Walker Brothers, The

This trio was formed in Los Angeles, California by John Walker, whose birth name was John Joseph Maus but changed when he was a teenager, Noel Scott Engel, who used Scott Walker as his professional name, and the drummer Al “Tiny” Schneider. Later in 1964 the drummer Gary Leeds joined them and became known as Gary Walker professionally.

John Walker had originally performed and recorded as a duo with his sister, Judy. Noel Scott Engel had been the bass player with The Routers and he and John Walker joined another two musicians in 1963 and performed as The Surfaris. Walker and Engel recorded the single “Pretty Girls Everywhere” and gained popularity in Hollywood at Gazzari’s Club as well as making appearances on the TV shows Shindig! and Ninth Street A Go Go. Later, in 1964, the drummer Gary Leeds, who had been a member of The Standells and toured with P.J. Proby, joined them and would became known as Gary Walker professionally.

After being persuaded that they would do well in London this new line-up of a trio recorded single demos, which they sent to the UK and made an appearance in the film Beach Ball. They went to the UK in 1965 and got signed up shortly after by Philips Records and started to play gigs at various venues. The single “Pretty Girls Everywhere” didn’t do much for the UK public but the next single “Love Her” achieved a top 20 spot in the UK singles chart in June 1965. They then saw a major rise in their success when their next single “Make It Easy On Yourself” was released and made it to No. 1 in the UK and No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. achieving the status of being their first gold disc. They followed it up with the UK No. 3 “My Ship Is Coming In”. In 1965 they released the albums Take It Easy with the Walker Brothers and Introducing the Walker Brothers.

In 1966 they had their second UK No. 1 chart topper with “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”, though only reaching the Top 20 in the US. The album of the same name was released in 1966 following their first 1966 album Portrait. At one point it was said that their fan base in the UK was bigger than The Beatles.

Their chart success continued throughout 1966 and 1967, with the album Images being released in 1967, but it was interrupted when they had to return to the USA to sort out problems with their work permits. Soon the trio were showing the effects of internal differences and tensions along with the constant pressure of their stardom.

In 1967 they toured the UK and Japan but in 1968 they called is a day and decided to disband. The three members continued on with their solo careers until 1974 when they decided to reform. The following year their album No Regrets was released with the title tracked reach No. 7 in the UK. This was enough to keep them recording and performing together and over the next years they released Lines in 1976 and Nite Flights in 1978.

At some point Scott Walker wasn’t so keen to give live performances and after losing their contract with GTO Records they went their separate ways again. John Walker went to California and decided to concentrate on establishing his own record studio and customise guitars, later dying in Los Angeles in 2011. Scott made occasional recordings and curated the Meltdown Festival, dying in London in 2019.

The documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man had David Bowie as the executive producer and was released in 2006 and the joint biography The Walker Brothers: No Regrets – Our Story was published y John and Gary in 2009.

Sources:

Walker Brothers, The

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