Jake Brockman was known to Echo and the Bunnymen fans as the 'fifth' Bunnyman.
He worked for years organising, roading and playing keyboards live on stage with the group back in the bands heyday in the early 1980's. In 1989 he joined the band full-time playing on the excellent 'Reverberation' album and was instrumental in The Lucid Dream having their 'Dippy' 12" EP released on the Bunnymen's Euphoric Records and touring with the Bunnymen.
Above: Echo and the Bunnymen circa 1990 (Jake second from left)
Jake as well as playing in the Bunnymen also played in B.O.M with fellow Bunnymen members Damon Reece and Will Sergeant and they had one album released on Ochre Records titled 'Bom Bom Shevaya'.
Jake had also appeared in The Divine Thunderbolt Corps with Bunnymen drummer Pete De Freitas, Tim Whittaker, Andy Eastwood, Frank De Freitas, Mike Mooney and several others back in the late 1980's and their cassette only album was released via the Wig Out! fanzine which featured such tracks as 'John Hardy', 'Little Rain', 'Buzz Me'. , 'Miss Me' and 'Fly Away' whch Jake sang on. The release 'Sunday School wiith The Divine Thunderbolt Corps' was limited to 100. (See the Wig Out! page for intervew with the DTC's Tim Whittaker in Wig Out! # 11, March 1994)
After doing some tour manager work for Spiritualized, Jake began working from about 2004 for the BBC History Unit as a sound recordist on worked on programmes such as Ultimate Killers with Steve Leonard and Last Chance To See with Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine.
Above: Jake working on Last Chance To See
Jake was a was a classic motorcycle enthusiast, and died on the Isle of Man on 1 September 2009 while visiting the island for the Manx Grand Prix when the BSA motorcycle he was riding was in collision with a converted ambulance that had pulled out into the road he was riding along.
Above: photo by Fid , the last ever made. At Sulby, Isle of Man last Sunday. Jake on his 1939 M23,
'The Boy' Martin on his Velocette. From Sideburn Magazine, check out http://sideburnmag.blogspot.com/2009/09/jake-brockman-rip.html
The Lucid Dream CD album 'Object Of Reality' is dedicated to Jake.
James Ralph Drake-Brockman (18 November 1955 – 1 September 2009)
