Andrew Brel
| Andrew Brel | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Andreas Broulidakis |
| Born | 28 September 1960 Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Origin | London, United Kingdom |
| Genres | New-age, meditation, wellness |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, Music producer, Author |
| Instruments | Guitar, Bouzouki |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Website | www |
Andrew Brel (born Andreas Broulidakis, 28 September 1960) is a UK author whose work includes 'The Emergency Bouzouki Player' and 'One Day in Paris'. A professional musician for over forty years as a composer and producer.
Contents
Early life[edit]
Brel was born to Greek parents in the South African suburb of Bryanston, one of Johannesburg's affluent whites-only areas in 1960. His father was Manoussos Broulidakis, originally from Sfakia, a Cretan village on the South of the Island notable for its resistance during the Ottoman occupation. With a reputation for resistance against oppression going back 1,000 years, Sfakia was the extraction point for the Allied troops caught up in the surprise invasion of Crete by the Nazis in 1941. After emigrating to South Africa in 1934, Manos volunteered for the South African army in 1939, and served as an infantry captain in the British Commonwealth forces, active in North Africa and Italy. He was a multiple medal winner although he gave his medals away, believing medals to be unworthy for motivating an anti fascist position which is a duty, not a choice.
He married Helen Evangelou in 1956. They had three children. Katerina, born 1958, Andreas born 1960 and Christina born 1966.
The family lived in Linksfield Ridge in what was the 'House of the Year in 1956. The house on Hannoben street was designed by Frank L. Jarret in 1951 "for Greek timber merchant Manos Broulidakis, who spared no expense in using the richest of timbers for its interiors."
Manos sold in 1960 to L.Ron Hubbard, who relocated his Scientology business to South Africa. It is currently listed as one of Johannesburg's hidden treasures of architecture as a museum called 'The Ron Hubbard House'.[1]
Manos Broulidakis' home was the first 1950's house to attain Heritage status in South Africa.
In 1960 Manos moved his family to Bryanston, where Andreas grew up a native Greek speaker, educated at Bryanston Primary, Bryanston High and Damelin College before completing first year at the University of the Witwatersrand medical school.
Manos died in 1971 of a coronary thrombosis, leaving Helen, 36, with three children to raise in a three acre property with four servants. Andrew was 10, Katherine 12 and Christina 4. Each child would react differently to this early encounter with profound loss. Andrew rejected orthodox religion from an early age, being an outspoken anti-theist from the age of 12.
Conscription into the SADF[edit]
In 1979, aged 18 Brel was forcibly conscripted into the South African Army for two years during the height of the Border War. Brel toured the Border war zone as a guitarist in the Entertainment Corps show band, performing with many of South Africa's biggest musical stars of the era on morale boosting concerts for the troops.
In this guise he met and entertained several of South Africa's significant Apartheid leaders, including Minister of Defence, Magnus Malan and Minister of Police Jimmy Kruger.
In 1980 as a 19 year old troop in military uniform he found himself face to face with South Africa's Leader P. W. Botha during a Dinner/Dance function for the Argentine Prime Minister. Overwhelmed by intuitively impulsive youthful exuberance he told the Prime Minister, your bum stinks. One of many instances of non violent protest that characterized an unhappy period of living under and resenting the rule of the Apartheid regime. [2]
After national service, in order to avoid the camp system in which conscripts were required to return to the border annually, Andrew returned to formal education which provided exemption from camps. He completed three years of Computer Science whilst performing as a solo musician at many of South Africa's most prestigious musical venues, becoming one of the busiest and highest paid performers in South Africa between 1981 and 1985.
In 1981, at the outset of a career as a professional musician, acting on the advice of a booking agent who explained the difficulties in booking 'Andreas Broulidakis' he adopted a shortened version of his name, appearing professionally as Andy Brel for the first time in 1981 at his first professional contract, the Quirinale Hotel in Hillbrow, performing for four hours, five nights weekly.
Between 1981 and 1985 Brel he averaged over 300 paid appearances each year whilst still a full-time student, being reviewed on numerous occasions by The Star, then the most widely circulated news publication in South Africa. During this time he experienced undiagnosed PTSD, which led to a formal interest in learning about and then sharing information about the condition.
Emigration[edit]
In 1985 Andrew left Apartheid South Africa and emigrated to England, arriving with a total of £1,500 and no plan beyond playing music for money. Motivated entirely by the desire to escape from South Africa and never return.
