The Runaway hit of Glastonbury Festival 2002 and The Dark Horse of the George Harrison Albert Hall Memorial show ( as one U.S. reviewer called him ) , Joe’s career goes from strength to strength. He recently completed a Box Office record breaking tour in the UK with his old friend Marty Wilde from February to June 2004 and there is already strong demand to repeat the tour in Autumn 2005.
New Year's Eve 2000 had seen Joe Brown & his band performing on Jools Holland's Hootenanny to embark on Joe’s 42nd year in the music business, since when it is apparent that Joe has become the latest ‘Cool Oldie’ with the younger music generation. In 2001 & 2002 he played nearly two hundred sold out shows to UK audiences & in February this year his first DVD featuring the whole of a concert together with interview footage was released.
This Autumn will see the release of his newest studio album, "Hittin' the Hi Spots", together with the single I’ll See You In My Dreams which has been causing a stir world-wide since people saw Joe close the Concert For George show on Film / TV & DVD.
The musical Joe is writing with Roger Cook based on the Skiffle Era is still in development and should be premiered in 2005.
Joe's career has now encompassed all aspects of entertainment, including recording, performance, songwriting, Films \ T.V. and West End theatre both as a principal actor and Director. He has presented several television series, three series of The Joe Brown Show and has established himself as a popular D.J. and presenter with BBC Radio 2. Just for good measure he has made his mark as an author with his first book Brown Sauce and as a scriptwriter with Roger Cook of a new musical entitled Skiffle.
His incredible endurance as one of Britain's most accomplished musicians produced a double CD set of the Showbusiness Lifetime Show which he successfully toured for two years and which was released on 31st January 2001 to coincide with the start date of his ground breaking  ' Cheekie Chappie Rides Again '  tour.


From the day when Jack Good first spotted Joe Brown playing guitar and put him in the Boy Meets Girls show in 1959 probably no-one else ever thought that in 2004 Joe would still be a household name, but the fact is that from those early days of chart success Joe has consolidated and is now one of the major talents on the U.K. scene. Although not a club performer these days Joe was the winner of the 1991\2 Clubstar award in the best musical group section and the 1992 Winner of the BASCA Gold Badge of Merit for his services to British Music judged by his peers in the songwriting and music publishing communities.
A multi-instrumentalist, Joe plays Guitar, Mandolin, Fiddle, Ukulele and Melodian onstage. His earliest moves were made with the bands such as the Spacemen Skiffle Group, who played East End pubs and Butlins camps and whose exploits are well documented in his first book " Brown Sauce ".
Joe’s early professional musical career included playing guitar with Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and appearing with Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard & Chuck Berry, whilst Brian Epstein who promoted some of Joe's shows in the North West of England in the early days gave the opening slot a few times to a young band which he was then interested in working with called The Beatles.
Joe formed his own group Joe Brown & The Bruvvers in 1960 and had numerous top ten chart entries, the best known of which Picture Of You reaching the magical Number One slot and staying months on the chart.
In the early seventies he formed the acclaimed "Browns Home Brew" which included his late wife Vicki and Joe Fagin, their music was a mixture of Country Rock and Gospel. The band toured the college and rock Club circuit and had two albums released by Vertigo records.
Joe has starred in six major motion pictures, among which are numbered What A Crazy World, Three Hats For Lisa, Spike Milligan Meets Joe Brown and Mona Lisa with Bob Hoskins.
With Television appearances over four and a half decades too numerous to list here and an entry in The Debrettes book it would be an understatement to say that Joe is well known. He has appeared many times on the West End stage, having starred opposite Dame Anna Neagle in Charlie Girl in 1965 and again with Cyd Charisse in 1986 and with a seven month run of Pump Boys And Dinettes in 1985, a show which he then took on tour directing it himself, he also enjoyed a successful ten week touring run playing Milo in Sleuth ( technically a most demanding part ).
With a new management deal in 1991\2 events turned almost full circle as Joe began to work again with major American talents, this time under the terms of a new publishing agreement with Warner Chappell based in Nashville where he now regularly makes trips as part of that deal to write songs for the country market in the U.S.A. and latterly to record his own albums.

1993 also proved to be a significant year for Joe Brown marking his return to the recording arena with the launch of his Come On Joe album.
The product of his songwriting trips to Nashville, the album was produced by his son Pete Brown and recorded at Joe's own studio and also features his touring band The Bruvvers who are Neil Gauntlett - guitar \ vocals, Phil Capaldi - drums\ vocals and Rico Nilo - bass \ vocals.
Two shows were filmed at the Kenton Theatre in Joe's home town Henley-On-Thames for the Joe Brown In Concert video released in February 1994, which was recently shown by London Weekend Television and which will soon be broadcast in other independent television areas.
In 1994 Joe starred in the Solid Gold Rock & Roll Show which also featured fellow pioneers Marty Wilde, Eden Kane, John Leyton & The Vernons Girls and which played to 51 sold out theatres in 60 days across the U.K. It was so popular that the same line up toured again early in 1996 playing 62 major theatre shows in 70 days, again to sold out houses. This show also toured again in 1999 playing 76 performances to the customary packed houses.
Ever ready to explore and present new musical areas to his audiences in spring of 1995 Joe completed a 20 date U.K. tour with The Bruvvers and a teenage string quartet called The Subway Soopa Stringz which played to wildly enthusiastic audiences and received great reviews, the tour was repeated with the addition of his daughter Sam Brown as a co headliner in November of 1996.
In the last few years Joe has played three shows in aid of The Roy Castle Appeal fund with others such as Sir John Mills & Cliff Richard and will be continuing his association with their efforts to fund a purpose built specialized cancer treatment unit in Liverpool.
Unlike many other stars from the sixties who have come back to performing or have reformed their bands now that there is such interest in their music again, Joe has never stopped working, he performs nearly 200 shows a year and has kept his music current throughout.
Early in 1997 on Radio 2, Joe presented a four part series dealing with Skiffle music entitled The Rock Island Line and in 1998 presented the first thirteen weeks of Radio 2’s Rock & Roll Year. Entitled Good Rockin Tonight the programme looked at Rock & Roll from it’s inception up to the early sixties. A second series entitled Joe Brown’s Let It Rock completed a second 13 week series in July 1999.
A new recording deal produced his album 56 & Taller Than You Think, released by Nick Lowe & Elvis Costello's label Demon Records on June 30th 1997 and in June 1998 Joe went to Nashville and recorded his last Album “ On A Day Like This ”. It was produced by legendary song writer Roger Cook and features an all star band packed with legendary players such as Sam Bush ( fiddle & Mandolin ) , rhythm section Kenny Malone and Joe Allen ( Don Williams - Tulsa Time / Gypsy Woman ) Micky Raphael from Willie Nelson’s band on Harmonica, Ace Nashville session guitarists J.T.Corenflos & Troy Lancaster and Joe’s own U.K. band guitarist Neil Gauntlett.
It was released early in May 1999 by Round Tower Records. Among the material on this record Roger Cook ( the only Englishman to be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame ) wrote four new songs and there are three written by John Prine, one of Joe’s originals and a couple of well known covers. The first single, On A Day Like This, went to No 1 in the Country Music Radio Airplay chart, the second single ( John Prine's composition That's The way The World Goes Round ) reached No 2 and the third single Joe's own composition You Were Everywhere also made the top twenty.
Joe’s 2001 The Cheeky Chappie Rides Again Tour was recorded live and the resulting Double Live CD - A Showbusiness Lifetime has become his fastest selling album to date.
In 2002 Joe was again presenting his Let It Rock show for BBC Radio 2 whilst fitting in the usual stream of live concerts shows ( one of which was filmed and recorded to be released in 2004 as the DVD / VHS An Audience With Joe Brown and later that year he brought over US singer Songwriter Henry Gross to guest on his Autumn tour.

Joe lists as the highlight of his career performing at the Albert Hall as part of the Concert For George in November 2002. This very special concert organized by Olivia Harrison and Eric Clapton featured a wealth of talented performers and close friends of George performing his songs and it was a particular honour for Joe to have been asked by Olivia to perform ‘ I’ll See You In My Dreams ’ ( a favourite of George’s and in fact a song which he reintroduced Joe to ) as the closing song to that incredible evening.
Joe toured again throughout 2003 and presented a radio show ‘ Joe Brown’s Sunday Roast ’ for BBC Radio Berkshire and 2004 got off to a flying start following the Together tour with Marty Wilde and the release of a much requested instrumentals album ‘Jiggery Pokery’ and his DVD ‘ An Audience With Joe Brown ’. Joe turned up to honour one of his mentors Lonnie Donnegan at a memorial concert at the Albert Hall in June. Joe played two songs with his band and two songs with Mark Knopfler at the event.
During Spring of 2004 Joe toured the major theatre venues in the UK with old friend and original Larry Parnes stablemate Marty Wilde. The tour entitled Together was a riotous success both at the Box Office and with the audiences and a most enjoyable period for the participants, bands crew and management companies.

On days off from that tour Joe and Pete Brown were building and re-equipping Joe's recording studio and the beginnings of his best album to date Hittin The Hi Spots were apparent. The album was to be released in October 2004 on the legendary imprint Track Records following John Taylor bringing along Track boss Ian Grant to Joe's concerts to see what was going on.

The album was to be Joe's best received work by the press with star reviews in several influential Music magazines. Retail sale of the album also were greatly enhanced with the major chains taking to stocking Joe Brown records again. Sales of Hittin The Hi Spots are still buoyant as we near the release of Joe's next CD entitled Down To Earth and again on Track Records - TRA 1057.

In February 2005 Joe workshopped the music from the musical he is writing with Roger Cook about the Skiffle Era for a week at the Theatre Royal in Windsor. Joe & the band were augmented by Sam Brown, Mark Read, Roger Cook, Mollie Marriott & keyboardist Chris Parren for this run.

The run was well received and proved very useful to the writers in showing how the songs worked to a live audience with Mojo magazine reviewing the show favourably as well as various internet news services and local press.

This same week launched Joe's ' Hititn The Hi Spots ' tour ( continued from Autumn 2004 ) and paved the way for a second outing with Marty called Together Again which again swept successfully across the UK in the Autumn of 2005.

Joe is now in greater demand than ever as a touring act and the Spring 2006 tour plays 51 shows between February and June with several venues selling out two consecutive shows rather than a single one. Similaryl to 2004 where Joe was
touring with Marty and recording the Hittin The Hi Spots album he is this year recording the Down To Earth album between tour dates and so he has never really stopped working so far this year.

The album again on Track Records - TRA 1057 is released on August 14th this year and precedes an In Concert tour with Special Guest Sam Brown on all dates and Pete Brown joining Joe & the band on all dates.