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Brian Auger (b. 1939)

Brian Albert Gordon Auger (born 18 July 1939, Hammersmith, London), English jazz-rock keyboardist specializing in the Hammond organ. Incorporates jazz, early British pop, R&B, soul and rock; Grammy-nominated.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-brian-auger.md] Source article carries a Wikipedia BLP citation-needed banner — details below lean on its single source.

Career milestones

  • 1965: session on the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" — brought in to play Hammond but settled for the only available keyboard, a harpsichord.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-brian-auger.md]
  • 1965: formed the Steampacket with Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll, Vic Briggs and Rod Stewart — no official recordings at the time (contractual problems), though nine promotional tracks surfaced in 1970 on BYG.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-brian-auger.md]
  • With Julie Driscoll and Trinity: UK No. 5 hit with Dylan's "This Wheel's on Fire"; NBC's 33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee (1969); Streetnoise (1969). Reunited with Driscoll (Julie Tippetts) for Encore (1978).^[raw/articles/wikipedia-brian-auger.md]
  • 1970: formed jazz-fusion band Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, which cultivated future Average White Band drummers Robbie McIntosh and Steve Ferrone and guitarist Jim Mullen.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-brian-auger.md]
  • Later: Maestro tour (mid-1980s), keyboards for Italian singer Mango (Odissea, 1986), musical director of German TV series Villa Fantastica (Super Jam, 1990), toured/recorded with Eric Burdon (Access All Areas, 1993).^[raw/articles/wikipedia-brian-auger.md]
  • 2005: revived Oblivion Express with son Karma Auger (drums) and daughter Savannah Auger (vocals); still touring and recording into the 2010s–2020s (Language of the Heart, 2012).^[raw/articles/wikipedia-brian-auger.md]
  • Has worked with Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Eric Burdon.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-brian-auger.md]

The Italian sound: Renato Lombardi and the stealth C3

Auger's live sound and touring organ are a story of two Italians (Doctor Mix documentary, The Rarest Hammond on Earth):^[raw/articles/doctormix-rarest-hammond.md]

  • The sound. Italian engineer Renato Lombardi fixed Auger's whole rig early in his career: the organ's direct-out signal was far too hot, so Lombardi fitted a resistor dropping it to roughly a quarter of its level, supplied two full PA stacks for free ("I already sold this three times tonight" — three other organ players had played that gig), and later built Auger's amplifier. "He is a large part of why Brian Auger sounds like Brian Auger." When, decades later, a 220 V-into-110 V socket accident blew the organ's power circuit at the start of a tour, it was Lombardi who fitted the replacement unit still in the organ today.
  • The organ. A 1956 Hammond C3 rebuilt by Keyboard Specialties (St Petersburg, Florida) into a portable flight case — a "stealth organ", originally flat black. Auger heard it at a Florida gig and reserved it; it reached him in the 1990s. Whoever tuned its tone wheels left an extra harmonic in it. Disliking the black finish, he had it refinished in Drum Workshop's "Broken Glass" sparkle (via son Karma Auger's DW connection). As a chopped Hammond it fits the European stair-and-cellar venue circuit that a full console cannot (see portable-hammonds); the rig carries a 50 Hz→60 Hz cycle converter because a US tonewheel organ runs flat on European mains. In 2025 Auger's touring organ found a new home at Francesco "Keki" Andrei's Organ Studio Italia in Tuscany.^[raw/articles/doctormix-rarest-hammond.md]
  • jon-lord — the other great British Hammond-rock figure of the era
  • hammond-b3 — his specialty instrument
  • jimmy-smith — a cited influence on British rock organists