The Beatless: Gene Brigham

Gene Brigham was born Allen Eugene Brigham, Jr. on June 28, 1967 in Rome, Georgia. He's 5'7" tall, has brown hair and blue eyes, loves music and anything chocolate. He will tell you that the first sound he remembers hearing is the jet engine at the beginning of the White Album's "Back in the U.S.S.R." He grew up listening to artists like Buddy Holly, Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, and Frankie Valley, as well as the super groups: Led Zeppelin, Three Dog Night, The Rolling Stones and, of course, The Fab Four. "My folks were great about exposing me to a lot of musical variety," he says, "I'm sure it wasn't a conscious effort on their part, but it definitely had a lasting effect." And, as if that wasn't enough to point him in the direction of music, he got a drum set for his 7th birthday. Gene was hooked from that day forward. He got his first guitar when he was 14, and realized that THIS was the instrument for him. "I can hardly think of a time when I didn't want to be a performer," he says, "I've always felt like it's what I'm supposed to do with my life. I love it!"

Since high school, he has never been far from the stage. Gene has played in a host of local bands such as Crystal Vision, The Cruisers, M. Toussaud, Brigham-Ridley-Smith, Deeper and The Cosmic Opera. Gene singing Help! at First Friday Since the late 1990's, Gene had settled into being primarily a solo artist, continuing to write and perform locally, until the opportunity to play in The Beatless came along. "When I was a teenager, I used to stack a couple of Beatle records on my turntable every night, put my headphones on and that was how I went to sleep. It went on for years. I sometimes still dream about The Beatles! So I couldn't pass this up."

Gene plays guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and sings. His favorite Beatle was John Lennon, and portraying John is where he concentrates his efforts. He has released one solo CD - "Outside Looking In" - in 2003, and is currently writing songs for his second release. His take on the group's success and their message? "I don't want to be remembered as the guy who thinks he's John Lennon. But if my pretending to be John can make people stop, listen, and appreciate me as a performer, then I'm game for a while. Anyway, I love what we're doing! And I love these guys playing next to me. I think the world would be a much happier place if it were filled with Beatle music. All you need is love, right? Maybe not, but it certainly gets you going in the right direction." Gene lists his Top 10 musical influences in this order: The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Simon and Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, John Mellencamp, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Gene and fellow bandmate David Butler have been close friends since they were 10 years old, and used to spend a lot of lazy summer days listening to The Beatles at a mutual friend's house. Both were inclined to pursue musical careers and have been practicing musicians since they were teenagers. Yet, somehow they never got around to playing together very much until The Beatless came along. "What a shame that is," says Gene, "Who knows where things might have gone if we'd done something like this a lot sooner? I don't know, maybe the timing just wasn't right until now. It definitely feels good at this moment. And with Kelley and John, two great musicians and fellow Beatle fans, everything seems to be clicking. I have a feeling we'll be doing this for a while."