Ed Jones
Enchanted by Little Richard in The Girl Can't Help It in 1957, and by spending an evening in 1964 in the Rolling Stones' dressing room before watching their show from the wings, Ed Jones (pictured in 1972) was a musician before propounding a single expert opinion about music. Unlike like many rock pundits. He played bass and sang for Scottish trio the Human Beast, whose weirdly unconventional 1970 Decca album (largely ignored at the time) has since been re-released and bootlegged at least 18 times. It has also frequently been anthologised, and eulogised in print and online, to the present day. A good 1970 copy now sells for around $2,000.
His first-ever interviewee, in 1971, for Edinburgh's tiny but fearless underground magazine Cracker, was Marc Bolan, then at the peak of "T-Rextasy". Jones later became editor, and interviewed Alice Cooper, the Turtles, Family, Soft Machine, Wizzard, Curved Air and others when they ventured to Scotland. In 1974, he moved to London and joined Melody Maker, which involved interviewing the likes of Little Richard, Captain Beefheart, Kim Fowley with the Runaways (the first UK writer to do so), the Tubes (ditto), J.J. Cale (ditto), Alex Harvey and John Martyn etc., as well as news reporting, and reviewing many live shows. He also relished ruffling feathers by forensically dissecting the murky business of the rock industry. He interviewed John Reid (then Elton John's manager) for The Sunday Times, and wrote on music for The Spectator, New Society, Time Out and Sounds.
In 1977, lured by curiosity, fantasies of writing the Great African Expat Novel, and a vast salary, he went to Nigeria to work on a 3,000-km. oil pipeline construction project, as a Russian Interpreter. During this time he saw Fela Kuti perform twice in his beleaguered "Kalakuta Republic". Returning to the UK in 1980, he changed careers again, becoming a multi-award-winning copywriter and Creative Director for Saatchi & Saatchi, variously based in London, Saudi Arabia (where he nostalgically hired Soft Machine's Jenkins and Ratledge to do a Shell Oil TV soundtrack), Dubai, Budapest, and Switzerland. He made hundreds of TV commercials and other ads., and frequently pontificated on advertising and communications, for print and broadcast media including the BBC. He also conceived and wrote the Introduction to the definitive book on cause-related advertising, Social Work (2001). He now lurks in Edinburgh surrounded by his art collection, while plotting new creative projects.
53 articles
List of articles in the library
Interview by Ed Jones, Cracker, November 1971
I interviewed him in the afternoon, before his concert on 30 October 1971, at The Empire Theatre, Edinburgh — that began at 11.30pm — as ...
Soft Machine: Interview with Hugh Hopper
Interview by Ed Jones, Cracker, January 1972
WELL, YA KNOW HOW IT IS ON SATURDAY EVENINGS. The rain was terrible, and I couldn't get a bus and, well, by the time I ...
Family's Roger Chapman: Aff His Heid?
Interview by Ed Jones, Cracker, 15 January 1972
AS ROGER CHAPMAN of Family burst on to the Empire Theatre stage the other night, the ecstatic roars from the audience were counterpointed by knowing ...
Roy Harper: "Maybe I'm A F***ing Idiot."
Interview by Ed Jones, Cracker, February 1972
THE MUSIC PRESS USUALLY PORTRAYS ROY HARPER as a kind of fringe lunatic whose gloomy and paranoid view of the world reflects a personal pain ...
Curved Air: Sonja Kristina — Curved Air
Interview by Ed Jones, Cracker, April 1972
GLITTER-GARBED and blond-streaked, Sonja Kristina had just returned from a bill-topping Curved Air tour of Germany the day that we met in her London PR's ...
Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, September 1972
WHEN I HEARD LINDISFARNE'S FIRST ALBUM, Nicely Out Of Tune, with its standout track, 'Lady Eleanor', a year and a half ago, I thought that ...
Mike Hart: Basher, Chalky, Pongo And Me
Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, September 1972
ONCE UPON A TIME there was a 10-years-in-the-business guitarist/ songwriter who had to get his second solo L.P. together while simultaneously trying to keep his ...
Live Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, October 1972
AS WE CRUISED TOWARDS GRANGEMOUTH in the Cracker-mobile, hoping for a day of peace'n'love near Falkirk, our suspicions should have been aroused by the RAC's ...
Alice Cooper, Flo & Eddie: With Alice in Glasgow
Report by Ed Jones, Cracker, November 1972
GREEN'S PLAYHOUSE is like a vast seedy Roman amphitheatre, a black roaring cauldron of sweat, smoke and screams. The Glasgow audience is tough, gritty and ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire (CBS)
Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, January 1973
AROUND O-LEVEL time in 1964, I went to the Usher Hall to see the Moody Blues in concert. 'Go Now', that anthem of pleasant teenscene ...
