Brinsley Schwarz (musician)

As a teenager, he formed his first band, Three's A Crowd with bass player Dave Cottam and drummer Pete Whale.^[3] They changed their name to Kippington Lodge in 1967 and added Barry Landeman on keyboards.^[3][5] Cottom left and Nick Lowe joined and Landeman left to join Vanity Fare and was replaced by Bob Andrews and in 1969 changed their name to Brinsley Schwarz, named after Schwarz, which came around after he was the only member who voted not to change the band name.^[3][6] The band released six albums and only one single before breaking up in 1974.

After the band broke up, Schwarz briefly joined Ducks Deluxe on their final tour.^[7][8][9] Ducks Deluxe ended the following year, which led to Schwarz forming The Rumour and going on to achieve success with Graham Parker as Graham Parker and the Rumour, having three UK top 40s between 1977 and 1978 before splitting in 1981.^[10] He also toured with Carlene Carter and Garland Jeffreys.^[11]

In the 1980s, Schwarz learned how to build and repair guitars at Chandler Guitars, and eventually, Schwartz retired from live performing in 1989, due to him growing tired of touring and because of an unusual disliking of flying and he became a fulltime Luthier.^[4][6][12] He briefly returned to music in 2010 to perform with The Rumour again for a few reunion dates^[12] and returned to music fulltime 2012 to re-join Ducks Deluxe for their last year before splitting up in 2013.

In 2016, he toured with Graham Parker. For nearly two decades (1980s—2000s), Schwarz rarely wrote songs, but after hearing Steely Dan's Two Against Nature album, he became inspired to write again^[4][9] and has since released three albums: Unexpected, a self released album in 2016, on which he played all guitars and bass and sang all the vocals, Tangled in 2021 and Shout at the Moon in 2025, both released by Fretsore records.^[13]

• Unexpected (2016) (Self released)
• Tangled (2021) (Fretsore Records)
• Shout at the Moon (2025) (Fretsore Records)