Brian Jones

Brian Jones was born on 27 November 1940 in Wallasey, Cheshire. He started on drums, then switched to saxophone after hearing the instrument on Radio Luxembourg in the late 1950s; his father eventually bought him an alto sax. He was self-taught and cited Boots Randolph as a major influence.

Before music became his living he worked as a butcher. He played with a local group, the Rebels, and was sometimes compared to Buddy Holly in look and in the Holly songs he sang early on.

Around 1961 Jones joined the Wallasey scene that produced The Undertakers, formed when local groups including the Vegas Five and Dee and the Dynamites came together. The classic line-up had Jackie Lomax (vocals, bass), Chris Huston (guitar), Geoff Nugent (guitar), Jones (alto and tenor sax, vocals) and Bugs Pemberton (drums). Few Merseybeat bands had a skilled saxophonist, and that sound helped them play a wider range of R&B.

They were a draw at the Cavern and the Iron Door, wore undertaker-style frock coats and sometimes top hats on stage, and played Hamburg's Star-Club in 1962. They rejected Brian Epstein's management offer and recorded for Pye with Tony Hatch. Singles included Everybody Loves a Lover, What About Us and Just a Little Bit, which reached the UK Top 50 for one week in April 1964. After a 1965 US tour the band split. Jones went home to session work and, over later decades, reformed and led versions of The Undertakers, including for Liverpool's International Garden Festival and subsequent local line-ups. A compilation, The Undertakers Unearthed, appeared on Big Beat in 1996. In 2018 he published Sax, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll.

Jones remained closely tied to Merseyside music life and was a familiar figure at the Cavern into later years. In a 2016 interview he spoke about long-term health problems linked to years of smoking, including COPD, while saying he still felt well enough to keep playing. He was open about name confusion with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and joked about it, including denying a long-running claim that he had played sax on the Beatles' You Know My Name (Look Up the Number).

Brian Jones died on 12 October 2026, aged 85. A family message shared via The Undertakers said he had passed away peacefully in his sleep the day before the public tributes of 13 October. The Cavern Club and the Liverpool Beatles Museum published statements the same day, calling him a Merseybeat legend and offering condolences to his family and friends. No further cause of death was made public.

Jones was one of the last active links to the original Merseybeat generation still performing on Merseyside stages. His saxophone made The Undertakers stand out among Liverpool beat groups, and he carried the band's name forward for decades after the classic line-up ended. Tributes from the Cavern and local fans stressed a lifetime of live work and session playing rather than chart fame alone.