Brendan Croker (born in Bradford on 15 August 1953; died 10 September 2023) was an English musician remembered for being a member of The Notting Hillbillies (with Mark Knopfler). He recorded albums under his own name and occasionally as Brendan Croker & the 5 O'Clock Shadows. During the late 1980s Croker was an auxiliary member of The Mekons and a full-time member of Sally Timms and the Drifting Cowgirls. Croker recorded with a range of musicians, including Eric Clapton, Tanita Tikaram, Kevin Coyne, and Chet Atkins. Considered as a sympathetic, maybe rough, pubrocker with big ears, he was described by a German folk magazine as one of the most pleasant musicians to come out of England. He came to professional music rather late in the mid 80s with his band Brendan Croker & the 5 O'Clock Shadows, touring throughout the UK and Europe. Possibly his greatest work was with Mark Knopfler and Steve Phillips in TThe Notting Hillbillies where they covered some greats of American folk music such as 'Hobo's Lullaby' (considered by some as the best version of the song ever recorded) and 'I feel Like Going Home'. Croker was born where the Mekons met and were found. His love was country blues and folksongs: like music by Sleepy John Estes, Jesse Fuller and Blind Willie McTell. He started out in the British pub-rock-scene, never really interested in rock career thinking. In 1976 Croker and Steve Phillips were upstairs neighbours. On a day Croker came to Phillips with a broken guitar "like a banana". After that Phillips said: 'I never got loose from him' Round '85 he gathered some musicians around him and founded the 5 O'Clock Shadows with Mark 'Mr.' Creswell: guitar, vocals Nigel Brooke: bass, vocals and Graeme 'TRaffic' Pollard: drums, percussie. Croker didn't want top play the authentic blues or country stuff, he was always thinking of a varied mixture of related styles (Blues, Rockabilly, American Folksongs) , which should be combined in an original way. How he set his ideas into work has been compared to Ry Cooder, his rather smoky voice, his brittle guitar playing. But that never said anything against his originality. In the early eighties Croker played in the Hold 'Em Boys band. In 1986 he released his debut album 'A Close Shave' on the Indie label 'Unamerican Acrivities', which was only known in smaller parts of the universe. This followed several months later by his second attempt 'Boat Trips In The Bay' (originally to be released by Rhino); this time he had two new members in the 5 O'Clock Shadows: David Cury: drums and Marcus Cliffe: bass (he produced the album too). Both records brought mainly covers of quite unknown blues- or folk songs, sometimes you hear a reggae or a south-american jive or other 'exotic' styles. In the meantime Croker along to the Shadows had another project running with an old pal: Steve Philiips, who didn't only play the guitars built built them too. This was the basis for the later Notting Hillbillies. Through Philips, who had been friends with Mark Knopfler for some years, he got in contact with Knopfler, with whom he had already jammed around Leeds before. Mark Knopfler got interested in Brendan Croker's music and wanted to assist the duo. To the sessions he brought along Guy Fletcher, who played keyboard and guitar with Dire Straits. Through Knopfler, Croker got contact with London musicians as well. He had been playing with the Mekons before as well as on Tanita Tikaram's debut LP, where he sang on 'He likes the sun'. For the British TV-series 'On The Big Hill' (about the climbing of Mount Everest) he wrote the soundtrack - with Guy Fletcher. His third album 'Brendan Croker and the 5 O'Clock Shadows' was produced by John Porter. Croker was the first artist to be signed by Silvertone, Andrew Lauder's label. On this album Croker is joined by Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher from Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, Tanita Tikaram and others. There were two Shadows left: Mark Creswell and Marcus Cliffe (both were jazz musicians, who had studied at the Leeds College of Music). That Croker was relatively unknown changed in 1990 when the first Notting Hillbillies album was published: 'Missing ... Presumed Having A Good Time'. This was a Croker album too, some songs were sung by him, but he plays on all of them. The album sold quite well and was followed by a 6 weeks tour through the UK. After a short intermission the, 4th Shadows album was released: 'The Great Indoors'. In 1996 he released "Three Chord Lovesongs".