Biography
Brian Willoughby gained his primary renown as the guitarist whose contributions revitalized the Strawbs during their 1980s reformation. He was born in Northern Ireland, began playing guitar as a child, and turned professional in his late teens before eventually opening and running his own folk club in West London. Dave Cousins, then fronting a new band called the Strawbs, introduced him to Mary Hopkin when Cousins recorded with her under the guidance of her husband, producer Tony Visconti; several of Willoughby’s instrumentals were played for the pair, leading to his engagement as a touring guitarist with Hopkin and a year spent largely on the road from Israel through Australia and New Zealand while he was twenty-two.
After that tour, Willoughby joined the pop/rock group New World, which scored several U.K. hits including “Tom Tom Turnaround,” and later backed Roger Whittaker as well as the cockney ex-rockabilly star Joe Brown with his bands the Bruvvers and Brown’s Home Brew. He next became a member of No Sweat, the first act signed to Pete Townshend’s Eel Pie label in 1977. In 1979 Cousins recruited him for a tour of British folk clubs that resulted in the album Old School Songs; their continued joint concerts led Willoughby to replace departing lead guitarist Dave Lambert in the Strawbs. The band officially disbanded in 1980, after which Willoughby appeared on Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation album and in the film Time Bandits.
He rejoined Cousins in the re-formed Strawbs in 1983 and, over the ensuing decades, expanded the group’s repertory with his own songs while also taking on material originally associated with his predecessors, bringing a level of virtuosity seldom matched by the original lineup. A second collaborative album with Cousins, The Bridge, was recorded in 1994. From the mid-’90s onward Willoughby played a central role in the Strawbs, which periodically resumed a full touring schedule. His first solo album, Black & White, appeared in 1998 and featured American singer Cathryn Craig together with a guest appearance by Mary Hopkin. He also performed on the English folk circuit and, at the end of the 1990s, returned to the Strawbs with Dave Lambert to form a double lead guitar team.
After that tour, Willoughby joined the pop/rock group New World, which scored several U.K. hits including “Tom Tom Turnaround,” and later backed Roger Whittaker as well as the cockney ex-rockabilly star Joe Brown with his bands the Bruvvers and Brown’s Home Brew. He next became a member of No Sweat, the first act signed to Pete Townshend’s Eel Pie label in 1977. In 1979 Cousins recruited him for a tour of British folk clubs that resulted in the album Old School Songs; their continued joint concerts led Willoughby to replace departing lead guitarist Dave Lambert in the Strawbs. The band officially disbanded in 1980, after which Willoughby appeared on Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation album and in the film Time Bandits.
He rejoined Cousins in the re-formed Strawbs in 1983 and, over the ensuing decades, expanded the group’s repertory with his own songs while also taking on material originally associated with his predecessors, bringing a level of virtuosity seldom matched by the original lineup. A second collaborative album with Cousins, The Bridge, was recorded in 1994. From the mid-’90s onward Willoughby played a central role in the Strawbs, which periodically resumed a full touring schedule. His first solo album, Black & White, appeared in 1998 and featured American singer Cathryn Craig together with a guest appearance by Mary Hopkin. He also performed on the English folk circuit and, at the end of the 1990s, returned to the Strawbs with Dave Lambert to form a double lead guitar team.
Albums
