Released on 26 August 1991 "A Life With Brian" was the debut studio album of the conic UK indie band Flowered Up, seen as London’s answer to Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. Formed on the back of meetings with original members, brothers Liam Maher vocalist and guitarist Joe Maher joined by Andrew ‘Jacko’ Jackson on bass along with John O'Brain on drums and Simon Lovekin on keyboards. Soon after this first line up O'Brain was replaced by John Tuvey, Lovekin replaced by Tim Dorney with the addition of onstage dancer and off-stage serial prankster Barry Mooncult the band lit up their audience with their dance funk indie fuelled anthems and legendary live on stage mad capped performances.
Flowered Up signed to London Records and recorded their only album, A Life with Brian, originally the band released three singles, the synthesizer anthem "It's On," the haunting "Phobia," whilst "Take It" showcased the bands love The Clash and had lyrics from Joe Strummer. Other classic and stunning single "Weekender" was released to criticism and plenty of scratching of heads with it being over 12 minutes long it that unfortunately not many radio stations played it.
The album was recorded at Pete Townshend's Ell Pie studio with money and time thrown at the band at the time of recording, there was too much time and money thrown at the project, resulting in familiar live fresh anthems, when the actual appeal of the band came live and direct in their on stage frantic, ardent performances, meaning virtually everyone connected to the band mentioned they really should have gone into the studio recorded live cuts and left in a flash.
About the recording, you can hear Dorney providing his own shine and polish overall sound; Liam's iconic vocals were so shining to be heralded, this combination resulted in a voice of unrivalled passion and startling vibrancy, Liam really ranked up there with the very best. Other highlights across the album included "Egg Rush," the would be single with Anna Haigh sounded like a modern-day Siouxsie Sioux, the dynamic rush of keyboards introduces the band in formidable form, a track right for a Saturday night on the tiles.
Joe Maher a modern day Hendrix, fingered all over the fret, it'd be hard to find a more naturally gifted guitarist from this period who has not had the light shone firmly in his direction. His work shone proudly on "Take It," Clive Langer version of "Crackerjack" and "Weekender."
A Life with Brian contained many of their popular live songs, as well as new versions of the previously released singles. Not long afterwards, Flowered Up released the 13-minute-long single "Weekender" on Heavenly, with a video directed by W.I.Z. starring Lee Whitlock and Anna Haigh. Despite the group's—and Heavenly's—refusal to compromise on a standard-length edit for radio play (although two "radio edits" were circulated, neither really addressed the needs of radio programmers, as one was merely the full-length version but with the two instances of the phrase "fuck off" muted, while the other reduced the length of the intro, but still ran for over 12 minutes), the track went on to become their biggest hit, reaching number 20 on the UK Singles Chart. After much-publicised drug problems with some members of the band, and unproductive (and some unreleased) studio work, the band split up. Keyboardist Tim Dorney went on to form Republica, their debut album went on to be remastered and reissued.
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