Ian Broudie has looked back on a career that began with defiance of school careers advice, and ahead of upcoming Liverpool shows, he remains as committed to music as ever.
During his school years, Broudie was repeatedly told that a career in music was not an option. Decades later, he is one of the most acclaimed singers to have come from Liverpool, with a string of chart hits including Pure, Life of Riley, Lucky You and the World Cup anthem Three Lions with Frank Skinner and David Baddiel.
Early Ambitions and School Disbelief
Despite his success, his childhood dream of becoming a musician was constantly suppressed while he was at school. Careers officers pointed him towards working in record shops, but Broudie was adamant his plans would not be knocked off course.
He told the ECHO: "I always thought that I was going to be a musician, I don't know if it's arrogance of youth or just ignorance of youth, but I just always thought that's what I'm going to do, I had no doubt. I knew I was in for life."
His obsession with music began early. "Since I was very young, I was obsessed with music. It was the '60s when I was a kid and I used to have a little transistor radio and I'd listen to all the songs on Radio Caroline. It was a lot of West Coast. I had two brothers [Rob and Dave], one was really into Dylan and all that stuff, so he'd have all those albums when I was very little. He was 10 years older than me, so when I was seven, I'd go into his room and play his records. Then my other brother was more into heavier stuff, more rock kind of stuff. I'd just listen to all their records and I'd just sit and learn to play the guitar along to the records."
Finding His Path in Liverpool's Music Scene
After leaving Hillfoot Hey high school in Woolton (now closed) at just 14, Broudie moved between jobs before gradually finding his way into Liverpool's emerging music scene of the mid to late 1970s. He said: "I sort of wandered into town and there was a derelict part of town which was Mathew Street. And I suppose wandering round there and ending up going into the Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun, and being in the Illuminatus! play set me on the path."
It was during the Liverpool stage adaptation of Illuminatus!, a trilogy of novels by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, that Broudie crossed paths with Jayne Casey and Bill Drummond of Big In Japan. After striking up a relationship with both, he became the latest member of the band, setting him on his way to where he is today.
He said: "Big in Japan has lasted long in the memory, but it was very fleeting. What I feel quite proud of is that, you didn't have the internet, you didn't have anything, but I think bands like Echo and the Bunnymen, OMD [Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark], Frankie Goes to Hollywood, we all wanted to be in the world. We felt connected to New York."
"I was more into the New York bands than the English bands. I loved the Ramones, Television, Talking Heads and MC5 and a lot of the punk American bands. I think in Liverpool, in some way, we were looking out to New York and into the world, we wanted to broaden things, and be in the world, which I now think was quite a rare thing."
From Production to Solo Success
When Big in Japan came to an end in 1978, the band went their separate ways. In an unconventional shift, Broudie went into producing, notably working with Echo and the Bunnymen on their first studio album, Crocodiles, as well as songs like Rescue.
He said: "I ended up on a funny path. At a certain point I thought 'I'm a songwriter. I don't want to produce.' So I sort of stopped, which was quite a brave move looking back, and a lot of people were like, 'You can't stop. You're going to be a producer.'"
"At that time, a lot of bands would do a few gigs, and A&R men would come up from London, and they'd sign these big record deals. But I didn't have a band, and I didn't really know what to do. So I just did some home recordings, and I'd met a publisher guy when I was producing for the band Pale Fountains, and he'd said to me, 'If you ever do your own songs, send them to me.' He was a kind of a '60s maverick, music business rogue character. So I sent him three songs that I'd done at home and he said, 'Oh, you know, I love this song, 'Pure'. Let's put it out.' And I was like, 'Well, don't I need to get a record contract and a band?' And he was like, 'Well, let's just have 500 pressed up and I'll put them out.'"
Those home recordings, and in particular Pure, gave birth to his solo studio project, Ian Broudie and The Lightning Seeds in 1989. Since then he has released a number of popular records including Jollification, Lucky You and Three Lions.
Looking Ahead to Liverpool Shows
Having toured countless times in the decades since, Broudie has no plans of slowing down as he approaches his 70s. After playing in Newcastle last night, he will take to the stage in Glasgow's OVO Hydro this evening. He will be back in Liverpool on November 11 to play in the M&S Bank Arena before returning to the city again on December 18 in the O2 Academy. He is also set to play the Philharmonic Hall on November 12 2027.
He said: "I don't ever feel like I'm coming back, because I'm always there, really, so it's always lovely for me to play in Liverpool."
"I love doing the gig before Christmas because everyone's in a really good mood. It's almost like your Christmas party. It'll be fun to play the Philharmonic, which is where I used to live on Hope Street, it's nice to be playing where I used to live."
Reflecting on his career, he said: "There's two sides to making music. You want to burn brightly at the time, but then once songs are out in the world, anything can happen with them. You never know what's going to happen, so you kind of leave these songs out in the world, and they have a life of their own."
"I hope the songs keep resonating with people and meaning something to people, because I think sometimes people don't realise how much songs mean to people and how big a part of their lives they are. I've had a lot of people say that to me through the years and tell me when songs have helped them through a time, or they've had them at their wedding. I hope that the songs still keep having that resonance with people."
