The band was started in October 1983 by Pete Bradbury, the drummer of the band, who at that time was a freelance musician and grew up listening to soul and rhythm and blues music. His collection of Atlantic Motown and Stax records was a big influence in wanting to play this style of music, but the main ingredient was seeing the Blues Brothers film. That film had an allstar cast of soul and rhythm and blues artistes that probably influenced a lot of young musicians to start playing. Pete worked with Don Parfitt (keyboards) in many bands and night clubs at that time, so it was a natural progression that Don would play keyboards in the band. The bass player with Don and Pete was Jack Shaughnessy.  These guys became the nucleus of the band.  Dave Howell (guitar), John Wolfenden (sax), Pete Lee (trumpet), Jim Casey (lead vocals) and two girl backing singers were added to form the first line-up. The first band was called Soul Vaccination.

The band did what it originally set out to do and that was to play mid week gigs for pure enjoyment. This line-up ambled along until 1986 when Jim Casey, the lead vocalist, had to go into hospital for a serious operation. This stopped the band for almost a year, in which time Pete and Don had become resident musicians at the Talk of the North night club in Eccles. Jack Shaughnessy had started the gig with Pete and Don but left after a while to do other things.

Jack's position on bass was taken by Carl Barnett. With Carl joining a different line-up was made. The two female backing singers were replaced by another trumpet and a trombone to give a fuller sounding brass section. Barry Fitzgerald joined on guitar and the name was also changed from Soul Vaccination  to STAX of SOUL and The Soul Review.

Pete Lee (trumpet) met a singer that he had played with in a band some years ago and mentioned to him that he was playing in a soul band and would he like to come and watch. To cut a long story short the singer was 'Memphis Soul Stu', alias Stuart Widdall. Stuart joined the band six months later and this meant the band then had two lead singers for about a year. Stuart with his approach to singing soul brought a new dimension to the band. More Otis Redding and James Brown songs were introduced and this gave a different texture to the overall flavour of the band. Jim Casey decided to leave to do other things and Stuart took over as the lead vocalist in 1988.

There were many musicians who worked with the band around this period, and because most of the musicians were freelance it became very difficult to keep the same group of people together.

In 1988/89 the band worked very hard rehearsing arrangements and doing gigs. At the end of 1989, because of the ever expanding interest and work load, the individual members of the band were asked to commit themselves fully to the future of this great band that was still in the making.  The commitment factor saw John (the flask) Sweeney replace Carl Barnett on bass. The brass section also had many changes of personnel eventually settling with Pete Lee, Tony Laws, Paul Phillips and Ian Nelson. The band now had a steady personnel line-up and became one of the hardest working bands in the north.  

The 1990 band was: Stuart Widdall - Lead Vocals Don Parfitt - Keyboards and Backing Vocals Barry Fitzgerald - Guitar John (The Flask) Sweeney - Bass Pete Bradbury - Drums Pete Lee - Trumpet Tony Laws - Trumpet Paul Phillips - Sax Ian Nelson - Trombone Simon McGoran - Sound Engineer

Quite a few personnel changes have taken place since.  They are as follows:

1992 - Steve Valentine rejoined the band and replaced Tony Laws on Trumpet
1993 - Paul Brierley replaced John (The Flask) Sweeney on Bass
1994 - Richard Beresford replaced Simon Goran as Sound Engineer
1996 - Darren Roberts replaced Barry Fitzgerald on Guitar
1999 - Andy Bell replaced Darren Roberts on Guitar
2001 - Colin Meek replaced Richard Beresford as Sound Engineer
2001 - Rick Halliwell replaced Paul Philips on Sax
2002 - Darren Roberts rejoined the band and replaced Andy Bell on Guitar
2003 - Richard Beresford returns as Sound Engineer

In 2005, 23 years since the band first started, the band was faced with the show-stopping news that it had to relinquish its proud name because of legal and trademark implications.  The bands original great name quite simply had to GO.  After weeks of deliberation the new name of the band was chosen and we feel the name The SOUL BROTHERS Band is representative of everything we do.

The current band is: Stuart Widdall - Lead Vocals Don Parfitt - Keyboards and backing vocal Darren Roberts - Guitar and backing vocal Paul Brierley - Bass Guitar and backing vocal Pete Bradbury - Drums Pete Lee - Trumpet Steve (The Horn) Valentine - Trumpet Rick Halliwell - Sax Ian (The Ladies Man) Nelson - Trombone Richard Beresford - Sound Engineer

Despite the change of name and the temporary loss of identity the band still continues to work very hard and is always in demand. The band's current and future philosophy is to carry on working and to carry on enjoying what we do, and to have a great "Soul Party" whenever we can.  Long live The SOUL BROTHERS Band.

© Copyright 2005 The SOUL BROTHERS Band
Website by Steve Valentine - steve.valentine@soulbros..co.uk
No part of this website can  be copied without written permission.
Any comments or views regarding the content should be emailed to webmaster@soulbros.co.uk