John Miles (musician)

John Miles at Night of the Proms 2017 in the SAP Arena in Mannheim

John Miles (born April 23, 1949 in Jarrow , Tyne and Wear ) is a British musician (guitar, keyboard, vocals) and composer , who was best known for the album Rebel with the hit Music (1976). In the 1970s and 1980s he was also one of the singers in the Alan Parsons Project .

Career

First successes

In the 1970s, John Miles worked with his bassist Bob Marshall, who wrote many lyrics for Miles' compositions, including most of the lyrics for the most successful album Rebel , but not for the hit Music . When the single Highfly was released in 1975, Miles appeared as a long-haired rocker, for example in the BBC program Top of the Pops . His manager Chris Poole convinced him to change his image and to create a fixed image with recognition value. In connection with the use of the youth idol James Dean, who died in 1955, on the cover of Rebel , he and his label Decca Records decided on an image based on the film actor, as an advertising slogan for Miles made clear:

"James Dean died when he was 24. But some say his legacy lives on in John Miles."

“James Dean died when he was 24 years old. But some say his legacy lives on in John Miles. "

Studio musician

Miles had been working as a studio musician at Abbey Road Studios when he recorded Rebel , on which he played catchy rock music combined with symphonic strings. He did not achieve the resounding sales success of this album and therefore continued to work in the studio for other musicians. John Miles can be heard on several albums by The Alan Parsons Project (including Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976), a setting of the short stories by Edgar Allan Poe ). For this studio production, producer Alan Parsons hired various rock musicians with whom he recorded parts of the work, which he then mixed together in the studio.

Miles was also involved in Jimmy Pages' album Outrider in 1988.

Concerts and tours

Miles later accompanied Joe Cocker and Tina Turner on their tours as keyboardist, guitarist and duet partner (on behalf of Bryan Adams ). He appears on Tina Turner's concert record Live in Europe (1988) and on Cocker's album Night Calls (1991) on the Hammond organ . He also wrote Now that the Magic Has Gone for Cocker , which can be heard on the same album with Miles on guitar. Miles also toured with The Rolling Stones and Elton John .

In March 1990 Miles took part with the title Where I Belong in the British preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest and took second place.

In 2007 he performed with Pur in the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen and sang their song Abenteuerland in German. From October 2008 to April 2009 he toured America and Europe again with Tina Turner.

At the Night of the Proms event , Miles has appeared regularly with his Electric Band as a solo act, duet partner and backing band for the other artists since the first event (1985) .

Musicals

For several years now, John Miles has also devoted himself to music theater . In 1998 he composed the music for the musical The Machine Gunners (Text & Book: Tom Kelly), a stage adaptation of Robert Westall 's World War II children's book of the same name. In 1999 followed - again with Tom Kelly - Tom and Catherine , the life story of the romantic writer Catherine Cookson and her husband Tom. 2003 Komponistenduo Miles / Kelly continued his activities with Dan Dare - The Musical on, a play about the 1950-years- science fiction - comic -Helden Dan Dare .

Miles first worked with fellow co-authors in 2004 when he wrote the musical Cuddy's Miles with television playwright Arthur McKenzie and actor David Whittaker. It is about the historic Jarrow March ( Jarrow Crusade ), a protest march that led from Jarrow in northeast England over 21 stations to London and with which the English rural population protested against increasing unemployment in 1936 . Miles personal reference to this topic is not only that he was born in Jarrow, but the title character Cuddy even portrays John Miles grandfather Cuthbert Miles, who took part in the march as a cook. The title Cuddy's Miles is therefore at least an ambiguous formulation.

His son John Miles junior is also a musician.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1976	Rebel	DE44 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK9 silver (10 weeks)UK	US171 (4 weeks) US	First published: March 1976
1977	Stranger in the City	-	-	-	UK37 silver (3 weeks)UK	US93 (15 weeks) US	First published: February 1977
1978	Zaragon	-	-	-	UK43 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: March 1978
1979	More Miles Per Hour	-	-	-	UK46 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: April 1979
1981	Miles High	-	-	-	UK96 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 1981
1993	Upfront	DE93 (3 weeks) DE	-	CH26 (3 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: September 1993

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

more publishments

• 1980: Sympathy
• 1982: Music
• 1983: Play On
• 1985: transition
• 1992: Live In Concert
• 1993: Anthology
• 1998: Master Series
• 1999: Tom and Catherine
• 1999: Millennium Edition
• 2000: His Very Best
• 2002: Live in Concert (DVD)
• 2009: Best of John Miles at Night of the Proms

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1975	Highfly Rebel	-	-	-	UK17 (6 weeks) UK	US68 (10 weeks) US	First published: September 1975
1976	Music rebel	DE10 (23 weeks) DE	-	CH4 (15 weeks) CH	UK3 silver (9 weeks)UK	US88 (3 weeks) US	First published: March 1976
	Remember Yesterday Stranger in the City	-	-	-	UK32 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: September 1976
1977	Slow Down Stranger in the City	-	-	-	UK10 (10 weeks) UK	US34 (14 weeks) US	First published: March 1977
1983	The Right to Sing Play On	-	-	-	UK88 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 1983
1994	One More Day Without Love Upfront	DE67 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: February 1994

Web links

• john-miles.net , fan website with u. a. a detailed bio and discography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See illustration of the back cover on blogspot.com.
2. ^ ^{A b c} Stephen Carson: About John Miles. A Short Biography ( Memento of the original from December 24, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . On: john-miles.net. 
3. ↑ See illustration of the front cover on blogspot.com.
4. ↑ UK NATIONAL FINAL 1990. Retrieved May 19, 2020 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE CH UK US
6. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK