Gary Jones

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Revision as of 04:47, 29 January 2007 by Marie (talk | contribs) (correction based on John Davies quote)
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Gary Jones was a punk band from very early in the scene, around 1979-1981. They were quite well known locally and opened up for a few large national acts, such as Iggy Pop.


Members

Releases

History as told by John Davies

"I joined Gary Jones in August 1980 when they were already headlining most of the Chicago punk/new wave clubs, getting press in the Sun-Times, and had one self-produced single out. I resigned in March 1981. So I would guess that they formed in 1979 or early 1980 and probably disbanded in mid-late 1981. During my tenure with them we recorded our second single, headlined most of the punk/new wave clubs in town, opened for a couple of national acts (Iggy Pop at B’ginnings, and The Kings (“Switch into Glide”) come to mind), twice played a live TV show on a Madison, WI NBC affiliate, were twice more featured in articles by Sun-Times rock critic Chuck Pratt, and in an impromptu telephone poll over WNUR radio were voted “Chicago’s Best Band” (we stacked the deck in true Chicago fashion).

If I have to categorize Gary Jones, we weren’t what I would call hardcore punk. We had a synth player and our male lead singer was more of a crooner than a shouter, and some of our original arrangements were sophisticated bordering on epic. But we mixed in plenty of buzz saw guitars, fast tempos and punk/new wave sensibilities. Young, Loud, but not Snotty."

External Links