In the late 1960's, when Genesis where still at university ( fiddling around with a different, though equaly defining debut album) and Pink Floyd and Soft Machine were performing a very different style of experimental art rock in Londons new found psychodelic scene, a handfull of youngsters from Oxfordshire were setting up their own proggresive hard rock band to act as an added counterbalance to the bulging 'Canterbury folk rock' scene. Familiar bluesy, rocked up and blood pumping riffs, ecstatic 'eat your heart out Mr Page' style lead guitars, momentous drum solo's and bass lines and movements as ecstaticly good as the late John Entwistle's (of The Who) steadily developed into a very unique sound while main songwriter/composer Jeff Pain aka 'Dicken' spun some magical vocals throughout this unique mix of balads and hard rock with a voice often comparable to Roger Daltrey (of The Who) and (often mistaken for ) Jon Anderson (of Yes) at their very best. For their first few years of concerts and gigs 'Burnt Oak' was the name of this smouldering rock band as they wooed crowds in the pubs and music clubs of the UK from the late sixties til the early seventies, but one night in 1972 , while the founders of Celtic Rock were comandeering the Rolling Stones Mobile (see Rock Cornerstone One), when Roger Daltrey decided he was growing his hair and 'Sunbury' was turning Australian music culture on it's head (see Rock Cornerstone 4), a grumpy venue manager made an unexpected change that was to affect Burnt Oak forever.
  The venue was Londons world famous Marquee where Burnt Oak were due to headline a show, but when the band arrived for the gig they found that instead of their own name, it was a' Mr Big' that was up in lights and billed as the amazing breakthrough headlining band. When they approached the manager of Londons main music venue and asked why they weren't on the bill it eventualy turned out that they were headlining that night- but the manager had got their name wrong, when they asked him if he could change it his response was, in a 'Yul Brennerish " what is written is written" ' and "if you don't like it, stick it where the sun don't shine" kind of way..."No!". And so, after an exceptional gig at what was the nations top rock venue 'Burnt Oak' were to unexpectedly become 'Mr Big' for the rest of their career together.
  Despite an already dazzling array of songs it was two more years until they were eventualy signed to Epic Records for the release of their first singles in 1974 and their first album, produced by Mutt Lange, was called 'Sweet Silence' - released the following year through EMI in 1975 once Bob Hirschman (former manager to Mott The Hoople) took over over as the bands manager.That same year Dicken and Mr Big formed a close working relationship with another fast upcoming UK Supergroup called Queen and they toured together throughout the year on Queens 'A Night at the Opera' tour, in fact, on the very night that 'Bohemian Rhapsody' hit the number one spot in the UK charts (where it was to stay for the next thirteen weeks) both bands were in the very same hotel room huddled together arm in arm around the TV to watch music history being made together...it was probably one of the most memorable highlights of both bands careers and of their time together. Funnily enough, Mr Bigs own chart topping single release had an almost identicaly styled promotional video made by the same people two years later.
  1976 saw the band headline their own UK tour, step in as support for the Sweet's European tour and start to tour the States extensively alongside bands like Journey, Kansas and Tom Petty... where this first UK band to ever be signed to Arista Records proved to be 'heartbreakers' all on their own once the new single releases started coming out from their second UK (and first Stateside) album 'Mr Big' in 1977. Their finely chizzled faces, flowing hair and wide opened shirts -exposing far more flesh and male pheremones than most females of the day were seemingly used to - began to cause quite a stir on both sides of the atlantic...and even though it was an image formerly used by Led Zeppelins Robert Plant and now the Who's Roger Daltrey, the thought of a whole band full of young men sporting such an image was clearly too much for some. It was also an image that was to have a huge influence most new American and European rock bands as they all emerged throughout the following decade - from Van Halen to the bare chested 'front' of Aerosmith and the prestine 'Eddie Carter' styled perms of bands like 'Europe' and even to Bill Sheehy's late eighties american clone of the original (which even used the very same name ...Mr Big) . Meanwhile, back in the UK, as the song 'Romeo' began to quickly scale the charts complaints from the 'down with this sort of thing' brigade began to pour in to the BBC regarding the 'erotic' nature of the bands image on the video and of the songs lyrical content....and when the wives and girlfriends (...or was it the closet boyfriends and mistresses...?) of the BBC's board of directors and producers began screaming at the TV screens like Meg Ryan in the cafe scene from 'When Harry Met Sally' every time the song was aired, the BBC decided to pull the plug and ban it. The strange thing about this is that if they'd payed the same amount of attention to the lyrics of almost any Motown song or even any other top ten single of the day then they would have had to have banned them all (and possibly half of the Bible too...especialy the bits King Solomon wrote!). Eventualy the BBC revised their decision and, after listening to the lyrics again in their proper context, lifted the ban once the single began soaring up the charts unhindered in countries like Germany, Holland, Ireland, Australia, Japan and America.
  Another two UK headline tours followed along with another top forty hit until, after recording their third album Seppuku (which remained unreleased until rescued from the vaults by the band for release by 'Angel Air' records in 2001) and after making their final TV appearances singing Senora (another passionate balad with some exceptional and equally passionate lyrics) in 1978, Mr Big, now almost burnt out, disbanded.

