Brian Pern

Brian Pern
Background Information
Birth name	Brian William Tyler Pern
Born	2 January 1947
Died	4 March 2017 (aged 70)
Origin	Westminster, London, Southern England
Genre(s)	Rock, House
Occupation(s)	singer/songwriter
Years active	1967-2000, 2011-2017
Label(s)	Columbia Records, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, RCA Records

Brian William Tyler Pern OBE (2 January 1947-4 March 2017) was a Southern English rock and house singer/songwriter, whose long-time career spanning half-a-century. He was a former frontman of the 1970s progressive rock band Thotch from the formation in 1967 until he became solo in 1978. In addition to his music, he was also an actor and charity worker. In 2014, he was listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving rock prog and singer/songwriter.

He was subjected in his documentary Brian Pern: A Life In Rock.

Early life

Pern was born Westminster, London, the son of Berta Marie Scotland and Michael Brian Daniel Pern. He grew up in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he attended a school by his grandfather in the garden of the family home. His local grandfather was interested in such things as hypnotism, theosophy, spiritualism, homoeopathy and esotericism, and the teachings of philosopher and educationist Rudolf Steiner. Pern was later educated at Waterloo Road and then at the University College of London.

Pern joined the British Army, and was commissioned into the Royal Air Force in 1964. A year later he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1966 he left the British Army with the rank of commander. Although future Coronation Street actor William Roache (who was later convicted of child sexual abuse in 2014) suffers from tinnitus, Pern survived the exploding mortar round during his military service; despite his serious injures.

Career

1967-1978

After leaving the army, Pern turned rock prog and singer/songwriter when he signed the deal with record label Columbia Records in 1967 (beating David Bowie for starting his music career) and formed the then-new rock band called Thotch. Their first song was The Great War about World War One (for which Pern's grandfather served during the war) between 1914-1918 before American soul singer Edwin Starr wrote a song about a Vietnam War which also held from 1969 until President Richard Nixon annouces he would finally withdraw his troops from Vietnam by the end of 1974 amid suffering a major defeat in the country but it was put on hold until 1975 after President Nixon resigned from the White House office in the wake of the ongoing Watergate scandal. Pern and his Thotch band later followed suit to write a protest song about the same ongoing war back in Vietnam. In 1975, Pern was married to his schoolteacher fiance Maria Macintosh and moved to the first town in the world; St Albans. In 1976, Brian and Maria have two sons Jamie (now a scientist) and Mark (now an engineer). Pern's deal with Columbia Records was terminated in 1977 after being accused of kissing a gay man but he said there was no way in joining the LGBT group. Instead, he sign the record deal with Warner Bros (commonly known as Warner Brothers) via Warner Music Group in 1978. At the same time, he split up from his band Thotch after 11 years and became solo following the allegations of being homosexual. It also lead to the permanent disbandment of Thotch following Pern's exit.

1978-2000

In 1978, Pern recorded a song about the famous real-life detective Sherlock Holmes based on the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. After the flop of his album Conviction, about the infamous prisoner Charles Bronson (not to be confused with or otherwise related to the American actor of the same name), Brian Pern's deal with WMG expired in 1987 in favour of MCA Records (now Universal Music Group) to mark his first-ever involvement in a genre that changed the world forever: house music, which was originated from Chicago a few years earlier in 1984. An unreleased documentary by the BBC reveals that, throughout 1988 up to 1994, he collaborated with house music producers Marshall Jefferson; Steve 'Slik' Hurley and the late Frankie Knuckles to make a six-part rock-house crossover album entitled Beyond the Waterfront. Tracks included Lord of House Music and Suck Your Asses. In addition, In 1995, Pern is announced that he will released his last ever album entitled Hitler the Nazi, a ten-part Grunge-House crossover portrait of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler but also debating issues surrounding hatred in the UK, within five years as he told the BBC at the opening of the 1995 British Royal Legion Festival that he would plan to retire from music to focus on family prospective as well as secretly working with the Royal Family as a deputy consultant to The Queen. At the same time, he was due to make a cameo as a newspaper guy who was talking to James Bond; a British MI6 spy; in the 1995 film Goldeneye but the scene was cut by producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli but never featured on a delete scenes bonus feature of the aforementioned film. On 1 January 2000, Hitler the Nazi was the last album to be made by the former rock prog and singer/songwriter Brian Pern before being retired from music. One of the album's songs Allied vs Hitler was secretly produced by Pete Waterman, one part of the trio Stock/Aitken/Waterman (S.A.W). The album itself was recorded at the PWL studios in London, although Mike Stock & Matt Aitken left PWL in 1991 and 1993 respectively.

2010-2017

On 1 March 2010, he was working with the BBC by making his life story entitled A Life in Rock, which finally aired in December 2014. Most of the scenes using real-life footage while some of them being dramatised by Simon May, who portrait him in the programme. In 2011, Pern made a music comeback with his new album Crossfire Hurricane (a rock/house music take on the songs made famous by The Rolling Stones) via RCA Records but; although from 2001-2016; he have made a number of his stage performances such as T In The Park in 2004 and Glastonbury in 2010. In 2012, he made one last attempt to make a brief cameo as a British-born SHIELD agent in the 2012 Marvel comic-book film Avengers Assemble - the 6th installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film series about the now-extinct team of superheroes based on the Marvel Comics tale of the same name - but the Disney executives, including CEO Bob Iger and producer Kevin Feige, cut him off again and never featured on a deleted scene. Pern later confirms in an interview with CelebrityDaq that his acting career was over, saying the "studio executives are not impress with my screen tests after finishing shooting. So the guys cut me off from the film produced by Marvel Studios is Avengers Assemble. Following the success of his 4-part BBC Two documentary series Brian Pern: A Life In Rock, Pern presents a special edition of BBC Radio 2's Pick of the Pops late on Christmas Day 2014 featuring his favourite top hits from 1975 and 1989. In 2016, Pern later co-host Pick of the Pops with Mark Goodier while Tony Blackburn was dismissed due to the publication of the Janet Smith Review, which concludes that serious failings at the BBC allowed Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall to sexually abuse nearly 100 people without detection. BBC Director-General Tony Hall confirms that disc jockey Tony Blackburn has been sacked by the BBC because he failed to co-operate with an element of Janet Smith's report. Blackburn claims he has been "hung out to dry" by the investigation, and threatens to take legal action against his former employers. He later made another documentary show in; December 2016; marking 45 Years of Rock & Prog about his music career since 1967 as well as the introduction of a rock progressive genre in 1971, his previous documentary appearances, and archive performances. He was due to be appeared on the 2016 BBC Children In Need edition, when he was about to pay tribute to Radio 2 presenter Terry Wogan (who died in the same year aged 78), but he were pulled out eventually. On Christmas Day 2016, after the sudden death of George Michael, Pern revealed in his Christmas speech on social media that he would retire from making music again because he has suffered from a stroke since 2015. On 30th December 2016, he became the first person receive a New Years Honour 2016 by Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Place; which, for the first time since 2000, outnumbering women for a New Years Honours; by receiving an OBE for all of his music work before officially retiring from music for good on 5 January 2017 after 50 years in his career, with his final album; Spirit Level; being released on 9th February 2017, in order to receive treatment in a bid to recover himself from a stroke.

Death

On 4 March 2017, Brian Pern died at his home in St Albans at the age of 70 after three months battling with stroke where he was unable to be recovered by doctors - according to his wife, Maria. As a result, BBC Four commissioned two of its special programming; including Pern's life and legacy as well as a short compilation of his work; in order to pay respect to the late rock prog. After that, a public funeral for Brian Pern took place on 14 April 2017 at his birth place in Westminster, London. Thousands of music stars and pop groups, including Mick Jagger and Iron Maiden, lead the tributes to the late rock prog and singer/songwriter; by reflecting on his life and legacy. In June 2018, it was revealed that, on The Queen's official birthday, she named Pern as her favourite rock prog singer of all time and she has strong influence about him since they were first met in 1969 before she received his honours in 2016.

