Johnny Warman

Warman was born in Bethnal Green, London, England, and he moved to Hackney at the age of seven. In Warman's home there was always music as his mother and father both sang. Inspired by the Beatles at the age of 11, when he heard their song "Love Me Do" playing on a Dansette record player, he joined the school choir and in 1964 was picked to sing at the Royal Opera House performing in Tosca and Pagliachi with Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. After playing in a royal command performance he knew he wanted to be a performer and began to learn guitar, He soon began to play gigs.[2] Whilst in school Warman joined a band called Sounds Like Six and wrote a song called "Cosmic Butterflies".

As a keen fan of The Rolling Stones and The Who, he frequented many live music venues of the time. Warman followed other bands such as The Iveys and Pink Floyd and became a keen reader of Melody Maker. After hearing Jimi Hendrix's song "Hey Joe" in 1966, he decided to become a Rock musician.

In the early 1970s, Warman joined the group Bearded Lady (originally named Elmo's Fire) as a vocalist and rhythm guitarist. The band also included guitarist Freddy Sheriff with whom Warman had been at school and on The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme with. They had been brought together as musicians by a mutual friend. The group's first gig was at the Morpeth Castle, during which the only member of the audience walked out after the first song. Managed by John Hunt and Barry Sullivan's Hunsul Enterprises, they performed at many U.K venues including The Hope And Anchor in London, other venues across U.K and as support act for Humphrey Lyttelton in Fishguard. The group then focused their efforts on their live act and built up a strong following during the next four years during which Mickie Most unsuccessfully tried to sign them to RAK Records.

Bearded Lady entered the National Folk And Rock Contest in 1974 and won the first heat coming second to Curly who had Paul Young as vocalist (then they became Q-Tips) in the finals. They signed a record deal with Youngblood records which saw the release of a single "Rock Star" in 1975, which featured the song "Country Lady" on the B-side. The band toured West Germany appearing at Zoom in Frankfurt and the P.N. Club in Munich, to promote the German release of the single on the Bellapon inprint. Warman worked a day job to support his wife and young family and still insisted the band commit to at least four nights of rehearsals a week. The band members other than Warman decided to sell all their equipment and their van without telling him and the band played their final gig at the Marquee Club in London with support by The Jam. Warman then started seek out a solo deal and during this time he began to spell his surname "Warman" rather than "Waughman".

Warman took a demo tape of the songs "Head On Collision", "London's Burning" and "Mind Games" to Ariola Records, who rejected them. He then approached Arista Records with the same demo tape. Arista arranged for the songs to be re-recorded at Decibel Studios and after hearing these, rejected them. They allowed him to retain the re-recorded tracks and Warman contacted Barry Anthony at Ring O'Records. In December 1977, he met Ringo Starr's manager Hilary Gerrard, who told him that: "Ringo really loves it". Warman was signed to the label for £3,000 per year and £3,000 for the publishing rights. He was also given two cases of beer and a Christmas tree to take home for his family.

He recorded an album at Startling Studios at Tittenhurst Park and chose Vic Coppersmith-Heaven as producer, because of his liking for The Jam's sound. They immediately went about re-mixing the three demos at Morgan Studios. The result of this was released as a three track single by Ring O'Records, in January 1978 with no chart success. Warman then recorded the album Hour Glass[3] at Startling Studios remixing it at Roundhouse Studios, in 1978. During his period at Ring O'records, Warman also featured in the music video for Dirk & Stig's "Ging Gang Gollie" promotional music video. Ring O' Records was unable to release the planned album. the recordings were shelved until June 1979, wnem they were released by an RCA inprint in West Germany. The album was launched at Hamburg Planetarium and Hour Glass received strong reviews but failed to make any chart impact. A single the new "Golden Lions" was released to accompany the Hour Glass album in West Germany, this was recorded at Townhoused with the song "Tomorrow's Babies" from the album as a B-side,[3] which also failed to chart.

At his time Ring O'Records stopped trading and Warman continued to work on his own sound and formed the group Three Minutes. They toured supporting The Vapors, for twenty nine dates and XTC for six dates. The group disbanded after releasing a single in 1980 on Elton John's Rocket label.

Warman took a demo tape of the songs "Head On Collision", "London's Burning" and "Mind Games" to Ariola's Hansa Records, who rejected them. He then approached Arista Records with the same demo tape. Arista asked for the songs to be re-recorded at Decibel Studios and after hearing these, rejected them. They allowed him to retain the re-recorded tracks and Warman was contacted by Barry Anthony at Ringo Starr's Ring O'Records.

He recorded an album at Startling Studios at Tittenhurst Park. Warman chose the producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven because of his liking for the sound of The Jam. They immediately went about re-mixing the three demos at Morgan Studios, which was released as a three track single by Ring O'Records in January 1978, with no chart success. Warman then recorded the album Hour Glass at Startling Studios, re-mixing it at Roundhouse Studios in 1978. During his period at Ring O'Records, Warman also featured in the music video for Dirk & Stig's "Ging Gang Gollie" promotional music video. Hour Glass was released on an RCA inprint in West Germany in June 1979.[3] The album was launched at Hamburg Planetarium and received strong reviews but failed to make any chart impact. A single "Golden Lions" was also released to accompany the Hour Glass album in West Germany and had been recorded at Townhoused Studios, with "Tomorrow's Babies" from the album as a B-side, which also failed to chart.

