John Johnson

JOHN JOHNSON

John was born in Dudley, in the West Midlands, England.
He is the youngest of four children to parents who emigrated to England from Jamaica in the 1950’s.

Growing up, he was surrounded by musical talent in his family.

John has been classically trained on the trombone from the age of eight. His earliest performances were in brass ensembles, classical orchestras and brass bands.

At school he excelled in the classroom, in all sports and as a musician, receiving year-end prizes for his achievements and being voted House Captain for five consecutive years.

At sixteen a chance meeting at the legendary "Rum Runner Club" in Birmingham, saw John join his first funk band,
"Wide Receiver".

Upon leaving college with a distinction pass in business studies, John was encourage (...) Mehr anzeigend by his parents to further his education at university.
He however had other plans to gain firsthand experience of the business world and to play music after work.

At 19 his career started as an Assistant Buyer with British Steel. Later years saw him in purchasing roles with the local government and the computer industry.

During this time he burnt the midnight oil, playing to excess after work all over the country, from Scotland to Cornwall with various Midland based bands.

John went on, to become a well known face on the Birmingham music scene
in the 80's and 90's, cutting his teeth with well known Midlands based band, "The Soul Survivors", for some 15 years.

His first international tour came in 1984, touring the Caribbean and Europe with "Musical Youth."

With the recession in the late 90’s, he then decided to pursue a full time music career which fortunately, over time, flourished and gave him the opportunity to work with variety of successful bands which he continues to do until the present day.

As well as trombone, he has also more recently taken up playing percussion.
John has worked / toured with artists such as "Musical Youth", "Steel Pulse","Bitty McLean", "Simply Red",
"Tom Jones", "Will Young" and "Girls Aloud" to name a few.

He has also featured in guest bands with "Grandmaster Flash", "Wet Wet Wet" and "UB 40" tours.

John has been a bandmember of "Simply Red" since their Blue Album in 1998 and has recorded on every album since then. He appeared in the hit single videos “Ain't That A Lotta Love” , “Your Perfect Love” and “Oh What A Girl” and also
on the DVD's “Home Live in Sicily” and “Cuba!”.

John is currently, after 35 years in music, working for the first time on his own material with American Producer/Engineer Earl Cohen ( Destiny's Child, Joe, Pink , Jessica Simson, Barry White, Tina Turner, Anita Baker). Weniger anzeigen