Mullen, Brendan

Mullen was born in Paisley , Scotland , and moved to Manchester , England at the age of 8. From an early age engaged in writing articles for various British music magazines. He also worked as a journalist for the local newspaper Barnet Press in Barnet (Borough London) from 1972 to 1973.

In 1973, Mullen moved to the United States, where he decided to settle permanently.

In 1977, Mullen founded The Masque , a small punk rock club in downtown Hollywood , California , which intermittently lasted from 1977 to 1979. Initially, Mullen just wanted to open a place where he could practice music. But the owner of the building, from which Mullen rented the premises, offered him 930 square meters of basement space for $ 850 a month, thereby allowing him to create a rehearsal space for many groups of the emerging punk rock community.

However, representatives of the city authorities refused to issue the license necessary for the legal work of the institution and closed the club in 1978. The fire bureau commissioner terminated the rental agreement in court. And many groups came to the rescue of Mullen: they staged two nights of charity concerts, the proceeds from which went to pay off the legal costs. Both concerts ended in turmoil.

After the closure of The Masque , Mullen spent about 10 years working as a concert organizer for another popular Los Angeles club called Club Lingerie. Club Lingerie was best known for the variability of concerts organized in it, whose musical direction ranged from punk rock and pop to jazz and blues , as well as for the first hip-hop concerts of several New York bands on the entire West Coast.

In 1983, Mullen had his first meeting with Anthony Kiedis and Flea , who came to the club with their fresh demo tapes and asked Mullen to listen to her. They turned on the recording on the boom box they brought with them and began dancing around him like maniacs. The music made a strong impression on Mullen, just like the Red Hot Chili Peppers themselves. As a result, he invited the group to perform at the opening of the upcoming concert of the group Bad Brains . As a result, Kiedis and Flea became Mullen's good friends and remained them until his death. The group credits Mullen with the fact that he was the first to support the team and give them a good start.

Mullen also hosted a large number of events at the Variety Arts Center, Downtown Los Angeles in the second half of the 1980s. Later, Mullen worked with other clubs in the area, for example, with The Viper Room and Luna Park.

On October 12, 2009, the Media Bistro website reported that Mullen suffered a severe stroke and was taken to a hospital in Los Angeles . A little later, the Los Angeles Times confirmed his death at the Ventura County Medical Center hospital. ^[3] At the time of the incident, Mullen was celebrating his sixtieth birthday, traveling around Santa Barbara , California , along with Katery Butler, who had been his companion for 16 years.

Doctors ascertained that his cholesterol level was in order, and there were no symptoms of a possible stroke. One of the neuropathologists who treated him commented on the death of Mullen like this: “Sometimes it is your turn that comes.” ^[four]

In tribute to the memory of the bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea dedicated to Mullen a two-page article in the Los Angeles Times . ^[five]

At the time of his death, Mullen had just started working on obtaining US citizenship. One of Mullen’s most recent projects that he didn’t manage to complete was the help of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in writing the autobiography of the group Anneral as a co-author. The book was published on October 19, 2010, just over a year after Mullen’s death. ^[6]

Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded the song included in the 2011 album I'm With You as a tribute to Brendan Mullen. According to Anthony Kiedis , a friend’s death was told to him on the first day of the rehearsal of the new album. He came to the rehearsal and told about the incident to the group. Without a word, the stunned members of the group began to jam, and what happened was the basis of the song. Kiedis said that the notes of the funeral march are felt in the song, but, in essence, “the song is more solemn than annoying.” ^[7]

On March 7, 2012, the band announced that the song " Brendan's Death Song " will be released as the fifth single of their new album, and the video clip of the song will be recorded in New Orleans . The concept of the clip was based on the tradition of funeral jazz.

Also, the song occasionally sounded as part of their world tour I'm with You World Tour .

• We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of LA Punk (2001) with Mark Spitz
• Lexicon Devil: Darby Crash and the Germs (2002) co-authored with Germs drummer Don Bolles and Adam Parfrei
• Whos: Anreral Farrell and Jane's Addiction (2006)
• Live at the Masque: Nightmare in Punk Alley (2007) with Roger Gastman and Christina McKenna
• An Oral / Visual History (2010) - co-authored by Red Hot Chili Peppers and Brendan Mullen

• The Decline of Western Civilization (1981) Himself
• X: The Unheard Music (1986) Himself
• We Jam Econo (2005) Himself
• Punk's Not Dead (2007) Himself
• Who is billy bones? (2015) Himself (film archive materials)

• Mullen, Brendan (Eng.) On the Internet Movie Database