Brian Pendleton

Pendleton became an insurance underwriter and followed this career for over 20 years, working for Sun Alliance Insurance and later the Prudential. On 25 May 2001 he was found dead by the door of his flat in Maidstone, Kent; he had been suffering from lung cancer. He was survived by two sons.

By early 1966 commercial success, despite their still producing excellent tracks, was eluding the Pretty Things. At the end of that year Brian quit the band; there has been much speculation about how and when he did this over the years. What is certain is that Brian returned to his original profession, the insurance industry, and kept a very low profile thereafter; however he continued to play and he performed with the Kent Jazz Orchestra, amongst other bands, a return to his original musical influences. In the early 90s Brian came to local (Kent) attention again as the member of a band called ‘So What’ who enjoyed success in the Maidstone area playing blues and other styles; Brian played lead guitar with them. Eventually they split up and Brian subsequently became ill with lung cancer, but he never stopped playing guitar.

‘Honey I Need’ followed in early 1965, at around which time their first album ‘The Pretty Things’ was released to critical acclaim and a Top Ten chart placing. The Pretties owe much to Brian’s strong rhythm guitar playing contributing to their sound. This was the peak of the Pretties’ commercial success.

In the Spring on 1965, Bob Dylan toured the UK and footage was filmed which would materialise into _Don’t Look Back (1967)_; Brian featured in this film in the scenes relating to the broken glass and Donovan and Dylan performing for each other.

In mid 1964 the Pretty Things came to the attention of the public and the media amid a blaze of publicity and were seen as more outrageous, ‘hairier’ and ‘dirtier’ than the already notorious Stones. Hits followed; ‘Rosalyn’, their first effort, reached the lower sections of the top 50 and was followed by their biggest commercial success “Don’t Bring Me Down’ which was banned in the USA due to its supposed ‘risque’ lyrics.

Brian learned to play guitar and played in a number of jazz bands before answering an advert to join the Pretty Things (featuring ex-Rolling Stone Taylor) as rhythm guitarist in late 1963.

Brian Pendleton was born on 13th April 1944 in Wolverhampton; whilst still a baby his family moved to Dartford in Kent and it was Dartford Grammar School that Brian attended as a teenager, in the year below two fellow pupils named Mick Jagger and Dick Taylor.