“Going by any reasonable judgement system, I’d have to admit to being mad. I spot the unusual and head towards it. I never know if I’ll be enlightened or burnt – that’s part of the fun”: The crazy world of Arthur Brown is truly crazy

Arthur Brown.

From setting fire to the charts and himself and inciting student riots to watching Vivian Stanshall chase Robert Calvert with a shotgun, Arthur Brown’s is a life most colourful. In 2010 Prog tried to encapsulate the spirit that’s driven one of music’s ultimate mercurial pioneers.

Within minutes of being born on 24 June, 1942, Arthur Brown was at the centre of a major drama – setting the tone for almost all that’s happened since. “My mother heard a siren and thought there was an air raid. So she threw herself, with me, under the hospital bed. It was a false alarm – but thank goodness she did it because it dislodged the placenta, which had become jammed, and saved both our lives!”