I might be unusual in not caring much for the pre-millennium Spear of Destiny but being excited about the last 25 years of Kirk Brandon’s band. It mostly lives in a silo, though – not reaching the general listener – own-label physical and download releases, promoted via his website and no truck with Spotify etc in recent years, and who can blame him for that? But it does mean that lots of people don’t get to hear his amazing music.
Here he is (in the comments) in 2002 out-Whoing the Who with a tale of keeping on keeping on despite the naysayers. Maximum R&B!
New double album Janus out recently – but, as usual, there’s nothing I can post from it to spread the word.
Saw them supporting the Skids last year and I was surprised by how many of their songs I recognised. The stage was too small for all of them – the sax player was hidden by a pillar, but they put on a grand show.
I was staggered to read that he turned 69 a week or so ago.
Most of the phone clips from the 2025 tour promoting the double album ‘Janus’ are pretty crappy, but this one gives some idea of Kirk’s current rockery:
Kirk is also part of Dead Man Walking (ie 4 old blokes – Kirk, Jake Burns, Segs & Dave Ruffy – doing the sitting on chairs with acoustic instruments and telling stories).
First time I saw them, I too was surprised how many of his songs I knew.
Later saw Spear Of Destiny support Stiff Little Fingers, and a year later Theatre Of Hate supporting SLF
(it was basically the same band, under a different flag, with a different set)
Julian Cope has a very similar approach, and as a result I’ve pretty much completely lost touch with his output.