Beck, Bogert and Appice: Beck, Bogert & Appice: Beck, Bogert & Appice
Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, April 1973
THE FIRST I REMEMBER HEARING OF JEFF BECK was when he was in The Yardbirds, around the time Clapton and Jimmy Page were coming up ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Kelvin Hall, Glasgow
Live Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, June 1973
WHY DOES EVERYBODY TALK ABOUT GLASGOW as if it's some kind of Clockwork Orange nightmare? In Glasgow the policemen ask you to go to the ...
Report by Ed Jones, Cracker, June 1973
AT 18, RICHARD BRANSON STARTED a nationwide magazine called Student, from a basement in Connaught Square, London. Realising that literacy was a faltering skill among ...
Live Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, 26 September 1973
AFTER MORE THAN AN HOUR'S TEDIOUS WAIT while the roadies languidly set up their gear, Argent began with 'It's Only Money': strong vocals, synthesiser from ...
Status Quo: The Empire, Edinburgh
Live Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, October 1973
FOR A KICKOFF, let's get one thing straight: Status Quo's popularity depends not at all on critical approval or otherwise. Their audience at The Empire ...
Wizzard On Tour: Where’s The Backpipes?
Report and Interview by Ed Jones, Cracker, October 1973
THE ACREAGE OF FADED DENIM at the Edinburgh University Student centre of a Friday night is truly staggering. Staggering too are the majority of the ...
Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, November 1973
I WAS SURPRISED when Faust's third album, The Faust Tapes, became a chart hit (even at only 48p.) because it seemed so wilfully arbitrary and ...
Chick Corea, Return to Forever: Chick Corea: Return To Forever (ECM)
Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, February 1974
WITH THE demise of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, other record companies are looking for their own spacey, super-excellent, speedy-riffing jazz-rock group to grab some of the ...
Review by Ed Jones, Cracker, February 1974
REMEMBER CONCEPT ALBUMS? Remember when sounds meant being zonked? Remember Hieronymus Bosch album covers? Remember when rock was hippy-fascist acid guilt trips? Remember when they ...
Report by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 7 December 1974
REMEMBER HOW it was last year? Heathrow Airport swamped by thousands of fans welcoming the Osmonds flying in for a tour of Britain? Hordes of ...
The Faces, Strider: Kilburn State, London
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 4 January 1975
THE FAILURE of a headlining group to earn the expected encore from its partisan fans must be almost unheard-of these days, but Rod Stewart and ...
Overview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 25 January 1975
How dying can be a good career move. ...
The Winkies: Kings Road Theatre, London
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 1 February 1975
BY FAR THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MOMENTS of The Winkies' concert at the King's Road Theatre, London, on Sunday night came during the performances of two ...
Caravan, Renaissance: Caravan and Renaissance: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 9 March 1975
NO DOUBT YOU WILL NOTICED the double page ads in the music press extolling the virtues of Caravan and Renaissance, and pointing to their enthusiastic ...
The Who: Tommy the Movie: Hype-Hype-Hype-Hooray?
Report and Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 22 March 1975
"TOMMY IS THE GREATEST WORK OF ART the 20th century has produced." So says Ken Russell. He should know: he's just directed the film of ...
Cado Belle, Slik: Slik and Cado Belle: Scotland The Rave!
Report by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 26 April 1975
GLASGOW'S GLAMOROUS art deco pleasure palace, the Apollo Discotheque, seethes with expectant energy, awaiting Slik, a flash four-piece of unashamedly commercial pop ambitions. ...
Little Richard's Big Troubles, Part 1
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 28 June 1975
Part 1: Lewisham "TURN THE BAND DOWN!" bawls a lady who may have been a teenager in the '50s. "Turn the bloody band down!" This, and ...
Captain Beefheart — Pre-Knebworth Interview
Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 5 July 1975
"SO THAT band is called Mallard, eh? Well, they'd better duck! Just a bunch of quacks!" So quips Captain Beefheart, briefly in town for his ...
Little Richard's Big Troubles, Part 2
Report and Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 5 July 1975
Part 2: Dunstable & the European Saga "IT'S NICE TO LET THEM KNOW that you are not IN THE WAY, that you ARE THE WAY, that ...
Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 12 July 1975
March 2020 Note: At the time, I took his final comments as being just a rough Glaswegian joke. Unfortunately, it seems it was no more ...
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 26 July 1975
HOLES IN THE MOTÖRHEAD ...
Duane Eddy: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 2 August 1975
THE DOG WAS GREAT! Well, it wasn't actually a dog, it was a man. The one who used to do all the yelps and howls ...
The Hollies: Fairfield Hall, Croydon
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, October 1975
THE HOLLIES COULD EASILY BE DREADFUL. If they were even a quarter-tone out of tune, those three-part harmony choruses, supported by the Sixties pop instrumentation, ...
The Faces, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who: Bands On The Run From The Taxman?
Report by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 11 October 1975
THE PIONEER of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, defined the artist's aims as "fame, wealth, power, and the love of women." Though no one has yet found ...
David Bowie: Back With 'Oddity'
Report by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 8 November 1975
BASICALLY A high-class novelty record, 'Space Oddity', now topping the chart, was first released on 11 July 1969. At the time, the Main Man himself ...
Roy Wood Entertains At Don Arden's Gaff
Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 8 November 1975
"I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO A DRUM SOLO, but I can't really play them, so I did a John Bonham special instead." (Never mind, Bonzo, ...
The Walker Brothers: Walk Right Back
Report and Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 15 November 1975
IT'S BEEN A hard day in the plush penthouse suite of the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair. The chandeliers in the mirrored hallway have seen a ...
John Cale: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 29 November 1975
THERE IS MUCH FASHIONABLE TALK of John Cale as a significant artist. So far ahead of the herd is he, it is said, that terms ...
The Rolling Stones: So You Wanna Be A Label Boss? Start Your Own Record Label
Guide by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 29 November 1975
"As anybody knows who has read Karl Marx, it is distribution which is important if there is to be any kind of revolution. I'm not ...
Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias: Nashville Rooms, London
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 27 December 1975
"I LEARNED this one off this old Dutch geezer wot was deaf, dumb, blind and crippled, called Truck Van Rental. It's called 'I Been Down ...
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 27 December 1975
BRUNEL UNIVERSITY, Uxbridge, is not usually thought of as a centre of aesthetic excellence, but last Wednesday it took on that most difficult of artistic ...
Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 6 March 1976
The legendary apostle of laid-back rock, J.J. Cale, is coming to Britain for two London concerts next month and his new album and old material ...
J.J. Cale: How He Gets His Unique Sound When Playing Live And Recording
Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 17 April 1976
SO FINALLY J. J. CALE MADE IT TO BRITAIN. The sleepy Okie singer, guitarist and master of the recording studio isn't particularly keen on talking ...
Report and Interview by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 26 June 1976
Once the colleges were the bastion of the British rock industry – now they're little more than musical backwaters. As classes close for the summer, ...
Babe Ruth, Back Street Crawler: Midnight Court: the Lyceum's walking wounded
Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 10 July 1976
MY GOD, it's like dawn on the second day of the Somme. Lying prostrate everywhere are twisted bodies, obviously beyond the ministrations of medicine. The ...
Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: The 100 Club, London
Live Review by Ed Jones, New Society, 7 October 1976
A STEAM ENGINE IN LABOUR ...
Report by Ed Jones, Time Out, 8 October 1976
THERE ARE ruffled feathers at Stalag Meymott, prefab home of Melody Maker, where editor Ray Coleman has been enjoying unusually frank communication with his staff. ...
The Clash, Sex Pistols, Throbbing Gristle, The Vibrators: Punk and the Sex Pistols
Essay by Ed Jones, The Spectator, 27 November 1976
BEWARE! WHEN Britain's biggest record company, EMI, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the citadel of the self-regarding avant-garde, unite behind a single idea within ...
Frank Zappa: Father Of Invention
Profile by Ed Jones, The Spectator, 19 February 1977
TWO YOUNG SCOTSMEN were beside me in the front stalls of the Hammersmith Odeon last week, both extremely genial and very evidently the worse (or ...
Pink Floyd: Empire Pool, Wembley
Live Review by Ed Jones, The Spectator, 26 March 1977
PINK FLOYD — DECLINE AND FALL ...
Golden Oldies: Vintage Vinyl Treasures
Report and Interview by Ed Jones, New Society, 28 April 1977
PSST! WANNA beat inflation? Here's how. Go up to the attic, and dust off those scratchy rock'n'roll singles you so heartlessly discarded in the late ...
Elton John, Cliff Richard: John Reid, Elton John's Manager: "Welder's Son Who Built A Pop Empire"
Profile and Interview by Ed Jones, The Sunday Times, 8 May 1977
WHILE ELTON John was wowing the pearl-strung punters at last Monday's concert in aid of the Queen's Jubilee Appeal at the Rainbow Theatre, London, John ...
Sex Pistols, Johnny Thunders: Two Johnnies Get a Lift: Christmas Eve 1976
Memoir by Ed Jones, Rock's Backpages, December 2021
IT WAS 11.30 pm on Christmas Eve, 1976, at the height of the punk explosion. To the dismay of the entire nation, I had temporarily ...
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