Andrew Brough

Andrew Mark Brough (pronounced ; 7 May 1963 – 2 February 2020) was a singer, songwriter and guitarist from Dunedin, New Zealand. Best known for his work with the Straitjacket Fits, he later led the band Bike. In 1996 he was shortlisted for the APRA Silver Scroll and in 2008 he was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.

Early life Brough was born in Wellington in 1963, the eldest of four children of former missionary Gordon Brough and his wife Catherine. The family moved to Dargaville in the Northland Region when Andrew was about three, and later to Christchurch. Andrew's parents separated in the early 1970s, with Gordon moving south to Dunedin. Andrew joined him around 1974, with his siblings (two boys and a girl) staying in Christchurch, and would attend Logan Park High School.

The Blue Meanies and The Orange

Brough, who had always been a keen singer, began his rock music career as the singer for university student band The Blue Meanies, alongside Martin Kean on bass, Max Satchell on guitar and Richard Allen on drums. They were regular performers at venues like Dunedin's Empire Tavern, but didn't leave behind any studio recordings. He had "hated just being a frontman", so played guitar as well as singing with The Orange. They played gigs in Dunedin at venues including the Oriental Tavern, where a live recording of the song 'Number One' was made in 1985. It was included in a local compilation tape, Whistle Up A Wind, the next year.

The truth is The Orange are building their own wee solar system of excitement and mood. Riff climbs upon melody, climbs upon rhythm, climbs upon fade-out and then charges back with Bunnymen-ish fervour. Symphonic. Brough's vocal brushstrokes are shaking off initial timidity. He understands the maelstrom that a guitar can be without striving to be an instrumental god. He has the most sympathetic rhythm pals around. — Review of a gig played by The Orange in May 1985, Dunedin fanzine Garage Writing under the pseudonym 'Buffy O'Reilly', Shayne Carter said that "Brough's airy vocals and melodic, unabrasive guitar lends the five track EP a floating, almost Chilly quality." Later that year, The Orange disbanded when Brough and Carter became bandmates.

Straitjacket Fits (1986–1991)

Brough became better known as guitarist and vocalist alongside Shayne Carter in Straitjacket Fits, a role he held from 1986 (prior to that band's first release) until 1991, when he left the group following the tour to support their second album, Melt.

In his book, Dead People I Have Known, Carter writes that Straitjacket Fits began as a three-piece, with a mutual friend recommending Brough as a fourth member. ″Andrew seemed a good fit for our band, because I really wanted to have harmonies and another singer, like in The Beatles. The first time Andrew stepped on the mic and played his round, Revolver guitar, we knew we'd hit on a sound."

Shayne Carter and Andrew Brough were often likened to Lennon and McCartney – a pair of songwriting, guitar-playing bandmates with different styles (one tending towards pop and the other more aggressive), which made for a successful musical collaboration but a difficult personal dynamic. Brough was a regular backing vocalist, his voice providing a contrasting counterpoint to Carter's. In his five years with the band he wrote and sang seven songs.

It worked really well from a record company perspective, having that light and dark with two songwriters. It wasn't just two guitarists, or singers, it was songwriters with different styles which brought another dimension. — Roger Shepherd, founder, Flying Nun Records

I'm glad we did Melt. You know, I'd go straight to Melt as a better example of what we were about [than Hail]. A lot of money spent on it, quite a professional engineer, and a professional studio. — Andrew Brough

Departure (1991) and recognition (2008) Brough's time with Straitjacket Fits ended after the band toured North America in 1991, when he "thought that musically I wasn't achieving what I wanted to achieve".

