His wife and musical partner Markizah Halim said he passed away on Monday and events are to be held to honour him as a guitarist, singer, songwriter, poet and author.

Hassan’s music, with its echoes of British folk music of the 1960s, inspired many local musicians and songwriters to follow their creative impulses.

Journalist N Rama Lohan observed in an article in 2015 that Hassan was a driving force in the local indie music movement in the 1990s through to the mid-noughties.

It began with Hassan promoting the ‘Open Secret’ album in 1993 — which he shared credits with Markizah as part of the duo Passion — but it eventually grew into a movement.

“Those gigs, not only promoted Passion’s album, but catered to the burgeoning indie scene’s live exploits,” said Rama.

He said around the time ‘Warm’ was released in 2001, Hassan began organising a series of highly-anticipated acoustic shows, billed Acoustic Jam, that lasted 16 sessions from 2001 to 2003.

“A host of bands, not only cut their teeth, but got a leg up by appearing at shows he organised.

“The likes of Reza, Spunky Funggy and Seven Collar T-Shirt, while earning musical merit on their own, are indebted to the exposure that came from Brown’s unwavering belief in local talent,” said Rama.

Hassan’s songs were folk-driven efforts with his trademark observations of life, as was his debut novel, ‘Strings’, published in 2017.

The 800-page novel features a group of guitar-playing youngsters in 1960s United Kingdom dealing with the new-found freedom of a Western society that was slowly becoming more liberal.

Hassan grew up in post-war Britain and lived through the psychedelic 1960s when London was swinging. His friends included Pink Floyd’s drummer, Nick Mason.

He married Markizah and then moved here to make music with her, but not before releasing a handful of albums in the 1970s and 1980s.

He plied the local club circuit from 1987 and remained an ever-present sight at gigs with a cause through the years.

Ask a fan if they remember the first time they heard him sing, and they would likely recall the exact moment in vivid detail.

Journalist and musician Sujesh Pavithran recalled a night in 1988 when he arrived at the Treffpunkt pub in Damansara Jaya for a one-song stand with his pal RS Murthi.

He said: “A mat salleh was performing, just him and his guitar, on a stool and singing away.

“It was my kind of music, a bit of folk, blues and rock, all solo acoustic and earthy. We waited for him to finish.

“But more than two hours later, he was still performing, with not a break and not a sign of tiring.”

Sujesh said since he first met Hassan that night, he had always been blown away by the positive vibes that emanated from him.

He said no stage or musician was too small for Hassan and had found him over the decades to be “always enthusiastic, encouraging and magnanimous”.

“Now that he’s gone, there’s an empty space in the local indie music scene that can never be filled,” said Sujesh.

Sujesh and his Kamasutra band mates, Murthi and Edwin Nathaniel, last performed with Hassan at the National Press Club in 2020.