THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN – THE CON CLUB, LEWES 25.11.23
The quaint town of Lewes somehow seems the perfect place for a bit of psychedelic Rock, always imagine it’s the kind of place ex acid head grooves would retire to and what better venue than Lewes Con Club, where we drop in to grab a few psychedelic photos of the The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown set.
The stage is set up with a white screen at the back for projections and the stage is decked at with full mannequins and half mannequins and foliage leaving only a small clear window centre stage to see the front man clearly when he arrives on stage which tonight proves trickier than usual. Now I’ve circumvented punk crowds, rock crowds, festival crowds of 1000s to weave my way in politely when the need has arisen to capture a few shots of the action, but tonight no one wants to give up an inch and some of the old peace and love has drained away as this pretty much exclusively retirement age crowd just won’t give me a little room, I have to just do the best I can without getting clobbered with a handbag.
As the intro starts the drummer, bassist and guitarist stroke keyboard player kick off proceedings under a heavy psychedelic projection and after a short while the vocalist’s voice is heard in the distance before finally entering the stage to a huge cheer, welcome to The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, whose setlist for this evening can be located below.
Arthur Brown is synonymous with his 1968 hit ‘Fire’ and the Hammond-driven “Crazy World” line-up which spawned it. However, his ‘God of Hellfire’ burned out fast and, in 1970, he returned with a new project: the prog-festival freak-show Kingdom Come followed by a varied solo career. Those initial four band albums, by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and by Kingdom Come are thrilling, as tend to be Brown’s cameos on other peoples’ projects.
Best known for his flamboyant theatrical performances and his powerful, wide-ranging operatic voice. He has been a major influence on a wide range of musicians due to his outstanding vocal ability and wild stage persona and concepts. He is considered a pioneer of shock rock and progressive rock and influential on heavy metal music.
He associated with Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Frank Zappa, Hawkwind, Klaus Schultze and Alice Cooper and made a cameo appearance in the cult film ‘The Committee’ and also ‘Tommy’. His countless collaborations include The Alan Parsons Project, The Stranglers and The Prodigy.
His best-known single ‘Fire’ hit No.1 in the UK singles chart and Canada, and No.2 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album ‘The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown’ had top ten success on both sides of the Atlantic. Following ‘Fire’, the press would often refer to Brown as “The God of Hellfire”, in reference to the opening shouted line of the song.
Arthur shows no signs of stopping or slowing down and continues to record and release hugely inspiring music, including his most recent release ‘Long, Long Road’ (2022) and the launch of his new multi-media show “A Human Perspective”.
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown setlist:
‘Phoenix’
‘Nightmare Fanfare’
‘Fire Poem’
‘Fire’
‘God Brother You Lie’
‘Come And Buy’
‘Time’
‘Voice Of Love’
‘Confusion’
‘Sunrise’
‘Voice Of Love’
‘Cellos’
‘Touched By All’
‘Time Captains’
