Brewster Hughes, born Ignatius Abiodun Oke and who later used the name Ernest Henley Oke Hughes, was a Nigerian guitarist, bandleader and community leader who was active in Britain as a highlife performer and recording artist after the Second World War.
15 Facts About Brewster Hughes
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Brewster Hughes moved with his mother to Lagos and then to Port Harcourt, where he lived with his maternal grandfather, David Ayodele Hughes, the superintendent of the United Native African Church mission.
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Brewster Hughes studied at the Hope Waddell Training Institute in Calabar before returning to Ibadan where he trained as a schoolteacher.
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Brewster Hughes then worked in Lagos, and, after his mother's death, adopted her family name of Hughes.
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Brewster Hughes began playing guitar in Lagos bars in the evenings, meeting fellow musician Ambrose Campbell and performing with him in the Jolly Boys Orchestra.
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In 1939 he left Nigeria and joined the British Merchant Navy as a stoker, using the name Ernest Henley Hughes and acquiring the nickname "Brewster".
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Brewster Hughes settled in Manchester and worked as a fitter in an aircraft factory before moving to London, where he met up again with Ambrose Campbell.
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Ambrose Campbell 8.
When Campbell was assaulted by racist thugs at a London underground station, Hughes shot one of the assailants, and was imprisoned for 15 months as a result.
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Brewster Hughes played an amplified instrument, sometimes in a harsh, attacking style, and his confident, boisterous singing made a welcome contrast to Campbell's gentler, more diffident manner.
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Brewster Hughes recorded music for advertising and films, before rejoining Campbell for a tour of Nigeria in 1957.
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Brewster Hughes later replaced Campbell as resident bandleader at the Club Afrique, successor to the Abalabi, and recorded an album, Highlife from Nigeria, for Melodisc Records in the late 1960s, with his group credited as Brewster Hughes and His Highlifers.
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Brewster Hughes regularly performed with his group at annual dances for such bodies as The Law Society, as well as at student dances in London.
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Brewster Hughes visited Nigeria in 1985, where he was treated as a celebrity.
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Brewster Hughes died from lung cancer in London in 1986.
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Brewster Hughes's ashes were taken to Nigeria and buried in his mother's grave.