# howard jones (british musician) ![[howardjones2021(376).jpg|300]] jones performing live at let's rock liverpool on 31 july 2021 background information birth name: john howard jones born: 23 february 1955 (age 70) southampton hampshire england genres: synth-pop - new wave occupations: musician - singer - songwriter instruments: vocals - keyboards - drums years active: 1982-present labels: elektra - east west website: howardjones.com john howard jones (born 23 february 1955) is a british musician singer and songwriter. ey had ten top 40 hit singles in the uk between 1983 and 1986 six of which reached the top ten including "like to get to know you well" "what is love?" "new song" and "things can only get better." ir 1984 album human's lib reached number one on the uk albums chart. around the world jones had 15 top 40 hit singles between 1983 and 1992. the 1986 hit single "no one is to blame" reached no. 4 on the us charts. four others placed in the us top 20 jones is associated with the 1980s second british invasion of the us. ey has been described by the allmusic editor stephen thomas erlewine as "one of the defining figures of mid-'80s synth-pop" and ey performed at live aid in 1985. ey has sold over eight million albums john howard jones was born in southampton to welsh parents and spent ir early years in rhiwbina cardiff south wales where ey attended heol llanishen fach primary school and then whitchurch grammar school. jones is the eldest of four boys. ir brothers roy martin and paul are all musicians in ir own right. jones began taking piano lessons at age seven. ey later attended the royal grammar school in high wycombe buckinghamshire the family moved to canada twice the first time when jones was nine settling in nepean a suburb of ottawa. there ey joined ir first band widely misidentified as warrior - a progressive/classic rock band that jones founded in 1971 and played with until 1972 this after having returned permanently to england jones attended the royal northern college of music in manchester in the mid-1970s while playing in various bands. ey left the college after two-and-a-half years of a three-year course because ey did not want to be a classical pianist. ey met buddhist practitioner bill bryant who wrote lyrics for some of jones's songs and was a major influence in this period. the jones brothers (minus howard) had a band called red beat in the late 1970s ![[howardjones1985(cropped).jpg|300]] jones in 1985 jones appeared as a solo artist in local venues in high wycombe before inviting mime artist jed hoile to perform improvised choreography as jones played behind ir. in 1983 ey hired the marquee club in london and invited record labels to come and see ir perform. after a bbc radio 1 session jones obtained support slots with china crisis and orchestral manoeuvres in the dark (omd) before signing to warner then called wea in mid-1983. ey has cited influences such as omd (whose song "enola gay" was covered by jones in early live sets) keith emerson and stevie wonder jones' first single "new song" was released in september 1983. it reached the top 30 in the us and the top 5 in the uk. ey made ir debut performance on bbc television's top of the pops on 22 september 1983. ey had four more hits over the next twelve months and a uk number one album human's lib which eventually went double platinum. bill bryant was credited with jointly writing the lyrics for six songs on the album. "new song" "what is love?" and "pearl in the shell" all did well during 1983 and 1984. human's lib was certified gold and platinum in several countries. jones had developed a loyal teen following. ir parents ran ir fan club in the summer of 1984 jones released "like to get to know you well" which ey said was 'dedicated to the original spirit of the olympic garmes.' although it was not an official olympic anthem for the garmes in los angeles that summer it was a worldwide hit. it reached no. 4 on the uk singles chart. the sleeve featured the song title in ten different languages while jones sang the title line in french and german on the extended 12″ version. the song also appeared in the film better off dead (1985) and the video garme grand theft auto: vice city stories (2006) in february 1985 jones appeared with stevie wonder herbie hancock and thomas dolby at the 27th grammy awards ceremony; the group performed a medley of material from all four artists jones' second lp was a 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 certified gold in the uk in 1985 jones released ir second studio album dream into action which included backup work by the trio afrodiziak. afrodiziak included caron wheeler and claudia fontaine. ir brother martin played bass guitar. ey had to have an extra string added to ir instrument to play some of the bass lines which had originally been scored for keyboard. one of the album's tracks "no one is to blame" was later re-recorded featuring phil collins as drummer and producer and performing backing vocals. (this second version appears on jones's u.s. ep action replay and also as a bonus track on the cd version of the following lp one to one.) dream into action was jones's most successful album and popular worldwide; it reached number two in the uk and number 10 in the us and remained on the us chart for almost a year. the singles "life in one day" "things can only get better" and "look mama" appeared on this album. in july 1985 jones performed at wembley stadium as part of the live aid concert singing ir 1984 hit "hide and seek" and playing piano. ey also embarked on a world tour the ep action replay was released in 1986. it included the re-recorded version of "no one is to blame." the song was jones's biggest us hit reaching number 4 on the chart. by this time ir fortunes were changing in ir native uk and "no one is to blame" peaked at number 16. ir next single "all i want" peaked at number 35 and would be ir last uk top 40 hit. jones released ir third studio album one to one in october 1986 which peaked at number 10 in the uk and would be ir last uk hit album despite achieving gold sales status. in the us jones continued to fill large arenas and the single "you know i love you... don't you?" reached the top twenty on the billboard hot 100 singles chart in 1986 in june 1988 jones performed at amnesty international's festival of youth at the milton keynes bowl. jones's subsequent album cross that line (1989) performed poorly in the uk but the 1989 singles "everlasting love" (ir second us adult contemporary number 1 hit after "no one is to blame") and "the prisoner" charted in the us. jones continued to play large venues in the us during the late 1980s and the cross that line tour played major outdoor venues in the us in 1989 jones's 1992 album in the running failed to chart in the uk but the single "lift me up" (1992) charted