  Dicken and Pete Crowther went on to form an equaly gifted and inspirational band called 'Broken Home' in 1980 which headlined at the Reading Rock festival that same year and and also released two exceptional albums in the early eighties. Throughout the decade all the original Mr Big members, Pete Crowther, Eddie Carter, Vince Chaulk, John Burnip and John Marter (they originaly had two drummers to perform dueling solo's on stage) and especialy principal songwriter Jeff Pain aka 'Dicken' went on to do various successful solo projects and musical collaberations all throughout the eighties and early nineties until the real Mr Big regrouped and remerged in the nineties with a number of 'greatest hits' tours and the album release of Rainbow Bridge in 1996 . Scince then the band has continualy regrouped under various line-ups a number of concerts and tours- especialy throughout Europe where they have allways been held in high regard especialy in Germany .

 In 2007, to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Romeo (the once banned promotional video of which is featured above with 'The Fun To Find' to the right) and well over thrity years of creative zeal, the former members of Dickens Mr Big and Broken home released a special commemorative double disc CD entitled 'From Mr Big To Broken Home And Back' featuring all the classic singles released under both bands working titles as well as many of those lesser known to 'pop fans' and classic rock tracks that made them so popular among their main core of European , Japanese, Australian and American hard rock fans.
  The album has been released on Angel Air records and all tracks (over thirty of them) have all been carefully remixed and upgraded by their principal creator , Jeff Pain.

 Other ventures of interest from the realms of Mr Big include Dickens developement as a watercolour artist - with his works often appearing at art shows in his native Oxfordshire and throughout the UK. Eddie Carter and John Burnips 1990's reformation of 'Sunfly' - the original band of Eddie Carter prior to merging with Dicken's Mr Big in the seventies. Tandoori Cassette , a band formed by Zal Cleminson in the early eighties which was also joined for a time by Dicken and close friend and gifted singer/songwriter Paul Gibbons prior to the release of Dickens solo albums. The line up also included Barrymore Barlow (formerly of Jethro Tull) and Charlie Tumahi.
  New Mr Big songs co written by Dicken and Paul Gibbons are also on the table with the demo releases online of two new tracks entitled 'Something Special' and 'Baby Come Around' to add to the vast collection of songs with the very strong possibilty of a brand new album release in the coming months with a current line up of Dicken, Eddie Carter, Paul Gibbons, Simon Saunders and Bob..Links have been provided to their many sites for news , info, albums and some classic sounds and videos on their MySpace pages where a more detailed aural investigation of their extensive musical catalogue will quickly help to clarify why we believe Mr Big were not only one of the most understated English bands in the history of rock, but also one of Englands principal musical cornerstones and one of the founding cornerstones of Eighties light and hard rock worldwide. So make sure you visit and snap up some of those special releases while you can at...

  Their 'balad' Myspace featuring the new demo tracks...
 
  Classic rock masterpieces of their other Myspace page...

  Angel Air Records - for new and recent releases...

  Fan site with info on all band members and activities...

  More memorable tracks on the Broken Home MySpace...

Copyright 2008 Mairtin O'Riain and Martin Ryan - The Ryan O'Riain22
With permissions for artists included etc...