Rock and roll singer Joe Brown on new tour, becoming a pilot and Glasgow audiences

YOU might think a 69-date tour at the age of 76 would put Joe Brown off — but he seems to have more energy than men half his age.

His latest UK tour is already in full swing, but continues right through to the end of April, and as Joe has just one person onstage to help out, that means a lot of sweat and hard graft.

For a man who lives and breathes music, however, it’s not really a “job” at all, and Joe admits the joy of making music never wears off.

“It is a bit tiring, but this is what I do for a living!” laughs the man who was so big in his early days that The Beatles were his support act.

“I do have a bit of help, from Henry Gross, a friend of mine from America who had a big hit with Shannon and is a great songwriter. He is one of the people who talked me into doing these shows.”

Gross, in case you don’t know, was the youngest artist to appear at the watershed Woodstock Festival, as part of the band Sha Na Na, in 1969.

“I’m really pleased that it is going so well, especially as we do the old songs with just the two of us and they don’t seem to lose anything,” Joe enthuses.

“You learn something every day from doing this. That’s why I still do it. I still get nervous about going on, and it’s a great challenge when you do it with just two people.

“I tried a few gigs last year like this, after not being very keen on the idea, and I loved it, it was great.

“It really surprised me, that the audience loved the stories and they loved the songs.

“I play a lot of acoustic guitar, but also plenty of mandolin and banjo.”

Speaking of learning things, many Joe fans won’t realise their spiky-haired hero isn’t just a whizz on the guitar and ukulele — he’s not bad in a cockpit, either.

But that doesn’t come without the odd scrape.

“I used to be scared of flying,” he reveals, “but I thought: ‘It’s no good, I’m in showbusiness and I’ve got to fly!’

“So I went down this local airfield and I was sitting at the bar, having a pint.

“This fella comes in, a real RAF type, and says in a posh voice: ‘Would you like a spin round the airfield?’ I said: ‘Not ’alf, mate.’

“He only had this stunt plane when he took me up there. We did all these loops and rolls, drop-outs at a thousand feet. I think he was trying to scare me, but I just loved it, thought it was great.

“I came down and signed up immediately, saying: ‘I’ll have some of this.’

“I flew for a while and it was great fun, not as hard as some people think.

“Mind you, my first solo flight was absolutely terrifying,” recalls Joe.

“I got in and took off, and then realised I was on my own up there.

“‘Remember your training and don’t panic,’” I told myself.

“For your first flight, they send you off to three different airfields. You take off, land, go to the next one, land and so on.

“They sent me to one at Cheltenham.

“As I was coming in to land, there were racehorses running everywhere.

“I was nowhere near the airfield! Let’s say I got a bit of a fright.”

Joe’s latest tour still didn’t have any Scottish dates when we spoke — something he hopes to put right — especially as he likes a Glasgow audience when they behave.

“They have a lovely venue up there now,” he admits.

“But I remember the Glasgow Empire, which was a terrifying place!

“Actually, for myself and the likes of Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, we were all right up there with the lads.

“But for guys like Billy Fury, guys the girls were all after, forget it, mate!

“The last time I played the Empire, I was standing at the side and Billy was on, and I could hear this ominous noise.

“They were hurling these whisky bottles from up in the gods, and they went bang!

“The drummer was hiding behind his cymbals, and it was a nightmare. It was infamous.

“I remember Stevie Winwood, lead singer with Traffic, was playing Glasgow and it went well, but the thing with some people is they start to talk to the audience and think they can be comedians.

“He started having a chat with the crowd, things got quiet, but he was determined to get something out of them.

“Eventually, a chap at the front just shouted: ‘Nice hairdo!’

“That was it. But seriously, I love it up there, they are really great people.”

Get along to see this living legend on his Just Joe UK tour — see dates at http://www.joebrown.co.uk/2017-201-just-joe-tour-dates/