He was well received from the outset in the UK where his one man show led to a stream of bookings on the Pub and club circuit. Soon after arrival he enjoyed a 3 year Saturday night sold out stint at Bo-Jangles, a trendy wine bar in Kingston-Upon-Thames, which at that time was the in-place for musicians in South West London, leading to many musical introductions and album recording opportunities. Providing the social network that formed the start of a new life in the UK.
Within one year of arriving in the UK, aged 25 in 1986 he bought his first home on the Thames Riverbank near Hampton Court. Where he quickly adapted to life as a local in the village of East Molesey.
From 1986 until 1991 he owned and operated Hampton Court Studios, at no 3 Bridge Road, where he worked as a music writer and producer developing new talent. This included the original demos of the Dogs D'Amour which led to their record deal which launched an interesting and colorful chapter in Rock and Roll.
After sessions on most days, in the evenings Brel continued public performances as a guitarist/singer, often in duo context with musicians including Duncan Mackay (10cc), John Edwards (Status Quo) and Ronnie Johnson (Van Morrison). In the eighties, Brel averaged six nights a week of live gigs in and around London and five sessions a week in Hampton Court Studios.
Bridge Recordings[edit]
In 1989, Brel formed a record label, Bridge Recordings[3] with Charlie Morgan, then drummer with Elton John. Bridge Recordings was a pioneering model of an independent record label producing high quality recordings of accomplished musicians playing their own instruments with the ethos of 'Music by Musicians.'
Distribution of Bridge albums was enhanced by Brel's association with Music Maker Publications and its chairman Terry Day which enabled numerous successful promotions though the wide circulation of their magazine 'Guitarist'.
In 1991 Music Maker leased one of the first T1 Internet connections in the UK and Brel established the Bridge Recordings web store which recorded the first instance of a CD sale via the Internet for Give Them Enough Rope by Ronnie Johnson.[4]
During the 1990s this association with the largest publisher of music related magazines helped the careers of many guitar players and included starting the Guitarist Magazine 'Guitarist of the Year' competition, which gave unknown players the opportunity to perform live with top session musicians in front of an audience for the prize of publicity and a recording opportunity. Several of the participants in these shows have gone on to enjoy successful professional careers.
Brel contributed numerous articles for publication in Music Maker titles including lengthy features on Manfred Mann,[5] and songwriter Terry Britten.[6]
From 1992, Brel produced all covermount CD's for all Terry Days publications under the Music Maker banner including Guitarist magazine and Guitar Techniques magazine. Containing new content each month by a variety of contributors that would include Martin Taylor and Guthrie Govan along with many of the top level of teachers and players in the UK.
This conceptual idea, which began in a coffee meeting between Brel and Terry Day in Cambridge provided a new and original approach to music tuition that has left a lasting legacy. During this period Brel also mastered every CD release and arranged for the production and delivery of over 2 million CD's. Along with negotiating the licensed payment for copyright material appearing in the lessons with the MCPS, leading to significant amounts being paid to the writers of the music appearing on the CD content.
The success of the CD cover mounts and the quality of the content led to an acquisition of the Music Maker brand by Future Publishing.
Black Barn Studios[edit]
In 1995, Bridge Recordings expanded its production capability to include ownership of Black Barn Studios in Ripley, Surrey, the early home of Eric Clapton. From there, Brel produced and released fifteen promoted albums, two with the SAS Band; Queen keyboard player Spike Edney's all star band featuring musicians including; Chris Thompson, Roger Taylor, Peter Green, Ian Anderson, Tony Hadley, Roy Wood and Paul Young.
The 1997 release, the eponymously titled SAS Band album, also known as the 'Blue album' and the 2001 release "SAS Band Live".
Brel played on and produced the live version of Richard O'Brien's classic 'Time Warp.
