Howard Jones

Born in Southampton, England, Jones spent a lot of his youth living in various places, including Cardiff, Wales and Canada. He became interested in music from an early age, learning to play keyboards and went on to attend the Royal Northern College of Music. His studies were short lived, with Jones dropping out and moving to Southampton, where he played in several jazz and funk bands. Soon he started performing his own music as a solo artist, incorporating synthesizers and drum machines into his eclectic sound. Jones managed to attract the attention of John Peel, who invited him to play a BBC session. This exposure helped Jones gain support slots for a number of new wave acts across the UK, which eventually led to being offered a record deal with WEA in Europe and Elektra Records in the US in 1983.

His first single, “New Song,” was released the same year, becoming a popular hit and reaching number three in the charts. This was followed by “What is Love,” which bettered his last, peaking at number two. His debut album arrived the following year in 1984, titled “Humans Lib,” which quickly was a commercial hit and reached the top spot in the UK charts. Exposure on MTV aided his success in America, achieving several top 40 hits.

In 1985, Jones released his second album, “Dream Into Action,” and also formed a live touring band. The album was a huge success, becoming certified Platinum in the US and reaching number ten in the charts. It featured hit singles such as “Things Can Only Get Better,” “Like to Get to Know You Well” and “Life in One Day.” Whilst performing well in the US charts, his success in the UK began to decline, although he was still breaking into the top 20, but was unable to achieve the same success as earlier releases.

Jones had another strong album with “Cross That Line” in 1989, although it only managed to peak at 65 in the US charts. After releasing a greatest hits album, Jones was dropped from Elektra. Jones responded by embarking on extensive tours, as well as doing acoustic sets, displaying his versatility. Jones continued to tour well in to the 2000s, releasing several live albums. In 2005, he recorded a new album, “Revolution of the Heart,” which kept his music alive. In 2009, he released “Ordinary Heroes,” which featured orchestral influences and piano.

Forming out of the ashes of two different bands called The Intellektuals and 57 Men, Wang Chung originally formed as Huang Chung in 1980, and thanks to the contacts that the trio had made while in those previous bands, signed to 101 Records soon after forming. The band, made up of singer and guitarist Jeremy Ryder (A.K.A Jack Hues), bassist Nick Feldman (Nick DeSpig) and Darren Costin (Darren Darwin) on the drums, debuted their first tracks on a set of 101 Records compilation albums before signing a two-album deal with Arista Records in 1981. Their first album sank without a trace, but after they changed their name to Wang Chun in 1983 and had their record deal switched from Arista to Geffen in the same year, the band's career was saved after the release of their second album “Points On The Curve”. The album was released in January 1984, and it was the record's second single “Dance Hall Days” that certified the band as possible stars, hitting number 21 in the UK and number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The band were poised to make a huge breakthrough, and that's exactly what happened with the release of September 1986's “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”. The single rocketed to the number two spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and it's follow up “Let's Go” was another huge hit as well, placing in the top 10 of the same chart. However, the band couldn't keep up their run of hits and split up in 1990. However, ever since 1997, the band have been back together and releasing albums that are even more acclaimed than their 80's heyday, the band are also playing the best live shows of their career, so now has never been a better time to be a Wang Chung fan, which isn't something you can say about many bands who made their name in the 1980's. For constantly improving with age, and proving a far better band than many would assume them to be, Wang Chung come highly recommended.

The original lineup of The Beat were together for just five years, splitting in 1984 after meeting with both critical and commercial success with their blend of ska, reggae and 2 tone. In that time, they toured with some of the biggest musical names on the planet, including R.E.M., The Specials, David Bowie, Talking Heads, The Clash and The Police. Since the breakup, they’ve performed together just once - in 2003 at London’s Royal Festival Hall. VH1’s Bands Reunited television show tried, unsuccessfully, to make the reunion a permanently going concern, but instead, the two singers from the original band - Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger - have fronted their own versions of the group.

Wakeling is the singer in The English Beat, who have continued to tour and record. They contributed a couple of brand new songs to a Scooby-Doo cartoon in 2013, and announced plans in 2014 for a new album the following year, set to be titled For Crying Out Loud. It is set to be paid for via crowdfunding - in particular, PledgeMusic - and will be their first proper release since summer 2012, when they dropped a box set titled The Complete Beat. Rhythm Epkins, Matt Morrish, Kevin Lum and Larry Young round out the current lineup of The English Beat.