Childhood musicians come of age

Mar 6 2008 by David Whetstone, The Journal

A blast from the past becomes a blast from the present as The Honest Johns return with a new album. David Whetstone reports.

BACK in the 1980s, there was a band called The Honest Johns. Its members, old school friends, built up a following, gigging energetically and turning out songs with proper lyrics.

Record companies were sniffing around. A demo tape impressed the people behind Channel 4’s The Chart Show who suggested they put a promotional video together.

The footage was duly assembled. It showed a bunch of lads larking about on a beach and in a van as it negotiated the streets of an economically depressed Tyneside.

The video never got finished. As Honest Johns vocalist Mark Lawson explains: “Video editing suites weren’t exactly ten-a-penny in the North East back then. After a few weeks of wrangling, we more or less gave up – without a properly finished product.”

The Honest Johns split up in about 1991 and that might have been that.

Except, as percussion player Aidan Oswell explains, the music never really went away.

“We had an email from a German record label, Firestation Records, and they said, ‘Are you the same Honest Johns that released a 12-inch single called Tell Me About Your Childhood in 1988?’ We said, ‘That’s us’.

“They said there was an awful lot of interest in Germany, Japan and to some extent in America. They wanted to know if we had any more material but that was the only thing we ever released.”

This unexpected resurgence of international interest, riding on an enduring fascination with British indie pop, sent various Honest Johns members scurrying for dusty drawers and forgotten corners. Aidan says: “The upshot was that they used Judas In Me Singing as a track on a compilation album and that proved really popular. We then did a deal whereby they released a retrospective collection of demos from the late 1980s under the name Meteor.

“That started to sell. It’s 1980s British pop music for which there’s a small but dedicated audience. It kept things ticking over nicely and eventually made us reassess what we’d been doing. We thought: why don’t we get the band back together, record some new material and see where it goes from there?”

Where it goes next is to Newcastle Arts Centre on Saturday where The Honest Johns are due to launch a new album, Songwriters Of The North, and a promotional video – just 21 years late – of their younger selves larking about on a beach etcetera. Editing facilities, you understand, are a little easier to find these days on Tyneside.

The Honest Johns, of course, are all grown up now.

Aidan Oswell was on the dole when he got talking to Mark Lawson and Jon Kennedy, old school friends, in the Madisons nightclub in Newcastle in 1980-something. They suggested he learn to play guitar and join them in a band.

Then there was Paul Kennedy, Jon’s brother, and Richy Corbishley. It was a close-knit outfit since Mark was also Paul’s and Jon’s brother-in-law.

Another band member back then was Peter Straughan, who has gone on to make a name for himself as a playwright and screen-writer.

Today Aidan Oswell runs a Northumberland-based consultancy business, Paul Kennedy is a car salesman, Richy Corbishley is a teacher, Jon Kennedy works in information technology for BT, and Mark Lawson is a wind farm engineer.

But Mark’s songwriting skills have been acknowledged on the band’s MySpace page, with one contributor calling him “an awesome talent” and adding: “Clearly one of the most overlooked songwriters of the North. Up there with Sting and Knopfler.”

On the website www.thehonestjohns.co.uk, Mark says his childhood influences were Paddy McAloon (of North East band Prefab Sprout), Jello Biafra, Jim Morrison, Martin Stephenson, The Byrds and Microdisney.

On that same website you can see that old video footage, rescued from a box in the Lawson loft, and links to the MySpace site.

In 2008, you see, The Honest Johns are back and signed to David Haley’s Comet Music Management, which also represents singer Beccy Owen. They play at Newcastle Arts Centre on Saturday night, introducing Dave Rollinson on keyboards. Tel (0191) 261-5618 for tickets. This time the sky’s the limit.