Howard Jones (musician, 1955)

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Howard Jones 2015

John Howard Jones (born February 23, 1955 in Southampton , England ) is a British singer and musician .

Life

Howard Jones is the oldest of four siblings in a Welsh family. From the age of seven he began to play the piano . He later enrolled at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester to study classical piano . To pay his tuition fees, he made night shifts at the radio station Picadilly Radio . He played every 20 minutes between midnight and six o'clock in the morning a piece of music of their choice on the synthesizer . All sessions were supposed to be instrumental only, but Jones also sang from time to time.

After dropping out of college of music, Jones and his future wife, Jan Smith, started a small mobile vegetable store in High Wycombe . During this time they had an accident with their booth in which another car drove into theirs. Although Smith was only slightly injured, Jones persuaded her to claim compensation. With this money Jones bought a synthesizer . Instead of one Moog Prodigy , two were mistakenly delivered. He paid for the second device out of pocket and quickly got used to combining the two. Howard Jones began playing in small bars and pubs in the early 1980s, using the technical possibilities to produce and perform his music independently of a band. His three brothers were running a band called Red Beat in London at the time .

In 1983 Jones recorded a 24-track demo and sent it to various record companies. WEA Records signed him for Europe. His first track New Song was released in September 1983 and What Is Love? . The video for What Is Love? was shot in Paris in 1983 .

The first album, Human's Lib, sold very well ( No. 1 in the UK ). Hits like Hide and Seek , Pearl in the Shell and Like to Get to Know You Well followed .

Jones presents himself on the Human's Lib world tour with a one-man show, consisting of himself and a whole bastion of synthesizers, sequencers and drum computers such as the Roland Jupiter 8, the Roland TR808, the Moog Prodigy or the Yamaha DX7. He is supported by the mime Jed Hoile, who takes care of the visual presentation.

A year after Human's Lib , the second studio album Dream into Action was released in the spring of 1985 . Like Human's Lib , this album was produced by Rupert Hine . It was able to follow up on the success of the first album in Great Britain . In the USA he made his big breakthrough with the album. This was achieved with the support of Phil Collins , who re-recorded No One Is to Blame with him and reached number 4 in the US charts. Other singles were Things Can Only Get Better , Look Mama and Life in One Day . On July 13, 1985, Jones performed at the Live Aid concert.

Howard Jones released the album One to One in the fall of 1986. It was produced by Arif Mardin and was aimed at the US market. It couldn't quite build on the great successes of the first two albums. The video for the first single You Know I love You… Don't You? recalled the a-ha - video Take On Me , but the drawings were here in color. The video received a Grammy nomination. One to One itself reached number 10 on the UK album charts.

After another world tour, Jones took a break and only returned in April 1989 with Cross That Line , which already announced its departure from electronics and contains many more classically instrumented tracks. In Europe the album went relatively unnoticed, in the USA Everlasting Love reached a high chart position.

In 1992 the album In the Running was released . In almost all songs the piano is in the foreground. Although it contained another top 10 hit in the USA with Lift Me Up , WEA Records did not extend the contract with the musician. In 1993 a best of was released as the last release on the major label.

In the same year Jones founded his own record label DTOX and released Working in the Backroom in August 1993 . To this day, the album is only sold at concerts and via the online shop on his website. In 1993 Howard Jones presented the album with a return to his old one-man-show idea, which only shows him on stage surrounded by computers and synthesizers.

After the band excursions, Jones returned to his beginnings in 2002 and thus to his roots in electronics. Together with guitarist Robin Boult and dance producer Robbie Bronniman, he is touring Great Britain on the Peaceful Tour . The audience could take "their" concert at the exit of the hall with them on CD. The best recordings appeared on the album The Peaceful Tour Live , which primarily contains remodeled versions of the Jones classics.

For the first time, the Briton released an album in 2003 that only contains piano solos that he wrote for friends. Piano Solos for Friends and Loved Ones is only available at concerts, via the DTOX webshop and on iTunes. In 2007 a second album with acoustic piano pieces was available.

Warner released The Very Best Of in 2003 .

The year 2003 also marks the 20th anniversary of Howard Jones on stage, which he celebrates with a sold out concert at the Shepards Bush Empire in London. The concert is now available on a double DVD.

In September 2005 the long-awaited album Revolution of the Heart is released , which Jones shows in its electronic environment. With Just Look at You Now it contains a song that has already reached high chart positions in Sweden. In 2005 Jones toured mainly in Great Britain and the USA.

In 2006 his hit Things Can Only Get Better was covered by The Disco Boys . The style of this version is house . Jones also re-recorded the song for the video game series The Sims .

During his career, Howard Jones has worked with numerous other musicians, such as B. Nick Beggs , Midge Ure , Robin Boult , Kevin Wilkinson , Ringo Starr , Nena , Juliane Werding or Phil Collins .

In June 2006 a Germany tour with Howard Jones took place. The tour started on June 16 in Cologne and ended on June 23 in Mainz. In between he visited the cities of Dortmund, Bochum, Berlin, Magdeburg and Halle an der Saale.

In 2007, a surround version of the electronic album Revolution of the Heart and the artist's second piano album were released. Jones toured the United States, Great Britain and Australia with acoustic performances and introduced new pieces.

In November 2009 the new album Ordinary Heroes was released , of which there was also a limited version with 2 CDs, for which the songs contained were recorded again as an orchestral version.

Howard Jones now lives in Somerset, England with his wife Jan and their three children . He professes Buddhism and is an active supporter of the new religious movement Sōka Gakkai .

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE CH CH UK UK US US R&B R&B
1984 Human's Lib DE8 (25 weeks)
DE
CH12 (12 weeks)
CH
UK1
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(57 weeks)UK
US59 (43 weeks)
US
-
First published: March 5, 1984
Producers: Colin Thurston, Rupert Hine
The 12 ″ album DE49 (4 weeks)
DE
- UK15th
gold
gold

(33 weeks)UK
- -
First release: November 25, 1984
remix album; Producer: Rupert Hine
1985 Dream into Action DE20 (19 weeks)
DE
CH19 (8 weeks)
CH
UK2
gold
gold

(25 weeks)UK
US-
platinum
platinum
US
R&B65 (9 weeks)
R&B
First published: March 11, 1985
Producer: Rupert Hine
1986 One to one - - UK10
gold
gold

(4 weeks)UK
- -
First published: October 13, 1986
Producer: Arif Mardin
1989 Cross That Line - - UK64 (1 week)
UK
- -
First published: March 20, 1989
Producers: Howard Jones, Chris Hughes ,
Ian Stanley, Ross Cullum
2019 Transform - - UK49 (1 week)
UK
- -

Initial release: May 10, 2019 Producers: Howard Jones, BT, Robbie Bronnimann

Awards

swell

  1. Chart sources: Singles Albums DE UK US
  2. RSH Gold Award 2000

Web links