John Jones News January 11,1999

January 11,1999

A pair of Hollywood New Year Clouds out my window - click to enlarge.

My Times

One Moment in Time the album is in stores across Canada.

A special thanks to everyone who supported me last year. 1998 will always be the year I finally got my first album out.
If you've been following my news pages over the years, you'll know just how difficult it was to get it released. Making the music was by far the easiest part of it.
With the start of the New Year, I am even more committed to pursuing the release of many more songs and other musical productions in the near future. Never in my life have I enjoyed music as much as I do now.

State of Mind reached #1 on the MP3 music charts for 2 days last week. This week it's at #3 and #37 on the Top 40 chart.
Emily Richards continues to hold down a place in the top 10 on the Pop chart for the past 3 months! Check it out!

I keep hearing that Pop is making a comeback. Does that mean we might get to hear another Beatles soon? Will there be another King Crimson or 10cc or another Jimmy Hendrix?
My gut feeling is that as far as these instruments and equipment are concerned, we have already had the best we are going to get!
It's time the record companies made a serious effort to re-master all the great albums that they crucified when they first did it in the 80's! Compared to modern CD's the level averages minus 6db.
I've compared numerous perfect condition German produced LP's with their CD imitations recently. It's very disappointing. The CD's are very very harsh.
For example on the Abbey Road CD the electric guitars are downright raunchy! The upper mid range throughout the CD makes it impossible to relive the magic of listening to the LP. And the state of King Crimson CD's is beyond belief! They absolutely suck! Will somebody please start complaining!
Of course the record companies are just waiting to sell us the DVD versions instead. Aren't they?

I have 3 things to say about MP3 audio on the internet.
1 - it's as easy as taping the radio or digital radio and tv.
2 - we don't get paid for every radio play or tv performance, (and we should, so lets get a tracking system that works everywhere).
3 - MP3's do not sound as good as a CD and don't sound half as good as a 24 bit 96k sample rate DVD. No competition.

Album News

My live date on the 18th of January has been canceled.

I have been working with John Bojicic to put together a band in Toronto for some February showcase dates in Ontario. I'm also starting to do band dates in Los Angeles in February.

The release dates for Europe and the UK are still not final. It should be around March. We've begun discussions for a USA release as well.

The Turning Me Inside Out video is being Directed by Paul Oberman and shot in Los Angeles. It should be on your TV in February. The single goes to Radio next week.
Dear Mr Grim Reaper is being sent to Rock Radio...

The UNSCOM scandal must be too complicated for TV news Directors.
The problem they have is that they can't have Scott Ritter on TV telling us how the US Military used UNSCOM data that he and all the other UNSCOM inspectors, who didn't have US security clearance, weren't even allowed to see themselves!
It was only last year that he was saying that the Iraqi's were being bloody minded and he had to resign because the US were not taking it seriously enough for his liking.
Is the same guy?
Still, the point is, the US and Britain have managed to destroy the credibility of UNSCOM, completely and forever. And killed a lot of innocent people at the same time.
And I won't even mention Kissinger and the Chinese!

"On April 9, 1998, I informed Richard Butler that I could no longer provide him with assurances that the data collection activity was being done in strict accordance with the mandate given to him by the Security Council and not serving the unilateral intelligence aims of the US."
Scott Ritter - January 10,1999 - Electronic Telegraph