Martin Brammer (born 13 May 1957) is an English singer, songwriter, composer and record producer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

trio Kane Gang. Brammer later developed his songwriting abilities to pen many successful tracks for a variety of notable musicians. Brammer has been nominated for an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

, and has been involved in the making of records that have sold over 20 million copies worldwide. He is currently the manager of the British

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band Vant.

Career

Brammer was born in

Seaham Seaham ( ) is a seaside town in County Durham (district), County Durham, England. Located on the Durham Coast, Seaham is situated south of Sunderland and east of Durham, England, Durham. The town grew from the late 19th century onwards as ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, England. Part of a trio of local

North East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

musicians, Brammer was a founding member of the Kane Gang, which started in late 1982. Brammer co-wrote their smooth

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

"Closest Thing to Heaven", a UK top 20

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

hit in 1984. He also co-wrote other chart successes for them, including "Smalltown Creed" (1984), "Gun Law" (1985) and "Motortown" (1987). Kane Gang broke up in 1991. Brammer then continued his career as a songwriter to the present day. Songs he has written or co-written have been recorded by

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023) was a singer, songwriter, actress, and author. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", her vocal prowess, raspy voice, and electrifyin ...

, James Morrison,

Marco Mengoni Marco Mengoni (; born 25 December 1988) is an Italian singer-songwriter who rose to fame in 2009, after winning the third season of Italian talent show ''X Factor (Italian TV series), X Factor''. Since then he has sold over 2.8 million reco ...

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, Jack McManus,

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and

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. In addition, Brammer has contributed as record producer on various albums including ''Good Things Come to Those Who Don't Wait'' (Josh Kumra); ''

'' and ''

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'' (Olly Murs); plus '' Now or Never'' (Nick Carter). He also sang

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

on a 1994 album by Opus III ('' Guru Mother''). Brammer has his own recording studio in which he both writes and records, and favours using microphones manufactured by sE Electronics. Brammer's most recent work includes writing material for John Newman,

Ella Eyre Ella McMahon (born 1 April 1994), known professionally as Ella Eyre, is an English singer and songwriter. She is known for her collaborations with Rudimental on their UK number-one single " Waiting All Night" (2013), which won the 2014 Brit Aw ...

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and

Luke Friend Luke Friend (born 30 April 1996) is an English singer from Teignmouth in Devon. He started his career in 2013 after winning ''TeenStar'' and appearing as a contestant and later a finalist on tenth series of ''The X Factor'' and later was the la ...

Personal life

Brammer has an ex-wife, Alia, and two daughters, Salma and Ella. He told

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

that he does not employ a manager.

Songwriting credits

Apart from those written for Kane Gang, Brammer's songwriting credits include:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brammer, Martin 1957 births 20th-century British male musicians 20th-century English composers 20th-century English singers 21st-century British male musicians 21st-century English composers 21st-century English singers English male singers English male singer-songwriters English pop singers English record producers Living people People from Seaham Musicians from County Durham