Sometimes a band member must hide their light under a bushel. Maybe because it’s not their band. Maybe someone else’s songs got the group a recording contract so how are you going to justify presenting your cute little tunes to the group? There’s a reason Dave Grohl kept most of his songs to himself when he played with Nirvana. Kind of intimidating.

And so it was for Peter Bramall.

Like Dave Grohl, Peter joined a band as a replacement for a departing member, after the group had established itself and after they signed with a major record label. His new band was called The Motors, and Bramall arrived just in time to play guitar on the group’s debut album in 1977, and their subsequent UK Top 5 single, “Airport.”

While waiting around for the main songwriters to get it together for the second album, Bramall cut a single himself (with the help and blessing of his bandmates) and this led to interest from Radar Records (the new home of Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe). After completing another album with The Motors, Bramall left the group to form his own full-time band under his pseudonym, Bram Tchaikovsky, and they released their debut album, Strange Man, Changed Man, in the summer of 1979.

The first single from that album, “Girl Of My Dreams,” was a perfect slice of New Wave power pop and a surprise hit in the US, just edging its way into the Top 40. Tchaikovsky made a couple more albums but couldn’t replicate his initial success and eventually left the music biz. He got out from under that bushel, though!

Don’t get trapped by a bushel, people. Shine on.