Andrew Brel is an author whose work includes The Emergency Bouzouki Player and One Day in Paris and a professional musician for over forty years. He has released 16 albums of meditation music since 2001.
Early life
Brel was born to Greek parents in the South African suburb of Bryanston, one of Johannesburg's whites-only areas in 1960. His father was Manoussos Broulidakis, originally from Sfakia, a Cretan village on the South of the Island notable for its resistance during the Ottoman occupation. Sfakia was the extraction point for the Allied troops caught up in the surprise invasion of Crete by the Nazis in 1941.
After emigrating to South Africa in 1934, Manos volunteered for the South African army in 1939, serving for the duration of WW2 in North Africa and Italy.
Manos married Helen Evangelou in 1956. They had three children. Katerina, born 1958, Andreas born 1960 and Christina born 1966. The family lived in Linksfield Ridge in what was the 'House of the Year in 1956. The house on Hannoben street was designed by Frank L. Jarret in 1951 "for Greek timber merchant Manos Broulidakis, who spared no expense in using the richest of timbers for its interiors." Manos sold The house on Hannoben street in 1960 to L.Ron Hubbard, when he relocated his Scientology business to South Africa.
The house that Manos built is currently listed as one of Johannesburg's hidden treasures of architecture as a museum called 'The Ron Hubbard House'. Manos Broulidakis' home was the first 1950's house to attain Heritage status in South Africa.
In 1960 Manos moved his family to Bryanston where Andreas grew up a native Greek speaker, attending Bryanston Primary, Bryanston High and Damelin College before completing first year at the University of the Witwatersrand medical school. Manos died in 1971 of a coronary thrombosis leaving Helen, 36, with three children and four dogs in a three-acre property with four servants. Andrew was 10, Katherine 12 and Christina 4. Each child would react differently to this early encounter with profound loss. Kathy became a professional ballerina who embraced Eastern mysticism, Andrew became a professional musician, and the youngest, Christine, became a successful lawyer.
Conscription into the SADF In 1979, having just turned 18, Brel was forcibly conscripted into the South African Army for two years during the height of the Border War. Brel was from the outset a refusenik in uniform, unwilling to participate in any militant activity on the basis that "All I can do is play the guitar." Eventually he became the guitarist in the accomplished SADF Entertainment Corps show band, a seat once occupied by Trevor Rabin. Brel toured the Country, often appearing as the musical entertainment for Government functions. In 1980 Brel toured the SADF camps on the Angolan Border, performing with several of South Africa's popular musical stars of the era on morale boosting concerts for the troops. During these visits to the war zone he experienced first hand the traumatized reality of the average 18-year-old troops reaction to firefights and the ethical debasement that accompanies all out war. In this guise, Entertainment Corps guitarist with the rank of Bandsman, he met and entertained several of South Africa's significant Apartheid leaders, including Minister of Defence, Magnus Malan and Minister of Police Jimmy Kruger. Kruger had only recently overseen the horrible death of Steve Biko, commenting on his demise with "It leaves me cold". Awareness of the personalities he was entertaining sat heavily on the anti-fascist young Brel.
In 1980, as a 19-year-old troop in military uniform he found himself unexpectedly face to face with South African Prime Minister P. W. Botha during a Government Dinner/Dance function honoring an Argentine delegation, where he narrowly escaped punitive consequences after insulting the Prime Minister then claimed he was "Speaking Greek."
This encounter with P.W Botha was one of many instances of non-violent protest that characterized an unhappy, traumatic period of living under and resenting the rule of the Christian Apartheid regime.
After being discharged from two years of national service in December of 1980, in order to avoid the camp system in which conscripts were required to return to the border annually for fighting service, Brel returned to formal education which provided exemption from Camps. He completed three years of Computer Science while developing musical skills performing as a solo musician at many of South Africa's then thriving live music venues. Brel averaged six shows a week between 1981 and 1985.
In 1981, at the outset of a career as a professional musician, acting on the advice of booking agent Edith Goldstein, who explained the commercial difficulties attached to booking Andreas Broulidakis he adopted a shortened version of his name, appearing professionally as Andy Brel for the first time in 1981. His first professional contract, the Quirinale Hotel in Hillbrow was for three-months, performing solo with foot bass pedals and a drum box, for four hours, five nights weekly.
Between 1981 and 1985, Brel averaged over 300 paid appearances annually whilst a full-time student, earning positive reviews on numerous occasions in The Star, then the most widely circulated news publication in South Africa. During this time he experienced undiagnosed PTSD, which led to a formal interest in learning about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and then sharing information about the condition in published articles that have been referenced in treatment programs in South Africa.
