Howard Jones

Howard Jones is an English singer and songwriter.  Jones took piano lessons from the age of seven and joined his first band at fifteen. When he was young, he used to give piano lessons. One of his clients was a girl named Jan Smith, whom he later married. Whilst working with her, a vehicle crashed into their van, injuring Smith.  She claimed compensation and used the money to buy Howard a synthesiser, a Moog Prodigy. He was sent two by accident, although he liked the combination of two so much that he paid for the extra one. He appeared as a solo artist in local venues in High Wycombe, before inviting a mime artist called Jed Hoile, who used to do improvised choreography while doused in white paint as Jones played behind him. After a well-received John Peel session he obtained support slots with China Crisis and OMD before signing to WEA in the summer of 1983.  After a promotional frenzy, his first single called "New Song" was released in September 1983 and reached the UK top five and U.S.. top 30. He subsequently had three more hits over the next twelve months and a UK Number 1 album, Human's Lib. This album went gold and platinum in a number of countries.He acquired a hardcore fanbase made up of both starstruck teenagers and more mature music lovers, who saw the musicianship which went into the electronic sounds of his songs.   His mother and father, Thelma and John Jones, ran his fan club. Jones was a close temporal and stylistic contemporary of Nik Kershaw, and the two musicians were often conflated in the affections of the contemporary pop audience. However, both were accomplished musicians and wrote intelligent pop music with lyrical difference to most pop chart fare.  Jones was known as a respectable face of pop, combining innovative synthesizer music with strong feelings on animal rights and life's excesses. Philosophy, spirituality and humanisitic ideals were all lyrical themes.  In the summer of 1984, he released a single called "Like To Get To Know You Well", which he said was 'dedicated to the original spirit of the Olympic Games'. Although it was not an official Olympic anthem for the Games in Los Angeles that summer, it caught on and was a huge worldwide hit. The sleeve featured the song title in ten different languages; while Jones sang the title line in French and German on the extended version. The song appeared in the film Better Off Dead.  Jones' second album was a ground breaking 'remix' album. It contained six songs, all but one of which had been previously released, but which appeared in elongated formats, including the multilingual version of "Like To Get To Know You Well". The album was called The 12 Inch Album and the sleeve featured a miniature Jones standing next to a 12-inch ruler.  When he released his second studio album, Dream Into Action, in 1985 he introduced his own backing band, including female backing vocal trio Afrodiziak. Afrodiziak featured Caron Wheeler (who went on to greater success with Soul II Soul) and Claudia Fontaine (who became a renowned backing singer). Playing bass guitar, meanwhile, was Jones' own brother Martin, who had to have an extra string added to his instrument to play some of Howard's bass lines, which were originally played on a keyboard without regard for the range of a real bass guitar. One of the singles released from this album, "No One Is To Blame", was later re-recorded and featured Phil Collins as drummer and producer. Dream Into Action was a huge hit worldwide.

In July 1985, Jones performed at Wembley Stadium as part of the Live Aid concert, singing his 1984 hit "Hide And Seek" while playing a piano belonging to Freddie Mercury. He also embarked on a major world tour-hitting countries such as Japan, Australia and the US where Jones was selling out huge arenas.  Jones has continued to tour and write new music, more recently collaborating with Robbie Bronniman (Dba) to co-produce music for the Sugababes and his 2005 studio album Revolution of the Heart.  He has been busy in the past few years touring the world - playing gigs in the U.S., Italy, Germany and Sweden to name a few countries. He has been putting the finishing touches to a new acoustic album, a second album of piano solos and remixing some tracks from his last album. He played a number of nights at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland in 2006. The same year Jones did a vocal for the song "Into the Dark" by Ferry Corsten for L.E.F..  In October 2006, he released the song "Building Our Own Future" as a podsafe track, as one of several established artists looking to use podcasts as a new means of promoting their music and tours.  See Howard Jones LIVE!  Purchase your Howard Jones tickets today!