I was the owner of a women’s clothes shop back the late 1990s and one of the many joys I had working there was to put together the mix tapes for the soundtrack of the shop. Now bearing in mind I was selling 1990s street and club wear, my tapes containing old R’N’B, Mod classics and the odd bit of Blue Note jazz got some strange looks among the clientele on a regular basis.

But it was my shop so…

Anyway, after 3 years of playing music every day, six days a week, I had pretty much exhausted my musical collection. I then started to buy compilations from those who ran 60s fanzines, of which, there were many back then there. On one of the tapes -yes kids, the songs were those cassette tapes you have read about – was a couple of live tracks by the band ‘Steampacket’ which intrigued me. I knew of the name but not the music. The band were considered the first ‘super group’ if you like, containing the likes of Julie Driscoll, Long John Baldry and a then relatively unknown Rod Stewart all competing for the microphone.

But for me it was the buzzin’ sound of the Hammond organ that I loved and that was played with aplomb by Brian Driscoll, who with his searing stabs glued it all together.

To say Auger has had a varied career is to understate his adventures in music, in which he has played for or toured with, a large number of stellar names within his chosen profession. More of that later

Hammersmith born in 1939, Brian Albert Gordon Auger started out as a piano player on the London jazz scene of the late 50s and the early 60s. Coming from a large family, his older brother had turned him on to jazz though his extensive record collection. Brian had picked up an early boogie-woogie playing style and then zoned in on the work of the modernists, like Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Horace Silver and Jimmy Smith.

When jazz gave way to the R’N’B and Pop explosion of the early 60s in the clubs of the UK, Auger was asked to work with Long John Baldry, who was leaving his then band The Hoochie Coochie Men. So, as a result of them being put together, ‘Steampacket’ were born with Brian running the band. Eventually contractual dramas, meant that nothing official is released by them, but plenty of bootlegs of them performing live exist and have surfaced over the years and this what I was listening to in SE5 back then.

The band were short lived, surviving only a year, but they were to become fondly remembered and influential.

Driscoll stays with Auger and they morph into, ‘Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity’ and they hit the top ten with a cover of a Bob Dylan tune ‘This Wheels on Fire.’ Driscoll with her distinctive cropped hairstyle and great vocal range becomes a magazine pin up. Other great tracks for me include ‘Indian Rope Man’ ‘Black Cat (with Auger on lead vocals and without Driscoll) and an astounding version of ‘Light My Fire’ in which all those hours of listening to Jimmy Smith are very evident.

1970 sees Auger forming Brian Augers Oblivion Express, and he is off into the world of jazz-fusion for a few years. They produce an always-interesting output, performed by a fairly fluid line up, and one that is well respected by those in the know. If I had to tip you off on a tune or two, I’d plump for ‘Happiness is Just Around the Bend’ and a track I picked up on in my Gilles Peterson Dingwalls days called ‘ Freedom Jazz Dance’ with vocalist Alex Ligertwood on lead vocal. 

Augers work from this period, especially the album ‘Closer To It’ later had him christened ‘The Godfather of Acid Jazz.’

Influential then.

However, his personal career stalled around the 1980s, so in and out of the various band projects he goes, which sees Auger touring and sitting in on sessions with a variety of artists, from Jimi Hendrix to Rod Stewart to Led Zeppelin and Sonny Boy Williamson. He finally gets his his mojo back working with Eric Burdon on a number of tours.

In the most recent years, he has reformed Oblivion Express with his son Karma on drums as well being the tour manager and daughter Savannah occasionally on vocals.

Nearing 80, the name of Brian Auger is still revered and rightly so.

Do yourself a favour on a wet and rainy afternoon and put the name Brian Auger in the search box of YouTube and follow the music down the rabbit hole.

You can thank me later

The Mumper of SE5