Robin Lumley (17 January 1948 – 9 March 2023) was a British

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

musician, keyboardist, record producer, and author who was a member of the band

Brand X Brand X were a British jazz rock band formed in London in 1974. They were initially active until 1980, followed by reformations between 1992–1999 and 2016–2021. Despite sometimes being considered to be a Phil Collins side project (due t ...

with drummer

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...

, guitarist John Goodsall, and bassist Percy Jones. He was a second cousin of the actress

Joanna Lumley Dame Joanna Lamond Lumley (born 1 May 1946) is an Indian-born British actress, presenter, author, television producer, activist and former model. She has won two BAFTA TV Awards for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC sitcom ''Absolutely Fabulo ...

Life and career

Lumley was born in the Alexandra Nursing Home, Devonport, Plymouth, Devon. After attending Plympton Grammar School (now Hele's School, Plympton) he trained as a teacher at St. Luke's College, Exeter (now part of Exeter University). He started playing drums in a student band at college. The band reached the finals of the ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' talent contest in the early 1970s, after which he switched to keyboards. He then moved to London and did odd jobs while trying to get into the music business. One day he received a phone call from

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

, a former neighbour, looking for someone to replace his ill keyboard player. Lumley accepted the job and toured as a member of Bowie's band. He met

Jack Lancaster Jack Lancaster was a British composer, record producer and musician. In the late 1960s, Lancaster co-founded the British rock group Blodwyn Pig with Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams and in the late 1970s he was a member o ...

and starting doing session work recording for others. Among the musicians he encountered was

of Genesis, with whom he founded Brand X and became interested in music producing. From 1974 to 1983, he was the keyboard player for Brand X. He took leave from the band in 1978 to concentrate on his career as a record producer but returned for the band's final albums and tours. He also produced albums for

Rod Argent Rodney Terence Argent (born 14 June 1945) is an English musician. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Argent came to prominence in the mid-1960s as the keyboardist, founder and leader of the rock band the Zombies, and went on to form the ba ...

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, and Orleans. In the 1980s, he formed a

jazz-rock Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music Music genre, genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, a ...

band that included Rod Argent,

Graeme Edge Graeme Charles Edge (30 March 1941 – 11 November 2021) was an English musician, songwriter and poet, best known as the co-founder and drummer of the English band the Moody Blues. In addition to his work with the Moody Blues, Edge worked as th ...

(of the Moody Blues),

Morris Pert Morris David Brough Pert (8 September 1947 – 27 April 2010) was a Scottish composer, drummer/percussionist, and pianist who composed in the fields of both contemporary classical and jazz-rock music. His compositions include three symphonies, p ...

(of Brand X), and

Gary Brooker Gary Brooker (29 May 1945 – 19 February 2022) was an English singer and pianist, and the founder and lead singer of the rock band Procol Harum. Early life Born in Hackney Hospital, East London, on 29 May 1945, Brooker grew up in Hackney ...

(of Procol Harum). In 1991 he married Debra Allanson, a media executive and television presenter from Perth, Australia. In 2000 he produced a set of instruction videos with

Roland Corporation is a Japanese multinational manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on 18 April 1972. In 2005, its headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefect ...

on keyboard technique. In 2001 he formed the band SETI with Graeme Edge, bassist Rob Burns, and Rod McGrath (cellist for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra). Lumley wrote the book ''Tay Bridge Disaster: The People's Story'' about the collapse of the Tay Bridge in 1879 while a train was attempting to cross it. The train was headed to

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, Scotland, and his great-grandfather had intended to board the train. Lumley died from heart failure in Plymouth, on 9 March 2023, at the age of 75.

Discography

As leader

* 1975 ''Peter & The Wolf'' with Jack Lancaster * 1976 ''Marscape'' with Jack Lancaster With Brand X * 1976 ''Unorthodox Behaviour'' * 1977 ''Moroccan Roll'' * 1977 ''Livestock'' * 1978 ''Masques'' * 1979 ''Product'' * 1980 ''Do They Hurt?'' * 1982 ''Is There Anything About?'' * 1992 ''The Plot Thins: A History of Brand X'' * 1997 ''Live at the Roxy L.A. 1979'' * 1998 ''Missing Period'' * 2003 ''Macrocosm: Introducing...Brand X'' * 2015 ''Ronnie Scotts Live 1976'' * 2016 ''Rochester 1977''

As sideman

* 1976 ''Airborne'' Curved Air * 1977 ''The Dancer'', Gary Boyle * 1980 ''Breaking through the Ice Age'', Ellen Shipley * 1983 ''Exile'',

Exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

References

External links

Robin Lumley at Discogs

Brand X at Discogs

Nova Vimana at Discogs

Isotope Deep End
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lumley, Robin 1948 births 2023 deaths British jazz musicians British jazz keyboardists British rock keyboardists RSO Records artists Brand X members