John Verity began his music career in the early 1960's, playing guitar
in various local bands around his home town of Bradford, Yorkshire, until
he was offered a full time gig with a band which was backing various visiting
US pop acts, as well as Decca Records UK acts when they toured.
By 1969 John was living and working in the US, with the first ever line-up
of the John Verity Band doing prestigious support slots with many of
the big names of the day including Jimi Hendrix, Mountain, Canned
Heat and Janis Joplin.
On his return to England in 1971, John secured a contract with producer Steve
Rowland to record his first solo album for ABC/Probe records, 'John
Verity Band', which was released in the spring of 1972. Whilst on tour
promoting the album, JV was spotted by Rod Argent who was looking for
new lead vocalist for his band following the departure of Russ Ballard.
John eventually joined Argent in 1973 and there followed a period of
intense recording and touring until the band decided to come off the road
late in 1976. Argent never did go back on the road, and decided to disband,
at which point John became involved with various new projects both as Artist
and Record Producer. First of all, along with Bob Henrit and Jim
Rodford from Argent he formed Phoenix, which soon signed to CBS
records. The band recorded three albums and toured Europe before disbanding
amicably when Jim Rodford joined the Kinks, and John and Bob joined
Charlie, to record an album with RCA Records. John produced
the Phoenix albums and Charlie album as well as the first Saxon album
during this time, and decided to divide his time between sessions and record
production whilst Bob Henrit teamed up with Jim Rodford once again by joining
the Kinks.
The next few years were spent in recording studios throughout the world, producing,
playing guitar, or doing backup vocals with various acts including Motorhead,
Tank, Ringo Starr, Russ Ballard, Colin Blunstone,
Brian Connolly, John Parr, BowWowWow and The Searchers
amongst many others, until late in 1981 when PRT Records MD Matt Haywood
asked JV to record a comeback album. By now living in his native Yorkshire,
John had built his own 38-track studio achieved by synchronising together
24 and 16 track tape machines - and had moved into full time record production.
The Matt Haywoods offer meant that JV could get back out on the road again
to promote the album, and touring always seemed to bring out fresh ideas...
"Interrupted Journey", released in 1982, was highly acclaimed in the UK,
USA and Europe and successfully relaunched Johns performing career, and he
once again took to the road. John was approached by many big name acts for
recording and performing projects during this period - Mike Rutherford
of Genesis wrote three songs for inclusion on the JV Bands' next set
of recording sessions, and both Keith Emerson and Greg Lake
used John on their current recording projects. The next two albums "Truth
Of The Matter" and "Rock Solid" were also well received, and John
soon had offers to join various name bands including MSG, Ted Nugent,
and Asia which he declined, deciding instead to come off the road to
record an album with newly reformed Zombies. This project took the
best part of a year and was mostly recorded at Mountain Studios, Montreux,
Switzerland and finished in London...
After a short break John was soon back on the road again with John Coghlan's
Diesel Band (Status Quo), in the UK and Europe, before reforming
the John Verity Band for similar venues and recording here in the UK.
In 1992 John decided to re-locate, away from his native Yorkshire to rural
Bedfordshire and closer to friends from the Argent days. Since the move south
the JV Band gigs have continued as ever, with different line-ups chosen from
a shortlist of fine musicians. At the 1994 Manchester Festival "Fender
Stratocaster 40th Anniversary" concert, JV guested, along with many Rock
Legends past and present including Sonny Curtis, Frankie Miller
and Rory Gallagher. Johns performance of "Stay With Me Baby"
was one of the high spots of the evening, bringing the capacity crowd at the
Manchester Free Trade Hall to its feet!
He has also done vocal sessions for 3 episodes of the Granada series
"Full Stretch", (1991) and another guest spot with the 'Strat Pack',
for the Australia Day (1995) celebrations at the Hippodrome in London's West
End.
2000 saw a major recent gigging project with a 32 date UK tour,
opening the show on the Jools Holland Sex Jazz and Rock'n'Roll tour
at major venues including Manchester Opera House, Birmingham Symphony Hall,
and the London Albert Hall. After this, it was back to his regular gigging
routine.
It's the year 2008 and the JV Band is still alive and kicking at venues throughout the UK and abroad... Catch them at a venue near you...
Part of the john
verity website (c)2000-2008
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