John the Postman

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John's most important contacts in the music scene: The Fall, here in 1984

John the Postman , often also Jon the Postman , real name Jonathan Ormrod (* 1955 or 1956; † July 2015 ) was a legendary figure in the early British punk scene. He was especially notorious for jumping on stage at punk concerts, grabbing the microphone and singing Louie Louie . John stormed the stage at the very first punk gigs in Manchester , which, after London, was the center of early British punk. Although he was omnipresent in every venue in Manchester, he was especially known and feared in the punk club Electric Circus .

He later published his own records, the first edition of 17,000 copies sold in the late 1970s and re-released by the beginning of the 21st century. He had appearances in the Electric Circus and played together with other well-known punk acts in the city such as The Fall, the Buzzcocks or Joy Division at large concerts such as the one against the forced closure of the Electric Circus or the counter-concert against the Silver Jubilee of Elisabeth II.

John's avowed fans include John Peel , Julian Cope and Mark E. Smith . The Postman began his more diverse career in the music business in the shadow of Mark E. Smith and The Fall . Both came from the 1970s Manchester scene; John started out as an ardent Fall fan and over time became a close confidante of Smith. The first cover version that The Fall ever released was Louie Louie with John the Postman. At times, John ran the Cog Sinister office from which The Fall managed their early career - but not without running into conflict with Smith in later years. In the early 1980s, John was pursuing a graduate degree in history and politics from the University of Salford , while at the same time he began to grow alienated from Smith's capricious and often confrontational nature.

Although his singing talent was considered dubious, even for punk standards, he was finally able to produce two LPs on Bent Records in the late 1970s: Puerile and John The Postman's Psychedelic Rock 'n' Roll Five Skinners Puerile contained his Louie Louie version, the point theorist Stewart Home referred to as the definitive version of the song. With her incredibly incompetent musicians and a drummer who was overwhelmed with simple timing, she took the punk attitude to its extreme. Instruments come and go during the piece, while John crosses the cacophony, occasionally sings the chorus and otherwise texts whatever comes to mind. In addition, it contains the first sound recordings of the later The Fall singer Mark E. Smith. The second record is built around John's interpretation of the classic Gloria . Both records were re-published in 1998 in a complete edition by the punk label Overground Records .

Among other things, John worked as a postman, from which his nickname originated. He was immortalized in the film 24 Hour Party People , which deals with the music scene in Manchester and in particular the emergence of Factory Records . He was connected to Germany because he went to Berlin every year and celebrated his birthday in the former Leydicke pub .

Discography

  • Puerile - LP, Bent Records
  • John The Postman's Psychedelic Rock 'n' Roll Five Skinners - LP 1979, Bent Records

literature

  • Nick Crossley: The man whose web expanded: Network dynamics in Manchester's post / punk music scene 1976–1980 in: Poetics, Volume 37, Issue 1, February 2009, pp. 24–49
  • Mick Middles, Mark E. Smith : The Fall Omnibus Press, 2003, ISBN 0711997624

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For example, consistently by Jon's confidante Mark E. Smith, see Middles / Smith
  2. ↑ a b Paul T. Birkett: Jonathan Ormrod obituary ( English ) In: The Guardian . August 25, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  3. ^ John Robb: Jon The Postman RIP ( English ) In: Louder Than War . July 27, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  4. ↑ Mick Middles: Breaking into heaven: the rise and fall of the Stone Roses Omnibus Press, 1999 ISBN 0711975469 ; Dailyreckless: The Fall Discography
  5. ^ Ian Inglis: Performance and popular music: history, place and time Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006 ISBN 0754640574
  6. ↑ a b Stewart Home : Cranked Up Reall High: Genre Theory & Punk Rock by Stewart Home
  7. ↑ amazon: about the artist
  8. ↑ Middles / Smith p. 85
  9. ↑ Dailyreckless: The Case Discography
  10. ↑ Middles / Smith pp. 119-120
  11. ↑ Killyourpetpuppy: John The Postman's Psychedelic Rock 'n' Roll Five Skinners
  12. ↑ Catalog page Overground ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.overgroundrecords.co.uk
  13. ↑ Back on this day 25 years ago: Sunday October 2nd 1977 ( English ) In: Nihilism on the Prowl . Retrieved March 20, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME John the Postman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jon the Postman; Ormerod, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British punk singer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century
DATE OF DEATH July 2015