Peter Bramall (born 10 November 1950 in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

), better known by his stage name Bram Tchaikovsky, is a British

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

. He first came to prominence as a member of UK

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

/ pub rock band The Motors, whom he joined in 1977. After he left them, he led an eponymous

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a subgenre of rock music and form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, ...

band, with Micky Broadbent (bass, keyboards) and Keith Boyce (drums). He scored a US Top 40 hit single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1979, with "Girl of My Dreams" (released February in the UK, June in the US). In the Netherlands, "Sarah Smiles" was a minor hit, reaching number 32 in April 1979. Nick Garvey, Keith Line and Denis Forbes were also involved in later band lineups. In 1979 he played guitar for the Skids hit ' Into The Valley' on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. After disappointing sales, the band split up in 1981 and Tchaikovsky later owned and ran a recording studio near

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, called the Chappel. Tchaikovsky was also credited with co writing "Solid Ball of Rock", from the 1991

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

album of the same name.

Re-releases

In 1998, as part of a "British Rock" reissue series, WEA Japan rereleased both '' Strange Man, Changed Man'' and ''The Russians Are Coming'' albums on CD, using original master tapes and artwork. In addition to the original artwork and liner notes, each CD contained extensive historical information, song lyrics and musical commentary (albeit in Japanese). These CDs were only available in Japan and are now out of production. ''Strange Man, Changed Man'' had been expanded to 21 tracks and included rare B-sides and live cuts. It is only available on the web. ''Strange Man, Changed Man'' included newly remastered tracks, featuring the hit single "Girl of My Dreams", the track "Lonely Dancer" (which were both written by Heavy Metal Kid Ronnie Thomas), and ten bonus tracks. The bonus tracks included hard-to-find singles, B-sides, and live tracks. All tracks are taken from vinyl LPs and some tracks have considerable needle noise - very low-fi sound quality. In December 2007, ''Strange Man, Changed Man'' was issued in the US on the Hip-O Select label (ASIN: B000ZIZ0ZC) in digital sound and with full artwork. This CD release used the original master tapes sequenced for the original US release; the track running order is therefore different from the original UK album, and different from the 1998 Japanese CD version. In February 2012, a live recording, ''Live at the Lochem Festival, 1979'', appeared on Tiger Eye with the songs "Sarah Smiles", "Robber", "Nobody Knows", "Turn on the Lights" and "Girl of My Dreams". In April 2018,

Cherry Red Records Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything but the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as w ...

released ''Bram Tchaikovsky: Strange Men, Changed Men: The Complete Recordings 1978 – 1981'', a 3-CD

box set A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...

fully endorsed by Bram Tchaikovsky.

Album discography

Singles

References

External links

The Mod Pop Punk Archives: Bram Tchaikovsky
- Heavy Metal Kids website {{DEFAULTSORT:Tchaikovsky, Bram 1950 births Living people English rock guitarists English male singers Radar Records artists Polydor Records artists Arista Records artists The Motors members English male guitarists