SON of veteran fifties rock ’n’ roller Joe and brother of vocalist extraordinaire Sam, Pete Brown has grown up in a family steeped in the history of popular music.

An accomplished studio musician, sidesman and producer, he has been around for years but has never cut loose and gone out on the road with his own band...until now.

Sadly only 35 people turned up to see Pete and The Volunteers – complete with sister Sam on keyboards, accordion, kazoo and, just occasionally, backing vocals – play The Tivoli last night.

What they witnessed may not have been a classic gig but it was certainly interesting, covering a huge range of musical influences. With five guitars, a lap-steel and electric mandolin at his disposal, singer, musician and sometime songwriter Pete was in his element.

With the addition of keyboard, bass and drums, the band was off careering happily through a concert that thought nothing of mixing Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi with The Beatles’ Lady Madonna and Frankie Miller’s Backyard Blues with the soundtrack of Disney’s The Jungle Book.

With a spot of Hendrix here and dip into Focus’s Sylvia there and some crazily structured self-penned compositions lobbed in for good measure, the show was literally all over the place.

It was fun though and Brown, though far from a natural frontman, proved a genial and enjoyable performer.