About Me
BAND HISTORY (by Harvey Baker) The Notorious Brothers Biog.The Notorious Brothers were formed ten years ago by lead singer and harmonica player Reg Jones, ex ..Way of Life.. which included his brother Chris on guitar, Dave Pegg on bass (later of Fairport and Jethro Tull) and John Bonham on drums (pre Zeppelin days). Reg and Chris also had a band called ..Gritt.. in the mid 70..s featuring their nephew Ace Kefford of ..The Move.. on bass. Reg had been a regular on the Birmingham music scene since the early 60..s. The other Notorious Brother from the inception is lead guitarist Melvin Hancox of the original ..Vincent Flatts Final Drive.. line up and previously of ..Mack and the Boys.. with whom he gained his first experience of radio and television work and at a mere age of 15 earning himself his first record contract. Melvin had just left ..The Flatts.. because of bad management, so the decision was taken to perform as a duo for the first six months. To have as hassle free time as possible, keep costs down and most importantly to enjoy creating and performing music again.
The idea happened to work and gradually expanded to a four-piece outfit with the addition of John Hill ex ..Robert Plants Band of Joy.. on bass, another original member of ..The Flatts.. and a good friend of Melvin..s from when they..d performed in front of 100,000 open air, and toured America and Costa Rica together. On the drum stool they were lucky enough to enjoy Kex Gorin, a fast, powerful, effortless musician formerly of melodic rock band and million album sellers ..Magnum.. appearing on their first five albums. Both Kex and John had also previously played with Reg in the past and all three can be found in the pages of ..Brum Rocked On!.. by Laurie Hornsby.
The band recorded four studio and two live sets (one at Silverstone racetrack believe it or not!) and travelled extensively. They always had a full gig sheet and a good time entertaining thousands with their band of blues based rock with a touch of flair and imagination that unfortunately so many bands on the circuit are lacking. This was due in no small part to Reg..s natural ability to communicate with a variety of audiences and the unusually high standard of musicianship this group possessed.
During this period Kex had a side project who recorded an album of his original work. This was entitled ..The Roulette World Pt.1.. that is credited to the ..K.G.B... or (Kex Gorin Band). Melvin in particular performed and recorded on other projects. One of these was with Ray Phillips of Budgie who appeared together on the as yet unreleased album ..Birds of a Feather.. under the banner of ..Six Ton Budgie.., on a rock album by Trevor Crumps ..Blok.. which also featured ..Berti.. on vocals from ..The Flatts.. and the ..Starfighters.., Tony McPhee, Paul Hancox (no relation) of ..Chicken Shack.. and double headlined with ..Stan Webb..s Chicken Shack.. which was a really big thrill for Melvin because along with Danny Kirwen and Peter Green, Stan Webb..s playing inspired him to pick up a guitar in the first place. Made five albums on which he wrote the music and played all the instruments, formed a three-piece side project with his good friend and right hand man Richard Shelton and recorded the ..Superseed.. album. He also produced and made a guest appearance on other local bands work.
For a while The Notorious Brothers were known as The Human Jukebox, because no matter what song the crowds shouted for they would invariably be able to play it, even if they never had before! This behaviour was particularly evident on acoustic nights where just Reg and Melvin (and quite often an array of musician friends) would sit in the corner of the room and entertain until the early hours.
This line up ended just as it had begun with Reg and Melvin performing as a duo. Unfortunately the good times ended too when in late 2004 Reg passed away, leaving the band and audience without the unique voice, front and charisma that only he possessed and would be impossible to replace with anybody else. But still the band, now a three piece with Melvin handling the vocals soldiered on, which for the audience and particularly the musicians must have been an emotionally difficult time and situation to say the least. Too difficult for some which is perhaps why Kex called it a day a month later.
With the band now barely in existence, but still with plenty of work it was up to Melvin to keep the band and name alive. Which he just managed to do at the time after talking with John about still working together and even considering a change of name. They decided it would be better to find a new drummer and build on what they still had. Enter Richard Rivett.
Richard had been playing with a variety of blues based bands and had been asked along to deputise for the percussionist that didn..t exist. Right away it felt like a unit again, it all just clicked into place. Melvin had met Richard at a musicians jam night some years before and always remembered him and his playing, because apart from the obvious thing of he can..t see you, he instinctively knew what twists and turns Melvin's music would take, which is unusual in itself because Melvin plays across timings a lot and most musicians, until used to it, find him difficult to work with. Jim Knowles who played on ..Superseed.. put Melvin in touch with Richard and now together with John they set work on restabilising the band and most importantly the music.
This was not an easy task and it would almost have been easier to start from scratch as a new quantity, because the music was gradually and deliberately changing, which had to happen. There was no way to replace what had gone before, although that seemed to be what some of the audience expected, it would have been wrong and impossible. Richard, John and Melvin did a lot of behind the scenes work, both physically rehearsing and mentally with purpose and direction. The work paid off and the Brothers triumphed once again.
The Notorious Brothers released their first three piece album ..Shine on.. in the summer of 2005, it included a very musical drum solo from Richard and it instantly solidified a fan base and appreciative audience of both old and new, whilst also putting to rest any fears the band may have had that it was all over, on the contrary, the band had been reborn.
The Brothers now seemed to be a stronger, bolder and more inventive unit than ever and no more so than on their latest and best release to date, ..Tune in to Radio B.O.S.S..., displaying not only a thread and general concept to the piece, but also the writing team of Steven and Melvin Hancox have an abundance of imagination and musicality to share. As do indeed Richard and John who..s bass lines particularly on the titles ..Big Over Soul.. and ..Karmic condition.. transcend the obvious role of the bass player who just does his job.
Melvin still plays duo gigs with another young guitarist, Andy ..Rocko.. Flynn who both hold a mutual admiration for each other..s playing and singing. There is an album planned for the future from these two and will no doubt include the crack rhythm team of John and Richard. There..s also a project that the afore mentioned Ray Phillips is working on to include Melvin and of course the Brothers will start writing again for a new album to follow further the path of progression.
To sum up, this is and always has been a great Blues Rock band and looks as thought it will continue to be. The music..s changed a bit but not too much and John, Richard and Melvin are certainly taking it places it..s never been before, by just being themselves. Whilst others act out the music, the Brothers are the music. When they play it..s from the hearts and their souls directly to yours.Harvey Baker.
