The grass is always greener

After many months pounding the pavement looking for work in London, John found himself back at AIR Studios, home of the great Beatle Producer George Martin and Manfred Mann Producer John Burgess. George and John were impressed by the duos abilities in the newly emerging computer music field, and in 1985 they formed a partnership with John and George, which led to a new studio at AIR which brought high powered computer music technology to the world's top artists who were regular clients at the studio.

AIR gave John the opportunity to work with some of the best Producers, Engineers, Musicians and Artists in the world; George Martin, Chris Kimsey, Michael Kamen, Bill Price, Neil Dorfman, Peter Henderson, Paul McCartney, Willie Deville, Terrence Trent Darby, Roy Wood, Tom Jones, Gerry Stellard, Demis Roussos, Rob De Nijs, Mark Antony, Mark Knopfler, Robert Gorl(DAF), John Illsley,The Rolling Stones, Paul Rogers, Eric Clapton, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Outfield, The BBC, TVS, & Duran Duran.

Being at AIR also allowed close co-operation with equipment manufacturers such as AKAI with whom John & Dee helped in the development of the AKAI S1000 sampler, producing the original sample library and the first sample CD for the professional musician, The Air Sessions.

John also wrote a chapter on MIDI, which can be found in the George Martin book, "Making Music".

In addition to the studio life, John did occasional live performances.
He Played piano and keyboards with George Martin conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, and performing the Beatles Yellow Submarine Suite at the Barbican.
He played piano with Duran Duran for Vanessa Redgrave's Jerusalem for Reconciliation concert at the Albert Hall during the Gulf War.
He also played organ with Queen and Liza Minnelli at Wembley Stadium for the wonderful Freddy Mercury Tribute.

John could also be seen on the BBC 2 program "Science in Action" explaining the secrets of "sampling" for school children.

Throughout his time in London, John was writing songs with Canadian singer Karen Hendrix. After a failed attempt at Anxious Records with producer Dave Stewart, the duo signed to BMG Music UK.
Although they wrote many songs for the "alternative" music scene, and despite great promise, no album every materialized and the duo split.

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