john jones planet log

March 11 is the 2nd anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake tragedy in Japan, “the fourth largest earthquake in history”.

Proceeds from Nick Wood’s song Hope, that we recorded with Julian Lennon and Tetsuya Komuro for the first anniversary in 2012, go to the Beyond Tomorrow organisation who are dedicated to helping the orphaned children of the disaster.

Click here to go to Nick’s blog, where you will find links to the videos and to sites where you can purchase the song around the world.

Yes, Hitler Has Only Got One Ball by john jones, is available now on iTunes!

click to go to iTunes store

From the upcoming album History Sings, and based on the famous Colonel Bogey March.

Lyrics by unknown British school boys and other haters of the Nazis. Written mostly during World War II.

Farm Fur rehearsal at Drumroll – Dean Deleo, Miles Joseph, Robert Deleo, Steve Ferrone, Brian Auger. A film clip by John Jones ©2005.

Everybodys Business Fairlight C.M.I 1983

Amazing video story from 1983 about old friend and fellow Fairlight alumni Rob Yale’s awesome company!

Everybodys Business Fairlight C.M.I 1983 by Retrontario

Well, it wasn’t easy, but I found an old track from ESP Studios in Buttonville.

A 1981 Fairlight song of mine. Full of all the cliche Fairlight samples, and my live Kawai piano accompaniment.

Sometime in early 1987 Dee and I were well and truly not enamored with the Fairlight CMI III.

John Jones and Dee Long. Studio 5 at AIR Studios Oxford Street London, UK

It made us £30,000 pounds more in debt when we moved to AIR Studios, and that was after trading in our Series IIX.

And by that time we were mostly using Akai S900′s with our Apple Mac SE and Performer software, not the Fairlight. The stereo was out of phase on the Fairlight! Can you say £60 THOUSAND POUNDS!

Malcolm Atkin and John Burgess and Sir George Martin wanted the Series III in AIR Studios. It was a great selling point. We complied.

Gerry Stellard and Dee Long - Studio 5 - AIR Studios

By the time we were buying our third S900, Akai were at our door offering their latest design, the S1000, for the two of us to create a sample library for. And that’s when we knew we had to give up the Fairlight for good!

All we really wanted was our Series IIX back! Please!

So we sold our Series III to JJ Jeczalik of the Art of Noise. I wonder if he still has it?

I can’t tell you how profound it feels to write a bar with Page R on my iPhone!

Many years ago I was very upset when we traded out IIX for a Series III…How could I ever have imagined this?

Holy s*@t!

Iron Mountain helped celebrate Paramount’s Birthday Sunday night with a reception on their roof in Hollywood before the awesome show at the Bowl.

Iron Mountain Rooftop in Hollywood for Paramount 100th Birthday

What a view!

Occasionally I sneak a couple of hours at the LA84 Foundation Library in Los Angeles for my history research. Today was the perfect day to visit, with the Olympics starting in my birth town of London, England. Symmetry.

LA84 Foundation are funded by surplus funds from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. They use the money to keep youth sports alive, through grants, replacing the money that no longer comes from Federal, State, and City coffers. Their library is outstanding, and one of the best sports libraries in the world. Don’t miss it when you visit Los Angeles.

The library also has numerous torches on display from over 100 years of the Olympic Games. The actual Olymic Flame from 1984 still burns in the garden of the foundation on West Adams street in Los Angeles. I understand that all of the flames in the world are all related! I never neglect to touch the flame as I enter and as leave, on every visit. It’s a wonderful feeling. I just wish the Olympic Games were still the high ground of amateur sportsmanship that they were meant to be. Oh well.

Here I am, taking my own candid shot with the flame, this afternoon!

The 1984 Olympic Games flame, and John Jones, July 27, 2012 in Los Angeles.