Brown formed Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments in 1968, and in 1969 the band recorded two albums; "A Meal You Can Shake Hands With in the Dark" and "Mantlepiece", with a line-up including Pete Bailey (percussion), Charlie Hart (keyboards), Dick Heckstall-Smith (sax), George Kahn (sax), Roger Potter (bass), Chris Spedding (guitar) and Rob Tait (drums). Brown then suffered the ignominy of being thrown out of his own band, the day before they were due to support the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park. His vocals were then removed from "Mantlepiece" and re-recorded by Chris Spedding, and the band was renamed The Battered Ornaments.