Ring O'Records ceased trading and Warman continued to work on his own sound and formed the group Three Minutes. The band toured supporting The Vapors for twenty nine dates and XTC for six dates. The group disbanded after releasing a single "Automatic Kids", in 1980 on Elton John's Rocket label, the song "Future Fun" was the B-side. This was Warman's most widespread release being distributed in Britain, France, West Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal. Three Minutes disbanded and Rocket began releasing of Warman's solo work in 1981.[4]

His second solo album, Walking into Mirrors, was also released by Rocket in 1981.[5] The sound was heavily rooted in the previous demos by Warman's former band Three Minutes, although neither of the two former band members featured on the album. Warman originally suggested that Phil Collins played the drums, but due to a schedule conflict Collins was unavailable and suggested that Jerry Marotta would be suitable, Dave Lawson was also brought in to play keyboards. Recording began on 9 December 1980 at Townhouse Studios, where they used studio two, "The Stone Room".

By the end of the first day of recording backing tracks including "Walking into Mirrors" were completed. Over the next two weeks the album continued to develop and Tony Levin invited the musicians to The Record Plant in New York City. Larry Fast also became involved in the project, before moving recording sessions to the House Of Music in West Orange, New Jersey. During this time the Ampex tape the recordings were made on started to decompose. Peter Gabriel added chants and other vocals on the song "Screaming Jets".[3]

The lead single from the album was "Will you Dance With Me" which had "King Robot" on the B-side, a song not included on the album. The second single was "Screaming Jets" with "American Machines" on the B-side, a song not included on the album.[3] "Screaming Jets" also saw the creation of Warman's first music video which was directed by Jeff Baines.

During 1982, Warman was promised an Australian tour if the single sold 7,000 copies in Australia. The single sold 76,000 copies and reached No. 9 in the Australian charts[6] but the tour was not forthcoming. At this time Warman appeared on an episode of "Countdown" with Molly Meldrum which was filmed in London. The album Walking into Mirrors was released in July 1981 in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand and sold over 100,000 copies worldwide. A second music video was also made for the title track, which was also directed by Jeff Baines. Later in 1981 "Martian Summer" was released as a single in the Netherlands. The final single from the album was a remix of "Three Minutes", with the non-album track "Jon Glass" as the B-side.[3]

Capitalising on the success of Walking into Mirrors, Warman took to the road, making live and television performances in Sweden, West Germany, Belgium, France, Spain (Music Express), Portugal (Festa é Festa) and U.K. and the Netherlands, where he appeared second on the bill to Ian Hunter, at the New Pop Festival in Rotterdam in 1982.

The Rocket Record Company encouraged Warman to start work on a second album, which was to become the more musically intricate From The Jungle to the New Horizons, which he recorded at The Manor Studios in Oxford and was produced by Johnny Warman and Vic Coppersmith and one again Johnny would work with Jerry Marrota and Tony Levin. Guitarist Chris Payne of Dramatis and keyboard player Andy Clark also contributed. Kiki Dee sang backing vocals to the songs "(United) The State Of America" and "Looking Back (To See If Someone's Looking Back at Me)". "Dream Dream Dream" was the only single taken from the album, released in 1983 a month before the album. Neither the single nor the album made any impact and The Rocket Record Company withdrew their contract.[2]

In 1984, Warman started writing for other artists and recorded his final solo release "(Here Comes) The Beat Patrol", with the song "Don't Call Me" as a B-side, under the guidance of Mickie Most. The single was released on RAK records in UK in October 1984. "Beat Patrol" was covered by Starship in 1987[7] and reached number 46 in the US charts. "Don't Call Me" was covered by Asia on their 1992 album Aqua.[8]

During 1984 Warman also appeared in the music videos for Alexei Sayle's "'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?" and Hot Chocolate.

In 1985, the Star Sisters covered the Johnny Warman and Gary Osborne song "Skin On Skin"[9] originally planned for release by Melissa Manchester. In 1986 Warman became a member of band Future, whose song "War of the Roses" was released by 10 Records as a single, with the song "Main Attraction" on the b-side. "War of the Roses" became a UK national selection for the Song for Europe and was performed on BBC One on 2 April 1986[10]

On 1 January 1989 Warman sang vocals on "Spirit of the Forest", a charity single and can briefly be seen standing next to David Gilmour in the accompanying music video.[11]

During 1991, Warman wrote "Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go", "After All These Years" and "Runaways" with Ringo Starr, which were included on Starr's album Time Takes Time, released in 1992.[12] He also supported Starr's All-Starr Band in London, they both included Warman's song "Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go" as part of their sets.

Warman wrote six songs for Geoff Downes's album Vox Humana, released in 1992. On this album he also sings on the track "Satellite Blues".[13]

On 3 April 1993, the Johnny Warman and Nick Graham song "Our World" was entered into A Song for Europe and sung by Sonia. The song was placed second with 77,685 votes and Sonia released the song on her album Better The Devil You Know.[14]

During 1996, he recorded two albums of Library music for De Wolfe Music and contributed the song "Everyone Wins" on Ringo Starr's album, Y Not.[15]

In 2000, he formed The Mods who played at the Steve Marriott tribute in 2001 and perform tracks from the 1960s. On occasion, he also started performing songs from 1960 and 1970 with Four Bills and a Ben. The lineup included John "Rhino" Edwards, Steve Byrd, saxophonist Andy Hamilton, Spike Edney and guitarist Mark Rich.[2]