In the first half of the ’70s Brinsley Schwarz were the flag bearers of pub rock – the backlash to prog that led directly to punk. Bob Andrews played keyboards.

Their roots sound, inspired by The Band’s blend of RnB, country and soul, never found mainstream success. But several individual members went on to great things when they broke up in 1975.

Nick Lowe launched a successful solo career while guitarist Schwartz and keyboard player Bob Andrews, whose organ comes to the fore on this old favourite Surrender To The Rhythm (with apologies for the abrupt ending), formed a new band.

Joining forces with the remnants of two other pub rock bands, Martin Belmont from Ducks Deluxe and Bon Temps Roulez’s rhythm section of Andrew Bodnar and Steve Goulding, they called themselves The Rumour.

They teamed up with an up-and-coming singer-songwriter called Graham Parker, a kind of proto-punk angry young man with a passion for vintage RnB, they made their debut together in 1976 with what became a sought-after bootleg, Live At Marble Arch, and went on to make multiple albums together.

Andrews’ talents extended to production and I now learn that he produced hit singles for Jona Lewie (Stop The Cavalry), The Bluebells (Young At Heart) and The La’s (There She Goes), as well as albums by Carlene Carter, Tenpole Tudor, The Beat Farmers and Katrina And The Waves.

As a keyboard player, his notable contributions as a session man included the angular jazz-inflected piano on Nick Lowe’s I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass and the Hammond organ on Sam Brown’s single Stop.

Born and raised in Yorkshire, just outside Leeds, Andrews ended his life living – and dying – in the New Mexico town of Taos, a magnet for artists which had been home for Georgia O’Keeffe, Dennis Hopper, DH Lawrence (and Julia Roberts).

Expelled from school for having long hair, Andrews was a multi-instrumentalist. He started out playing ukelele in skiffle bands and taught himself guitar and bass before going back to his childhood instrument, the piano, when he joined the Brinsleys (under their original name Kippington Lodge).