Arthur Brown is most likely now mainly known to older people or connoisseurs. Many people born in the 1940's, albeit a long time ago now, seem to have done particularly well for themselves and many are still going strong to this day, barely stopping or slowing down in their 70's and certainly not behaving as if they are 'old people'. The same cannot always be said of those born one or two generations later; the 40's still seem to rule and hold sway like no other generation of the 20th Century.
My own recollections of Arthur Brown were (as I thought), of a one hit wonder - but that hit being big enough to keep him going for eternity. I saw him on black and white TV as a young child and immediately wanted a helmet like the one he had in a 'Can I have one, Dad?' moment. He was not the only gimmicky singer of the time, as a kiddie I remember the man who sang a song about 'the black barren land that bears the name of Xanadu' or something like that, cracking a bull whip on TV in time with the song.
Anyway it does indeed seem like Mr Brown was in fact a much busier bee than I would have imagined, in fact he has packed an awful lot of travelling in to his lifetime and had lots of experiences, a great number due solely to the popularity of one song and his flaming helmet.
I think the book (which I understand was written in 2005), would have been better if it took in more of Mr Brown's downtime away from the music or studying, or mixing with the well oiled famous and the artistic not so famous. It would have been good to learn more of his family and his actual self as a human being, not as a stage performer. The fact that he came from Whitby and the involvement with the Whitby Goth Festival and Dracula Society seems more interesting. Though I noticed another old time performer still going strong - Lene Lovich was constantly mentioned in connection with the Whitby Festival, like the festival circuit has its own stable, that it keeps churning out. Of this genre I personally prefer groups like The Beautiful Deadly Children and most definitely The Scary Bitches, but I applaud anyone who keeps going in their 70's.
Anyway Pippin was most excited and he wanted a flaming helmet too, so one was suitably produced for him and we think he looks very fine indeed in it and incredibly cute, the little sweetie!
