Johnny Warman

Johnny Warman (born John Robert Waughman 1951 in Bethnal Green, London) is an English singer-songwriter best known for his 1981 album "Walking Into Mirrors" and the hit single "Screaming Jets".

Early life

Johnny was born in Bethnal Green, East London. He then moved to Hackney at the age of seven where he enjoyed a normal idyllic childhood, frequently climbing trees and scrumping over Victoria Park. Within Johnny's home there was always music in some shape or form although nobody played an instrument, his mother sang and his father was a terrible singer no matter how much he tried. Johnny enjoyed his school years very much and when he first heard The Beatles at the age of 11, he was transfixed by the sound so much so that he joined the school choir. He was picked to sing at the Royal Opera House in 1964, where he sang alongside Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. This event was pivotal in Johnny's life, as whilst he was standing on the stage taking in all the sights, sounds and applause, he thought to himself, "This is what I want to do". Johnny was (and is) a keen fan of both The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. He had no hesitation in choosing between being a Mod or a Rocker once he had heard The Who. After Jimi Hendrix, (Johnny's "Guitar Messiah") had burst onto the British music scene in 1966 when Johnny first heard Hey Joe he realised all he wanted to be was a Rock Star. Whilst in school Johnny wrote a song called, "Cosmic Butterflies" and joined a band called "Sounds Like Six," with Kevin Molyneux on lead guitar. During the late 60's Johnny frequented many live music performances including Jimi Hendrix thrice and other groups including The Move, The Iveys and Pink Floyd whilst using the Melody Maker as his bible.

Rock Star 1970-1976

In the early 1970s Johnny joined the group Bearded Lady (originally named Elmo's Fire) as a vocalist/rhythm guitarist with fellow members Freddy Sheriff on guitar, Chris Peel on bass, Mickey Irvine (Later replaced by Paul 'The Mouse' Martin and then Clive 'Short Bar' Brooks and finally Bryson Graham) on drums and Kim Jury and Theresa O'Neil as backing singers. Johnny and Freddy had been in school and The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme together and were brought together musically by a mutual friend named Yvonne. The group's first gig was at the Morpeth Castle, during which the only member of the audience walked out after the first song. Being managed by John Hunt and Barry Sullivan's Hunsul Enterprises very much a "Pub Rock" group, they performed at many London (as well as many other towns) venues including, The Hope And Anchor, The Brecknock, The Kensington, The Cock At Kilburn And The Lord Nelson, even being a support act for Humphrey Littleton in Fishguard. The group focused their efforts on their live act and had a solid following built up over four years, including Mickie Most who unsuccessfully tried to sign them to RAK Records three times. Chuck Berry also came to see the band. During the period in which Johnny was in Bearded Lady he was often to be found frequenting the clubs of London where he was in contact with many other "scene" people including David Bowie, who referred to Johnny by name, which was a true accolade for an aspiring Rock Star, with Ziggy's Jean Genie riding high on the charts.

Bearded Lady entered the National Folk And Rock Contest in 1974 and won the first heat only to come second to Curly (later to be Q-Tips) in the finals. Bearded Lady finally managed to sign a record deal with Youngblood records (after a deal with Private Stock also failed) which saw the release of a single "Rock Star"/"Country Lady" in 1975. The band took out on a tour of West Germany (Zoom in Frankfurt and P.N. Club in Munich) to support a German release of the single on Bellaphon/Youngblood International which was as close as the group would ever get to a world tour. Johnny worked a day job to support his wife and young family (Daughters Zowie born 1973 and Tammy) but still insisted the band commit to at least four nights of rehearsals a week. One day whilst Johnny was waiting for the band to pick him up in their van the other band members had decided to sell all their equipment and the van and with that the group ceased to exist. The last performance by Bearded Lady was at the Marquee Club supported by The Jam. After the collapse of Bearded Lady, Johnny set out with demos in hand to get a solo deal. It was around this time that Johnny started using the name Warman, as both Johnny and Warman have 6 letters, which he seemed to think looked better than Waughman.

Mind Games 1977-1980

Johnny first approached Ariola Hansa records with his demo tape of three songs, Head On Collision, London's Burning and Mind Games. After the tape had been played he was asked as to which language he was singing in "That's Cockney Mate!" was the reply as Johnny walked out. Johnny next approached Arista Records with the same demo tape and they had the songs rerecorded at Decibel Studios with Johnny on vocals/rhythm guitar, Mark Arthurworry on guitar, Paul Martinez on bass and Jeff Rich on drums. When Johnny returned to Arista with the rerecorded tracks they decided they were not interested in signing Johnny but at the same time let him keep the tape he had recorded, which he would now have to pitch at other record companies. Johnny contacted Barry Anthony at Ring O'Records and gave him the tapes, two weeks later (in December 1977) he was called to meet Ringo Starr's manager Hilary Gerrard and was told "Ringo really loves it" and was signed to Ring O'Records for £3,000 per year and £3,000 for the publishing rights, Johnny was also given two cases of beer and a Christmas tree to take home for his family. Johnny along with Jeff Rich and Paul Martinez then took about recording an album at Startling Studios at Tittenhurst Park. Johnny chose the producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven because of his liking for the sound of The Jam. Vic and Johnny immediately went about remixing the three track "demo" tape recorded at Decibel Studios at Morgan Studios which was released as a three track single on Ring O'Records 2017 112 in January 1978, which did not chart. Johnny recorded the entirety of the album "Hour Glass" at Startling Studio and remixed at Roundhouse Studios planned initially for release as Ring O'Records 2339 202 in 1978. During his period at Ring O'Records not only did Johnny meet every other Ring O'Record artists (except John Tavener) but he also featured in the music video for Dirk And Stig's Ging Gang Gollie promotional music video. Unfortunately Ring O'Records went bankrupt and was unable to release the planned album, which was shelved for a year until released by RCA/Able in West Germany only in June 1979. Hour Glass received strong reviews but failed to make any chart impact. A single was released to accompany the Hour Glass album in West Germany, the new "Golden Lions" recorded at Townhouse backed with "Tomorrow's Babies" from the album, which also failed to chart.

Undaunted by the collapse of Ring O'Records and lack of chart success Johnny continued to work on his own sound a formed the group 3 Minutes, with Jeff Rich on Drums and Paul Martinez on Bass. Johnny states that the band's name came to him in a dream where he was told "you shall be called Three Minutes" although now Johnny jokes that the band lasted about as long. 3 Minutes toured supporting The Vapors for 24 dates and XTC for 6 dates. The group disbanded after releasing a single in 1980 on Rocket Records, XPRESS 40 "Automatic Kids"/"Future Fun" which to date was Johnny's most widespread release seeing releases in Great Britain, France, West Germany, The Netherlands and Portugal. Although 3 Minutes has disbanded after only one single the door was now open at Rocket for more solo releases in 1981.

From The Jungle 1981-1983

1981 saw the most chart successful period in Johnny Warman's career with the all but universal release of his second solo album "Walking Into Mirrors". The sound was heavily rooted in demos and performances by Johnny's former band 3 Minutes although neither of the two former band members featured on the album. Johnny tried to get the best possible array of musicians for his new album, originally Johnny suggested that Phil Collins play the drums but due to schedule conflict Phil was unavailable and suggested Jerry Marotta who at the time was in Peter Gabriel's backing band. Dave Lawson was brought in to play keyboards. Recording was set to begin to Townhouse Studios' Studio Two "The Stone Room" on the 9th December 1980 which was the day after John Lennon was murdered in New York. Recording started in earnest on time but with the news of the sudden death of John Lennon in the air. By the end of the first day of recording 4 backing tracks had been completed the first track being "Walking Into Mirrors". Over the next two weeks the album continued to develop, Tony Levin invited the musicians to The Record Plant in New York and Larry Fast also became involved in the project before moving the recording once more to the House Of Music in West Orange, New Jersey, during which time the Ampex tape the recordings were made on started to decompose. Prior to leaving for America Johnny had asked Peter Gabriel if he would sing on the album to which he agreed, with the musicians moving to America and then returning to England they had forgotten that Peter had said he would contribute towards the album so were surprised one day when the phone rang informing them that Peter was on his way to the studio. Johnny quickly had to choose which song he wanted Peter's vocals on and decided that he would sing on "Screaming Jets" a song Johnny had written in 25 minutes after watching Apocalypse Now. Johnny had been changing the arrangements on Screaming Jets and his vocal track had his commands on it for changing keys, which when Peter heard it he asked if that was staying and that he would try something like that on his next album. Johnny then decided to keep the vocal track with the commands in as the master vocal track, even though Johnny had had a cold at the time of recording. Johnny, Peter and Larry then worked together on how the track should feel and what noises Peter should make which ended with Peter chanting throughout the record. Peter had arranged prior to coming to the studio that he would take a fee of £250, which Johnny has since said was the best £250 he's ever spent.

The lead single from the album was "Dance With Me" which was backed by the non-album "King Robot". The second single was "Screaming Jets" backed by the non-album "American Machines" which was also released before the album. "Screaming Jets" also saw the creation of Johnny's first music video which was directed by Jeff Baines. Johnny was promised an Australian tour if the single sold 7,000 copies in Australia. The single sold 76,000 copies and reached number 9 in the Australian charts though the tour never happened. Johnny did however appear on an episode of "Countdown" with Molly Meldrum which was filmed in London. The album was released in July 1981 in Great Britain, France, West Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand and sold over 100,000 copies worldwide. A second music video was also made for the title track of the album "Walking Into Mirrors" also directed by Jeff Baines. Later in 1981 "Martian Summer" was also released as a single although only in the Netherlands and the final single from the album was a remix of "Three Minutes" backed with the non-album Jon Glass.

