Larry is pictured here with Martine Peake (a few years ago)
Martine runs Larry Branson's Roy Orbison Appreciation Society
Martine produces a bi-monthly newsletter filled with news and rare
pictures of Roy, and Larry of course.
for details you can email her: [email protected]
Many thanks to Larry and Martine for supplying this information.
LARRY BRANSON - A SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Larry
was born Larry Joseph Gulbransen on 14 November 1945 in Vancouver, British
Columbia of 2nd Generation Norwegian/Canadian parents.
He has one older and one younger
sister, and three younger brothers.
His father played guitar in an
amateur band and |Larry was raised against this musical background, learning
guitar by the time he was 11 or 12 years old.
Despite this,
he claims that his worst subject at school was musical theory, and because
of the frustration with this subject he has never learned to sight-read
music. His present talent has therefore been developed solely playing by
ear, a remarkable achievement.
His major inspirations
during his teenage years were (of course !) Elvis Presley and crooners
such as Pat Boone and Andy Williams.
In 1962 he left
school after the tenth grade to help his father and uncle in their house-painting
businesses for the next five years. During this his uncle, who had a talent
for the impersonation of many comedians and singer of that time,
taught Larry some of the voice skill which later served him very well in
his musical career.
Also during this
period Larry was continuing to study and perfect his guitar work
( he says that whilst painting he was brushing up on his guitar - ouch!!)
and also he liked to sing at every opportunity.
It was in fact
his singing which led to early retirement as a painter as his Father thought
that he was spending more time singing than painting and suggested that
he take up the singing for a living.
Up to this time
he had not considered a singing career, but given the choice between this
and the unemployment line, he then began to give it serious consideration.
However, his
other main hobby and interest was in electronics and a friend suggested
this as a career. He therefore applied to Westinghouse in Vancouver for
a job in electronics - Ironically, because he put his previous employment
as “painter” on the application form, that was exactly what they employed
him as- ( painting metal switchboxes etc.) - and Larry to his great disappointment,
ended up doing exactly what he had tried to get away from.
Meanwhile, the
biggest single drawback to his pursuing a career as a singer was his intense
shyness. He was so shy that,although he thoroughly enjoyed singing, he
could never imagine having the self-confidence to get up and sing in front
of an audience.
However, in
1968, when Larry was 23, fate stepped in to take a hand in the form of
a workmate at Westinghouse whose brother had a small four piece band (
they were all under five foot six!!) Did they need a guitarist \ vocalist?
- No, they needed a manager and asked Larry to go along and talk
about it.
Along he went,
only to find out that this was a purely instrumental group ( as it turned
out - instrumental in getting his career started!!) and after listening
to their instrumental version of “ Oh, Pretty Woman, Larry picked up a
microphone and asked them to try it again while he sang vocals. It was
perhaps uncanny that the first song he sang with a band was this great
and best- known Orbison Classic.
Not unnaturally,
the job as manager was forgotten and Larry joined the group ( The Western
Rytham) as lead vocalist and embarked on the beginnings of his professional
career as a singer. His first paid gig was at a Canadian Legion Hall and
he earned the princely sum of C$5.00 ( £2.50.)
Larry is keen
to point out that at that time the group covered a full range of Rock and
Roll and Country Music and he had no intension of trying to sound like
anyone other than himself. He was a big Roy Orbison fan but had never tried
to imitate him.
Larry stayed
with the group for five years, going from mainly one- nighters in
the Vancouver area to full weeks throughout the western provinces of Canada.As
they became more successful the band changed their style more toward R&R
and renamed themselves firstly Larry Bransen and the Rivieras and subsiquently
Downstream.
As soon as full
week bookings started he resigned from Westinghouse to become a full-time
professional artist, despite the fact that the pay was initionally, considerably
lower.
Early in this
period Larry had married and inevitably his travelling lifestyle put a
major strain on the relationship and also on the band and ultimately both
the marriage and the band broke up.
The agents who had handled the band during this period would now handle Larry as a solo artist and from 1973 to 1988 and despite the fact that his only accompaniment was his own guitar his popularity went from strength to strength carried almost entirely by his vocal talent.
It was
at this time that he made his first recording “ JUST ME.” Quite a good
name for a solo album really!! “ JUST ME “ was a compilation
of songs that Larry was most often asked to perform in his act.
Also on the
album was a song called “ CRY MY LITTLE ONE” which Larry wrote for his
eldest son Kenny. At the time that “ JUST ME “ was recorded Larry lived
in Albert; however he would soon move to Vancouver. Larry worked doing
gigs at a hotel called the Coach House up in north Vancouver for about
four years.
