Broken Home and Dicken

**This site is run and maintained with help from ~Annies Place~ with Dickens full support**..

Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor - Image Hosting

After the break-up of Mr Big, Dicken and Pete Crowther, very quickly formed a new band called Broken Home, Pete Barnacle was brought in on drums and Rory Wilson on guitar.Tony Smith, the manager of Genesis, managed the band. This line-up released in 1980 an album called simply ’Broken Home’ the album was produced by Robert John ’Mutt’ Lange.By 1981 however, Broken Home were reduced to a duo consisting of Dicken and Pete Crowther. At this time John Burnip (Mr Big) was taking care of the management due to Tony Smith being busy with Phil Collins and Genesis.The second and last album under the name Broken Home was called ’Life’ and released by Mercury/Phonogram Records in 1981. The ’Life’ album was produced by Greg Walsh and had only limited release in parts of Europe (not in the UK). Tony Smith had suggested to Dicken that it was a good idea to record the second album and Utopia Studios in London was the venue for the recording sessions.The mix of rock with AOR and almost new wave sound became sought after, and despite only a limited release area the ’Life’ album gained a cult following. Some tracks were aimed at the pop market and in 1981 ’’Oh Yeah’’ was released as a single but only in Holland. Later in 1983 the same track was remixed and had a Europe only limited release.Dicken often performed many tracks from the ’Life’ album live with his bands that followed Broken Home.Pete Crowther now has a music shop in a town near Oxford aimed at the classical music player. These days Dicken is still very active with music, performing live recently and still recording and writing.