John Perry

BIOG



Played my first shows at 15. At that time the live music scene was jumping and I had enough work by 16 to chuck in school. Played US bases, village halls, rugby clubs, town halls, club circuits and Endless Ballrooms. The Underground was just what I'd been lookin for so when the the festival circuit got into gear (c. '71 Glastonbury) I was out of those ballrooms like a phantom jet. Met a lotta v. funny people & spent several years vagabonding round with the Pink Fairies /Lemmy /Frendz crowd. Played a lot of shows and made a few recordings - most of which, I'm delighted to say, are lost.



That scene melted into the London pubrock circuit which in turn hosted punk. Same venues different haircut. In late 1975 I started work with Peter Perrett on what became The Only Ones. We had about as much fun as its possible to have in a band without getting arrested too often and we made some good records - but by 1981 it was getting stale. Amid acrimonious hassles with CBS, we split.



I formed a band to do Glastonbury one more time then drifted off round the Greek islands for a while. Found a typewriter and began writing up loosely recalled bits and pieces of the Only Ones story. [ See BOOKS ]
When i got back, London was enjoying the Synth era. Hard to recall now but guitars were supposed to be 'old hat'. Got that? Guitar bad; Synth Good. Bands with Manifestos (notoriously hard to dance to) and kids with dodgy haircuts playing ironing boards. I had a suspicion Guitar might outlast Ironing Board tho & kept on playing live. Sessions too, working mostly with friends, Robert Palmer, Sisters of Mercy, Marianne Faithfull, Robert Hunter, Patti Palladin and Anita Pallenberg. Michael Nyman, Screaming Lord Sutch, Evan Dando, Freddie Stevenson and Johnny Thunders.



The Only Ones reformed in early 2007.