Meet the three artists who created and composed our music for half a century.
Robin Lumley, John Goodsall and Percy Jones
Creating the finest in 'Snuff Jazz Acid' music since 1975
Follow our links to read about the three creators known as Brand X
Self-taught and greatly inspired by Charles Mingus and British and American rhythm and blues, Percy Jones plies his craft with a repertoire of glissandos, harmonics, and three-finger riffage, among other techniques, in his work as a jazz-fusion prog-rock master. A composer, arranger, sideman, collaborator, multi-instrumentalist, and solo recording artist, Percy has anchored several watershed sides, most notably as a member of Brand X, and with Brian Eno, Roy Harper, Steve Hackett, David Sylvian, and Tunnels to cite a very select few.
Percy reflects: “came to New York in 1969 with The Liverpool Scene and we played at Ungano’s. That’s when I met Charles Mingus. We did a set for the press…and after we finished playing Mike Evans, the saxophone player, said to me ‘Mingus is here!!!!’ We were both huge fans. I look over at the buffet and there was Charles, filling his plate up with food! He certainly didn’t come here to see us. We went over and talked to him. He was playing at the Vanguard and invited us. We arrived and the place was almost empty. Of course, we sat upfront and it was pretty much just the Mingus band and us!” READ MORE ABOUT PERCY JONES.
Born on February 15, 1953, Goodsall grew up in East Molesey, Surrey, UK. Although his grandmother was a singer, young John’s greatest influence was his grandfather, a bandleader who played mostly piano but doubled with guitar, reed instruments, and trumpet and was classically trained on violin: his musicality left a lasting impression on Goodsall. By the time he was seven years old. John had a guitar—a Rossetti Lucky 7 acoustic that cost about £7. “I didn’t even know how to tune it.” he recalls. “I used to have my own tunings. One of them called for every string to be set a major second above the adjacent one.”
For Christmas that year. John received a Vox Broadway electric, which his father had tuned before bringing it home from the music store. “He said, that’s how you tune it; that’s how it’s supposed to be.'” John remembers. “I picked it up and noticed that the two thinnest strings—the E and B— were tuned to a fourth. What a difference. Straight away I set out to learn one of my favourite tunes, ‘Apache,’ by the Shadows. I picked out the notes and played right through it almost immedi-ately.” READ MORE ABOUT JOHN GOODSALL.
“I hate getting up and I knew that in the music industry nobody gets up much before 10 o’clock, so that’s why I wanted to do it in the first place!” says Robin Lumley, as he reflects on his first years as a musician in London: “I bought a little electric piano because I knew there were already lots of drummers, lots of bass players and lots of guitarists around; and in my naivety I thought the way in to recording was to do sessions. Because I thought there weren’t lots of keyboard players, if I learned to play the piano I might stand a better chance, and that’s the only reason I play keyboards! After about a year I was very lucky because I was phoned up by David Bowie of all people. He lived in Beckenham where I lived, and he had a whole series of concerts lined up and his keyboard player (Matthew Fisher from Procol Harum) had gone sick. He wanted someone for the day after tomorrow to play the Rainbow!”
“I first hung up on him because Ithought it was someone fooling around! Then he phoned back and said ‘no, really, it is David Bowie here’ and I had been recommended by a friend of a friend, you know that bit. Anyway, he sent a car round, and when the doorbell rang and it was this guy with a chauffeur’s hat and a six door Mercedes outside I realised: this is getting a bit serious!” READ MORE ABOUT ROBIN LUMLEY.
Brand X
Robin Lumley
Percy Jones
John Goodsall
Brand X was born at Island Records
in 1974, Richard Williams of Island Records kept a jam band of mostly three session players who, one fine day, attracted the talents of John Goodsall, Percy Jones, and Robin Lumley.
When drummer Phil Collins joined the sessions in 1975, he immediately bonded with Jones, Goodsall and Lumley. The four snuck off to form a new musical alliance and left Island Records to prepare their first album.
By late 1975, the four musicians ended their arrangement with Island Records and moved to Charisma Records where Phil Collins & Genesis had made a home.