Bob Andrews, Keyboardist for Graham Parker and the Rumour, Dies
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Brinsley Schwarz, in a United Artists publicity photo, via Ian Gomm. Bob Andrews is 2nd from L.
Bob Andrews, the keyboardist and founding member of the early 1970s U.K. pub-rock band Brinsley Schwarz, and later a member of the Rumour, the splendid back-up band for Graham Parker during the remainder of that decade, died June 5, 2025. News of his passing, at age 75, at his home in Taos, New Mexico, was shared by his friend, writer Lynne Robinson.
Robinson noted that while fighting cancer, Andrews continued to perform all around Taos. During that period, he showed up one day utterly elated. The prior weekend, Elvis Costello had played Albuquerque and invited Andrews to sit in with his band. “It was just like old times,” he had joked in his modest manner.
When reached for a comment, Parker told Best Classic Bands, “I’m so saddened by the news that my dear friend Bob Andrews of the Rumour has died. Bob possessed enormous abilities as a musician, helping me find the best in my work in the early days of my career. He lifted my songs into places I had only imagined they could go to.
RIP, Bob❤️”
Apart from his tenure with the two U.K. bands, Andrews produced (with Schwarz) Carlene Carter’s 1978 debut album. He later collaborated for many others including his Brinsley Schwarz bandmate Nick Lowe on “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass.” He produced the 1988 hit for the La’s, “There She Goes.”
From the official bio on his website: Andrews was born on June 20, 1949, just outside of Leeds. He started piano lessons at age seven after his mother detected his enthusiasm for banging on his grandmother’s neighbor’s piano. He switched teachers at age 11 to a local piano master, Charles Seed, and also learned to play the ukulele while in a skiffle group formed with school friends. Andrews’ earliest introductions to popular music came through the radio and his teenage next-door neighbor who bought Elvis Presley and Bill Haley records. Hanging out at a local penny arcade in Blackpool while on a family holiday, he was exposed to the Everly Brothers, and he would sing along to the harmonies.
At 13, upon discovering Chuck Berry, the Beatles and the Stones, he learned to play bass and electric guitar. A whole new musical world opened up when Andrews heard Howlin’ Wolf and the Chicago blues, and learning those infamous guitar riffs, played underage in pubs. By 1965, at age 16, he had been kicked out of high school for having long hair, and with a newly minted Farfisa organ, was gigging five nights a week.
Andrews became a full-time professional musician in 1966, spending two years working in Germany and Spain, in nightclubs and on U.S. military bases, having returned to playing keyboards. Back in the U.K. in 1968, he replied to a “Musicians Wanted” ad in Melody Maker and landed a position with pop act Kippington Lodge, which eventually evolved into the band Brinsley Schwarz.
Named for their guitarist, the band was central to the emergence of the pub-rock genre, widely perceived as a rejuvenation of traditional rock ‘n’ roll energy and songwriting values in the face of music scene then dominated by prog rock. The band became notorious early on for a giant hype stunt in 1970, where their then-management company secured a gig for them at New York’s Fillmore East, and sent 100 U.K. journalists to hear them. The whole junket went terribly wrong and the band ended up in debt and with a sour press from it all.
The band’s recordings include one of Lowe‘s most famous songs, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding” from their 1974 album, The New Favourites of… Brinsley Schwarz, produced by Dave Edmunds.
When the band split up, Lowe emerged as an important solo artist and producer. Schwarz and Andrews joined guitarist Martin Belmont from the recently defunct Ducks Deluxe and decided to form a new band. Belmont knew a bass player and drummer, Andrew Bodnar and Steve Goulding, whose band had also split up. Together, they became the Rumour. Dave Robinson, former Brinsleys manager, and soon-to-be Stiff Records’ impresario, introduced them to Graham Parker. A decision was made to keep the two acts separate for contractual purposes – publishing and record deals – and the band recorded a live record, At Marble Arch and the first Parker album, Howling Wind, at the end of 1975. Where later bands in the developing punk genre often pared their ensemble sound down to guitar, bass and drums, the Rumour had an expansive, sophisticated way with arrangements, which traded heavily on their immersion in the sounds of American soul music and the work of Bob Dylan (especially with the Band) and Van Morrison.
In his tenure with the Rumour, Andrews recorded numerous critically lauded and influential albums and toured the world relentlessly, moving from warm-up slots with acts like Thin Lizzy to their own headlining tours. Andrews left the band in 1979, following tours in support of the Squeezing Out Sparks album. [Best Classic Bands’ Album Rewind is here.]
Andrews played many recording sessions throughout the ’70s and ’80s, as a sought after player for his piano and organ work. He played on Maxine Nightingale’s 1975 hit “Get Right Back.” His angular jazz inflected piano playing was a highlight of Lowe’s “Breaking Glass” in 1977; and his Hammond organ solo was featured on Sam Brown’s No. 1 hit “Stop,” from 1986. His production on the 1988 single, “There She Goes,” helped the La’s earn a #13 U.K. hit and #2 on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Along with the rest of the Rumour, Andrews reunited with Parker on the 2012 album, Three Chords Good and 2015’s Mystery Glue. Those albums are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
A comprehensive Brinsley Schwarz collection, Thinking Back — The Anthology 1970-1975, was released in 2023. The 7-CD is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
Very sad to learn that musician Bob Andrews died yesterday 5 June at his home in New Mexico. No further information at this time. As we all know, his keyboard work with the Brinsley Schwarz group and Graham Parker and the Rumour was superb. Photographer unknown. #bobandrews pic.twitter.com/NnPMkivXfS
— Will Birch (@Will_Birch) June 6, 2025
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3 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationR I P Bob Andrews
An integral part of an
excellent musical lineage
of what was dubbed ‘Pub Rock’
but it was much,much more than
any tag applied. Their skillfully crafted
sound more than complemented
the likes of iconic Graham Parker
and Nick Lowe…
They could not have reached the
heights of close to perfection
as it were, without the assembly
of Bob Andrews and bandmates.
‘Nervous on the Road’ was and
still remains my favorite album
from this wonderful collection
of players including Ian Gomm
and I would surely encourage
any wayward souls to look into
any musical connection
ascribed to Bob Andrews and
Brinsley Schwarz & the Rumour.
The “solo” Rumour albums with Bob’s contributions at the fore are so very good – “The Rumour” and “Frogs Sprouts Clogs and Krauts”. Equally good is the Rumour record without Bob – “Purity of Essence” – killer version of “Rubber Band Man”.
His piano playing and association with other artists changed my life.