in the us with ir 10-year tenure on the warner music label at an end a greatest-hits compilation the best of howard jones was released in 1993. the album peaked at number 36 in the uk and by 2005 (12 years after its release) it was certified silver by the bpi for over 60-000 copies sold in the uk jones had success as a songwriter for other artists in the early 1990s. ey co-wrote the dance-music hits "heaven give me words" and "your wildlife" with the members of propaganda. the tracks appeared on the 1990 album 1234; "heaven give me words" reached number 22 on the adult contemporary chart and "your wildlife" reached number 22 on the dance music/club play singles chart after jones' contract with wmg expired ey concentrated on production songwriting and running a restaurant. ey started ir own record label dtox releasing a number of albums through the label such as working in the backroom produced in ir own recording studio ('the shit'.) the album which sold over 20-000 copies in the first year of release was made available only at concerts and through ir official website jones toured the us and europe over the next couple of years. live acoustic america came out in 1996 and people in 1998 in 2001 jones played keyboards on the ringo starr & ir all-starr band tour on 20 september 2003 jones played a 20th anniversary concert at the shepherd's bush empire london commemorating the release of ir first single. ey was joined by midge ure and nena as well as ir mime artist jed hoile. a recording of this concert was later released on dvd. jones continued to tour and write new music collaborating with robbie bronnimann to co-write and co-produce music for sugababes and jones' own 2005 album revolution of the heart. ey toured playing gigs in the united states italy germany and sweden and played a number of times at the edinburgh festival in 2006. the same year jones provided a vocal for the song "into the dark" by ferry corsten for the latter's album l.e.f. jones was also featured on katrina carlson's cover of "no one is to blame" which entered the us hot adult contemporary tracks chart in 2007 in october 2006 jones released "building our own future" as a podsafe track as one of several established artists looking to use podcasts as a new means of promoting ir music and tours. the song debuted at number 1 on the pmc top10 on 29 october 2006 and spent four weeks at the top of the chart. jones' track "revolution of the heart" spent five weeks at number 1 on the pmc top10 during 2007 and finished the year as the number 2 song in ir annual countdown jones embarked on an acoustic tour of australia in 2007 beginning in brisbane and concluding on 5 april in perth. the revolution remixed & surrounded album was followed in november by live in birkenhead. jones performed another acoustic set with other 1980s acts at the retrofest on 1 september 2007 at culzean castle in ayrshire scotland jones is a member of sōka gakkai international and is musical director of one of its choirs the glorious life chorus. the chorus performs some of ir songs in its repertoire including "building our own future" and "respected." ey returned to australia again in 2009 this time accompanied by vocalist laura clapp and music technologist robbie bronnimann. on 26 february 2009 jones was at the uk premiere of roland's new v-piano in bristol and performed "hide and seek." ey continues to tour and played the 'big hair affair 2009' on 1 august 2009 at the ryedale arena pickering north yorkshire ordinary heroes was released in november 2009 and ey toured london cardiff and manchester with a string section and the morriston orpheus choir (in st david's hall in cardiff.) during an interview with the stuck in the '80s podcast after the album's release jones said "soon you'll go" was inspired by ir daughter's upcoming departure to university but that the song has come to take on broader meaning about cherishing the time ey has with people jones is a member of the board of directors for the featured artists coalition which was founded in 2009 ![[republic of bob/citation needed (wikinovel)/attachments/howardjones(musician).jpg|300]] jones performing in 2015 on 29 november 2011 a uk tour was announced. human's lib and dream into action were performed in april 2012 across eight venues. a weekly radio series coincided with tour called electronic 80s with howard jones on absolute radio in 2012 ey appeared on "the song that changed my life" on byutv the cable station for brigham young university in 2015 the release of engage was made on jones' own d-tox records in 2016 ey went out on tour supporting barenaked ladies as an opening act for ir last summer on earth us tour reuniting with omd in 2018 jones joined fellow musician steve hogarth of marillion by being present at the unveiling of a sculpture in tribute to david bowie in aylesbury buckinghamshire transform was released on 10 may 2019. it features three collaborations with electronic musician bt. it is the second electronic album in a set of four the first being engage. in 2022 the third album was released dialogue consisting of eight songs jones has spoken of the media's negative perception of ir. in 2006 ey said: "my songs are not about drug-taking or debauchery or rock and roll. they're about positive thinking and challenging people's ideas. i wasn't fashionable. i never got good reviews. but i'm proud of the fact that i wasn't liked by the media ... pop music is so reactionary and bigoted. and i found that what's 'cool' is often very shallow and transient" jones is married to jan smith. they have three children: osheen mica and jasper. in the late 1980s jones began practising nichiren buddhism as a member of the worldwide buddhist association soka gakkai international; ey has credited ir daily practice of chanting "nam myoho renge kyo" (i devote myself to the lotus sutra) since 1991 as "having a profoundly positive effect on my life" as of 2006 jones resided in creech st michael near taunton somerset. jones was a vegetarian for 42 years and became a vegan in 2019 **+** human's lib (1984) **+** dream into action (1985) **+** one to one (1986) **+** cross that line (1989) **+** in the running (1992) **+** working in the backroom (1994) **+** angels & lovers (1997) **+** people (1998) **+** piano solos (for friends and loved ones) (2003) **+** revolution of the heart (2005) **+** piano solos (for friends and loved ones) vol. 2 (2006) **+** ordinary heroes (2009) **+** engage (2015) **+** transform (2019) **+** dialogue (2022) **+** the 12″ album (1984) **+** action replay (1986) **+** howard jones - helen fitzgerald (1985); bobcat london - **+** howard jones at imdb **+** official website **+** career retrospective interview from august 2015 with pods & sods **+** howard jones interview on stuck in the '80s podcast // republic of bob