Andrew Brough

Brough died in Dunedin on 2 February 2020. He was 56 years old.

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.

Andrew definitely added a melodic sense to the band, but right from the start really there was this feeling that Andrew’s songs were a bit wimpy! However, it did work and created interesting tension in the music.

'Take From the Years' and 'Fabulous Things' are found on all versions of Hail (the New Zealand version didn't include 'Sparkle That Shines', but the US/UK one did). Brough said that the album "didn’t come to fruition musically. It wasn’t something I was proud of. [...] I did two songs on that Hail record, and I didn’t like either of them very much."

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.

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." In a 2008 interview, bassist David Wood said that Shayne Carter and Andrew Brough had "no relationship" and "the two did not work closely together".

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.

Andrew's role in the band was important. His harmonies, guitar, and pop sensibilities did a lot to shape our group. I liked Andrew. He was smart, cultured in an unpretentious way, with a twisted sense of humour. He was as unforgiving as the rest of us, but he also had the quickest temper – snapping sometimes and barking at the stage crew or others on the periphery. I always found it ironic that his public image was that of the gentle altar boy set upon by the bully Carter.

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.

'Down in Splendour' was released as a single (Audioculture calls it "the most radio and record company friendly track on the album") and became Brough's most successful Straitjacket Fits song. In 2001, it was voted 32nd in the APRA Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time.

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. He was initially reluctant to accept her invitation to be a part of Baxter, and 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."

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

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 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.

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

Bike first toured New Zealand in 1994, having already been offered an album deal by Flying Nun but not yet released any music. Their first song to be released was "My Love, My Life", on 1995 Abba tribute album Abbasalutely. Brough described the song as, "drippy - yes but with a worthy enough hook to throw some guitars at."

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".

Melt (1990) included 'Down in Splendour', 'Such a Daze', and 'Hand in Mine'. Another Brough song, 'In Spite of it All', was recorded during sessions for Melt and included on the Missing From Melt EP (it was also the b-side of the 'Bad Note For a Heart' single).

In 1989 Straitjacket Fits toured overseas for the first time, visiting the USA and Europe. "For me it was just a big holiday, to see the world. I was so into American movies and American culture [...] It didn’t bother me if we didn’t have a good gig or not, we were there, doing it!"

'Sparkle That Shines' was on the band's debut release, the Life In One Chord EP (1987), and also the UK/US version of Hail (1988). Looking back on the song, Brough said "I don’t like the singing so much [...] because it’s quite pompous and young. [...] I remember in the studio when it was coming together, you could tell that it was going to work." But he liked the band's first recording: "The first EP, I was really proud of. I was thinking, ‘Shit, I’m on that! I was part of that’, it was good."

Their only studio recording, a five-track EP entitled Fruit Salad Lives, was released by Flying Nun Records shortly before the band broke up in 1986. 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.

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.

Following the demise of The Blue Meanies, Brough formed the Dunedin sound three-piece The Orange with Jonathan Moore (bass, formerly of Bored Games) and Peter Bragan (drums) in 1984. 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.

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). Brough's new band played their first show in Dunedin in October 1992, supporting The Verlaines.

Andrew Mark Brough (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.

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.

At the time, Brough was influenced by 1960s pop. "I spent three or four years listening to that music after I left school. [...] In the sixties they had a strong sense of melody, which influenced me a lot."

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". Brough described Bike's sound as "powerful pop songs", while others used descriptions like "soothing, cheerful and sunny". Dave Eggleton, in Ready To Fly, said "Bike's sound was a homage to 1960's psychedalia".