William Brown (1943 – 6 June 1999) was a musician and artist from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

. He was a singer, saxophonist, and pianist with The Freshmen, an

Irish showband The Irish showband was a dance band format popular in Ireland from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. The showband was based on the internationally popular six- or seven-piece dance band. The band's basic repertoire included standard dance numbers and ...

of the 1960s and 1970s.

Life

Brown was born in

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid ...

, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. While studying at the

Belfast College of Art The Belfast School of Art, is a School in thUlster University Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciencesand is physically located at the Belfast campus. Following the results of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 Ulster is ranked within ...

he joined Billy McFarland's Showband. Later he formed The Freshmen with some friends. Through Brown's arrangements, the band were able to reproduce sophisticated vocal harmonies in their covers of songs such as " Papa Oom Mow Mow", "

The Little Old Lady from Pasadena "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" is a song written by Don Altfeld, Jan Berry and Roger Christian, and recorded by 1960s American pop singers, Jan and Dean. Singer/songwriter P.F. Sloan sings the falsetto part usually sung by Dean Torrence, ...

", and "Carpet Man".''Irish Independent'', "Farewell to a dashing midnight matinee idol", 10 June 1999 In a tribute to Brown following his death, Freshmen founder-member, Maurice Henry, described his late friend's pivotal role in the band:

''"You could say Billy was The Freshmen and without his talent and innovative musical skills we would certainly not have achieved as much, either as a showband or in our recordings.The ''News Letter'', "Farewell to a star of the showband scene", 8 June 1999

Brown left The Freshmen in the mid 1970s to pursue other musical projects, albeit with limited success. He later rejoined the band and, in 1977, they had one of their biggest hits with his composition, "Cinderella". Following the breakup of The Freshmen, Brown had a minor solo hit in 1980 with his own song, "Look What Jerry Lee Did To Me". In his latter years, Brown developed his interest in

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted f ...

, becoming a painter of nature scenes, as well as contributing his insights into the natural world on to

RTÉ 2fm (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...

's children's show, ''Poporama''. Billy Brown died of a heart attack on 6 June 1999, at his home in

Johnstown, County Kildare Johnstown () is a village in County Kildare, Ireland. It is located north of Naas just off the N7 at junction 8. It is approximately from Dublin city centre, and is a home for commuters working in Dublin and Naas. Most of the housing was ...

, Republic of Ireland. In its obituary, the ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet n ...

'' referred to him as ''"one of the most gifted musicians of his generation"''.

References

External links