During the Apartheid era of South Africa an entire generation of white South African born males was required to serve in the military during the twenty-three year Angolan Border war. The majority of conscripts were 18-year old school leavers for whom there was no alternative than to fight for the survival of the Apartheid regime. Although thousands died in the conflict many more on both sides carried the psychological scars forward, impacting significantly on the Countries political and social transition away from white minority rule.Journal article ajol.info
Emigration In 1985, aged 24 and with some skills as a performing and recording musician, Brel left Apartheid South Africa for a new life in England, arriving with a total of £1,500 and no plan beyond playing music for money. At that time Greece was a half member of the EU, entitling Greek passport holder Brel to the right of residence in the UK.
Brel was well received from the outset in the UK where his one-man show led to a stream of bookings on the Pub and club circuit. Soon after arrival he began a 3-year Saturday night 'sold-out' stint at Bo-Jangles, a wine bar owned by a music Industry personality in Hampton Wick, South West London. Bo Jangles was at that time a trending in-place for musicians where being the featured attraction every Saturday night led to many musical introductions and album recording opportunities. Providing the social network that formed the start of a new life in the UK.
Within one year of arriving in the UK, aged 25 in 1986, Brel bought his first home on the Thames Riverbank near Hampton Court in the picturesque Surrey village of East Molesey.
From 1986 until 1991 he owned and operated Hampton Court Studios at Number 3 Bridge Road, East Molesey, working as a music writer and producer, developing new talent and creating original musical copyrights. This period included producing the original demos of the Dogs D'Amour which led to their record deal with China Records, launching a colorful chapter in British cartoon Rock and Roll. After 8-hour studio sessions on most days, in the evenings Brel continued public performances as a guitarist/singer, increasingly in duo context with musicians including Duncan Mackay (10cc), John Edwards (Status Quo) and Ronnie Johnson (Van Morrison).
Throughout the 1980s, at a time when the UK enjoyed a thriving live music culture in the smoky pubs where people would meet and socialize, Brel averaged six nights a week of live gigs in many of London's most musical pub gigs and five full-price sessions a week in Hampton Court Studios.
Bridge Recordings In 1989, Brel formed a record label, Bridge Recordings with Charlie Morgan, then drummer with Elton John. Bridge Recordings was a pioneering model of an independent record label producing high quality recordings of accomplished musicians playing their own instruments with the ethos of 'Music by Musicians.' The goal with recordings was to perform 'studio live', all players playing together in the traditional style of the early recording studios. Most of the releases on Bridge represent first or second takes of the band playing live.
For Brel, starting the Production label was the alternative to continuing gigs in smoky pubs after the age of thirty. Having decided the lifestyle of a gigging musician did not favor prospects for longevity. Especially considering at that time gigging musicians in the UK would typically smoke and drink to an extent that what would by today's standards be considered excessive.
With all his attention shifted into recording and production of musical content, distribution of Bridge albums was enhanced by Brel's association with Music Maker Publications and its chairman Terry Day. A professional friendship that enabled numerous successful promotions for Bridge recordings though the wide circulation of the Music Maker flagship magazine 'Guitarist'.
In 1991 Music Maker leased one of the first T1 Internet connections in the UK and Brel established the Bridge Recordings web store which recorded the first instance of a CD sale via the Internet for Give Them Enough Rope by Ronnie Johnson.
During the 1990s this association with the largest publisher of music related magazines enabled co ventures between Brel and Terry Day that helped the careers of many guitar players and included starting the Guitarist Magazine 'Guitarist of the Year' competition, which gave unknown players the opportunity to perform live with top session musicians in front of an audience for the prize of publicity and a recording opportunity. Several of the participants in these shows have gone on to enjoy successful professional careers.
As a writer, Brel contributed numerous articles for publication in Music Maker titles including lengthy features on Manfred Mann, and songwriter Terry Britten.
From 1992, Brel produced all cover-mount CD's for all Terry Days publications under the Music Maker banner including Guitarist magazine and Guitar Techniques magazine. Containing new content each month by a variety of contributors that would include Martin Taylor and Guthrie Govan along with many of the top level of teachers and players in the UK. This conceptual idea, which began in a coffee meeting between Brel and Terry Day in Cambridge, provided a new and original approach to music tuition that has left a lasting legacy. During this period Brel also mastered every CD release and oversaw overall production in excess of 2 million CD's. Along with negotiating the license payment with the Copyright protection society, the MCPS, for the copyright compositions appearing on every one of the lessons contained on the CD's. The success of the CD cover mounts and the quality of the content improved magazine circulation and assisted with the eventual sale of the Music Maker brand to Future Publishing.
Black Barn Studios