Birth name John Smith Name John Young Instruments vocals, Keyboard Role Keyboardist | Years active 1974 - present Record label Heritage Records Labels Heritage Records | |
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Occupation(s) Musician, Performer, Songwriter Associated acts John Young Band, Scorpions, Bonnie Tyler, Greenslade, Asia, John Wetton, Fish, The Law, Paul Rodgers, Qango, Uli Jon Roth, Roy Wood, Lucio Battisti Albums Alive in Hallowed Halls, The Best of Asia: Live Music groups Lifesigns, Asia (1989), Strawbs (2010 – 2012) Genres Progressive rock, Rock music, Jazz, Pop music Similar People Nick Beggs, John Wetton, Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert, John Wesley Profiles | ||
John Young (born 31 May 1956) is a British rock musician from Liverpool. He is currently the keyboardist and singer for the progressive rock band Lifesigns.
Contents
Biography
Young spent his early years at the Liverpool Cathedral where he was classically trained on piano and vocals. His first bands were mainly semi-pro jazz rock bands, and he played in these into the mid 1980s. His first major break came in 1985 when he auditioned and became part of Uli Jon Roth's Band (ex-Scorpions). After a world tour, Young did studio and session work with artists including Steeleye Span and Bon Jovi. He formed a band with Jon Camp (Renaissance) which signed to Warner Bros, but failed to produce any material before the project was disbanded. Young went on to play with the MTV band in London and during this time he met John Wetton who asked him to join Asia for two European tours. Shortly after that he joined Paul Rodgers and Kenney Jones in a very short lived band called The Law. They played a single show at the Bowl in Milton Keynes with Bryan Adams and ZZ Top.
Young joined Bonnie Tyler in the mid 1990s and has since worked with her. In 2000, he's worked with another short lived band called Qango including John Wetton on bass and vocals, Dave Kilminster on guitars and back-up vocals and Carl Palmer on drums, as a spin off from Asia. They've published a live album, Live in the Hood later that year, consisting of material from Asia and Palmer's previous band ELP and one original song The last one home. And then later in 2001, Young joined the Scorpions for a world tour of their CD Acoustica. 2001 saw him co-writing the Fish album Fellini Days with John Wesley and also appearing on the resulting live album Fellini Nights. John Young has also worked as part of the re-generated Greenslade appearing on the albums Large Afternoon and Live 2001. He also toured with John Wetton, appearing on several live albums with the singer bass player, Live In Tokyo 1997, An evening With John Wetton in 2002 on which he appears on one song. He was also a part of the band for the live 2002 album, Live At The John Wetton Fan Convention also featuring Geoff Downes on keyboards, John Mitchell on guitars and back up vocals, Steve Christey on drums as well as John Wetton on bass and lead vocals.
In 2002, Young formed his own band and released the albums Life Underground and Significance. The John Young Band continues to play and has a fairly fluid line-up depending on the availability of its various members.
Young has worked with Jon Anderson of Yes. The first product of that union saw Jon Anderson touring Europe and playing the song "Sooner (Than Later)", a track co-penned with Young.
Young's most recent work has seen him as keyboard player with The Strawbs on their November/December 2010 Canada/UK tour, alongside Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert, Chas Cronk, and Tony Fernandez.
A small number of John Young Band gigs took place at the end of 2012 and during 2013. In the meantime work continued on a new John Young Band album, which is likely to include several tracks first played during recent gigs, including "Different". The new JYB album was hoped to be released in 2013.
Young also completed an album of instrumental music. "Financial Meltdown" continues the series of albums in the vain of "political Agenda and "Scientific Breakthrough". Music from these album is often used on various TV productions.
During the last two years John Young has been working with Nick Beggs (Steven Wilson Band), Frosty Beedle (Cutting Crew) and Steve Rispin (Sound Engineer for Asia) on a new prog rock orientated project called "Lifesigns", which was signed to Esoteric Records. The Lifesigns album was to be released in early 2013. As well as the core band members, Lifesigns also features guest contributions from Steve Hackett (Genesis), Jakko Jakszyk (Jakszyk Fripp & Collins)(King Crimson), Thijs van Leer (Focus), Robin Boult (Howard Jones, Fish). Lifesigns began performing live in 2014. This version includes Jon Poole (ex-The Cardiacs) on bass/vocals and Niko Tsonev (ex-Steve Wilson band) on guitar/vocals.
The album comprises 5 tracks - "Lighthouse", "Telephone", "Fridge Full of Stars", "At the End of the World" and "Carousel". A live DVD "Under the Bridge - Live in London," culled from two performances in January 2015, is expected in October/November 2015. Work on the second studio release is expected to begin in the summer of 2015, with a target release sometime in 2016.
Current band members
Others also associated with the John Young Band have included: