With a career spanning music and acting, Brian Protheroe has left an indelible mark on both stages. Renowned for his classic hit ‘Pinball’ and a run of acclaimed albums in the mid-70s, Brian now invites us to delve into the heart of his classic hit.

Friendship and the fact that he’s a brilliant musician, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He’s also patient and meticulous in the recording process. Something I’m not.” I was living in Covent Garden at the time. I had one room in a friend’s house, and it was literally like a diary entry of what was happening to me then. We had a cat – the cat that finished off the bread. There was a Norman Mailer book about Marilyn Monroe that I saw when I was walking through Soho one morning. So that got included. Hey Jude you were alright, was a reference to the Beatles breaking up. So it was a stream of consciousness diary about what was happening to me at that time. Further information Brian Protheroe (born 16 June 1944) [1] is an English singer, songwriter, narrator and actor. He is best known for his first single, " Pinball", which was released in August 1974, and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 40 and reached a peak of number 22. He has narrated the Channel 4 dating show First Dates since 2015. [2] Career [ edit ] Music [ edit ] Rogers, Jude. "The Apolitical Party: Noel Gallagher Interviewed". The Quietus . Retrieved 5 August 2019. Pinball" is a 1974 song by the actor and musician Brian Protheroe. An autobiographical song written whilst Protheroe was living in a friend's flat in Covent Garden, it was released as his first single after he was signed by Chrysalis on the strength of a song he wrote and performed in a play. Upon release, it gave Protheroe his only hit, reaching a peak position of 22 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1974. It was later included on his debut album of the same title.

There’s lots of forums on the internet where angry middle aged men with beer bellies and living in their Mum’s spare rooms spend all day arguing with strangers on the internet about what is or isn’t progressive, this finale is what I would call progressive. The Sad Song lyric is about my first serious girlfriend dumping me and marrying her ex-partner. But it’s also about how songwriters plunder painful relationship traumas in search of a good song.” I am not sure they could land in the ‘concept’ album arena, but they are far more than just your normal singer-songwriter fare. a b c d e f g h i Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Firsted.). Guinness Publishing. p.2009. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.

One of Brian’s few concerts was at London’s Troubadour in 2012, with a band featuring Steeleye Span’s Julian Littman and Manfred Mann legend Paul Jones amongst others. “I wanted to do a small gig somewhere, and I knew Julian would support me” he explains. “I’d played at the Troubadour with my folk group in 1965, and I went to have a look at it and it was virtually exactly the same as it was then! I just loved the feel of the place, it held just over 100 and it seemed like the right thing to do” There’s some beguiling footage from this rare event on YouTube with pitch perfect renditions. Brian sounds like a seasoned touring musician, his voice unchanged by 40 years distance. Oh, thank you. I think the ‘Guilty Pleasures’ was one of the first compilations that I was on. But there have been several over the years, it’s been lovely. Possibly people are comforted by/identify with those desolate feelings expressed in the song. In truth, I have no idea.” Finding the perfect rhyme for a word that you’re determined not to change which will also fit perfectly into the meaning/feel required in its context.”The traditional showmanship is brough to the fore on The Good Brand Band Song, which has echoes of The Beatles and 10cc running through it, there’s a wonderful element of showmanship and English music hall or Pythonesque humour that is drip fed through Protheroe’s songwriting. Interview: Duncan Haskell Desert Road is out now. For further information, head over to brianprotheroe.co.uk Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19thed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p.441. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. Brian Protheroe is first and foremost an actor. He was born in Salisbury in 1944 and joined the city’s repertory theatre, Salisbury Playhouse, in 1966. By the early 1970s, he’d made strides as an actor and composer in stage productions. In 1973, his life took an unlikely turn while he was appearing in William Fairchild’s play Death on Demand. “I wrote the music to a lyric my character Johnny Tomorrow sang during the course of the play called For Tomorrow” Protheroe explains. “It was a very simple pop song – “Tomorrow will be my day, the day that dreams come true / tomorrow, flying high day, something something with you”. It couldn’t have been more basic really but the author absolutely loved what I did with his lyrics. We made a demo recording of it and he took it round to various record companies – Decca, Chrysalis and one other.” Protheroe was signed by Chrysalis on the strength of For Tomorrow, and embarked on an unlikely second career as a pop star.

Better known today as the voice of First Dates and First Dates Hotel, Brian is a well-established actor who’s graced both stage and screen since 1968 when he moved to Lincoln and made his debut in rep. No. Songs generally emerge from creative doodling – musically and lyrically on guitar or piano. A particular chord sequence or musical feel, a word or phrase that might suggest or evoke a gradual stream of connected ideas. I suppose the source of many of my songs is, of course, personal relationships as with many songwriters down the ages. However, with many that’s not the case, especially songs written with lyricist Martin Duncan many of which have a theatrical/surreal feel.” I was living behind the Cambridge Theatre in Covent Garden having recently broken up with a girlfriend. The lyric is an extended diary entry of my experiences at the time. Loneliness and feelings of not being in control like a silver ball being flipped around in a pinball machine. It didn’t remotely cross my mind that the song would still be around 46 years later.” From one of the shows Brian was in, comes an incendiary version of Lucille which seems to fit the aesthetic of I/You perfectly and doesn’t feel out of place at all compared with what’s gone before.This focus on the lyrics as well as the music is an obvious reflection of Protheroe’s acting, and with some superb arrangements and production by Del Newman, whose orchestral arrangements enhance many songs on here (just like they did on albums by Elton John and Cat Stewart) and help bring Protheroe’s warm vocals to the fore. Listening to Brian’s debut album Pinball now, it’s difficult to pin down the commercial ambitions Chrysalis had for him. Another Leo Sayer? A Gilbert O’Sullivan even? “Probably nearer to Gilbert.” says Brian. “I think they wanted a solo artist who would tour with a band. I wasn’t really a multi-instrumentalist, but I did play guitar, piano and percussion on all the records. They wanted to expand that and they suggested I do a college tour in the States in 1976. It didn’t happen, we couldn’t agree on the terms and conditions.” Pinball, the song that began Brian’s pop career and remains his best known, was written at a low ebb; “When I wrote it, I was basically depressed. I’d just split up with a girlfriend, I’d moved to Convent Garden and I occupied the first floor one-bedroom flat of a friend of mine. I had no job and no prospective work. I used to go along to the Cross Keys Pub and play the pinball. It was like a diary entry from that particular time, with this sort of surreal touch to it as well.” Litvinenko cast revealed for new ITV1 drama with David Tennant". tellymix. 19 June 2023 . Retrieved 20 July 2023. Martin would write a lyric in different sections and I somehow had to find a way to bind them together, while giving each individual section the kind of musical choices the words suggested. There was a lot of criticism about Martin from the record company. They tried to take his name off the first album, so it would look like I was the only contributor. I threatened to stop working on the album if they did that so they relented. The producer Del Newman wasn’t sure about the songs Martin participated in either. He preferred the songs I wrote alone. My songs were varied, but they weren’t as mad as Martin’s! We used some songs Martin and I wrote for a musical called Lotte’s Electric Opera. They were totally out of context, so they were even weirder! But I like that. Martin’s a great friend so I always wanted him to be involved.”