I was making a compromise for what I really wanted to do musically. And there came a point when I said to myself "y'know, I just want to leave". [...] I wasn't writing enough [songs]. [...] In a band where two people are sharing the songwriting, two people who have got visions of how they want a band to sound, these creative differences create a conflict. [...] The idea of the Straitjacket Fits is to be a good rock n roll band, and to be a good rock n roll band you need some kind of cohesiveness, you need to share the same outlook. It just became increasing [sic] apparent there were too many differences. So on one hand I had to leave because I wanted to pursue my own thing, and on the other hand, for the good of the band, for the good of what Straitjacket Fits wanted to do. — Andrew Brough, 1993

Carter believed that Brough had stopped committing to the band: "Andrew went off on a really weird trip, and completely dark-manned out. He wasn't trying at gigs, he would actually give up on stage, we'd be playing a show, and look across at this dude who was sitting there. It just became impossible to work together, and it was no fun either."

Brough left Auckland and moved to Dunedin. Mark Peterson replaced him and was a member of Straitjacket Fits until their split in 1994.

While a lot of focus was given to the tension between them, Shayne Carter has written that they also had a lot of common ground. He praised the melody and extra dimension Brough brought to the band, and wrote that Straitjacket Fits "never worked as well" and "became a plainer band" without Brough.

Brough was invited but did not take part in a Straitjacket Fits reunion in 2005. In September 2008 all five band members, including Brough, received the Legacy Award at the New Zealand Music Awards, and were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame at the APRA Silver Scroll Awards.

Bike (1992–1998) After leaving Straitjacket Fits Brough moved to Dunedin, then Auckland. In Dunedin he spent 6 months writing songs, then re-emerged fronting a group known as Tumble before switching the name to Bike (inspired by the 1967 Pink Floyd song of the same name).

Bike was deliberately designed as a vehicle for Brough's songs. After being a minority contributor to Straitjacket Fits he wanted to "be in charge of a band where I have to write music". Dave Eggleton, in Ready To Fly, said "Bike's sound was a homage to 1960's psychedalia".

You take a song, and you've got three-and-a-half minutes. And the idea of that song is you blow people away...you're obviously not going to blow everyone away, but hopefully the response is "wow, this is making me feel really good." I'm trying to write songs that people will enjoy. — Andrew Brough, 1993

Bike released a self-titled EP in 1996: the song 'Save My Life', was a songwriting finalist at the 1996 APRA Silver Scrolls, and Bike was nominated as 'most promising new band' at the New Zealand Music Awards.

Take in the Sun

'Save My Life' was followed up with the single 'Circus Kids' in 1997, and a debut record, Take in the Sun, later that year.

Through the previous years of writing, rehearsing and touring, Brough had a clear template for the album before recording began. "The fact that most of the songs were demoed to death in the proceeding couple of years, meant that going into the studio, I had it fairly well worked out what it was going to sound like in the end, just through a lot of four-track demoing."

Take in the Sun made the New Zealand album charts, at number 47, in October 1997. The band toured New Zealand and overseas to support the release, while Brough was featured on the covers of magazines including Pavement and Real Groove. Increased media attention, including a large photo in a Sunday newspaper, led Brough to worry about being "recognised in the street".

Bike's music was sometimes heard in the background of television soaps including Australia's Home and Away. This was believed to be main source of Brough's music-related income. As long-time broadcaster Jonathan Alley of RRR recounts, "After a Bike song was licensed for use on television, it created [for] Andrew a bit of windfall and with that money he brought a house."

Andy Dandy (2000)

The last Andrew Brough song to be released was a version of James K. Baxter's poem Andy Dandy. It was made especially for the 2000 album Baxter. Brough's was one of 12 contributions to the project, which was conceived and managed by musician Charlotte Yates. While he was happy to accept her invitation to be a part of recording the album 'Baxter', he chose not to appear at the accompanying concert. Music critic Graham Reid said that "Andrew Brough has taken one of Baxter's children's poems and turned it into an archetypical dreamscape of layered guitars."

Death Brough died in Dunedin on 2 February 2020. Public reports of his death were first made two days later, on 4 February. He was 56 years old.

Awards Aotearoa Music Awards The Aotearoa Music Awards (previously known as New Zealand Music Awards (NZMA)) are an annual awards night celebrating excellence in New Zealand music and have been presented annually since 1965.