With Johnny's success with the Walking Into Mirrors he took to the road including live and television performances in Sweden, West Germany, Belgium, France, Spain (Music Express), Portugal (Fiesta Fiesta), Great Britain, performing second on the bill to Ian Hunter at the New Pop Festival in Rotterdam in 1982. Rocket encouraged Johnny to start work on a second Rocket album which he took to at The Manor Studios in Oxford. Johnny invited back Jerry Marrota and Tony Levin as well as inviting Chris Payne of Dramatis (who at that time were Gary Numan's backing band) and Andy Clarke who had just returned from backing David Bowie on tour. Johnny's concept for the "From The Jungle To The New Horizons" album was the process from Apeman to Spaceman. The album would be a more musically complicated production than the previous Walking Into Mirrors album. Kiki Dee was invited to contribute backing vocals to (United) The State Of America and Looking Back (To See If Someone's Looking Back At Me). Although Kiki was only scheduled to work in the studio for one day she (as all the other musicians) enjoyed herself so much she stayed for three days. Dream Dream Dream was the lead and only single from the album being released on Rocket a month before the release on the album. Neither the single nor the album managed to make any impact in the charts and once again with the downsizing of Rocket Records Johnny found himself without a record label even with all the successes of 1981/2 under his belt.

(Here Comes The) Future 1984-1990

With the ending of contract with Rocket Records Johnny focused his attention more towards song writing with the intention that other artists would cover them. Johnny recorded his final solo release "(Here Comes) The Beat Patrol"/"Don't Call Me" in 1984 under the guidance of Mickie Most, who had been a fan of Johnny's for 10 years. The single was released on RAK records in Great Britain only in October 1984 even though there was no formal contract on the release. Fortunately for Johnny both sides of the single were picked up by other artists and released with success. Beat Patrol was covered by Starship in 1987 and reached number 46 in the U.S. charts and the album that it featured on the No Protection album which reached number 12 in the U.S.. Ringo Starr also recorded a version of Beat Patrol which has never been released. Don't Call Me was covered on Asia's 1992 album Aqua.During 1984 Johnny also found himself in the music video for Alexei Sayle's "Ullo John Gotta New Motor?" and a Hot Chocolate music video as well as playing football for the RAK Records team.By 1985 Johnny's attempts at composing music for other artists started to pay off as The Star Sisters covered the Johnny Warman/Gary Osbourne composed song "Skin On Skin" (Originally planned for release by Melissa Manchester). In 1986 not only were ever more artists covering Johnny's compositions and co-compositions but once again he saw himself contracted to a record label releasing a single as a member of the band Future. The group released "War Of The Roses"/"Main Attraction" on 10 Records, The A Side being a "Song For Europe" which was performed on B.B.C. 1 on the 2nd April 1986 and received 76 points coming in eight out of eight entries.1989 saw the last single release to date by Johnny Warman as he took part in the Spirit Of The Forest charity single, He can be seen (briefly) standing next to David Gilmour in the music video.

Time Takes Time 1991-1999

Johnny had had a long standing friendship with Ringo Starr which went back to 1977 at Ring O'Records and when Ringo started working on his first studio album in nine years Johnny was asked to contribute towards the album in a song writing capacity. Johnny and Ringo traveled to Monaco to focus on song writing which produced "Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go", "Everyone Wins", "After All These Years" and "Runaways". Three of the songs were used on the album and the fourth saw light on the b-side of a single. Johnny supported Ringo's second all-starr band at two of their performances in London. Both Ringo and Johnny performed "Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go" as part of their sets, a song Ringo continues to perform live.

At the same time as working with Ringo, Johnny once again formed a band "4 Bills And A Ben" in 1991 with Jeff Rich (Who had been in 3 Minutes) on drums along with John "Rhino" Edwards on Bass, Steve Byrd on lead guitar, Andy Hamilton on Saxophone, Spike Edney on Keyboards and Mark Rich on Guitar. The band mainly plays covers of 1960's and 1970's songs and most of their activity is for charity, Due to the commitment of all band members to other musical activities the band is only "occasional" although they continue to perform, all be it occasional.

Also whilst not only working with Ringo and performing with 4 Bills And A Ben, Johnny was also collaborating with Geoff Downes and Asia which saw four of Johnny's co-compositions on Asia's album Aqua, six of Johnny's co-compositions on Geoff's solo album Vox Humana and Johnny singing the lead vocals on the track Satellite Blues.

In 1993 the Johnny Warman/Nick Graham song "Our World" was entered into "A Song For Europe" on 3rd April, in which every song was sung by Sonia. The song was placed second with 77,685 votes and Sonia released the song on her "Better The Devil You Know" album (Although the song was originally intended for release by Tracey Ackerman).

Johnny returned to the studio again in 1996-97 to record 2 albums of Library music for De Wolfe with band mates Andy Hamilton and Steve Byrd along with Brad Lang, Pete Thoms, Roger Beaujolais, Steve Hamilton, Neil Angilley, Dave Clayton and Nigel Brown. One of each of the two Andy Hamilton/Johnny Warman co-compositions "Johnny The Jazz Freak" and "Grasslands" can be found on the first and second album respectively.

The Mods and Tomorrow's Babies 2000-

The Mods, who played at the Steve Marriott tribute in 2001.

Discography

ingles

Library Music

External links

* [http://www.themodsband.com/ The Mods] - Mods gig guide and news site