Kirk Brandon (born 3 August 1956, Westminster, London) is an English musician.
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Brandon's music career started in 1978, in Clapham, South London, with the formation of punk group The Pack, in which he was the singer/songwriter.
The Pack consisted of Brandon, Scottish born drummer Rab Fae Beith and two Canadian brothers, Simon and Jon Werner on guitars. The last live gig by The Pack took place at a sold out 101 club in Clapham.
Brandon then formed the post punk new wave band Theatre of Hate in 1980 recruiting Stan Stammers on bass guitar, Nigel Preston on drums, Billy Duffy on guitar and John 'Boy' Lennard on saxophone. Theatre of Hate had their largest hit from the Westworld album with the single "Do You Believe In The Westworld?", which achieved #40 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1982, while the album rose to #17 in the UK Albums Chart in March 1982.[1]
Theatre of Hate disbanded in 1983. Brandon and Theatre of Hate bassman Stammers were joined by Lascelles James on saxophone and Chris Bell on drums to form Spear of Destiny. The new band adopted a more melodic and less aggressive sound, distancing themselves from post-punk and moving a little more towards mainstream pop.
While continuing to explore the political ideas that he wrote about in Theatre of Hate, Brandon's lyrics for Spear of Destiny dealt more frequently with the classic pop themes of love and romance. Many line-up changes followed with the band swelling to a 6 piece and then contracting back to a 4 piece. The band's reputation as a live act never translated itself into record sales, and Spear of Destiny only scored one Top 20 hit.
In 2003 Brandon did a solo tour as support to The Alarm on their 'Poppyfields' tour. His set included some new material played on an acoustic guitar with electric pick up, as well as some material from his time with Theatre of Hate and Spear of Destiny.
In recent years he has performed in the punk supergroup, Dead Men Walking, before reforming and touring with Spear Of Destiny in 2007 and 2008.
Kirk Brandon attended Churston Ferrers Grammar School in Devon.
In 1987 Brandon contracted Reiter’s syndrome which resulted in him not being able to walk for over a year.[2]
In his 1995 autobiography Take It Like A Man, Boy George wrote of a romantic relationship with Brandon, prompting Brandon's unsuccessful High Court action against George.[3]
During the trial, George claimed that Brandon had been the love of his life and that he still loved him.[4] In 2010, BBC Television produced Worried About The Boy, a 90 minute dramatisation of Boy George's rise to fame in the early 1980s which included his relationship with Brandon. George was portrayed by the actor Douglas Booth and Brandon was portrayed by Richard Madden.
In January 2008, Brandon sued GlaxoSmithKline UK over personal injuries as a result of taking the anti-depressant drug Seroxat.[5] Earlier last year, Brandon was awarded the full extent of his claims.
In August 2009, Brandon had a series of heart attacks which led him to have an eight hour operation at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, East Sussex where his aortic valve was replaced with a pig's valve.