Legacy

On 2 January 2018, Maria Pern and her two sons unveiled a memorial for the late Brian Pern in Westminster to mark what would have been his 71st birthday. On 13 June 2018, a tribute concert for the late rock singer was held at Wembley Stadium in London which also coincide with the 1st anniversary of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire disaster that happened on the late-evening of 13 June 2017. It was presented by the host of music stars such as Marshall Jefferson, Kylie Minogue, James Ingram (later died in 2019), Brian May from Queen, Foo Fighters featuring Dave Grohl, Pitbull, and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. His final album, entitled Forever, was released on 2 January 2023 by Universal Music Group "on behalf of The Estate of the late Brian Pern". It is though to be a posthumous album which features unreleased songs that never been released throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it also includes remixes by house artists such as Joe Smooth, Joel Corry, Todd Terry, David Guetta, and others. It was originally scheduled for release on 30 June 2020 but it was pushed by three years due to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the music industry.

During the Coronavirus pandemic while breaking the lockdown rules, Pern's son Mark is considered to rename one of London's finest streets to "Brian Pern Way" to honour his late father and to prevent racism in the wake of the Black Lives Matter campaign around the world following the police killing of a man named George Floyd in Minneapolis in the United States a week earlier on 25 May 2020. The rename of a street is due to be finalised in 2027 on what would've been Brian Pern's 80th birthday. However, on Christmas Day 2023, Mark was abused by a black activist as a result of the emergence of anti-white racism the same year. As a result, the following year, the renaming of a street in London was withdrawn after three years of planning.

In January 2022, Brian Pern's family were originally due to celebrate what would've been his 75th birthday but it was delayed until the following year (in place of his 76th birthday until 2024) due to the then-ongoing Coronavirus guidelines which were lasted until April 2022. In September 2022, Mark Pern; Brian's son; made his music debut to follow his late father's footsteps with the single Don't Let Go, a cover of the En Vogue song, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II a week early on 8th September. The song has lyric changes to bring people together, one week after The Queen's death. Mark went on to self-produced and recorded several songs including I'll Be Missing You (cover of Puff Daddy's 1997 rap song hit); which also has a large lyric change in honour of his late dad, former rock prog singer/songwriter Brian Pern; as well as several albums including the follow-up Spirit Level II. However, like Julian Lennon, and after failed to reach the popular sales of albums, it was reported that Mark quietly withdrawn from the music industry to focus on his health and his family. The confirmation later became official in February 2023.

Personal life

Pern was one of the world's best loved rock prog in music history. But behind closed doors, life can be a problem when he dates his fiancé in 1963 as he suffered from drugs and alcohol. Pern taking his music break for two months in 1971 when he was in St Thomas Hospital in London when he diagnosed with cancer. He later recovered from his diagnosing cancer and then returns to his music career.

Arrest, trial and conviction

On 9 January 2003, Brian Pern was arrested and charged of child abuse for raping an 18-year-old girl in December 1981 but denied the charges and jailed for two years before facing trial. On 13 February 2005, he tried to proved his innocent but unable to because of the courts rejected his innocence. The following week, he was found guilty of child sexual abuse charges before sentencing to ten years in prison. It comes months ahead of the events that Michael Jackson, The King Of Pop, also face trial in June the same year before he was convicted of sexually abusing a younger boy in 1993. However, Pern was released from prison two years earlier than originally planned on 31 March 2007 to return his life but his conviction was later overturned after his family requested to the court to clear his name.

Awards

Up to his death, Brian Pern have won the Brit Awards for Best Rock Prog because of the commercial success of his every album worldwide from 1990 up to his retirement in 2016.

Filmography

Documentaries

Brian Pern: A Life In Rock
Brian Pern: 45 Years of Rock & Prog
Brian Pern: A Tribute (posthumous)