It was there that Larry became friendly with the manager of the hotel, who coincidentally was a friend of Les Vogt. At this time Les was Roy Orbison’s road manager. Vogt was trying to book Roy and Barbara into the hotel, not because Roy was performing, but just because they needed somewhere to stay for the night. Roy was performing at the Pacific National Exhibition.
So there were Roy and Larry in the same hotel. Larry was performing some of Roy’s songs in his act, and so the hotel manager it would be nice if Roy could hear Larry perform. On hearing this, Larry panicked. No way did he want to let Roy hear him sing any Orbison songs.
He was invited to a party by Orbison’s
band. Roy and Barbara were going to be there but unfortunately, Larry had
to decline the invitation as his nerves got the better of him making him
ill. ( Needless to say, Larry deeply regrets this.)
However, Larry’s brother attended
the party and met the band; Barbara did turn up but apparently Roy was
also under the weather and stayed in his room.
After a while Larry decided to go on the road, toring Canada as a solo artist again. He remarried in 1978. His second wife Kim was also a singer and so she and Larry worked as a duet until about 1985. During this time along came their son Kevin and so the duet, ( which more than coincidentally was called Larry and Kim) had to break up and the marriage ended soon afterwards.
In 1988 whilst
working in Westminister Larry got a call to say that Roy Orbison had passed
away. He was devastated by the news. A short time later Larry contacted
Les Vogt with a view to doing a tribute to Roy. At first Les wasn’t too
sure if the idea would work.
However,
about a week later he contacted Larry to say that he would be bringing
someone out to see him perform. Little did Larry know that the man Les
was bringing was Sam Orbison, Roy’s brother.
Sam Orbison - Roy's brother
When Les and Sam walked into the room where Larry was performing, he was amazed by Sam’s likeness to his late brother. Although sam was of bigger build than Roy, Larry saw the resemblence at once.
After the first
act Les introduced Larry to Sam and the three men talked until
Larry was due to start his
second act but at this point their discussons didn’t get too far.
The next day
when Larry went to talk with Les at his office, he found Sam there also.
They had another talk and decided that it would indeed be a good idea to
do the tribute.
However instead of having a show just dedicated to Roy, they thought they should have some of his friends with him. Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley had both been friends with Roy, and so with this in mind “ THE LEGENDS OF ROCK AND ROLL” was formed. Around 2000 people attended the first performance of “ THE LEGENDS OF ROCK AND ROLL” which took place at the Commodore Ballroom in downtown Vancouver.
In 1989 Larry
started to do solo tributes to Roy. Beginning with five dates playing as
Roy in a show called “ THE ROY ORBISON STORY”.
This venue held around 450 people
and over 400 tickets were sold for each performance.
Although this was quite a success, it was decided that over-all “ THE LEGENDS OF ROCK AND ROLL” was a bigger crowd pleaser. So the show was reformed and went on until early 1994. The show closed, mainly due to the fact that Larry was getting more and more solo bookings, most of which were in the U.S.A.
Meanwhile a friend
of Les Vogt, who also happened to be Larry’s agent, was vacationing in
France. He decided to visit a friend of his by the name of John Miller.
During their conversation, Miller said he was looking for someone to portray
Roy in Bill Kenwright’s musical “ ONLY THE LONELY”
So it was decided that they would
fly out to Reno, Nevada where Larry was performing with a show called “
AMERICAN SUPERSTARS.”
Sometime later,
Larry was hired to play the lead in “ONLY THE LONELY”. He then spent
the next three years both touring the UK and in the West End with the show.
After returning to Canada for six months to deal with some personal matters, and record “ AN ORBISON CHRISTMAS” with the Jordanaires, ( famous for backing Elvis Presley and other groups.) in Nashville, Larry came back to the UK for the second tour of The Roy Orbison Story (Only the Lonely).
He subsequently returned to Canada and moved from the West Coast to Toronto on the east Coast. He has continued paying tribute to Roy’s music in major shows at Stage West in Toronto and Calgary, and has done two major tours of Canada and the US in the past 2 years. On the 10th Anniversary of Roy’s death, the touring show (This Lonely Heart, The Roy Orbison Experience) appeared in Kitchener, Ontario, and subsequently toured the US again.
Larry is currently back in the UK playing Orbison in the Bill Kenwright production of Four Steps to Heaven, where he is receiving further enthusiastic reviews.
Keep in touch with Larry by joining his Roy Orbison Appreciation Society
Regular newsletters written with style and humor average 16-20 A4 pages
"An Orbison Christmas" and the "Only The Lonely Stageshow soundtrack" are available via Martine: