Schwarz recovered, added a fifth member and toured continuously throughout the early seventies, including supporting Paul McCartney and Wings on the Red Rose Speedway tour.

Their six album releases for Capitol and United Artist Records became cult favorites on both sides of the Atlantic (see Brinsley Schwarz discography). Their sound was heavily influenced by American roots idioms like rhythm ‘n’ blues and country, but they also experimented with more niched musical idioms like New Orleans funk and reggae. The band struggled in its final year with the lack of any recording success and frustration set in with the band's primary songwriter, Nick Lowe. The band broke up in 1975 after a tour with Al Stewart.

The band launched careers critical to the developing punk rock scene; Nick Lowe emerging as an important solo artist and producer, Brinsley Schwarz and Bob Andrews going on to help found the Rumour with Graham Parker.

GRAHAM PARKER AND THE RUMOUR:

Bob and Brinsley, together with guitarist Martin Belmont from the recently defunct Ducks Deluxe met up at the Hope and Anchor and decided to form a new band. Martin knew a bass player and drummer, Andrew Bodnar and Steve Goulding who’s band, BonTemps Roulez had also split up. They started to rehearse down at the Newlands Tavern in Peckham, London and called themselves the Rumour, after the song by The Band. Dave Robinson, soon to be Stiff Records impresario and former Brinsleys manager, introduced them to Graham Parker and Parker also started rehearsing with them at the Tavern. A decision was made to keep the two acts separate for contractual purposes - publishing and record deals - and the band recorded a live record “at Marble Arch” and the first Graham Parker record, Howling Wind, at the end of 1975, and at the beginning of 1976, hit the road. Bob’s keyboard playing was central and critical to the sound and success of the Rumour. Where later bands in the developing punk genre often pared their ensemble sound down to guitar, bass and drums, the Rumour had an expansive, sophisticated way with arrangements, which traded heavily on their immersion in the sounds of American soul music and the work of Bob Dylan (especially with the Band) and Van Morrison.

In his tenure with the Rumour Bob recorded five critically lauded and influential records (see Graham Parker discography) and toured the world relentlessly, moving from warm up slots with acts like Thin Lizzy to their own headlining tours. In 1979, Bob was sacked from GP and the Rumour following tours in support of the Squeezing Out Sparks album.

THE PRODUCTION YEARS:

In addition to his touring with the Brinsley and the Rumour, Bob played many recording sessions throughout the Seventies and eighties, being a sought after player for his piano and organ work. He enjoyed the studio environment, and had ideas about making records, particularly as both the the seventies bands had not made great ones and had no sales as such. He played on Maxine Nightingale’s 1975 hit “Get Right Back.” His brilliantly angular jazz inflected piano playing was a highlight of his friend and former band mate Nick Lowe’s hit “Breaking Glass” in 1977; and his Hammond organ solo was featured on Sam Brown’s No. 1 hit “Stop,” from 1986. In 1978 Bob co-produced (w/Brinsley Schwarz) his first album - the first album from Carlene Carter, catching the job through acquaintance with her manager. The Rumour played a promotional tour with Carlene that same year. In 1979, Stiff Records boss Dave Robinson, who managed Bob sporadically throughout the seventies and eighties, enlisted Bob as producer for Stiff artist Jonah Lewie. This partnership produced, among other recordings, a major U.K. chart smash, “Stop The Calvary,” which reached the No. 2 position in the charts in December of 1980. The song also charted in twelve other countries. Actually an anti-war song, “Calvary” included the line “I wish I was at home for Christmas.” When coupled with its seasonal release it contributed to the song’s perception as a Christmas song, and it remains a widely requested seasonal favorite in the U.K. Bob also produced the band Ten Pole Tudor's hit "Swords Of A Thousand Men" as part of his relationship with Robinson and the seminal Stiff label.