Kirk Brandon (born 3 August 1956) is an English musician best known as the leader of the bands Theatre of Hate and Spear of Destiny.

Musical career

Brandon's music career started in 1978, in

Clapham Clapham () is a district in south London, south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (including Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Ea ...

south London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...

, with the formation of

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 ...

group The Pack, in which he was the singer and songwriter. The Pack consisted of Brandon, Scottish-born drummer Rab Fae Beith and two Canadian brothers, Simon and Jon Werner on guitars. The last live gig by The Pack took place at the 101 club in Clapham. Brandon then formed the

post punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

new wave band Theatre of Hate in 1980 recruiting

Stan Stammers Stan Stammers (born 19 May 1961, England) is an English musician best known as the bass player for the bands Theatre of Hate, Spear of Destiny (band), Spear of Destiny and Plastic Eaters. Early life Stammers grew up in Saffron Walden, Essex. ...

, previously of The Straps, on bass guitar, Nigel Preston on drums,

Billy Duffy William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist in the band the Cult. Early life Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester, England. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playin ...

on guitar and John 'Boy' Lennard on saxophone. Theatre of Hate had their largest hit from the ''

Westworld ''Westworld'' is an American science fiction dystopia media franchise that began with the Westworld (film), 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild West, Wild-West-th ...

'' album with the single "Do You Believe in the Westworld?", which achieved number 40 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1982, while the album rose to number 17 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

in March 1982. Theatre of Hate disbanded in 1983. Brandon and Stammers were then joined by Lascelles James of

Brit funk Brit funk (or Britfunk) is a musical style that has its origins in the British music scene of the late 1970s and which remained popular into the 1980s. It mixes elements from jazz, funk, soul, urban dance rhythms and pop hooks. The scene origina ...

band Body, Soul & Spirit on saxophone and Chris Bell on drums to form Spear of Destiny. The new band adopted a more melodic and less aggressive sound, distancing themselves from post-punk and moving a little more towards mainstream pop. While continuing to explore the political ideas that he wrote about in Theatre of Hate, Brandon's lyrics for Spear of Destiny dealt more frequently with the classic pop themes of love and romance. Many line-up changes followed with the band swelling to a 6 piece and then contracting back to a 4 piece. The band's reputation as a live act never translated itself into record sales, and Spear of Destiny only had one Top 20 hit, " Never Take Me Alive", which reached number 14 in the UK Singles Chart in 1987. In 2003, Brandon did a solo tour as support to

The Alarm The Alarm are a Welsh rock band that formed in Rhyl, Wales in 1981. Initially formed as a punk band, the Toilets, in 1977 under lead vocalist Mike Peters, the group soon embraced arena rock and included marked influences from Welsh language ...

on their 'Poppyfields' tour. His set included some new material played on an acoustic guitar with electric pick up, as well as some material from his time with Theatre of Hate and Spear of Destiny. In later years he performed in the punk supergroup, Dead Men Walking, before reforming and touring with Spear of Destiny in 2007 and 2008. Brandon continues to tour with both Spear of Destiny and Theatre of Hate, as well as a revamped Dead Men Walking, playing occasionally as The Pack, and acoustic shows including with cellist Sam Sansbury.

Personal life

As a boy, Kirk Brandon attended Churston Ferrers Grammar School in Devon. In 1987, Brandon developed

reactive arthritis Reactive arthritis, previously known as Reiter's syndrome, is a form of inflammatory arthritis that develops in response to an infection in another part of the body (cross-reactivity). Coming into contact with bacteria and developing an infect ...

and could not walk for more than a year. Brandon was married in 1994 to a Danish woman, Christina. Shortly afterwards, he was declared bankrupt. In 1997, Brandon sued the singer

Boy George George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ who rose to fame as the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club. He began his solo career in 1987. Boy George grew up in Eltham a ...

for

malicious falsehood Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

and lost. George revealed details of his love for Brandon and their romantic and sexual affair in his 1995 autobiography '' Take It Like a Man''. Brandon claimed that stories about the gay affair in the early 1980s damaged his career as a musician. He also objected to the lyrics of a Boy George song, "Unfinished Business", which apparently were aimed at him: "I hear you married a Danish girl ... You break your promise easily ... You lie, you lie, you lie. Yeah tough guy, you know exactly what I mean." Brandon demanded damages from Boy George, George's publishers,

Sidgwick and Jackson Sidgwick & Jackson was an imprint of book publishing company Pan Macmillan. Formerly it was an independent publisher; as such, it was founded in Britain in 1908. Its early authors include poet Rupert Brooke and novelist E.M. Forster. In more ...

, and also

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

and EMI Virgin Music Publishing. The judge ruled in favour of the defendants, and ordered Brandon to pay £200,000 to Virgin Records, EMI Virgin Music, and the book publisher in court costs. Following the lawsuit, Brandon declared bankruptcy which resulted in Boy George paying over £20,000 in legal fees instead. In January 2008, Brandon sued

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a Mergers an ...

UK over personal injuries as a result of taking the anti-depressant drug Seroxat. Brandon had heart surgery in 2011. He was a tutor at the

Brighton Institute of Modern Music BIMM University (BIMM) is a private university specialising in music, film, performing arts and creative technology. The university is principally based in the United Kingdom with other centres in Ireland and Germany. It is organised into five ...

in 2012.

Media portrayal

Brandon was portrayed by the actor Richard Madden in the 2010 television film '' Worried About the Boy'', a dramatisation of Boy George's rise to fame in the early 1980s.

References

External links

Kirk Brandon's Official Site

Kirk Brandon interview (BBC)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandon, Kirk 1956 births Living people English male singers English male songwriters Musicians from the City of Westminster People educated at Churston Ferrers Grammar School English post-punk musicians Theatre of Hate members Spear of Destiny (band) members Dead Men Walking members