in 1998 Brel produced and released Leo Sayer's Live in London[7] and Louis Ribeiro's Under African Skies.[8]
By the late 1990s, several events conspired to end sustainability of the Bridge Recordings business model. The growth of home recording technology meant a decline in demand for high cost professional recording services, which along with the shrinking sales of musical CD's as a new generation followed the 'download for free' model, all but ended the business motivation to pay for recordings for a shrinking market increasingly willing to pay for content. As a result the studio was sold to one of its busiest clients, Paul Weller.[9] Charlie Morgan left Elton John's band and moved to the United States where he resides in Nashville, while Terry Day sold Music Maker Publications.[10]
Personal Life[edit]
Brel married Catherine Smith in 1986, 'the girl next door' from Bryanston, after dating since 1979. They had one child, Mannousos John, born in Kingston-On-Thames in 1989. They divorced in 1992. Brel had a number of relationships subsequently. In 2009 he had a second son, also born in Kingston-On-Thames, Byron Broulidakis. In 2014 he became resident in California. Despite being raised by a Greek Orthodox mother after the death of his Atheist father at age ten, Brel has been a lifelong atheist and is a vocal antitheist who believes religion will eventually be as widely condemned as racism
New-age music[edit]
In 2001 Brel wrote his first album in the genre of new-age music[11] called "Angel Inspiration" which was released by New World Music. Encouragement in this genre of musical composition came from New Age author Diana Cooper, who was supportive of Brel's talent as a composer of 'meditation music' by including it on her range of spoken word meditation recordings.
The commercial success of this album led to Brel exploring the medium more widely, recording and releasing a series of eight albums. Three in collaboration with Hugh Burns which have attracted considerable success both critically and commercially.
Brel recorded and produced a series of 15 spoken word meditation CDs with self-help author Diana Cooper which features his meditation music. The Diana Cooper meditation CD's remain best sellers in the spoken word meditation field, released by Findhorn Press. In 2015 Brel released Laguna, his seventh album for Meditation and Wellness, working with Richard Niles in Laguna Beach.[12] In 2017, his eighth album was released, a solo effort called 'Meditation and Tranquility' which produced a Streaming media hit, called 'Diana'.
Brel uses Taylor guitars.
Songwriting[edit]
Brel has worked on several collaborations with guitarist and composer, Hugh Burns, including writing The Paradise Key[13] in 2003 which recalled events in the Iran Iraq war surrounding the religiously inspired 'human wave' attacks. He is the co writer of 'Alone' with Spike Edney, originally sung by Patti Russo and later a hit in California for Hugo Fernandes.[14]
Brel is the co writer of 'Suburban House' with Josh Phillips, originally sung by Leo Sayer and later a hit in Ukraine for Ani Lorak.[15]
21 of his most performed songs appear on the 2017 release "Riverbank Songwriting" including songs with Alan Tarney, Spike Edney and Josh Phillips.
In 2018 Brel wrote and produced What I Love by Hugo Fernandes. A seventeen song album of acoustic guitar and voice, performed by Hugo Fernandes. [13] Recorded in California and released by Andrew Brel Music on 15 September 2018.
The Emergency Bouzouki Player[edit]
Brel's first book, The Emergency Bouzouki Player was published in 2011. The book reflects a first hand account of conscription in the South African Army during the years of Apartheid and is the best selling book about South Africa's Border War outside of South Africa. The long term social consequences of forced conscription and the PTSD generation that returned from the border war without any medical help are widely explored. South African writer and intellectual John Oakley Smith described it as 'A book that should be compulsory reading in every South African school.'
One Day in Paris[edit]
Brel's second book is a novel, One Day in Paris. The account of a fictitious attack in Paris where former British Army officer, Dan Blake, a PTSD affected sociopath with superior intelligence, is recruited to mastermind a terror attack in Paris in which he learns how the American Military Industrial complex relies on new conflict to sustain growth. Described as 'a close up look at the 1% who control the 1%' by ethicist and film-maker Stephen Trombley.
References[edit]
- ^ "Ron Hubbard House". http://lronhubbard.org.za/. Retrieved 28 October 2018. External link in
|website=(help) - ^ The Emergency Bouzouki Player – Andrew Brel – Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "Bridge Recordings". Andrewbrel.com. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "Ronnie Johnson – Give Them Enough Rope CD Album". Cduniverse.com. 14 November 2006. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "Manfred Mann interview". Andrewbrel.com. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "Terry Britten interview". Andrewbrel.com. 25 June 1993. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "Leo Sayer – Live in London CD Album". Cduniverse.com. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "Jive Nation | Under African Skies | CD Baby Music Store". Cdbaby.com. 23 October 2007. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "Black Barn Studios : History". Blackbarnstudio.com. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "History : Recording Magazine". Recordingmag.com. 17 January 1994. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ Andrew Brel. "Andrew Brel | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ http://www.andrewbrel.com/music/meditation-music/laguna/
- ^ "Paradise Key". Andrewbrel.com. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "Alone". andrewbrel.com. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
- ^ "Suburban House". andrewbrel.com. Retrieved 28 October 2018.