John Howard

John grew up in Heywood and Bury, Lancashire, training as a classical pianist from the age of seven, though he began playing piano when he was just four years old. By his early teens, he'd started writing songs and first performed his own material at a charity concert his college at Accringtonm had organised in March 1970. For the next three years John played at various Universities, folk clubs and theatres, including Bolton's Octagon Theatre, where an early incarnation of Iron Maiden asked John to be their lead singer! He declined the invitation.
In 1973, he left home for London where he was spotted while playing at The Troubadour by then Head of Pop at Chappell Music, Stuart Reid. By the end of '73, John had been signed by CBS Records and had a commission to write and record the theme song for the Peter Fonda/William Holden movie, Open Season after director Peter Collinson heard a demo tape of John's material. The film company flew John and his manager to Madrid to view the rushes and meet the cast and crew, then onto Rome to record John's song.
His first album, Kid In A Big World, produced by Tony Meehan and Paul Phillips, and featuring Rod Argent and Bob Henrit, was recorded at Abbey Road and Apple studios through 1974 and released in February the following year. Two singles from the album were released, Goodbye Suzie and Family Man, the former reaching No 23 on Radio Luxembourg's Power Play Top 30. Radio 1, though, refused to play either track, saying Goodbye Suzie was "too depressing" and Family Man was "anti-woman"!

In spite of being launched with a concert John gave at The Purcell Room for radio, press and TV luminaries, sales of the album were not as significant as CBS had hoped. Searching for a hit single to promote John further, the label shelved the album he and Paul Phillips were working on as a follow-up, Technicolour Biography, before it was completed, putting John in the studios instead with Disco maestro producer Biddu.
The resultant album, Can You Hear Me OK? spawned one single, I Got My Lady, which got plenty of Capital Radio play but still couldn't break through onto the Radio 1 playlist. CBS decided to shelve the album and in early '76, John left the label.

For the next 18 months John went back to performing at London clubs, such as April Ashley's AD8 bar, where he often shared the bill with London's then premier drag group The Disappointer Sisters; Blitz, where he was heckled one night by The Sex Pistols - "They told me to get off. What an honour!"; Company; Porter's of Piccadilly and Morton's in Berkeley Square.
This new stage in John's career was brought to a sudden halt when he was involved in an accident at home, breaking his back.

After a long period of recuperation, and during a visit to Stuart Reid's Denmark Street office, John was introduced to one Trevor Horn. In the summer of 1977 he and John made several demos together, leading to John's first single release for two years, I Can Breathe Again, which was Trevor's first commercially released production. The backing band comprised what would later become the nucleus of Buggles and The Art of Noise - Geoff Downes, Anne Dudley, Linda Jardim, Louis Jardim and Bruce Woolley. Over the next few years John made more singles, with Trevor Horn, Steve Levine and Nicky Graham, and recorded several tracks with Kenny Everett's hero, Chris Rainbow.
But by the early '80s, feeling disillusioned with lack of success or recognition, John locked his piano lid and walked away from unrealised ambitions.
"I just got fed up chasing the dream," he says now.

Occasional sporadic outbursts of studio activity would take place, though these were usually at the invitation of friends. "There was no pressure, no expectations, so I just treated the sessions as a lovely diversion whenever they came around. My days as a recording artist were over...or so I thought."

Through the '80s and '9os John carved out a career in marketing and A & R at various record companies, working with Elkie Brooks, Maria Friedman, Connie Francis, Hazell Dean, Sonia, Gary Glitter, The Crickets, Lonnie Donegan, Madness, Barry Manilow and Sir Tim Rice on various projects. He even found time to write the occasional song for other artists such as Stephanie Lawrence, Dave Willetts and in 1992, Des O'Connor recorded John's Blue Days for the Portrait album.

In 2001, John retired to Pembrokeshire. His father bought him a piano as a housewarming present, and for the first time in many a long year, John began performing again, first at local pubs, even undertaking a short stint in the piano bars on the cruise ships.
And then something amazing happened...

John's long deleted Kid In A Big World album started to create interest on the net, discussion sites were abuzz with talk about it, questions like "who was John Howard?", "Is he dead?", "Does anyone know anything about him?" were being asked. The album was featured in the book In Search of The Lost Record, and John started to get emails from around the world enquiring about the album he thought had long been forgotten. In response to this new-found interest, RPM Records reissued Kid at the end of 2003 and in early '04 it got a five-star review in Uncut magazine. In April 2004 John gave his first London concert for 25 years, at The Jermyn Street Theatre, and that too received a five-star review, in The Guardian. Later that year, RPM released Technicolour Biography in its unfinished state, 30 years after it had been shelved, and it too received glowing reviews. More gigs followed, a new audience for John's music was building and after Can You Hear Me OK? was released in May 2005 by RPM, receiving again rave reviews, John finally issued his first new album since the '70s.

The Dangerous Hours, a collaboration project with the poet/lyricist Robert Cochrane, was released in July '05. The Guardian gave it a four-star review along with similar praise in Uncut, and several internet reviewers followed suit.
At the end of 2005 Cherry Red Records released As I Was Saying, which John recorded during the summer that year with Andre Barreau and Phil King. Plan B Magazine's reviewer Dickon Edwards made it his Album Of The Year and Chris Roberts in his Uncut review of As I Was Saying said John "is a British Jimmy Webb."

John's third new album, Same Bed, Different Dreams was actually started in early 2004 but for various reasons completion of the project was delayed, but once The Dangerous Hours and As I Was Saying were released he went back into the studio to finish it. In May 2006, Euro-Visions released the album in France, where it received fantastic reviews in music magazines such as Les InRocks and Magic. The album opened a new market for John's music in France. In early 2007 Same Bed got an international release through Cargo Records, receiving four-star reviews from Snaz Music and Musicomh.

In May & June 2006, John performed two shows at Manchester's Briton's Protection, which were recorded for the live album In The Room Upstairs, which was released exclusively on iTunes in June 2007. John also released three iTunes Exclusive E.P.s during 2007, featuring some of his favourite songs by other writers as well as two brand new Howard compositions, including new live favourite My Beautiful Days, inspired by a conversation John had recently had with his old producer friend Paul Phillips.

Having left the UK in the summer of 2007 to live in Spain, John signed with Bilbao-based label Hanky Panky Records, and on October 4th performed his first Spanish show at Bilbao's Colegio de Abrigados. In January 2008 Hanky Panky released John's seventh studio album, Barefoot With Angels, his first set to be recorded in his new home studio. As John said following his move to Spain, "the creative process I re-entered in 2004 following the reissue of Kid has not abated, if anything it has intensified. Who'd've thought it?"

--http://www.kidinabigworld.co.uk/biography.html